I was just saying to someone I wished I had a way to make spiral bound journals. Being a sudoku fanatic, I love that I can actually make my own. How awesome is this!
Such a helpful video, thank you. I only publish via KDP at the moment and I've been meaning to look into spiral bound on Lulu for ages. It's great to see a complete overview of their process from a creator's perspective like this.
Thank for you this video. I was stuck at the selecting the book option because of the general distribution option. I contacted Lulu and they sent an email that said they were auto closing the ticket without anyone looking at because it could be 'solved on the website'. I couldn't get past the selecting the book size until I saw your video and the part about the not being able to use the general distribution due to the spiral binding. HUGE RELIEF in fixing that! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
My pleasure. I’m so thrilled that you found my video so helpful. I will also forward this info to my contact at Lulu so they can use it as a “learning moment.”
Yes, I use canva and love it! I would appreciate a video on creating covers with it. Thanks for the video! Lulu looks easy to handle. I will look into spiral bound for my life story journals.
Thanks Keith. A great outline. I have read in a few places that people complain about paper quality for activity books with Amazon. I also have read that a lot prefer spiral back. So you have answered quite a few of the mysteries for me.
Thanks for your tutorial, I just got my POD made for a friend's birthday through Lulu. I must say though that Lulu only accepted the order when I changed the cover dimensions to bigger than the note pages.
Thank you! I'm new to this low content idea and knew that the project I had in mind would not work with typical binding. THIS* is exactly what I needed to see! I published a book through Lu-Lu years ago and was quite pleased with the outcome.
Thanks Keith, excellent video as usual. I was wondering if you'd considering doing a video on Lulu vs Blurb spiral bound books for no/low content. I can't find a comparison anywhere. Thanks for all you do! 👍🙂
The spirals on Amazon are probably still done via Lulu, however, in order to be able to sell it on Amazon, you have to create a sellers account, which has a bit more hoops to jump through.
First, congratulation on your 24 years of marriage! You're right celebrating it: marriage is difficult, and marriage failures are daily news. I wish you many happy & healthy years ahead! Second, thanks for this tutorial! I love this channel; I'm learning tons with it. Third,my question is on the free ISBN: when publishing on KDP, the author is provided a free ISBN for its book on KDP, and then if the same book is made available on Lulu, it is Lulu that will provide the same document (with the same trim size or a Lulu trim size) another free ISBN? Each platform will provide its own free ISBN to the same document of the same author?
Thank you so much for the kind words. Unfortunately, you’re right about marriage these days, but I married my best friend so we’re in it for the ‘long haul’! In regards to free isbns, you are 100% correct, they’re only usable on the platform that provided it, so if you publish the same version and format of the book on multiple platforms, yes you’ll get a different isbn from each.
Long term, buying your own isbn is more professional. It allows you to set the name of the imprint, which is another opportunity for both brand building as well as ranking in Google search. It’s also easier to deal with one isbn per format instead of having to update the isbn in the interior every time you get a different isbn. But in the short term, using the free isbns is fine.
@@KeithWheelerBooks Thank you very much, Keith, for this very comprehensive and clear explanation on ISBNs: free vs. paid, and long term vs. short term!
Understood. I absolutely use KDP for my paperback and ebook versions, but I also use Lulu for my hardcover and spiral bound books. Customers may prefer different versions so, where appropriate, I try to provide as many versions as possible.
This was a great video. Do you mind doing an update since Amazon sells spiral bound books now? Also, can you do colored pages in Lulu? Nevermind my last question I see from your video colored pages are available.
While Amazon does sell spiral bound, they do not sell spiral bound directly from POD companies. Currently, the only way to sell a spiral bound book on Amazon is through other programs such as Amazon FBA or Amazon Seller’s Central, which both come with additional costs.
@@KeithWheelerBooks oh ok. I have purchased a couple of spiral bound books from Amazon, but I wasn't sure if KDP sold spiral bound books now. Thanks so much.
I was wondering why some have an option for spiral coil and some no. Now I see that is only if you publish in lulu book store and no global. So how will you use it for? I will look at the video again.
I want to sell spiral-bound notebooks and planners in my Etsy shop but I can't afford to buy a large stock, or really any stock without knowing that it's going to be covered after the customer paid... if that makes sense. Could I list these, then put the customer's shipping info into the Lulu store when they order? Also, if you choose the global distribution option, where DOES spiral bound get distributed if it doesn't go to Amazon?
I completely understand. Lulu doesn’t divulge all of the online platforms they publish to(mainly because things change in this industry and they don’t want have to keep updating the site every time a retailer is added or removed from distribution.) They do state that they publish to barnesandnoble.com, major bibliographic databases, including Nielsen and Bowker, and it’s even made available to Ingram so brick and mortar stores have access to order them. To answer your other question, yes, you can order directly from Lulu after the customer placed their order.
Technically, yes you can purchase spiral bound books from Amazon, but not directly through print on demand. So, if you use Lulu to create a spiral puzzle book, it will NOT be pushed to Amazon.
You cannot currently create a spiral bound book on Amazon. The only way to get a spiral bound book created and put up in Amazon would be to create it on Lulu and then setting up an Amazon Sellers page and selling it that way. (Note: an Amazon Sellers page does have a few associated with it.)
You won’t want to use a conversion software to convert from ePub to a spiral bound layout. Basically, the spiral bound layout will be the same as if you create any print version interior. You’ll want to do No Bleed.
That’s odd because they actually have a cover creator with canva option when uploading your book. You may want to reach out to support to determine why yours isn’t being accepted.
Is there any way to convert interior templates to spiral. I searched (15,000 low content interior templates fiverr) and got over 15000 templates. How can I change these templates to spiral books?
I’m sure there’s a way. It’s just a matter of what format your interiors are currently in. If they’re in pdf format and they’re all the same trim size, you should be able to use the ilovepdf site to combine the interiors into one combined pdf.(like I did in the video) You can then upload that pdf to Lulu to create the spiral bound book. All that said, I do strongly suggest, to better your chances of getting sales, that you don’t just reuse interiors you found on the internet. First and foremost, you need to make sure you have commercial rights to use and publish those interiors. Also, you want to make your interiors somewhat unique to standout against your competitors.
Not that I’m aware of. The spiral bound books that you find on Amazon are not print on demand, per Anything else?. It’s done through something like opening a seller central account, which costs money and has a few additional hoops you have to maneuver.
I saw your response regarding selling on amazon and needing a seller account if we wanted to sell spiral books . If I wanted to do this (I have a seller account) how would I get the orders processed through Lulu?
@@KeithWheelerBooks That's what I thought. Too much trouble. Want to be more hands-off. Thanks for the input. Keep those awesome videos coming. You're a great teacher.
Thank you. No I don’t. The majority of the traffic I get from my books there come from the traffic I send directly to it. I’ll check with them and let you know.
Getting back to you on this. I heard back from my contact at Lulu and for the past 6 months, they're averaging about 50k lulu.com visits. I hope this helps.
amazing information! thank you! if i publish the low content in Lulu and i already have it in Kdp they are going to link (so i can sell the spiral in amz) or they will be in conflict?
As a general rule, you create a version of your book on Lulu or other platforms and select Amazon as an avenue to distribute to, you can go into your KDP dashboard, contact support and ask them to link your other versions to your KDP version. This works for ebooks, paperback, hardcover and audiobooks. Unfortunately, at this time, Amazon will NOT carry a spiral bound book that is created on another site. It’s a limitation on Amazons end, not on the end of the other platforms.
Hi Keith, I don't see the book listed on LULU, are you still doing this book and know when you will be doing the follow up to this showing the finished book?
Yep, you can even have the same format on both platforms. The only exception is if you’re ebook is enrolled in KDP Select program. If it is then the ebook version can only be on KDP, but the print version can be on both platforms if you want.
@@KeithWheelerBooks even if the book that I want to put on lulu has an isbn number from amazon, do I just get another one from lulu or use the same number
Thank you for video. Just subscribed! I have a question- Is it allowed to publish a spiral book on lulu with their number, and publish same book on Amazon kdp with kdp assigned number?
Thank you so much for subscribing! The short answer is, yes. In fact, it's a requirement. You CANNOT use a Lulu ISBN on any other platform(ie. KDP) and vice versa. Also, since KDP doesn't offer spiral bound books, your book published through KDP would need to be either an ebook, paperback or hardcover(if you have access) Since the book would be in a different format you'd need a different isbn regardless. I hope this helps.
It’s funny the number of people that tell me they’ve never heard of Lulu since they were actually the first print on demand platform(even before KDP) The sales volume really depends on your author platform. Lulu doesn’t have a huge organic search volume so you have to drive traffic to the book, but the royalties are quite a bit higher.
@@KeithWheelerBooks They should consider investing in a couple of bucks into marketing because had I not searched for spiral bound book publishing and found your video, I would have never known about them. It's important to note that I found YOU and not them with that search. I hope they throw some cash your way for brining them some business. :D
You sure can. In fact, if you purchased your own isbn and it’s the same version of the book(trim size and style(ie paperback)) you can use the same isbn. But if it’s different or if you’re using a free isbn, then yes, you’ll need a different one.
@@KeithWheelerBooks Can I ask a question unrelated to this video? I gave a couple of my low-content books as gifts, and they want to leave a review, is that allowed?
Honestly it depends on what type of no content book it is. Sketch books are obviously faster to create than lined notebooks, while coloring books could take even longer to create. Then there’s the creation of the cover which can take a while depending on how the design. In general, I’d say the typical no content book takes about a day or two to make.
I’m confused. I’m just now learning about publishing low or no content on kdp. I like spiral books option but does Lulu do print on demand? Or you have to buy a set quantity to sell on Amazon? I don’t have a website yet
No worries! This is a place where you can ask any questions you may have. Yes, Lulu is a print on demand platform. They offer paperbacks, hard covers, spiral bound, hardcover with dust jacket and a whole lot more, like calendars. Anyway, I hope this helps. If you decide to try Lulu out remember to use my link and coupon code KEITH15 to get 15% off your next print order.
Yes, Lulu is a print-on-demand platform. But to answer the rest of your question (Keith covered this in other responses above and in the video, I believe) ... yes again! If you create a spiral book on Lulu but want to sell it on Amazon, you will have to buy a quantity of books from Lulu and then sell them on Amazon the hard way: create a seller's account and an item description page for each title, and when someone buys one, Amazon will tell you and then you manually ship the item to the customer yourself. So, you either... 1. Use Amazon's convenient print-on-demand service (KDP) - keeping in mind that the only physical books you can create there are paperbacks - and let Amazon take care of everything (the book is not printed until somebody buys one; when one is bought, Amazon prints that one copy and sends it to the customer; the printing costs come out of the customer's purchase price; whatever is left over comes to you as your "royalty" for the book) OR 2. If you want to create a spiral book, use Lulu's service and sell it on their platform, which works much the same way. That is, use Amazon to sell the books you create on Amazon and use Lulu to sell the books you create on Lulu. Otherwise, selling Lulu books on Amazon requires you to maintain your inventory and handle shipping yourself (or buy an expensive Amazon fulfillment account). The missing piece of the puzzle, really, is that it helps to have some sort of base of operations - a website, a blog, an email capture system, etc. - where ALL of your titles are covered. From there, you can direct your customers to either platform. Sorry about the length of the reply. I hope it helps.
Great insight, however, I want to clarify a few things. You can absolutely use Lulu and sell on Amazon for hardcover and paperback. The only hiccup is with spiral bound and that’s because Amazon doesn’t accept it. So when you do a spiral on lulu, I’d suggest either using lulus api to connect it to your website or just directing people to the direct link to the book on lulu.
Hi Keith! If I had an FBM account with Amazon, could I drop ship from Lulu then? Since I'd be shipping it out physically from my address anyway, why can't I just manually type in the customer's information through Lulu every time one is ordered from Amazon?? Is that a workaround to still selling on Amazon but not having to burden the upfront costs of inventory or taking the time to ship?
@@KeithWheelerBooks I can see that for sure. Also Im trying to create a spiral bound notebook right now and the option says the "coil bound" is not available and in fact only says soft cover is. Have you ever run into this before? I did open a support ticket but wondered if you could shed some light on the matter.
