An On-demand Book Boom?

I recently decided to give one of these on-demand book printing sites a try—not as a customer but as a publisher. I uploaded a PDF of a book I wrote a few years ago to Lulu (www.lulu.com), which calls itself an “independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers.”

Lulu has an interesting business model: authors can upload their books at no cost. If someone buys your book from the site, the book is then printed and shipped. The author names his/her own price and gets paid from any profit over the printing costs. Lulu claims only a small share.