Lulu is a company offering publishing, printing, and distribution services with headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. Since their founding in 2002, Lulu has published over 1.1 million titles by creators in over 200 countries and territories and adds 20,000 new titles to their catalogue a month. In addition to printing and publishing services it also offers online order fulfillment

Order fulfillment

Order fulfillment is in the most general sense the complete process from point of sales inquiry to delivery of a product to the customer...

. The company's CEO is Red Hat

Red Hat

Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....

 co-founder Bob Young.

Authors who publish

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

/print

Printing press

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

 materials and similar works through Lulu retain the copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

s to such materials and similar works.

Optional services offered by the company include ISBN assignment, and distribution of books to retailers

Retailing

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

 requesting specific titles (returns are not accepted, which limits distribution to physical bookstores).