Writers in with a shout thanks to Lulu

MANY budding authors have seen their dreams die on the altar of profit, the death certificate coming in the form of the publisher's rejection slip.

What may not be readily clear to any potential blockbuster writer is that the rejection is not necessarily a knock-back of the your-manuscript-is-mince kind; more the sorry-but-we-can't-see-it-selling-much variety.

Sure publishers have to make money, same as any business, as they have to invest both faith and cash in any prospective writer. But who is really to say what will sell?

Some of the biggest retail premises on the high street belong to booksellers who stock a mind-boggling range of titles. Bookworms ultimately decide what makes the best-seller lists and which authors find a place in a more niche market.

For book publishers, in many ways, it's a case of nothing ventured, nothing lost. But often it might be a case of the Sam Philips effect, the equivalent of effectively giving away your Elvis contract to cover your short-term position.

The stance by many traditional publishers means some potentially great novels are stillborn.

Across the pond, Canadian businessman Bob Young has launched Lulu; not the latest reincarnation of the Scottish songstress, but an online publishing facility for hopeful authors. And he's looking to bring the idea to the European market later this year.

Mr Young, who created Red Hat, the Linux-based software rival to Microsoft, describes his idea as a cross between Amazon and eBay, a place where convention meets innovation. Lulu - it's 1930s American slang for a "remarkable person, object or idea" - will allow any author to upload a manuscript, while also allowing the sale of as little as a single copy. For the author, no advances, no contracts, no big outlay and no handing over of copyright to the publisher. Let it stand or fall on merit and demand. For the publisher, in this case Lulu, there's no major overheads that demand minimum print runs.

Also, the author gets about 80 per cent of the royalty on any sale, rather than the ten-15 per cent received from a traditional publisher.

Lulu was launched after Mr Young failed to get a publishing deal for his own book Under the Radar. The piles of unsold copies have been formed into a desk and chair for his new business.

Lulu seems an idea that's sure to book an annual profit.