The Wisdom of “Les Miserables”

Having made the decision to self-publish The Wisdom of Les Miserables: Lessons From the Heart of Jean Valjean, I had to choose a publisher. After being courted by Amazon.com’s BookSurge, I decided to use Lulu Press, Inc. for the following reasons:
1.     Having owned my own (small) publishing for 12 years, I love the hands-on part of the publishing process: formatting a manuscript to trade paperback size, selecting fonts and layout, and above all having creative control over the cover art, design and back cover text. 
2.     Lulu.com’s electronic publishing process, though not always intuitive, is fun to works with. Whenever I got stuck there was always no-wait live chat available, staffed by knowledgeable techs.
3.     The total Cost. BookSurge had offered to publish my book for around $1,800. Publishing through Lulu cost $100, and only because I wanted a bar code, ISBN and distribution through Amazon.com (and other online sellers)–the same “benefits” offered by BookSurge. In my conversations with BookSurge, I kept asking, “What will you do for me for over a thousand dollars that Lulu won’t do for a hundred dollars?” Silence.
4.     Manuscript to publication was literally a same-day process, after which I was able to order a single preview copy at the author’s cost and have it delivered within 48 hours, if I wished. I did this once, then a second time. With each revision I declared the book published in its final form. But by the time the next version arrived, I had made additional tweaks and edits. On the third preview round, I changed the body text font from Times New Roman to Garamond and was happy with the difference–classier. Final edits consisted of deletion or addition of a word here or there. The fourth round proved the final one.

Like the Creator in Genesis, I looked at the product of the last year-and-a-half of my life and felt . . . proud. At last, I held in my hands the book I’d envisioned when I first took up this project.  

PS: I’ve been afraid to read a published copy, because I don’t want to know if there are any typos or–God forbid–other horrible errors. So far, no one has mentioned anything, and I’ve learned that readers aren’t shy about pointing out your flaws.