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Post by adrianallan on Apr 6, 2022 15:51:55 GMT
Having earned £150 in around two weeks, I think it's time to gradually shift my books from the Lulu platform to Amazon.
Lulu were great at getting me started five years ago. However, they offered me little more than pocket money for all my efforts.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 272
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Post by sirram on Apr 6, 2022 16:53:03 GMT
I have only just read this thread. Very interesting and it's good to know that Amazon provides a realistic alternative to Lulu should the latter go belly-up.
As a local history society, our current approach is that all our books are in Global Distribution - which makes them available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc. We don't know who the purchasers are, but we get a small profit on each sale.
Our books are also advertised on our own local-history website. People can order them via a book-order form and our Publications Officer keeps a sufficient stock (ordered every so often from Lulu) to fulfil the orders in a timely manner.
The latter sales are significantly more profitable since we are just paying Lulu's costs, without Amazon's (etc.) being added on top.
I have just been looking through our sales data. Since 2014 when we started, we have sold over 2,000 books. Of these, 600 (approx.) were the less-profitable Internet sales while the other 1,400 were sales that came in via our website (which we fulfilled from books ordered (more cheapy) from Lulu.
I am happy with this current arrangement although absolutely hate Lulu's botched new software platform. Also, although I can download a CSV file of our sales history, I have no way of checking whether the CSV is as buggy as the rest of Lulu's software platform.
My instinct is to stay with the current arrangement whilst knowing that we can shift everything over to Amazon if Lulu becomes too annoying or actually folds.
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 6, 2022 19:39:25 GMT
Thanks for your interest
If you need any more advice, let me know. After switching, I have discovered that sales through Amazon are the same or even more profitable than my private sales. I imagine the same would be the for you.
The obvious downside is that the book is only being sold through Amazon, not expanded distribution. Some people claim that Amazon has questionable business ethics (tax avoidance) and is not the best of employers. However, my loyalty to Lulu died when their upgrade failed for countless months on end.
The other point about expanded distribution is that I can't see myself taking too much of a hit from my book being not available on Barnes and Noble (or other retailers). We need to remember that half of the books sold in the entire world (also taking into account brick and mortar shops) are through Amazon.
I will keep updating this thread, as things can change.
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 6, 2022 22:32:54 GMT
But what I still wish to know is, are the same books published at KDP cheaper (but still making a decent profit) than the ones published via Lulu and ported to Amazon? With the latter there's quite a few levels of cash deducted.
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 6, 2022 23:06:58 GMT
But what I still wish to know is, are the same books published at KDP cheaper (but still making a decent profit) than the ones published via Lulu and ported to Amazon? With the latter there's quite a few levels of cash deducted. IS this information that I should know? I'm happy to give you the exact figures. Do you want to know the cost of an author copy of the same book on both platforms? I just want to be clear about what figures you are interested in. |
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 7, 2022 22:55:59 GMT
Well, as stated, Lulu pay 3rd parties to print the books, so those 3rd parties will be charging Lulu the cost, plus profit, plus taxes, Then of course Lulu's own cut on that. Then when sold via other outlets there's their mark up to be added too. Amazon own printers, so there should, in theory, not be any 3rd party profit added or taxes, when KDP print the books. That should mean that it's cheaper at KDP to create a book.
So my question is. Are you able to sell a KDP created book for the same price as the Lulu created one, or for even less, but still make more profit? Could that be why you are now seeing sales at Amazon, but of just the KDP created books?
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 8, 2022 8:30:13 GMT
yes - the profits are immeasurably better
This is what an author copy costs on Lulu: £8:29 (with the 15% Lulu offer, which is pretty much always around)
The same book on Amazon as an author copy: £3:89
Both are excluding postage. I imagine with Amazon prime, the postage would be free/part of the cost of Amazon Prime.
In terms of royalty per book, I hardly ever sold on Lulu's website. When I used global distribution, my royalties per book ranged from literally nothing to around £2:50 per book.
With Amazon Prime, the royalty per book is £11. The book sells to customers for £25.
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Post by potet on Apr 8, 2022 8:45:13 GMT
Adrianallan, please give us an example of one of your books manufactured and distributed by Amazon.
1) the price at which Amazon sells your book
2) your royalties for each copy of this book sold by Amazon
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 8, 2022 8:57:47 GMT
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Post by potet on Apr 8, 2022 13:58:19 GMT
So the book is sold for £20.59, and your royalties are £11. Quite good. Congratulations.
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 8, 2022 14:15:49 GMT
So the book is sold for £20.59, and your royalties are £11. Quite good. Congratulations. It would normally be sold for £25 but for whatever reason, Amazon has applied a discount for a few days. However, this has not affected my royalties at all. So yes, it will be KDP from now on - sorry, Lulu! |
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 8, 2022 14:33:38 GMT
Amazon often puts my Lulu books on sale but the revenues to me remain the same. I rather like that. This one seems to be perpetually on sale. For the past several months, anyway: A Hike On MarsIt's funny that this little book was put together mostly as an experiment with cover design, but it has turned out to be one of my most popular.
Amazon often will mark prices way, way up on my hardback editions. It leads me to conclude they do not like selling my hardbacks. Sadly, when they do sell one of my Lulu-produced hardbacks, I only get about $3 for it, while Amazon gets about $27.
The power of the Dark Side grows more appealing...
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Post by hulsey on Apr 8, 2022 17:27:54 GMT
After weeks unsucessfully trying to convert my cover to Lulu, I gave up and also opted tp publish with KDP. The process was simplistic and quick. I'm now considering moving all of my thirty-two books to KDP. Is it possible to leave my books with Lulu but publish them with a different ISBN on KDP? To retire them would be a last resort. I'm hoping I can revise my books and publish them as a second edition. Does anyone know if this is feasible?
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 8, 2022 18:57:46 GMT
After weeks unsucessfully trying to convert my cover to Lulu, I gave up and also opted tp publish with KDP. The process was simplistic and quick. I'm now considering moving all of my thirty-two books to KDP. Is it possible to leave my books with Lulu but publish them with a different ISBN on KDP? To retire them would be a last resort. I'm hoping I can revise my books and publish them as a second edition. Does anyone know if this is feasible? What you're talking about is doable.
First you'd need to take the titles on Lulu Press off Global Reach as KDP has its own version of Global Reach. Then it's time to wait for those titles to show as "Unavailable" or "Out of Print".
Second, the decision to be made next is either using the KDP provided ISBN [which makes KDP the publisher of record] or buying your own ISBNs. If you buy your own ISBNs, you can upload to KDP and select Amazon distribution only, then go to Ingram Spark and distribute to every outlet except Amazon.
On second editions, KDP sees a change of 10% of the material as being a second edition. Essentially substantial changes to include a change of title qualifies a book as a second edition, while changing the name of the publisher or a few minor changes would be more of a reprint. I did a quick query and found the following which addresses second editions versus reprints: bookprinting.com/resources/second-edition-book |
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 8, 2022 22:06:42 GMT
It does not matter if you do remove 'Lulu' books from Global, or even delete them, they will still stay listed on places like Amazon, but as unavailable. That can be confusing if they are actually still available but using KDP.
What I have in mind, given time, is to leave my current books in Lulu Global, but also republish them via KDP, but, with 'Alternative' covers. The descriptions will say so.
It's not at all unusual for the same book to have many cover variations (some people even collect different ones) Part of ISBNs normally include which cover it is. Not that KDP books have ISBNs unless you opt for them.
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