Self-publishing with Tikatok and Lulu

Are you a Vogon who can't get your poetry published? Why not publish it yourself?

I've come across a couple of self-publishing websites that make me wish I had an idea for a book to wright or something to publish.

I heard about Lulu well over a year ago when it was profiled by Educause's Seven Things You Should Know About... series. Lulu's claims that it "is changing the world of publishing by empowering authors to publish their work themselves for free with complete editorial and copyright control." You upload and format your content and earn 80% of sales. Lulu can also help you obtain an ISBN and market your product.

It looks like Lulu has expanded since I first checked it out. You can now publish music CDs, DVDs, eBooks, and the ubiquitous photo book or calendar.

A site geared more towards children is Tikatok. While I find this site exciting as a parent, it may be of interest for K-12 educators.

Come to think of it, I could publish a cookbook of avocado recipes. And I do have some horribly trajic poetry from college...

Do you have an idea of how you could use these sites? Have an idea for a textbook, lab manual, or instructional content DVD that you could publish? Share using the comments feature of this blog.