TIME Magazine has named you (yes, you) the Person of the Year for 2006. That may be hard to believe if you’re just a small blogger who occasionally records a quick podcast and contributes to Digg on a fairly regular basis, but the truth is, all of us who are active online are taking a role in shaping the Information Age, and our contributions (whether big or small) do have an impact on the world. More than ever before, people are being motivated to get their creations out to the public, and there are an abundance of ways to make this happen nowadays. For example, getting a book published in the past meant striking a deal with a publisher, getting paid a lousy commission, and losing the rights to your work. However, with Lulu, the traditional publishing model is thrown right out the window.

Lulu allows you to self-publish your work, and this means that you can set your own price, keep the rights, and then Lulu will only get their piece of the financial pie when you sell copies of your title. They operate on a print on demand policy, so copies of your work are printed as each order is received. There are also no set-up fees, so besides actually having something to publish, there are no other barriers to prevent you from becoming a published author. In addition to a variety of book types, Lulu also publishes and sells calendars, CDs and DVDs, digital media, brochures, and images. My wife has been inspired to write and illustrate a children’s book and then distribute it through Lulu, so I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

[tags]Lulu, TIME Magazine, Digg, Books, Publish, Publisher, Self-Publish, Print on Demand[/tags]