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Post by contemporain on Aug 20, 2021 10:40:45 GMT
Regarding the deletion of the Look inside/ Preview Feature, it's been exactly one year today that Lulu wrote :
"This is a feature we plan to add back, but for the time being it is unavailable."
Indeed... so it's a kind of (sad) birthday 
So I Ask : WHEN does Lulu plan to add this essential feature back ?
Explain me how customers can buy a publication they do not see at all ? Or is a cover a good preview ? ? ?
Is it so hard, technically speaking, to put this Preview feature back ?
Look at KDP, their "Look inside" feature just works fine !!!
Before the Lulu platform "modification" (usually you change for smthg better...anyway) the Lulu preview function was working good.
The removal of this feature's been one a the greatest mistake ever done for such a kind of business.
Internet is a 100% virtual place. You buy what you see. And here, you see... nothing.
One year is quite a long time...
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Post by Ken on Aug 20, 2021 10:56:15 GMT
 Don’t hold out any hope for a resolution this year.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 20, 2021 13:11:20 GMT
Agreed. Terrible loss. No wonder no one buys books at Lulu.
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Post by benziger on Aug 20, 2021 15:04:47 GMT
Previously, the suggestion page was public. That means we could read suggested ideas and also Lulu's feedback. We could comment ourselves. Support ideas. Today, the suggestion page is like a mailbox. No one knows if their idea has already been suggested 1000 times or not. In the past, this forum belonged to Lulu. There were people from Lulu who put things right or wrote one thing or another - at least from time to time. But maybe the Lulu people themselves don't know what the future holds, what is yet to come or what is yet to be shut down. At least the recommendation on the Alliance of Independent Authors for Lulu is mixed. I agree with you: Lulu lives off his commission from our sales. Therefore, Lulu and we should have exactly the same interests: sell, sell, sell.... |
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Post by contemporain on Aug 21, 2021 7:11:29 GMT
I must add something to my last post :
It is possible - experience proves it - that people will order our books / Ebooks without any look inside / preview feature.
BUT it is not a proper way of selling things. It is a blind order for the buyer ! So, when the buyer gets the book / ebook he can be very disappointed and he will never order again. He will go to another place where he can SEE what he's paying for.
All this seems so obvious, so obvious...
Before the removal of the first generation platform, we could choose the number of previewed pages. We could even get a whole preview of the book. It was simply great for the customer (think always about the customer!).
Last, an important, if not capital, thing :
Without preview, people can publish everything they want on Lulu : no control on copyright potential infringement, no control on potential harmful content... nothing... There's a button, for each item, at the right bottom of the page : "Report This Content to Lulu"... what content ?!?!? You see nothing !!!
I'am definitely puzzled that nobody cares about that last point.
I know the possible answer to this post : "Simply leave this place if you're not happy with it". This is not a good answer, because Lulu is still a good publishing place on many aspects... And, to me, it is better to try to solve an issue than to give up and leave.
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Post by potet on Aug 21, 2021 8:44:47 GMT
Possibly, they no longer have the files because they were taken away by a programmer after he/she quarreled with the management over his/her salary. Otherwise, they could just add them to the current set up.
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Post by benziger on Aug 22, 2021 18:54:20 GMT
I'am definitely puzzled that nobody cares about that last point.
There are a lot of people who are worried. They don't express themselves here in the forum, but first on Facebook, where Lulu regularly deleted it. But the internet doesn't forget. Someone has been making regular backups. Here: lulu.freetzi.com/ (To read the whole disaster in the livestream). Afterwards, many people said goodbye. Someone tried to contact people via Facebook, but was then blocked.
I think many people cares about it, but they have given up disillusioned at some point. I know the possible answer to this post : "Simply leave this place if you're not happy with it". This is not a good answer, because Lulu is still a good publishing place on many aspects... And, to me, it is better to try to solve an issue than to give up and leave. I am happy to agree with that. If Lulu still worked, I would have everything here in one account, with one statement. That would be the easiest. If you want to change that, then we must first develop a strategy, a clear procedure. Then we need people to join in. How? Depending on the strategy.... I can't say whether it will bring anything. |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Aug 22, 2021 22:04:49 GMT
I must add something to my last post :
It is possible - experience proves it - that people will order our books / Ebooks without any look inside / preview feature.
BUT it is not a proper way of selling things. It is a blind order for the buyer ! So, when the buyer gets the book / ebook he can be very disappointed and he will never order again. He will go to another place where he can SEE what he's paying for.
All this seems so obvious, so obvious...
Before the removal of the first generation platform, we could choose the number of previewed pages. We could even get a whole preview of the book. It was simply great for the customer (think always about the customer!).
Last, an important, if not capital, thing :
Without preview, people can publish everything they want on Lulu : no control on copyright potential infringement, no control on potential harmful content... nothing... There's a button, for each item, at the right bottom of the page : "Report This Content to Lulu"... what content ?!?!? You see nothing !!!
I'am definitely puzzled that nobody cares about that last point.
I know the possible answer to this post : "Simply leave this place if you're not happy with it". This is not a good answer, because Lulu is still a good publishing place on many aspects... And, to me, it is better to try to solve an issue than to give up and leave. When I go brick and mortar [rare during the pandemic] I see the cover, I read the blurb, and I decide, very similar to what happens with an epub sans the look inside feature. Yes, I could look inside a book and read X number of pages, but books stores technically aren't libraries.
The reality is up to a point people can Self Publish anything they want as long as it doesn't infringe a copyright, promote illegal / illicit activities, defamation, and so on. [For example, publishing your take on a legal case which hasn't been adjudicated yet can be a form of defamation.]
When it comes to harmful content, you'll have to provide offending examples from the work in question.
When it comes to copyright infringement, in the US you need to have your copyright registered. A person who resides in the US who doesn't register their copyright with the Library of Congress has no legal standing to sue over infringement. If the copyright is registered, when someone infringes, then you start with a DMCA Notice: copyrightalliance.org/faqs/how-to-send-dmca-takedown-notice/
Lulu Press Inc will pay attention to such a notice because if it doesn't, it can be sued as can the person who uploaded the infringing material.
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Post by Ken on Aug 23, 2021 6:41:37 GMT
Two points:
1. With Global Dist - Look Inside is provided.
2. My experience with Lulu shows that they respond immediately to complaints of Copyright infringement.
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