Carnegie Mellon Partners with Lulu.com for New Publishing Imprint

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/10/08

The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is partnering with self-publishing firm Lulu.com to launch a new academic publishing imprint called ETC Press. All publications will be released under a Creative Commons license and will also have associated Web sites for collaborative authorship and discussion. ETC Press also has an agreement with the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) to place the new publications in the ACM Digital Library.

Authors who publish through ETC Press will retain ownership of their intellectual property.

"We believe this is the future of publication," said Drew Davidson, director of the ETC in Pittsburgh and editor of ETC Press. "Partnering with Lulu.com enables ETC Press to publish across multiple media and publish multiple additions, exploring what constitutes reading and writing."

The partnership will begin with the "beta" launch of two books, stories in between: narratives and mediums @ play and Beyond Fun: Serious Games and Media.

Lulu provides print-on-demand technology, texts available in print and download format, and multi-platform accessibility. In a statement the company said it adds 5,000 new titles weekly to its publishing marketplace.