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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Lulu partners with Author Solutions so you need to be very careful dealing with them. You will likely become a target for AS high pressure telemarketing.
It really depends on your goal.
The two formats are best treated separately. For epub, DIRECT2DIGITAL is highly regarded and SMASHWORDS is still useful. KOBO you may want to go direct, like AMAZON but D2D is a painless way to reach the epub world.
For POD, well... there lie dragons...
If you just want a few copies, look for a Kinkos with an Espresso POD machine.
If you are looking to self publish, the two most reputable are Ingram Lightning source and CreateSpace. CreateSpace comes in two flavors: Amazon-only and Extended, which makes them available to any bookseller.
Amazon is currently beta-testing Kindle Press, a unified ebook/POD service. Nook and Kobo have similar offerings. I don't know about Kobo Press but Nook Press apparently works through AS. Same caveat as Lulu. Anybody who deals with or ever dealt with Author Solutions is suspect. They are poison.
Searching for self pub services online is tricky because Author Solutions is all over, working through aliases, fronts, and alliances with otherwise reputable outfits that should know better than to get into bed with scammers but don't.
Buyer beware.
Your best bet if you don't want to deal with the two big boys is to ask around at Kindle boards or other reputable self pub forum. Check with WRITER BEWARE or the SFWA, RWA. or other writer's group. NOT AUTHOR'S GUILD. They used to feed victims to AUTHOR SOLUTIONS. Probably still do. They have so many fronts it's hard to keep track.
Btw, AS is far from the only scam outfit looking to ripoff the unwary.
You're on the right track doing your due diligence but the writers' sites and forums will have more of the reputable options. Contrary to what you may hear from scammers and tradpub it does NOT cost thousands upon thousands to self pub a professional-grade book. You just need to do your homework.
Good luck.
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I imagine part of the boogy man of cost to self publish is from how much it cost at one time to get copies printed since you had to order a minimum # of copies, am I right? That and the old style advertising pre-internet of course. Now I imagine anyone can promote their own work by putting up a webpage with a link to a retailer like Amazon and take a lot of the work out of things.