PUT LULU ON THE SHELF

Have you heard of Lulu? No, not the Scottish singer who shot to fame in the early Sixties and has hung in ever since: I mean Lulu the new website that pledges to publish anything by anyone - however obscure.

Titles such as How to Cook a Peacock and Ten Crochet Dude Dishcloths have, against all the odds, been published, and read, via the US website at www.Lulu.com, which has now launched in Britain.

Lulu encourages writers to upload their work to the website at no cost (yes, at no cost), with the books individually printed in paperback (with various binding options)) each time an order is placed. There are no minimum print-run costs and authors, who set the sale price of their work, receive up to 80% of the profit, which to me seems a better deal than the measly 7% offered by traditional publishing houses.

Since it kicked off in 2002, more than 100,000 writers have signed up to the website, and 20,000 of those have published and sold their work: 30,000 books sold on Lulu last month alone.

Jim Chevallier, author of How to Cook a Peacock - a translation of a fifteenth-century French cookery book featuring recipes for peacock, stork and turtle doves - has so far sold 32 copies of his book to aspiring medieval chefs: there can’t be many of them around and I wonder how many have actually used the recipes. Come to that I haven’t seen peacocks (or storks, or turtle doves) in Tescos lately, or any other supermarket come that.

Drew Emborsky, the self-styled "crochet dude" from Houston, Texas has meanwhile sold 60 copies of his crochet pattern book Ten Crochet Dude Dishcloths in recent weeks and at the same time has made it on to the Lulu list of books "least likely to become a number one bestseller" - the website's antidote to the mainstream bestseller charts. Texan crotcheteers? Davey Crocket and Jim Bowey must be turning in their graves.

So what’s hot at Lulu?

Riding high in the Top Ten is The Havenese by well-known American dog breeder Diane Klumb, described as a quintessential handbook for Havanese dog owners, breeders and fanciers. Here’s some trivia for you: the Havanese is the national dog of Cuba and its only native breed. Once called the Havana Silk Dog, or the Spanish Silk Poodle, the breed became trendy in nineteenth-century Europe, when Queen Victoria owned two. Charles Dickens also had one -- isn’t it amazing what you learn on this page!

Are you entrepreneurial? Then maybe you should go for a copy of How to Start a Wedding Planning Business, described as comprehensive course covering wedding etiquette, coordination and directing ,as well as the business side of wedding planning. Don’t start humming ‘Here comes the guide’.

A little less genteel is The Ultimate Tattoo Guide that will show you everything you need to know about getting started in the tattoo business – from needles and inks to styles and patterns. The book was written by D Heren, a fairly prolific all-round writer who also penned The Pelvic Pain Solution (your guide to dealing with such problems such as prostatitis and a range of other ‘itises’), and, wait for it, The Secrets to Raising Twins the Right Way (will there be a Wrong Way sequel?)