It reminds me of Lulu.com where i was so excited at. I can finally publish my own book/mag. For the sake of sharing and fame. Or for some extra dimes.

A few years back, I almost got scammed. A site providing a place to upload poetry is offering my poetry to be published. It must have been my day, somebody finally see my poet inner talent. Or so i thought.

The gist is, publishing a book is an exclusive right. It’s not everybody’s right. It’s both time consuming and pricey. It’s almost like setting up a company. We invest our money and aiming seriously to make profit. It’s a job, not a hobby.

Successful company are those making the impossible become possible. Writing can be a hobby, but book publishing can’t. It is obvious, Lulu and NulisBuku does not believe this. NulisBuku are founded by those know how painful it was to publish a book. So rest assured they are set to make it easy and possible for everyone else.

Let’s confirm to Ollie.

Is it true that I can publish my book in just 1, 2, 3?

Yup! All you have to do just sign up on our website http://nulisbuku.com for FREE, then upload your soft copy book (in PDF format) to Nulisbuku.com, proofread it and if everything’s okay, you can see your book in Nulisbuku.com marketplace for all people to buy. The publishing process should only take maximum 3 days if you don’t have any revision after proofread.

How hard is it to actually publish a book via a regular publishing company?

Regular publishing company has their own idealism in selecting books, spesific marketing strategy and limited number book to publish. That’s why new writers will find themselves waiting for months before they know if their script is successfully approved for publishing. And it’s not easy to get published because of several reasons that I mention earlier make the publishing company select the scripts real carefully.

How can you make it so cheap?

We have our own method to make it possible. My partner, Brilliant Yotenega, has experience in printing industry for almost 10 years. Together with Angeline Anthony and Oka Pratama, we make print on demand, really happened!

How many years of research to get nulisbuku up and running?

Has been on my dream to do list for 2 years, and execute it for 5 months (operational & technical side)

Are you still bleeding or already taking profit?

We’re taking profit from day 1

Day 1? Gross profit or net profit? how could it be possible?

It’s gross profit. It’s possible because we have a clear business model. For every books sold, we got certain percent of royalties. I must say in Nulisbuku early age, the business is sustainable and live from its own sales.

How are you making profit margin?

From printing margin & book royalties

Can you describe the pipeline in NulisBuku kitchen and which part took the most energy to run?

There are 2 kind of order.

First was from Writers. For every book submitted, our administration will confirm first for  writer to make their first proofread version and manage the payment. The print order then goes directly to our production team. They will receive order, preparing the selected paper (we have 2 option, HVS & novel paper), print the script and cover, binding, wrapping, packaging and sending it to customer.

The second kind of order we get from normal customer or reader. The process is similar, but the quantity is up to the customer’s order.

Our energy running mostly to operational process. Every piece of the book matters. To control the quality, doing it one by one and making each book a masterpiece in short period of time to keep up with customer’s expectation is our challenge.

I believe, most of your author at the moment are early adopters (which is also a writer) which may not demand much as long as they can have their book published. But later on, you’ll eventually need to cater commercial-writer (aiming for profit from day one). How do you plan to handle this change? It is surely a market you should embrace to expand NulisBuku.

Yes, we already hosted Ika Natassa, a best selling author and Jed Revolutia, that looking forward to profit from day one. We encourage people to do the marketing for their own book and we will create offline events, not only about how to write, but also how to sell. We might add channel of distribution through partnership and have plan to create Nulisbuku (offline) Library in cafes & restaurant all over Indonesia.

How many years until we can see nulisbuku in full scale?

We’re expecting 2011 or early 2012 to scale

Do you see extra monetization channel in book publishing?

We already see several models of monetization channel and it will involve brands as well

Do you own your own payment gateway?

No, we plan to have partnership with the current payment gateway

Do you meet any difficulties with NulisBuku online store aside from lacking payment gateway?

We will simplify the registration process because we get several input in that section. Other than that, we’ll do more improvement in 2011. We’re expecting to sell ebooks version of Nulisbuku.com books as well and might add several new templates for photo books, recipe, etc.

If you are to look for one (payment gateway), what will be your fitting payment gateway criteria?

Must be easy to implement, easy to use by the customer, no initial fee and cheap fee per transaction :p

If you are about to partner with local startup, which one is it and why?

We’re interested to partner with local startups that already play in ebook business or have hardcore writers or readers community or have a strong marketplace to showcase Nulisbuku books

OK, last but not least. Any advice for fellow startup founder-wannabe?

First, identify your passion. It’s something that you’ll do, after you have everything in life fullfilled. Create a startup idea out of your passion. Then make clear plans on how to make it come true. Network, come to #StartupLokal events, so you can get advice from the experts in your selected field. Give schedule and target to launch your startup. Even when it’s not perfect yet, launch it anyway. Because perfection is a journey. *wave to Nulisbuku beta logo* 😀 Good luck!

Nulisbuku.com already have so many evangelists that form their own communities based on projects held by Nulisbuku. #99writers was an event that we create to launch Nulisbuku.com at Indonesia Book Fair 2010. 99 writers launch their 99 books that they’ve prepared in 9 days in one stage! They continue on supporting each other through twitter and blogs. #writers4indonesia also one of our project to help Indonesian disaster victims. 300 writers wrote 300 short stories compiled in 17 books! All royalties goes to charity arranged by Nulisbuku.com. The #writers4indonesia community is growing even to BBM groups 😀 To accommodate the passion of our writers, we create a forum http://forum.nulisbuku.com

Thanks a bunch Ollie.

Further question can be placed in the comment box. Hopefully Ollie herself and NulisBuku friends can answer your curiosity.