My experience with publishing with POD and attempts to promote

Book publishing and promotion

These are my thoughts, based upon my experience in using the print on demand publishing services of Lulu.com and what to do after you publish. 
My feeling about Lulu comes down to money. For about $100 you get an ISBN and what they call Global Distribution , which means your book is printed by Lightning and distributed through Ingram to online and regular retailers who chose to purchase a print on demand (POD) book.
Cost per book is based upon pages. To give you two examples: my Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County costs me $7.66 when I order for local sales, while the Dancing Valkyrie cost me $9.18.
I did all the work; writing, editing etc.
For someone who wants extra help, services are available for a cost.
My reason for going the POD route was simple. Time. I do have an old and dear friend, a literary agent at Harold Ober Assoc. Inc., NYC. She did accept The Dancing Valkyrie and sent it out to a traditional publisher who took 7 months before passing on it. I know a first rejection does not mean a manuscript will never find a home. I also know it is not unusual for a manuscript to go through many publishers before finding a home. But considering I was approaching 65, which I now am, I thought "who knows how long I will live" and decided to go with the least expensive POD I could find.
When one considers even a book published by a traditional publisher has no guarantee sales will exceed a few thousand copies and even a $5,000 advance on royalties might never hit the breakeven point for the publisher, I think it is a mistake for those who choose to self-publish, to lay out more money for a book than the traditional publisher is willing to front.
Out of curiosity, I recently checked out Xlibris and saw where they charge from $299 to $12,999 to publish with them. The $299 only gets you an ISBN and a web page listing with them. To get a package similar to what Lulu offers for about $100 would cost you $499.
Do the math! I think some of these POD outfits are selling a dream that will probably never be reached.
All marketing efforts have been done by me.
In addition to the above, Lulu has some stock front and back covers available for free. They also have templates for covers as no charge. If you use the templates, just convert to jpg and send. Pay for services are also available.
I convert my document to PDF using the free CutePDF.
After you download everything to Lulu, within a short period of time, you order a proof copy which should not take more than a week to receive. After receiving, if everything is up to snuff, you place an order for the distribution package you want, decide on the price and set up your own Lulu web page - and you are done.
The way everything is set up, even a caveman could do it.
By the way, want your book reviewed? I can highly recommend AllBooks Review. Both of my books were reviewed there for modest fee, with reviews posted on Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. I am a reviewer there and, if you want, you can choose me to do the review. Check them out at: http://www.allbookreviews.com/
"Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" the hiking guidebook and the vampire novel "The Dancing Valkyrie" are now available from Pete Klein at http://www.lulu.com/ravenwolfpublish
New! Talk about book and promote it with Pete Klein (no charge and you can later download the podcast for your marketing) on Saturday evenings, 6:30 pm EST, by going to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Dancing-Valkyrie
For more information, email Pete Klein at kleinpete.hotmail.com