I am closing in on the end of my first draft, and I'm starting to think about the most economical ways to print it for editing. It looks like I could spend thirty bucks at Office Max or ten to fifteen at Lulu for a bound copy. Here's my question: Is there any way that using Lulu to print a single copy for myself, with the settings to private, could be construed as self-publishing my book? Obviously, I would like to go with the better deal, especially since I'm expecting to print multiple copies as I revise and share with beta readers, but I do not want to risk jeopardizing my chances at being traditionally published. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Ok I just finished reading Lulu's FAQ page and honestly I think you are safe. Besides there are multiple examples of self-published authors who produced work that got the attention of publishing houses. While I wouldn't not speculate on the exact legal hoops that must be jumped through, it definitely isn't a deal breaker.
My understanding is that as long as it's never made publically available, and doesn't have an ISBN, you should be safe.
Dox Direct are brilliant for single copy printing. They ship very quickly and are completely unrelated to publishing. I used these to print a proof copy of my book and they were really cheap.
I don't think you have to worry about it being deemed published as long as you don't distribute it publicly. That said - are you sure it's a good idea to bind it before editing? If you lay it out like a typical book, there won't be much room for people/you to write comments, make changes, etc. There's a reason manuscripts are usually typed double-space with wide margins, unlike finished copies...
Thank you for all the responses! They have an option for letter sized pages so I'm planning to use that and double spacing, standard manuscript format. I'm not really looking for a "book," just a cheaper option for printing my manuscript. And if it's bound so that I don't lose pages, all the better.
