I just got this question from Trina Stephenson and rather then let it get buried in the comments, I thought I’d address it here because I’m sure others are wondering similar things with the future of Lulu uncertain.
What service do you suggest for us to be able to sell books and video on one platform.
http://stores.lulu.com/miragenm
CreateSpace. They offer Print-on-Demand DVDs and paper books as well as eBooks and video downloads (not to mention CDs and music downloads). Their production costs are much lower then Lulu and really their only flaw is that they sometimes take a very long time to process files which can be annoying if you’re used to Lulu’s almost instant upload to order process. I’ve been with CreateSpace even before they merged with Booksurge and have been very happy with them. They are nice to work with and they provide a great service for a very competitive price.
Another thing to consider, though, is this. Instead of putting all your eggs into another basket (from the Lulu basket to the CreateSpace basket in this example), why not set up your own webstore even if it means still using a POD company to drop ship and manufacture the items for you on the back end? The WP-Commerce plugin, ecwid’s widget-like plugin and Vendio‘s stores are all excellent solutions that let you sell both physical and download products side by side. Then you need only direct buyers to your site and no matter how many times you change supplies behind the scenes, your customers will never need to change their bookmarks or notice the change.
I personally use a Vendio store for this very purpose which you can see in action here. I am able to sell physical books and digital goods side by side.
But that’s just my 2 cents. What would you guys advise?
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