6 good reasons to never, ever do business with Lulu.com
1. Only email support. Any company that provides only email support has to be looked at questionably.
2. The "approval" scam. You upload everything they ask you to, it looks good, but you have to buy a copy of your book and okay it before they'll allow anyone else to buy it. Except they screw it up and slip in all kinds of errors not in the files you uploaded. guess what--it's your fault. Now you have to redo your manuscript to satisfy their crappy converters, and buy another, outrageously priced copy of your own book, and cross your fingers hoping they won't screw it up again.
3. The "world-wide distribution" scam. You pay $100 so you book will be on Amazon.com, except if you have already published it through anyone else, Amazon dumps them, and uses only Lulu.com, regardless of how well the book was selling through the other company. Good bye sales.
4. The "feedback" trap. Well, at least your book's on Amazon.com, right? Except Amazon.com has even worse support than Lulu.com. Anyone with a grudge against you can go write a bad review of your book, WHETHER THEY'VE READ IT OR NOT, and Amazon will PERMANENTLY place it on the page they sell your book from. AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO GET IT REMOVED!!
5. The Amazon.com trap. So now your book's on Amazon.com, but you've got all these fake "reviews" saying it's a crappy book. Think Lulu.com cares? Hardly. They've bled you dry. They're on to other marks to con. No matter what you do, they ignore you and won't lift a finger to have the book removed from Amazon.com, and since they're the ones who placed it there (and got the previous copies removed) Amazon will only listen to them.
6. The final blow comes when you finally get a real publisher to listen to you, only to find that if you've already self-published your book, it's considered published, and no other legitimate publisher will ever touch it. Somehow that very important bit of information is never mentioned by Lulu.com or any other vanity press.
After spending 5 years now trying to get my novel published, I have to wonder why anyone would ever try being an author. There are con artists around every corner eager to rip authors off and take their money while providing little if any service in exchange. The so-called legitimate publishers are so inundated with manuscripts, they don't even look at them unless recommended by a well-known literary agent. Literary agents are so inundated with authors who want to be represented, they won't even look at you unless you've got some gimmick they think will sell a book (it's very obvious the actual quality of the book is fairly irrelevant to the process). There are so many bad books being published that readers are skeptical about starting any book they aren't already convinced will be good, so new authors, regardless of their skill have very little chance of actually being published. And what's really bad is that there are so many bad authors pushing poorly written books (I may be one of them) that readers, literary agents and publishers alike grow more and more leery of any new author.
I've decided to go ahead and release my novel for free, as soon as I can get a clean conversion to a mobile format, even then I doubt it'll get many reads because few people want to risk the time investment of reading a lengthy novel, and the few who do tend to not bother with reviews. (Much thanks to the handful who have read and reviewed my novel)
Oh, and in defense of legitimate vanity presses. My previous press, LightningSource.com, never charged me a dime, made my book available with DRM, placed it on Amazon.com (still without me having to pay them anything) and I even got some royalties off of sales. When I "added" Lulu.com they somehow replaced my previous press, charged me $15 to $16 per book before they would approve it, and another $100 to get on Amazon.com and I sold exactly 1 book to a friend, and Lulu.com has yet to pay me any royalties for even that one. I was actually able to talk to someone at lightningSource (many times, in fact they are very easy to get a hold of. great people) once the bad reviews started, but they told me that once Lulu.com booted them as the publishing source, they had no authority to pull the book from Amazon.com. Lulu.com, by the way, never asked if I wanted them to become the new publisher and boot Lightningsource.com, and I would have said no had they asked, because my intention was to allow LightningSource to manage the ebooks, and use Lulu.com for just the dead tree copies. Lulu.com, without my permission, got LigtningSource booted completely as my publisher for the book, which then yanked access to the ebook version.
Posted by Danny Carlton at July 27, 2009 9:51 AM
Thank you for posting this because I am a new first time author looking to publish my book and I was seriously considering Lulu.com but now I am having second thoughts. My cousin did some research and directed me to this site. I appreciate your input and for sharing your experiences.
Thanks so much Danny for posting this because I too was considering lulu.com on recommendation from a "published author".
I intend to write my first novel by June 2010 and also was looking to help a friend publish his recipe book. In a writing course I did, they advised that you should never self publish or go with vanity publishers, so I'm also glad that you shared your experience with Lightningsource.com.
Doing much rethink now, but it's all good.
Jilean
After a lifetime in publishing, I've explored the entire situation of specialized fiction.
As an many-times award-winning professional I have a serious leg up in this new field for me.
HOWEVER, these are tough times for authors.
Major publishing houses will accept and publish quality work.
The big problem, most authors are unsupported for promotion. The author can devote every resource to promoting his work and still only receive normal royalties, if that is what his contract provides.
Regardless of who the publisher is, the author should contract a reasonable price for volumes he sells directly.
In short --
Hard cover, 180,000 words, 6.5" X 9.0", 12-point Bookman -- no more than $5.50 per unit cost to you on consignment in minimum lots of 100. Unsold units returnable at your expense.
Soft cover, 180,000 words, 6" X 8", 12 point bookman -- No more than $2.25 per unit in minimum lots of 500. Unsold units returnable at your expense.
If the publisher demands "non returnable status" for any of these, insist upon a price drop.
If the author is to "front" his own promotion time and expense, he should receive the profits from his direct sales -- regardless of who the publisher is. [Reality -- The most "prestigious" houses will demand the most egregious terms in contracts, royalties, promotion, committed book signings at author's expense, even sharing expense for publisher-sponsored promotional tours.
The publisher may agree to "front" author's promotional expenses, and "charge back" against royalties.
One author accepted an "authors' cruise" only to discover her royalties were charged back $5,500 for the cruise, even through she already had documentation from the cruise line that as a published author, she was an "all expense paid" lecturer.
Regardless of who the publisher is -- expect them to treat authors as profit centers, extracting every dime at every opportunity.
I know of one fiction author, whose first two works were Number One and Two on the NYT Best Selling Fiction list consistently for manty months -- who was paid a total of $15,000 for both volumes.
Her contract claimed any works completed within two years after the date of signing the first contract for that publisher -- at $7,500 each.
After the second novel topped the lists, she suggested the publisher rework her contract.
They refused to even talk.
SHE DID NOT COMPLETE ANOTHER NOVEL FOR 34 MONTHS.
At that point, she had an agent and a NYC auction brought several million for the third novel, and the next two, to be completed "within 60 days" with a bonus for every day prior to the final deadline.
A serious publisher's promotion budget was minutely detailed, with an all expenses national tour, national broadcast network interviews, a minimal number of major literary and trade interviews and a European tour with any international publishing packages and distribution. Plus, she retained movie/TV rights, and veto power for international contracts.
One day after that contracts was finalized, her agent delivered the first completed manuscript. One month after it was published and hit the best seller lists, the second manuscript was delivered.
One month afer that volume was delivered to retailers, the final manuscript was delivered.
[Of yes, the first auction terms were that her orginal publisher was required to pay a 25% surcharge with any winning bid.]
When any author completes writing, rewriting, editing and formatting -- He is in the publishing business. It is a cutthroat business.
Any author who does not understand that reality, is delusional.
Once you sign a contract without YOUR "qualified" attorney's approval -- you no longer have control of your work or your life.
Hi all, read all the above. I have self published 2 books, have co written a 3rd and am in the middle of a 4th. The 3rd book i have yet to seek a publisher, weighing up all options such as even just an e-book etc too. i think that if you self publish you need to remember that EVERYTHING you will have do yourself. Unless you have a lot of TIME on your hands and are 100% committed you stand no chance of success,you will have to put your all into it! ...self promotion is vital and it is very very difficult to be taken seriously as an 'unknown' author. That said you will have the great satisfaction your book is in print. Mainstream publishers only want to make money, that is their job and their business.Within the current climate few even wish to take on new work even from established authors. Overall its a minefield. If you have the money you will need it get the manuscript fully proof read and edited too.If your work is exceptionally good then someone somewhere may give you that chance. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND WITH GODS GRACE YOU MIGHT JUST FULFILL YOUR DREAM. Good luck,Dave
Thanks for the info on lulu.com, I too was considering using them for a cook book but will now look elsewhere. I have published two books through self publishing and the sales were okay for someone starting out. It is true that you have to put a lot of time in promoting your own work. Mine were Christian/motivational books so with me speaking different places helped the sales.