Guess what I received in the post this morning?

Needless to say I couldn't actually get much work done for a little bit until I calmed down my giddiness and concentrated to finish off this day. So here's some initial thoughts:

1. The internal paper stock is top notch. Lulu scores loads of points with me in terms of the quality of the paper in there. It's thick, it's absorbed the ink very nicely. In effect they've done a completely pro job here.
2. The cover as you can see is of the shiney variety. It's got a good feel to it (which is very important) and the edges come across very nicely. I'd have liked to be able to choose a different kind of cover stock (maybe a matt finish) but what they've got here is done very well indeed so no concerns here. The colours have also come out very well indeed.
3. The binding however is what worries me. Looking at the binding it seems to conform with the normal quality however there are airholes between the cover and the rest of the actual pages. Now I'm not sure if it's just the copy that I got, but that's one of the things I'll be investigating in the coming couple of days.
4. Even though I followed instructions to the t, I still feel that the inside borders should be beefed up a bit for larger books. This is something that should be conveyed to Lulu so that they can have a look at in more detail. I don't mind it now as this is effectively why I've got a draft copy to completely tear apart and make sure I'm happy with every single aspect of it before making it all live.

How you ask? Basically I'm going to test the books rigidity by breaking the spine (something I consider sacrilige to any book, but it's important that I test this). What I don't want is for the book to break down straight away because I will choose another printers. Make no mistake, I'm not bound to Lulu in any way. There are many other print on demand services on the internet. Some have actually been doing it longer than Lulu. So far I'm generally impressed with what I've got and yes it's because I've finally got something in my hands that I've spent so damn long on.