The Independent on Lulu.com's publishing model

"...the final price is determined by what the author sets as his royalty, of which Lulu takes 20 per cent. If the author forgoes a royalty, Lulu does too. Copyright is with the author. So who needs publishers, when you can easily do it all yourself, take 80 per cent of the profit and retain copyright?

"It's not yet eBay, but it's getting there. Now in its third year, Lulu offers more than 40,000 titles on its website and new ones are being added at over a thousand a month. In October it sold 45,000 copies and growth continues at 10 per cent or more each month. In three years they have sold 444,000 books. Two thousand new authors sign up each month.

[...]

"Bob Young says that he intends to revolutionise publishing the way that Steve Jobs revolutionised the music industry with Apple's iTunes. And the fact that Lulu's founder and principal investor is Bob Young means that this is an ambition which must be taken seriously. He has had a spectacular career as an digital entrepreneur."

Read the rest here.