Lulu Press Center
Teachers Write Their Own Textbooks, Publish Through Lulu.com to Save Money
Teachers Write Their Own Textbooks, Publish Through Lulu.com to Save Money
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – (November 30, 2011) – As school districts and teachers around the country look for ways to cut expenses, some are turning to an alternative to purchasing expensive textbooks. Many teachers, as well as college professors, are writing their own textbooks and using Lulu’s print-on-demand and eBook technology for publishing.
“Schools can save a great deal of money by using their own textbook curriculum and publishing the materials through us,” explains Sarah Gilbert, a director at Lulu (www.lulu.com), a self-publishing company. “They still get the same quality content, written by their own teachers, but at a fraction of what it costs to purchase textbooks traditionally.”
In addition to the money-saving benefits that school districts gain by producing their own textbooks, they can also easily make revisions and updates as needed for free, so their students have the most current information possible. Teachers also have the ability to create downloadable supplemental material, and can completely customize the material to better fit their course plans.
Lulu works with several thousand teachers who have gone this route by publishing their classroom textbooks. In addition to teachers and college professors using the textbooks that they have written and published, some university professors are inspiring their students to do the same with their work assignments.
With Lulu’s program, educators are able to set their own price for their work beyond the manufacturing cost, to provide students the most affordable option. There is also the ability to set the revenue that will be earned from each book, so that it can potentially be used as a fundraiser. By using a global print network, Lulu ensures that educators get their work quickly, and this also cuts down on shipping costs.
“There are continued news reports of school districts having to slash their budget due to a lack of funds. Plus, teachers benefit from working with updated textbooks that cover all the material they plan to teach,” adds Gilbert. “Increasingly, school districts are turning to alternative methods like Lulu in order to get high-quality materials, yet save a lot of money while they do it.”
Lulu is equipped to handle the textbook publishing needs of educational institutions. While some teachers need to receive administrative approval to write and publish their own textbooks, others do not. Lulu’s self-publishing format also gives authors the ability to publish everything from books and cookbooks to calendars. The service is provided free, and authors retain all rights, as well as up to 90 percent of all profit from sales. To learn more about using Lulu’s publishing tools, log onto www.lulu.com/education.
About Lulu:
Lulu.com, founded in 2002, is a company that specializes in open publishing. Founded by Bob Young, the company has 1.1 million creators and has 20,000 titles added to their collection each month. They offer their free service to authors in exchange for a small percentage of profits from each sale. Lulu provides anyone with the ability to publish books, eBooks, mini-books, photo books, calendars, cookbooks, and travel books. To learn more, visit the website at www.lulu.com.
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