Self-published authors looking to get the word out about their books are being offered a new online forum for promotion. Lulu, the self-publishing Web site and marketplace, has joined with social networking site weRead, which will allow the over six hundred thousand books published through Lulu to be featured in weRead's comprehensive library of all books in print.
Using weRead, originally founded as iRead in 2006, writers can create author pages and connect with readers as well as create a virtual bookshelf and review and compare titles. The site, which has two million registered users, allows readers to share their bookshelves on networking sites such as MySpace, Orkut, and Facebook, where the weRead application is one of the most popular.
With Lulu titles added to weRead's library, "self-published works can be compared favorably, or otherwise, with Shakespeare, John Grisham, or J.K. Rowling," said Meagan Bonnell, a Lulu representative, who added that "the opinions of real people, particularly your friends, are the best way to discover new books—not algorithmically-generated recommendations."
Lulu, which also publishes music, film, art, and corporate materials, allows writers to create books at no initial cost and showcase titles in the site's marketplace, where authors price their own books and earn an 80 percent profit from sales. Roughly five thousand titles are added to the site each week.
