In mid November 2020, The Celestia Code was reported to Lulu administration as being fan fiction. For violating their Terms of Service, the Lulu staff removed all of iisaw's books and revoked his account.

As of December 2020, other methods of publishing the series are being explored.

7381051 Have you tried going with these guys?
They carry some of the more popular stories, like Past Sins by Pen Stroke, Long Road to Friendship by The Albinocorn, The Enchanted Library by Monochromatic, and, of course, the ever popular and much-loved Fallout: Equestria (all FOUR volumes!) by Kkat and Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons (all five volumes of it!) by Somber!

It's just a thought, as I don't know of other self-publishing companies right off the top of my head atm.

Either way, good luck, hun.

7381051 Also, here's some links to some of the most popular self-publishing sites:
https://selfpublishing.com/self-publishing-companies/
https://blog.reedsy.com/best-self-publishing-companies/
(Quick note: I don't think I saw Lulu in this second bunch.)
https://authority.pub/self-publishing-companies/
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/best-self-publishing-services/
(This LAST one is also has the sites rated from best to worst, so I hope it helps you with your hunt.)

7381062
The problem I'm facing now, is that every other print-on-demand service I've looked into also has a termination clause in their T&C concerning copyright and trademark infringement. My obsessive stalker will instantly report me as soon as I announce publication on any other print-on-demand service, so that option is closed to me.

But I do a lot of other limited run books on various subjects, so the links you provided are still very useful, thank you!

A pre-order of a privately published set of the books is possible, but I'll probably wait until The Cadance Conundrum is complete to explore that option.

7381051
Considering how many people have published fanfiction on Lulu, this seems like a very strange turn of events. c.c

wait? It's illegal to publish fanfiction on lulu?

7381101
Considering the bombardment of my friends, relatives, commissioners, etc. by anonymous, ludicrous accusations, it's no mystery to me. I shouldn't have poked the Nazis, I guess.

Dear user,

It has come to our attention that your Content, titled “The Celestia Code,” may be in violation of the Lulu Membership Agreement, which states that your Content cannot contain material that is fan fiction, intellectual property of another, invasive of privacy rights, defamatory or otherwise questionable and/or determined by us in our sole discretion to violate our Membership Agreement. As a result, we must remove your Content from availability and terminate your Lulu Account.

(For "come to our attention" read "some snitch narced on you.")

7381106
See the excerpt from their email to me, above.

7381097 Ah, I see.
And I don't know who your idiot stalker is, but they very much need to get a life and stop spoiling things for the rest of us, your faithful fans and readers.
And as to that, I'm glad I could help.
And sounds like a plan to me.

7381101 That's actually a very good point, as I think that Lulu is where our good friend The Abyss had their story I'll Always be Here for You published.
(But don't hold me to that.)

7381106 Given how many authors have had their stories published there, I find that rather ridiculous.

7381113 People are dumb where that's concerned.

(For "come to our attention" read "some snitch narced on you.")

Given that I wanted to get at least ONE hardcover copy (for myself) of my own story once it's done (or softcover, whichever's cheapest for now), I'm now more than a bit leery of this company after them doing this to you.

7381143

...stop spoiling things for the rest of us...

I know, right? The books were for the benefit of the fans. I wasn't making much of anything from them as they were priced just barely above cost.

...I'm now more than a bit leery of this company...

It's not really their fault. They turn a blind eye to fanfic by default. But when someone reports it, then they have to do something in order to protect themselves from possible litigation from Hasbro. I'm sure the same is true of all of the print-on-demand companies.

7381150 Yep.

I know, right? The books were for the benefit of the fans. I wasn't making much of anything from them as they were priced just barely above cost.

And from what I know from when Abyss had theirs published, all they asked for was the costs for printing each copy, plus shipping costs.
He wasn't even making a profit on them.

It's not really their fault. They turn a blind eye to fanfic by default. But when someone reports it, then they have to do something in order to protect themselves from possible litigation from Hasbro. I'm sure the same is true of all of the print-on-demand companies.

You have a point there.
But then you have the folks who have all that stuff at pony 'cons, and as much as I understand where they're coming from, there's still fan-made pony merch out there.
I mean, hell, just check out the MLP plushie, figure/toy and other merch on DeviantART alone!!!
Kinda makes you wonder why Hasbro never shut down cons like Bronycon and all the others, when stuff like this happens.

7381155
Can't know for sure, but needlessly angering the fans who buy tons of official merch as well as the fan-made stuff seems like a dumb move for them.

As I understand it, unless the merch is indistinguishable from official stuff and is produced in enough quantity to bite into Hasbro's profits, it isn't worth their while to stomp on it.

The one thing that came close was the fighting game, and Hasbro slapped that with a C&D pretty quickly.

7381161
They also went after JanAnimation since his Button Mash Adventures animation was pretty close to the show's animation style.

7381161 My point exactly, and that should be pointed out to them.
Honestly, I've also always understood that fan-made that doesn't make much of a profit (or any at all, for that matter) beyond just recooping printing/manufacturing costs just isn't worth getting their knickers in a twist on Hasbro's end of things.

7381165 Very true.

7381165
Right! I'd forgotten about that. He was the victim of his own excellent quality!

7381179 Yep!

I consider myself lucky I've bought the trilogy years ago already, but it's still sad to see these go. Man, some people on this planet.

Oh man, that sucks! Figures some petulant asshole would ruin it for everyone, but still, sorry you have to go through all the trouble of finding a different publishing host now.

7381143

Given that I wanted to get at least ONE hardcover copy (for myself) of my own story once it's done (or softcover, whichever's cheapest for now), I'm now more than a bit leery of this company after them doing this to you.

I'm in the same boat. I'm still planning to print at least personal copies of the story I'm working on once it's done (one for me, one for my artist co-creator; plus anyone else who wants one). In my case, at least, I guess the benefit to being small-time and having no horsefame is that it's less likely some asshole will decide to report it, so I'm still going to try Lulu, but damn. I hate that this happened to iisaw.

7381527 I hear ya.
And given some of the PRICES they charge, they should've been grateful that people like iisaw, Abyss and others were using them.

All it takes is for one idiotic asshole to take "offense" about whatever iisaw did and thusly ruin it for the rest of us who want these books.

Some people, I swear.

On another note, I wonder which company Earthsong9405 used to print out copies of her MLP headcanon book a few years back?
She was taking those to places like Bronycon (as well as some of her most EXCELLENT pony art!), and from what I heard at the time, the things sold out like hotcakes!
I may have to DM her over on DA and ask which one it was.
Just, y' know, for later reference.

7381051 Hey, iisaw. I found/remembered another self-publishing site that I actually have an account with, and it has NO minimums for how many books you can have printed out.

Here's the link to it: The Book Patch

'Course... I'm sure that they likely have the same TOS as Lulu, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a look-see, just for the sake of research purposes.
EDIT: Here's their Terms of Service: TBP Terms of Service.
I'll have to admit that legalese make my head swim.

7381537
Good to know, thanks! There seem to be enough of these print-on-demand places that I could hop from one to another every couple of months!

Yep, section 2.5 has the "derivative works" clause, and that what we're all about! Cutting out the lengthy list of all the other stuff we must not do gets us:

...you are not permitted to... create derivative works... in any way for public or commercial purposes without prior written consent of... applicable intellectual property right owners.

So, it's okay if Hasbro gives you written permission to sell your Chrysalis / Celestia romance fic! (Don't hold your breath!)

7381662 You're very welcome, and I was glad I could help!
Yep, and I found another one for you, via some help from Earthsong9405: Blurb.com
It's what she used a few years ago to publish her MLP headcanon book that she was selling at MLP conventions.

Although looking at it in the browser window I have up, I think they just self-publish photo books, but I'm not sure.
So you MIGHT want to check that one out for yourself.

On a personal level, it might be a cool sight to use for the fancomic version of my own (still very much in progress) story.
Food for thought, anyway.
EDIT: Well, on an UP note about THAT, it seems they DO have an option for comic books and graphic novels, so when I get ready to, I think I will have a copy made of it using this service.
It'll likely BE awhile (as I have to DRAW the adaption of my story FIRST!), but I think I will do it.
Hopefully it WON'T be HUGELY expensive.
But we'll see.

As to the last of your comment:

Yep, section 2.5 has the "derivative works" clause, and that what we're all about! Cutting out the lengthy list of all the other stuff we must not do gets us:

...you are not permitted to... create derivative works... in any way for public or commercial purposes without prior written consent of... applicable intellectual property right owners.

So, it's okay if Hasbro gives you written permission to sell your Chrysalis / Celestia romance fic! (Don't hold your breath!)

Yeah, pretty much.

7381662 Just had another thought: Isn't it possible to publish/make stuff under the "Creative Core" (or whatever it's called) without getting in trouble with outfits/owners like Hasbro?
I think I've seen that on some of the art and stories that I've seen over on DA from time to time.

7381711
You're probably thinking of Creative Commons, but that's up to the original content creator. Hasbro definitely has their trademarks and copyrights all over MLP.

7381759 Yeah, that was it.
Got the first half of it right, but not the second.
Silly me.
And this is true.