Been working on this tonight, thought of this thread.
I'm not interested in POD (Print on Demand) books for myself. I was looking at Lulu.com because they're one of the ways in to Apple's iBookstore. Apple designated 8 "aggregators" to supply them with electronic books, and Lulu's one of the aggregators. But Lulu wants money for doing what should be free, so I'm off of them. Seems these aggregators are trying to make money off the situation. Hopefully I'll know if there are any good ones tomorrow after I read the pdf I turned up a few minutes ago. It goes over the various aggregators, pros and cons.
I've learned how to convert a manuscript into a .mobi document (the format that Amazon's Kindle uses) and an .epub document (the format used by most of the other e-book companies). I mention this because it leads to ISBNs (book tracking numbers).
It's a good idea to use an ISBN. Your book doesn't need one, but it helps with record keeping. And even electronic books need ISBNs. I've read maybe a dozen articles on what's required for an ebook ISBN-wise, and this is what I've learned.
For the electronic version of a manuscript, you should attach an ISBN to your .epub document. Be careful not to call it by a weird and restrictive title, like MOBY DORK, BARNES & NOBLE VERSION. To sell that same document on another site besides B&N you would need another ISBN. I plan to buy a block of ISBNs and assign one to each of the ebooks I put out. For Amazon (the .mobi version of the book), I'll just go with their numbering system (they assign an ASIN). So each of my works will have an ASIN and an ISBN.
I've looked at how to acquire ISBNs and made some decisions. It looks better on your book if it's published by a company, rather than "Written by me" and "Published by myself and I." Self-publishing has a stigma, but I expect that will gradually lift as more good self-published work is circulated.
So, for my ISBN's, I'll need to designate a publisher, and I'll just designate myself. If I don't, I'll have to make up a company name and then submit a "Doing Business As" form to my county and state (bite of registration fee for that), and then I'll have to look at a business tax number for my new publishing house, couple of new tax forms, and so on. Not worth the headache. Same with using a pseudonym, the way I read the information. Doing business under an assumed name would necessitate the same kind of paperwork.
I have a short story due out in a fantasy magazine this month, and a crime story due out some time this fall. I do okay with the shorter works, but the process is glacially slow and doesn't pay well. I've been amazed by some of the self-published income figures I've seen on Amazon and other places, so that's what I'm working on.
By the way, for the average novel, the author gets 7.5%. A ten dollar paperback earns the writer 75 cents. On Amazon, the author gets 70% of an ebook's sale price. Sell a book for ten dollars, pocket seven (or so, after flea bites). Self-published authors can't charge the prices that well-known writers can, but still, they can do all right if they churn out decent stuff and keep their prices down. That's for me.
Thought the information about aggregators and ISBNs might help shed some light.