Thank you for this video. Super helpful! I am currently using Lulu for publishing/ printing but HATE their processing time. I’m in the US and it takes about 7-10 days to process and another 7-10 days to receive (regular ground shipping). I did an expedited shipping (5-8 days) and it still took the whole 8 days before I got the order. I ordered on June 4 & received on June 13. I’ll continue to use Lulu only because I do in-person events that I sell my books at, and for the price, I feel it’s worth it. My cost is less than $9/book (print & shipping) and I sell them $16 each. Again, thank you for putting this out there because people need to know what the various options are to make informed decisions. 🙏☺️
I'm doing test prints with Lulu right now. I'm in the USA and it takes 2.5-3 weeks for me to get my order. It takes them 2 weeks to process the order and 1 week to ship. I did both linen and spiral. The linen is really nice. I paid almost $18 for around 150 pages. It has a cover that comes with it and you don't have a choice on whether you use the cover or not. The spiral is decent quality; I like it. You can choose the type of paper you want on the inside. The spirals are single and plastic. I didn't see an option for single/double coils and material type. The spiral journal, 150 pages, was $9.
Caroline, I have published books on Amazon, then I decided to check out Lulu. First off, Lulu had me upload my manuscript file. Without even asking what trim size I wanted, they said according to my file size my book should be 8.5x11. There was no other trim size offered! I published the same paperback book on Amazon at 5.5x8.5, so the margins are set at that size. I went ahead and purchased the paperback with Lulu. It took one week for delivery in the U.S. It was delivered in a box. The book was nice but very funny looking inside with a lot of blank space around the smaller margins. I'm going to contact Lulu about this and see what they say. On Amazon, to ship books to an author took 10 days, in the U.S. They don't allow Amazon Prime and you have to pay for shipping. My books arrived in a box. Thanks for all your videos! They are wonderful and very informative! I love your duck children's book!! Very sweet!!
I'm in America, Florida to be exact and my KDP books take 2-3 weeks to ship and I have no idea why. It definitely hinders my sales because no one wants to wait so long. This is why I was interested in Lulu. Thank you for this video
Great video. Thanks. I've been using Lulu since 2006 and honestly speaking, it's always been pretty hard. The books are also way too expensive. I think I'll try Amazon KDP.
Thank you for testing this out. Some companies just don't get it. They need to try to compete with Amazon head-to-head. However, I made a hardbound book on KDP and the quality was very disappointing. I am interested in the coil-bound books since those are preferred for writing in.
I have been using Lulu to print personal copies of my fiction books to avoid the KDP watermark. I do have some low-content notebooks in the Lulu store (I haven't tried their API integration yet), but I've since transitioned to KDP/Amazon. Lulu's printing time varied for my 4 different books. But they averaged 7-10 days before actually shipping out, and the overall time I waited while they were in transit was 30 days. I am based in Puerto Rico. I assumed this long wait was because they use UPS ground shipping and then it has to be transferred to the USPS before it can fly out to me. But I give all snail-mail a minimum of 3 weeks to get to me, its just the way its been for the 15+ years that I've lived in PR.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, it is very helpful. I received a KDP paperback book, and it arrived scratched and full of greasy fingerprints on the black side of the book, and the white side was dirty. I was not impressed. It actually worried me... and if my customers receive my book that way, they will send it back and write negative reviews. It is a pity that the quality and clearness with KDP are not consistent. You have to pray for the best!
Thank you for comparing lulu to kdp. It would be awesome if you could do more with lulu. For the United States, Covid Public Health Emergency ended on May 11, 2023. So they should be back to normal with their production hopefully. I know the transportation industry including shipping was hit hard at the beginning of covid. The baby boomer generation retired earlier than expected and at record numbers to be exact. They left faster than they could replace those spots. Things that are getting shipped to other countries still have to go through customs. Besides a lot of people order things from China and it takes about 3 weeks to get it. With doing research about kdp and other things I have heard it is about the value and how you position it how it is a premium people will want to spend the money for it and especially if it is a gift for someone the extra care in shipping will be what they want. Also I hope that since they are a bit more expensive they are paying their workers more. Amazon work practices are not the greatest.
I really agree with you on the long production times of lulu. It's quite ridiculous. I ordered proof copies for my novel and I ordered from lulu originally because I live abroad as well, and lulu ships worldwide, while kdp ships to certain countries. I unfortunately live in one of the countries they don't ship to. 😕 But the same day, I bought a copy for my mom in America with KDP and she received it in five days... and lulu still hasn't even made mine. I'm quite sad my mom got to see my novel in book form before me. But it looked nice on video chats. Lulu has estimated over a month for me to get my proof copy. So it's not a premium experience (I got paperback BTW).
I worked at a college print shop, the pages are easy, but you have to use a special machine to put in a spiral. I can't defend lulu, because I don't know the process, but usually it took several days to create 20 or more spiral bound books.
Thank you for posting this review. As a customer, I don’t think two weeks is especially long, depending upon what type of book you are printing. For a no-content book it does seem a bit long, but from their perspective it probably takes as much time as for a print book. So for a no content book it does make sense to go with the printer who can do ot faster. On the other hand faster + damaged corners or slower + carefully packaged to arrive undamaged? I would go for the Lulu I am hoping to print a book on my family history and would like linen over a shiny cover. Please do a review of the linen model. 🙏🏻
Hi Caroline ,I am from Australia too , I was looking into Lulu ,thank you for this video as i will not be using them now mostly because they put their own receipt and logo in the packaging, and I agree shipping is way too long .
Yes KDP is fraud! They stolen my books and closed my account! Dont listen to these ads on youtube that encourage you to publish your book in Amazon KDP! Just stay away from them!
I like the sound of having the title fonts done in gleaming gold or silver foil for a fantasy book. I always struggle with interesting fonts. thanks for interesting review. ~fellow Aussie
Yes, same feeling from France. For my personal use, I use Lulu for personal reprints of unfindable books. But I am preparing a paying book and will go to KDP because the elapse time to get books is really far too long with Lulu. In France, they are using local French print companies,which is nice, but, as you mentioned, the delay to just begin to print your books is around 2 weeks and then there is the shipment time, which is far too long if you sell something. Thanks for your video.
Have you tried printify yet? I was thinking of using them for low content journals. I can't use them for planners though because they don't have the option of designing internal pages. I sent Printify an email asking about it and they said they will consider doing it in the future. I'm keeping my eyes out for that.
KDP is trash. I spent three weeks trying to edit and edit and edit to get the manuscript through KDPs AI tool. I would make the changes it asked for and then there would be other issues. The gutters would be fine for one third of the book and then it would flag the 30 pages that were NO different than the first 1/3 with an error that it was over the gutter. Then after much editing it went through the automated system only to be rejected by their second automated system after a few more days. KDP also won’t let you delete bank accounts, requires your SSN, and has left my book in limbo. I had zero experience with Lulu and decided to give it a try. After two days, my book is published and first copies are on the way. Their new cover creator is awesome to and really made a kick@$ dust jacket for it. Also I got a 480 page linen wrapped hardcover with dust jacket with color for $32. KDP wanted in the $60s for a color hardback. And that was without a dust jacket or linen wrap. Just crappy ole cardboard style Amazon hardback. It honestly baffles me that there are people out there that would waste weeks of their life struggling with AI Bots on KDP
Thank you for this video. I like your informative content. I just came upon it and see it was made in 2022. Just wondering if since then, has there been any progress on Lulu's printing time line or are they still slow and take time to ship the product?
Please review the spiral bound and linen covered Lulu books. I really appreciate your perspective. Thank you for generously passing on what you've learned during your publishing journey.
Yep I agree but then if you have an online store you are an ecommerce business and should be stocking the product. So we all want the big easy way out but life is not so.
I created my own book on Amazon and the date it was LIVE I ordered 2 copies from the USA and 2 from Australia (where I am), the USA one say 3 weeks to get to me, the Australian one was 2 weeks to get to me. Im still yet to get either. 1 week left on each. My customer who purchased in the USA arrived in 3 days. Another customer ordered and they delivered to a different address. She rang amazon and they reprinted the book in 2 days and it was in her hand. But me, 2 weeks and I'm still waiting. Proofing sucks. I just have to take a guess that its good.
Great vids you have! Thank you! Yes I'd love to see the spiral books! I see this vid is a year old though so have you done this already. Would love a link please :)
Hello Caroline, thanks for all your great content!! I'm about to publish my first journal with prompts on KDP... yay! just wondering if I should publish it in paperback or hardcover? Is hardcover preferred for journals? I mean, I personally only purchase hardcover journals. Thanks in advance for your feedback!
If u like hardcover journals more than paperback, then there's other people that also like it. Publish it the way u feel. If you're still not sure, u can offer both paperback and hardcover versions with different prizes.
Hi, which paper did you choose for Lulu printing among those available? Have you tried writing on it to see which paper is the best between KDP and Lulu?
Yes, you are right. Customers do not care about any of this, why a product is damaged or delayed. They will leave a nasty review and be unhappy. I have found it best to just go with the most used site and stay within their guidelines, capitalism at its best (and worst).
I have been trying to format a puzzle book for weeks now and I keep getting an error message about.transparency and to flatten the images. Do you have any advice on how to format puzzle books on LULU?
Do you think lulu is good now-a-days if I was trying to make a medium content notebook that has different pages (approx 100) to sell on my own website?
Its all frustrating - still no way to have a spiral notebook printed and sell on Amazon. I went through lulu site and tried multi times to make a coil bound notebook and it would never offer me the coil option. For me lulu is a fail just for that.
I'm having massive issues with Amazon hardcover processing time. My demograph is Canadian but it keeps telling my costumers that process time is two weeks?
What do you think that I should start working on lulu as a publisher? Is it like kdp? Because my account was closed twice for no reason, and I want to support Lulu. Is it a profitable field, or will I waste my time? I want your advice, please and thank you.
Hello. Thank you for the video. Please let us know when you do get a response from Lulu about including that’s receipt in the book. I am looking to use a second platform for my books. I would also be very interested in looking into spiral bound and linen books too. Do you think paperback books would have the same delay in shipping? Thanks.
@welllivedwt I wouldn’t say it's perfect, but you know, at least for paperbacks it was fair. Ordered a friend's book through KDP and it took almost a month to print, so the turn around was definitely a positive
@@JessRenee91481 thanks! im using KDP right now and yes, the turnaround is not good at all. and one of my hardcovers are peeling! the paperbacks are good but many people have ordered the hardcovers
Am I missing something. I'm trying out lulu because I like the coil bound feature. But the coil bound is locked and i cant use it.... what am I doing wrong?
Hi Caroline, i am publishing in KDP, but i got a book for a try in lulu and the same book which is Letter size 88 pages cost in kdp 6 USD in kdp via lulu cost 12USD and i got the same royalties (about 1 USD) from KDP or LULU. Thus why i should use Lulu? is there a book format that is better to use lulu or page numbers that is better than kdp? maybe only a coil bound in Lulu is +? Can you comment?
I was with Create Space which was before kdp. Amazon allowed e copies of my book despite not having my permission. So I haven't used kdp because of this.
Omg I must say... claiming to be whitelabel and then adding their logo with their giant name is dumb and wrong on so many levels. 😑👎 Address this LULU... please
i hate the stupid watermark of KDP, you can't use the service to print something for yourself without publishing it to everybody. I not care pay the full pirce, but i dont want it to be public available.
What I think is best is to make my books in Lulu because of all the options it brings (plus Amazon terminating accounts). And warn my customers on my website about the shipping times that Lulu takes. I think transparency is the best in this case, at least as an indie artist... And also ship to USA only, because sadly, shipping to other countries is darn expensive and takes months to receive. I live in Puerto Rico, which is part of USA and not so far, but things that would arrive in 15 days to USA with free shipping, here it takes more than 60 days, and the shipping can literally be 12 times expensier than the item... not even joking.
Est-ce une bonne idée de favoriser ainsi la plus grosse entreprise mondiale, alors que la liberté de produire des livres dépend avant tout d'une diversité de flux ? Ne voyez-vous pas que, déjà, Amazon impose des standards moraux ? Ce sera plus simple quand ils seront seuls sur le marché. Pour que cela n'arrive pas, acceptez que les concurrents soient moins rapide et globaux. Vos parents ne le sont pas non plus.
13:24 then buy the book binding equipment and set up your own manufacturing line and make it yourself. you've probably never made a book in your life, but here you are telling big companies they need to make your one off book super fast? your demanding attitude jacks up the price for other people becuase if they dont' meet the expectations of the 5% they get bad reviews and crap like this on youtube. just simply state it's not a good match for your needs and move on, no need to bash them.
