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Self-Published Book Wins National Award For 'Best Single Breed Book'...

And Becomes Surprise Bestseller - Authors Pictured In The New York Times

'The Havanese' Wins the Dog Writers' Association of America Maxwell Award for Best Single Breed Book of 2005

Best-Seller Is Independently Published through Print-on-Demand Web Site, Lulu.com

'We received real medals,' says author...

RALEIGH, N.C., March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A self-published book billing itself as "the quintessential handbook for Havanese dog-owners, breeders and fanciers" has won a prestigious national award as the "Best Single Breed Book" of the year and become a surprise bestseller.

"The Havanese" (http://www.lulu.com/havanese) by Diane Klumb and editor Joanne Baldwin, DVM, has won the Dog Writers' Association of America (http://www.dwaa.org) Maxwell Award for Best Single Breed Book of 2005.

The book's success is all the sweeter since Klumb and Baldwin decided to publish the book themselves, using Lulu.com, because of what Klumb calls "a bad experience" with a traditional publisher. "They wanted to change everything," explains Klumb. "And the great advantage of publishing on Lulu is that we didn't have to deal with someone else's idea of what makes a good dog book."

"Complete control allows us to be completely honest with no soft-peddling or bowing to special interests. After enjoying the control, the audience and the margins at Lulu, the Dog Writers Association Award is just icing on the cake for us. They gave us lovely medals and put our pictures in the New York Times!

"Even before the award and resulting publicity, the book had been a consistent bestseller on Lulu. Klumb and Baldwin publicized their book in an old-fashioned grass-roots way, with personal notes to the many national and regional Havanese mailing lists. Now word of mouth helps "The Havanese" stay on top of the Lulu bestseller list.

"This is yet more proof that independent publishing and print-on-demand is legitimate and successful," says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.com. "The Internet is truly the great equalizer and gives everyone the chance to publish, especially people such as Diane Klumb, whose award-winning, best-selling book would have never seen the light of day without Lulu."

"The Havanese" is available at Lulu.com, $39.94 for the full color version and $19.97 for the black and white. All proceeds from "The Havanese" and the accompanying Havanese 2006 calendars are used to support H.E.A.R.T.'s current research project, the Havanese Genetics Project at Texas A&M, under the direction of Dr Keith Murphy. H.E.A.R.T. was founded, by Joanne Baldwin DVM & Diane Klumb, in 1999 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to support research into health issues affecting the Havanese dog and to educate breeders, fanciers and the public about this wonderful companion dog.

ABOUT LULU (http://www.lulu.com): Lulu is the world's fastest-growing source of print-on-demand books. Founded by Bob Young, who previously co-founded Red Hat, the open source software company, Lulu provides independent publishers with free access to on-demand publishing tools for books, e-books, DVDs, music, images and calendars.