I’ve about had it with Lulu, the Print On Demand (POD) business that prints my Kimini books. While they haven’t yet screwed up my color version I’ve taken the black/white version off-line until I get the situation sorted out. Either they get their sorry house of cards in order or I find another printer. Having seen what goes on behind the smoke and mirrors, along with their incredibly poor “Support” system, I’ve had my fill of their amateurish operation. As I told them, when you make paying customers start managing things you know you’re in trouble – they’re in trouble.
I may end up having the books printed and I handle sales and shipping. After what I’ve been through that’ll actually be a relief – at least then I’ll know things are being handled correctly. Unfortunately it does make it a pain to handle international orders. Suffice it to say I’ll also be considering my options for the upcoming Midlana book.
Speaking of that, I’m considering splitting the Midlana book into two, one containing all the text and photographs (the “reading book”) and a spiral-bound(maybe even laminated?) “garage book” that’ll contain only the dimensioned figures. While there’s a small concern that people will try buying only the “garage book” to save money, they’ll be written such that one’s not much good without the other.
Why? The book’s currently at nearly 190 pages and there’s a long way to go. It may easily surpass 300 pages and I rather not make builders have their one and only book (that won’t lie flat) in the garage, subjecting it to dirt, sparks, and being ripped or torn, etc. Figure references would cross over between the two, so that’s not a problem. Builders would read through the “reading book” to decide what they’re going to work on next weekend, then take only the “garage book” in with them while doing the actual fabrication (I think the “laying flat” thing is a big deal.)
A secondary benefit is the drawings can larger to make reading the dimensions easier. Anyhow, I haven’t decided either way but it’s being considered, even though it’s more work. Plus, not all printers do spiral bindings, let alone laminating, but feedback so far has been fairly positive. Eh, we’ll see.