My self-published book introducing the Pascal language, Essential Pascal , is now available also on www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1440480117 and also as http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Pascal-Marco-Cantu/dp/1440480117.
This is still managed by a print-on-demand service (a different one than in the past), but Amazon creates a little stock and should be faster than Lulu. Right now on the site they claim you can have the book delivered by Monday (although probably only in the US). By being on Amazon you can benefit from they low shipping costs, including the Super Saver Shipping and the like. You can also get it along with other books. Notice the book now has the ISBN 1440480117. Of course, if you list Amazon books on your site, earning referral fees, you can now add this as well.
The book is still also on Lulu, and might be cheaper from them for European readers (no international shipping, as they print it in Spain), but price might be very close. Amazon lists it at 29.50 USD, while Lulu price is in Euros so the US price fluctuates (it is now at 27.67 USD). Lulu has also the ebook / PDF option.
The reason I moved a first book on Amazon (using a print-on-demand service they own) is because of the increasing problems with Lulu.com. You might remember than by the time Delphi 2009 Handbook shipped (less than two months ago) Lulu had increased they shipping costs significantly, and there were many complaints on this blog. I'm also having serious problems with Lulu because at times they don't consider earnings as royalties, causing me tax-related issues. Also, their invoices (when I buy copies) fail to comply with our local regulations. I contacted Lulu on these issues, and never got a reaply (other than we'll look into it and let you know).
That's why I started looking for alternatives, and found a system that's apparently more expensive (in terms of percetage of revenues they keep), but charges about half of Lulu for printing, making it quite on par with it. When selling on Amazon you have to give them a higher percentage, but this is bearable, unlike trying to get a book from Lulu to Amazon.
So placing Essential Pascal on Amazon is a first experiment, and I'm very eager to know about your experience if you buy it (but also if you look at prices and shipping to your location, compared to Lulu). I'm ready to upload more books on Amazon, including the Delphi 2007 Handbook, while for contractual / tax reporting reasons it will take a little extra time to have the new Delphi 2009 Handbook on it.
I'll probably consider this system as my first option in the future, and I'm planning an entire series of Delphi books, but that's the topic for another post.