It has been a dream for me ever since I started working with computers to make a book about anything that I have learned on the computer, whether it be programming, my digital photography, Web Standards, etc.. In college, I was told by my English teacher, “Not just anyone can publish a book.” Well, I can now say, Mr. Teacher, that you are wrong and I can do it for free! Have a look at Lulu. Lulu is a Self Publishing website that allows you to create books, calendars, and CD’s with images, audio, and music. The service reminds me of CafePress, but after looking at what Lulu features, you can clearly see that Lulu is the way when it comes to books. You can even make Full Color Books with Lulu.

So here is what you can do. Signup to Lulu.com and publish a real book with no setup fees, minimum orders, and you can keep complete control over everything, including the design, copyright, and even the price. These are good quality books too and I have seen some in stores. Well, at least the ones that pay for retail distribution, which can allow them to appear in stores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

So, now your probably thinking, how do I actually create the book? This is great. It is as simple as taking a Microsft Word Document and uploading it to Lulu. Lulu will then convert it to a PDF and turn it into a printable book. Now, if you are like me, you want more then just the use of a Word Document and Lulu has this covered too for the more “advanced” users. You can create any page and book covers in a PDF file so you can easily create just about any book design. Below is a screenshot in the area were you can upload the front and back covers of the book. Very simple and there are more options than just what you see below.

Want to see books created with Lulu? Then just browse through their listing of books created by other Lulu members. You can also preview a good amount of pages in the books in the browsing area by clicking on “Preview Book.” This will open up the PDF they created for the content and allow you to see how it all looks. Here is one of my favorites: Pyrothesis by Trenton Clayne Wilcox.

Heres an idea for you that want to impress your clients. Make a book of all your work in your portfolio and hand them that! I would be very impressed to receive a book full of ones work. Hired! Heres another idea: You know all those photos that you have? Why not make a book with them and share them to friends and family? Of course, you can also write a text book or even a book that teaches people things. Like a tutorial book for Web Development or Photoshop. How cool is that? Pretty cool.

This is on my todo list now. Hopefully I will one day sit down and make a book and publish it. Oh, by the way. You can even make the books free for download if you wish. I think that would be a good idea if its a portfolio book too.

View Lulu.com: So, you want to make a book?