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Post by BlueAndGold on Feb 19, 2022 13:30:59 GMT
Will do, Hulsey.
I suspect the purple banners are a harmless system artifact, but they are a bit disturbing. That is what lead me to start punching buttons. I suspect there are many that will fall into the same trap. It would be nice if Lulu would give a bit more up-front details into what can be expected when they implement these things.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Feb 23, 2022 13:42:30 GMT
I opened the above mentioned Support Ticket and within two business days received an email from a Lulu Support person stating that if I supply the Project ID of the monkeyed-with project they could remove the requirement to buy a proof. I supplied the ID and they removed the requirement within a day, and the "In Distribution" indicator returned to the project. Interestingly, the purple banner disappeared from that particular project as well. I believe the purple banners will disappear mid-March after their pricing change takes effect. This morning I asked them if that were, in fact, to be expected, but no response yet.
Meanwhile, I won't be altering anything more until April.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Feb 24, 2022 1:28:11 GMT
The response to the question about the purple banners above was simply,
"You should go through each of those projects and make sure that they are all complete with the revisions. If you need me to remove another proof copy need, then please let me know. Kind regards"
Ummm, as I had stated twice in the ticket, I had made no revisions. I just clicked their blue buttons. I think I'll wait 'til April and see what happens. Getting gunshy with Lulu.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Feb 25, 2022 13:41:53 GMT
I recently did look at my Projects and was surprised to see that some have a Draft. Not having published anything for at least two years (being in a Can't Be Bothered phase) I knew I had no Drafts hanging. I questioned Lulu about them and they told me they are the ones that need the prices adjusting in order to still make some dosh on them beyond Lulu. I replied, "but is my cut not the last thing I create on top of your Cost? so why does the maths not just roll up?" I was sent a "no, not exactly" and some sort of graph, and to be honest I don't fully understand it! Lulu have raised their Costs before, without this messing, it just happened, the Royalties being the last addition, so did just roll up. My beyond Lulu (Amazon etc.,) is cut to the bone so my books are simply not too expensive, often mine is just 50p! Or was! Being my often cynical self, I wonder if this method is just an excuse for Lulu to make a bit more cash, as we are forced to buy another 'Proof'? But even if no action is taken, pre-published books will remain published, just as they do before any other Revision. Prices will not include our share, because it will have been eaten away, until the we actually change our share via the Project lists. Did I make sense?!
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Mar 7, 2022 16:00:01 GMT
I rarely look at my projects as they are all in Global Distribution and the sales tick over. But when I logged in today, I see all eighteen of my books have been placed in revision (NOT by me). They will all need price increases to cover Lulu's increased costs, and I assume that is why Lulu decided to place them all in revision.
I am still reeling at the shock. The price rises are pretty steep. For example, one of my books currently has a list price of £7.50 GBP. The Lulu price checker is saying I must increase the list price to at least £10.40 GBP. Has my maths deserted me or is that an increase of nearly 40%?
And I hope Lulu won't be insisting I buy eighteen proof copies - since nothing will change in them.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Mar 8, 2022 20:03:14 GMT
Do any of you know how to increase the list price of a book and get Lulu to accept it? I have just chosen one of mine (where the list price needs to be increased to cover Lulu's increased costs). But it doesn't seem to matter by how much I increase it, Lulu still displays the following message:
"Some Steps Are Incomplete. Before you can review your Book, you must complete all steps in the publishing process. Click on the unlocked step(s) in the progress bar without this green checkmark to continue working on your Book."
But all the steps before the pricing page DO HAVE green ticks. This book was on sale for £7.50 GBP. And just now, in frustration, I even tried upping it to £100.00 GBP, yet I still get the above message.
Lulu insists that we raise our sales prices - yet their wretched software seems determined to stop us from doing so.
Any ideas?
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Mar 9, 2022 10:32:00 GMT
Curiouser and curiouser! While trying to get my price increase accepted, I suddenly noticed a small link (with a "1" on it, I think, in the bottom RH corner of the screen). When I clicked on it, a small window opened up saying:
"Pricing Update "Some of your Projects affected by our recent price adjustment did not correctly appear in the Pricing Tool. We have resolved this error. Please click below to review your projects."
When I clicked, I was taken to a completely different screen to increase my prices. So I increased the price of the book to £12 GBP. But I still got the "Some steps are incomplete ..." message. I suddenly realised Lulu also wants me to specify the new list price in each of the other four currencies as well!. In other words, not only must I enter the new list price in GBP, but also in USD etc.
I never had to do that when I originally published these books.
NEXT PROBLEM. So I entered a new list price in each of the five currencies and then reviewed the project to confirm everything. But when I clicked to Publish, the following message was displayed:
"Publishing your project is taking longer than expected. Please check your My Projects list for updates, and we'll keep working on it in the meantime."
After a couple of hours (doing something else), the message was still there, so I went to My Projects and scrolled down to the book - which now has a message above it:
"Purchase a copy to review and approve to continue with Global Distribution."
I gather from previous posts that others are getting this. But like them, I haven't changed the book itself (same cover, same interior, same everything else).
I shall raise a support ticket - but the above behaviour is truly bizarre - and I've still got 17 books to go.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Mar 9, 2022 13:26:33 GMT
After banging my head against that wall, I'm just going to wait a couple of weeks after the March 15 automated increase process runs and look at it again then.
I've spent enough energy on Lulu's problems for this quarter.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Mar 13, 2022 20:02:56 GMT
A quick update:
I raised a support ticket and the Help person was able to process my revised sales price WITHOUT my having to buy a new proof copy. After her "fix", my revised sales price is now in Global Distribution (without my having to purchase a new pointless proof copy).
But the sales price is still shown in USD instead of GBP. The support person indicated this is a bug but she wasn't sure when the developers would be able to fix it, due to various other outstanding issues (on their new, hated, software platform - MY WORDS!).
Nevertheless, with the updated USD sales price now in Global Distribution, I had a go at revising my book once more in order to change the default currency back to GBP. The change was accepted but, yet again, I was asked to buy an unnecessary proof copy. I backed out of the revision. Do I really have to raise a Support Ticket every time I make a valid change which doesn't affect the actual content of the book?
This is a minefield of Lulu's own making. Why on earth don't they test their software? It beggars belief.
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