Holly Lisle: Writer

Only Bad News on the Print Version of CCC

I’ve retired the print version of Create A Character Clinic from Lulu, and everyone who purchased a copy should receive a full refund.

I cannot get Lulu to use my PDF file, or to upload my Word document. I don’t know what its problem is with Word–it won’t give me an error message, though it claims one is there. As for Acrobat … the problem there seems to be that I work on a Mac, and purchased my version of Adobe Acrobat for the Mac. Mac users pay the same price, but get half the program. Embedding fonts is a nightmare, and evidently I don’t have the right ones, and even if I purchased the right ones from Adobe, there’s no guarantee that I could get them to embed using the crippled version of Acrobat Mac users have available. And if I could get them to embed, there’s still no guarantee that I could get Lulu to accept the file.

I’m bitterly disappointed by this, and apologize deeply to those of you who purchased the book.

I’ll explore other printing options, but Cafe Press is ridiculously expensive compared to Lulu, and I’d hoped to keep the books reasonably priced. There may be other options, as well. None of them will be quick. I won’t assume again that the process will work simply because the store was willing to take my money for a copy.

This link will put you in touch with the people who should be automatically refunding your money. http://www.lulu.com/support/

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8 responses to “Only Bad News on the Print Version of CCC”

  1. kalbzayn Avatar
    kalbzayn

    You should try open office before you fork over for other options. It is free and can save files in word and PDF format. It can run on windows, mac, and linux. And it is free.

    The link is here:
    http://www.openoffice.org/

    Reply
  2. klharrds21 Avatar
    klharrds21

    I hope this helps. I really wanted a copy of this book.

    BTW, when I got my refund from LULU the exchange rate had changed so, not getting the book cost me £1.57. Boohoo- wipes tear.

    Damn LULU and their lack of quality control before accepting MS’s.

    Reply
  3. Nick.Popio Avatar
    Nick.Popio

    Holly,
    My name’s Nick Popio and I work for Lulu. I just ran across your post and wanted to try and help if possible. You may have already resolved the issue yourself, but if not, you may find some help here: http://yaquinapress.com/PDF-FAQ.html

    One of our Community Leaders, who specializes in PDF creation wrote the FAQ, and it has some advice for Mac users.

    Reply
  4. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    I will find a way to do this. I fully intend to have not only the new nonfiction, but also my growing OOP backlist, in print as well as available via e-book.

    The embedding problem isn’t just with Lulu. It’s with any only POD publisher, which is, for the moment, the only way I can afford to go. The Mac simply will not do what I need it to do, and there are a handful of possible problems, the solution to each of which is to pitch a lot of money in and hope what I fixed was what needed to be fixed.

    So I’m going to walk around the problem. I’ll switch over to the Windows box for print production. I’ll get a Windows version of Adobe if I have to, though the PDFOnline link provided by Tina yesterday has a promising (Windows-only) font-embedder that is only $15. I’ll test it, run a copy, see if everything goes to shit when I try to buy a copy. If it doesn’t, I’ll wait until my copy arrives to see how the print quality is (I know the Adobe print quality would be acceptable, but I’m not going to risk other people’s money with some odd second-tier software.) If it works and looks good on paper, I’ll move the book to public availability. If it doesn’t, I’ll endure the pain of more money to Adobe, and pony up for the Windows version of Acrobat.

    Reply
  5. ejoy Avatar
    ejoy

    I’m sorry you’ve had trouble with it. I was going to order it, too! When you first said you were going to do this, I had visions of you going to Office Max to have a couple dozen copies printed and bound. Should have known better!

    EJ

    Reply
  6. arrvee Avatar
    arrvee

    That really does suck! I guess the positive is that now you know who NOT to use.

    You might also want to look at ThinkFree Office Online. As long as you can run the Java Runtime Environment and have a high-speed connection, it works great. You can save your Word files directly to PDF. I’ve been using it for about a month with only occasional very minor problems (it’s still in Beta).

    Reply
  7. TinaK Avatar
    TinaK

    That sucks Holly! I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Something that might help in the future – PDF Online – a free online service that creates PDF’s. I’ve used it several times without a problem to convert some Publisher files to PDF’s for friends. It might work for something like LuLu that does not like Mac stuff. Good luck to you.

    Reply
  8. writingnerd Avatar
    writingnerd

    That stinks. Isn’t it funny how the world seems to hate Mac users? Good luck trying to find another option for CCC. I can’t honestly think of anything other than Lulu. :/

    Reply

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