lulu and others

I started a lulu project for the nursing home book. (Sounds exciting doesn't it?) I wanted to see what it would cost to publish a hardback, dustcover edition. Createspace doesn't have that option. Author copies on lulu cost $14.48 a copy for a 190-page book. That's really up there. There are quantity discounts, but you have to buy a lot of copies to get that. And they won't publish hardcover books on Amazon. Or so they say, but you can you choose to publish on amazon, in which case the price per book goes up to $27.60. What's that all about?

Then I decided to use Createspace to publish an audio CD of some of my music for personal distribution. I wanted to see what it would cost per copy. Guess what? Unless I can't find it, you cannot get a quote for artist copies until you've uploaded your audio tracks and artwork. What's that all about?

Is it just me, or are these POD giants trying to make it difficult to POD?

Maybe they are all PODs from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.