Lulu, the premier self-publishing service on the internet, announced this week that they have formed a partnership with Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller. The new collaboration will allow Lulu’s members (called creators) to distribute their books through the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, what Lulu founder and CEO Bob Young calls: “another step in our passionate effort to help Lulu creators reach more readers and sell more books.” Lulu offers to publish any creator’s work for free in print or online for a small percentage of profits, and they have discovered that authors who opt for an e-edition sell 30% more than those who only offer print. This percentage is expected to rise with sales made directly through Barnes & Noble’s Nook store. The partnership also expands Barnes & Noble’s e-catalog, which already features 2 million titles, with Lulu publishing 20,000 titles a month.

Lulu developed a technology earlier this month making it easier than ever to convert manuscripts into e-books; the free program built into to the Lulu e-book publishing solution converts any Word document (.doc, .docx, .rtf) directly into an epub file while correcting common issues such as spacing and font size. “Our main goal is help creators sell more books,” says CEO Bob Young. This ease of use and the partnership with Barnes & Noble make it easier than ever for new authors to get their work read on a global scale.

Links:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lulucom-announces-partnership-with-barnes-noble-2011-09-27 – Market Watch
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/18938/barnes-noble-partners-with-self-publisher-lulucom-18938.html – Proactive Investors
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lulucom-simplifies-ebook-creation-with-launch-of-new-lulu-epub-converter-and-ebook-publishing-tools-2011-09-13 – Market Watch