Lulu book binding/self publishing

If you had a book that you wanted to have bound- and none of that cheap stuff- but really bound, like it would if it were being published... where would you go to have that done?

I've heard Lulu's book binding and help with self publishing praised to the skies- but I just wanted to ask, has anyone on YWS ever used it? And, if so, does Lulu really deserve all that praise?

I'd just like some more opinions before I decide to try it for myself (please?)

~Mel

YWS itself has used it. (Well, technically Nate, so speak to him about it.)

You can buy the Young Writers Literary Journal on both Amazon and Lulu (where it was designed) - as far as I'm aware, you get options on whether you want it to be made available to the public (as in, you might just want one copy for personal use, etc) on Lulu, and then options such as the size, and the fonts, and the covers... all the stuff you'd expect. The books are often a little expensive, but Lulu is a trusted self-publishing company and definitely one of the better ones that I am aware of.

There are some companies that you should really avoid. Firstly, if you're ever asked to pay a company to have it published, ignore it. It's a scam. In this case, I believe you'll need to buy the book itself, but not the actual publishing process; and from then on, you get a percentage of the sale costs. While these are usually very respectable - perhaps a few dollars if you're American - if you want to publish in the traditional manner, then I'd seriously avoid self-publishing, but that's for another day.

So yes. I won't be the best person to ask, but there are my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for replying, and for the advice- I'll definitely try it out ^_^