Lulu provides both new and experienced authors a way to create a calendar to showcase their art, photographs, or memories. You can create a customized calendar with our wire-o binding and rich color ink. You can add your own holidays and set the range up to an 18-month period.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copy Calendar

If you have a previously published calendar in your account, you can now copy that calendar directly to a new project. This will bring all of the photos over to the new project, and you can begin the calendar creation process without starting from scratch.



Your new calendar will need to be set to the proper year, as the copy will start with the date of the previous calendar project.



Be sure to check any custom dates or national calendar dates to be sure that they were imported correctly into the new project. 


Before Publishing

You have the option to upload a properly formatted PDF file or create a calendar using our tool. If you upload your own PDF file, it must contain all the content for your calendar. This includes the front and back cover.


Start Your Project

Lulu walks you through 3 to 6 steps, depending on whether you choose to publish or just print your calendar.  You may stop at any time and your progress will be saved automatically. To access projects that are in progress, click My Projects in the header. Then click on your project title to continue creating.


Pro Tip: Publishing steps are displayed below the page header. Completed steps are designated by a checkmark above the step name. Click the next incomplete step to quickly return to where you left off. Or, click through the publishing tool screens to review your previous selections.


Select Calendar under Select a Product Type.


Select a goal:

  1. Choose Publish Your Calendar if you want to sell it in the Bookstore, your website, or ecommerce store. You will go through 6 steps.
  2. Choose Print Your Calendar if you want to print copies for your own use. You will go through 3 steps.


Enter your calendar’s details:

  1. Title (this is the project’s title)
  2. Language
  3. Category (optional)

If you choose the option Publish Your Calendar, complete the copyright step.

  1. Title: Enter a Title for your calendar
  2. Sub-title: Enter a Subtitle if needed.
  3. Contributors: Enter the author name as well as other contributors such as co-authors, editors, illustrators, etc.
  4. Copyright License: Select a copyright license to protect your author’s rights.

Design your Calendar

Create a calendar



  • Calendar settings: Choose a period of 12 or 18 months, or a custom period by entering a start and end MM/YYYY.
  • Events: You can upload an ICS file from your own digital calendar. We recommend iCalendar, Google Calendar, or Microsoft Outlook. 

You can also add national events by selecting one of the listed countries. You can also enter custom events with a title, start date, and frequency. Once added, the events will be listed with the possibility to edit or delete them one at a time.

  • Upload Images: Upload an image for the front and back covers and for each month meeting our requirements displayed on the page.
  • Select a Theme: Choose one of the four templates offered.
  • The button Create Calendar will activate once everything above is complete.


Upload a Calendar

  • Generate Calendar Template: Select the period applicable to your calendar. You can upload a calendar for 12 or 18 months. Then, click on Download Template.
  • Upload Calendar PDF: Please refer to our templates for sizing and instructions. Your calendar file must be a PDF including all content for your Calendar. This includes the front and back cover for your Calendar. For detailed creation instructions, see our Calendar Creation Guide.
  • Calendar Specifications: Your calendar specifications will be displayed once you successfully upload the PDF file. Our calendars are US Letter Landscape printed in Premium Color on 100# coated white paper and coil-bounded. 


Print Cost

This is the manufacturing cost to print your calendar. It is determined based on the number of pages and your current location. 


Why does my location matter? While Lulu works hard to provide high-quality printing around the world, production and labor costs vary by country.

 

Preview
Before you move on to the next step, use the preview tool to review your calendar covers and interior layout. 



Use the toggles above the preview pane to turn off/on margins, page trim, and cover fold lines. Click the arrows in the preview pane to turn the pages and see how your calendar images and each month will look when printed.


Ensure essential design elements are not trimmed or folded over the binding. Review the title, image, and spine text elements for placement and correct spelling. Also, review your margins and the page trim areas to ensure no crucial elements will be lost during printing and binding. If you notice anything unexpected or out of place, stop here, and review your files. Make adjustments as necessary and re-upload the file(s).


If you decide to make changes to the calendar events (such as adding or deleting a holiday) you will need to click the “Create Calendar” button at the bottom of the Design step (above preview) in order for those changes to be reflected in the preview.



Similarly, if you wish to change the theme of the calendar, you will need to click “Create Calendar” again to refresh the preview window.

Details

Project Details

In this step, you will describe your calendar and add other details so that readers can find and buy it online. Enter a brief description of your calendar. The text entered here will be displayed on your calendar’s product page in the Lulu Bookstore. Your calendar’s description introduces your calendar to buyers. Make sure your first impression is a good one by carefully proofreading the text.


Categories and Keywords

Think of categories as the labels on the bookshelves at your favorite bookstore. The categories applied to your calendar in this step determine the digital “bookshelf” on which your calendar will appear.

  • Lulu Bookstore Category: This is the category under which your calendar will be cataloged in the Lulu Bookstore.
  • BISAC Main Category: Book Industry Standards and Communication (BISAC) categories are the lists of standard book subjects. This category is used to catalog and “shelve” your calendar properly in online bookstores. Simply start typing a category and a list of matching options display for selection. You must choose or enter at least one main BISAC category.
  • BISAC Categories 2 and 3: Further refine your categories with additional categories and sub-categories.
  • Keywords: If someone was searching for your calendar, what search terms do you imagine they would use? Enter a list of keywords here, separated by commas. Use terms that are distinct and specific to your calendar and avoid general keywords that could describe any calendar.



Audience

Who is your intended audience for this calendar? Select an audience from the provided list. 

Let your audience know if your calendar includes explicit content. If your calendar is intended specifically for adults, check the box and select the type of adult content it contains.

Pricing and Payees

Set Retail Price

The retail price for your calendar is calculated by adding the production cost, retail fees, and profit. There are two ways to set your retail price.

  • Enter a revenue goal per calendar sold. We’ll calculate and display the retail price per calendar in each currency.
  • Or, set a fixed list price in each currency. The list price must be greater than or equal to the displayed minimum price. We will calculate and display the revenue you can expect to earn in each currency.



Set Payees

If the sale of your calendar generates revenue, we need to know who gets it and where to send the payment. You can select from previously entered payees or click Create a New Payee to create a new payment profile. You may create payee profiles for everyone who will get paid from the sale of this calendar including yourself, co-authors, editors, illustrators, your publisher, agent, etc.


To create a new payee profile:

  1. Click Create a New Payee on the Prices and Payees screen.
  2. Enter Payee information.
  3. Select the currency in which you want to receive payment.
  4. Select payment options:
    1. PayPal - Requires an active PayPal account. Monthly payments are made directly to your Paypal account when revenue equals or exceeds $5.00 US dollars or the equivalent in your preferred currency.  
    2. Check - Quarterly payments are mailed to the Payee’s address when revenue equals or exceeds $20.00 US dollars or the equivalent in your preferred currency.


To complete tax-related information (optional):

  1. Enter your Social Security Number or Tax ID number depending on your country of residency.
  2. Download and complete the required tax forms: W-9 for US residents or W-8 BEN for US non-residents.
  3. Upload the completed and signed forms or mail them to the displayed address.
  4. Standard US tax withholding will be applied to all revenue until completed tax forms are received.


Note: A tax form is not required to complete your publication.


Click Add Payee to complete the Payee profile.


You can add multiple payees for each project, but make sure you set and double-check the percentage share of the revenue they will receive from each sale. The total of the shares must add up to 100%.

Final Review

Carefully review each section. This is your last chance to make changes before completing the calendar creation process. If you discover something you would like to change, click the Revise button to return to that step. Once you make your updates, you can return to the final step by clicking the Review step in the page header.


After you have reviewed each section, click on the Confirm and Publish button to indicate that you have reviewed and approved the settings and selections.


Note: If you cannot progress to this step, it is likely you missed a required step along the way. Please review all previous steps for missing information then return to this final step.

Bookstore Preview

Creators now have the ability to display a preview of their calendars in the lulu.com bookstore for customers to see before purchasing.


To activate this feature, the calendar must be published. Once published, you can find the setting to enable this feature in the Retail and Publishing section of the Project Details.


Retail Options

This is the last choice you have to make before completing the creation and publishing process. The retail options in this step are determined by the choices you made previously.

  • No Option - If you chose to simply print your calendar, no retail options are displayed.


 If you chose to sell your calendar, you are presented with three availability options.

  • Private Access - only you can purchase this calendar from the My Project page in your Lulu account.
  • Select Access - this calendar can be purchased from the Lulu Bookstore; however, you will have to provide customers with a direct URL to the calendar. They will not be able to find it by searching the Bookstore. This type of access is great for specialty content, limited editions, pre-publication sales, or pricing promotions where you advertise and provide a link to your customers through social media, blog, or email advertising.
  • General Access - this calendar will be available for purchase in the Lulu Bookstore within minutes of publishing. Anyone in the Lulu Bookstore can search for, view, and purchase this calendar.
  • Lulu Direct - Use Lulu Direct to connect your new calendar to your ecommerce store. Get connected and start selling your calendar on your own site today!


When you click the Confirm and Publish to the Lulu Bookstore button, your calendar will be added to the Lulu Bookstore. 


Finally, click on Order copies of your calendar to get a proof copy!