Self Publishing A Book For Free: Are These Templates Good?!

About this video

(Summarized from the Arabic caption track.) Dale Roberts, in a video sponsored by Lulu, reviews Lulu’s free pre-made templates for self-publishing notebooks, photo books, calendars, yearbooks, comics, and magazines without paying for formatting. He compares a template to a skeleton the creator fills in, and says each download is a zip file for PC and Mac containing a full step-by-step tutorial and files in formats including Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, PDF, PNG, and Microsoft Word doc/docx, so users do not necessarily need Adobe software. Notebook templates are 100 pages with blank, lined, graph, or dot-grid interiors in paperback and spiral options, and he found more trim sizes in the files than advertised. Photo book templates come in paperback and hardcover in about six trim sizes. Calendars can be built with Lulu’s online calendar creator instead of a template, or from InDesign templates for 12- and 18-month calendars. Yearbook templates cover paperback, hardcover, and saddle-stitch binding at US Letter size, with photo-grid page layouts. Comic templates use paperback and saddle-stitch at comic sizes, on thicker, higher-quality paper he says feels more like a graphic novel, with double-sided cover files for printing inside the covers; magazine templates do the same in US Letter and A4. His caveats are that users must invest learning time and expect trial and error, check whether they have InDesign/Photoshop or free alternatives such as GIMP, and understand distribution limits — for example through Lulu’s expanded distribution to Amazon, not every print type qualifies, and spiral-bound books will not reach Amazon, so some products must be sold by driving traffic to Lulu or via Lulu’s site integration options. His verdict is that the templates are good, especially for free, though the sheer volume of files can initially feel overwhelming.

Key takeaways

• Lulu offers free downloadable template packs for notebooks, photo books, calendars, yearbooks, comics, and magazines, each with a tutorial.
• Packs include multiple formats — InDesign, Photoshop, PDF, PNG, and Word — so Adobe software is helpful but not strictly required, with GIMP named as a free Photoshop alternative.
• Highlights include 100-page notebook interiors (blank, lined, graph, dot-grid), yearbook photo-grid layouts at US Letter, and comic/magazine double-sided cover files.
• Not every format distributes beyond Lulu: Dale gives spiral-bound books as a type Amazon does not support, so distribution requires homework.
• Expect a learning curve and trial and error rather than plug-and-play use, especially for creators new to InDesign or Photoshop.

Episode details: published September 7, 2020 · 11:05 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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