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Post by potet on Apr 6, 2022 19:11:00 GMT
As an experiment, I have switched to Global Distribution for my Oeuvres Picturales (an album of pictures). To earn 1€ from any outlet, the price has become so shockingly high - 31.70€ while the original price was about 20€.  |
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Post by adrianallan on Apr 6, 2022 19:41:01 GMT
That is terrible - and strengthens my resolve to gradually move over to Amazon.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 6, 2022 20:55:12 GMT
Feel the power of the dark side, young Skywalker.  |
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 6, 2022 22:29:17 GMT
Prices of everything is rocketing.
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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 12, 2022 14:01:32 GMT
I still haven't increased our prices (pending discussion at committee meeting this Friday). So, for now, all Internet (Global Distribution) sales will make zero revenue. That's what Lulu said. But, have a look at one of our books (same screenshot as potet's above):  _ The second table is showing negative revenue, not zero revenue. How can that be? Is Lulu expecting to bill us for the (in this example) 0.30 GBP? I have just downloaded our latest sales CSV file, which includes real book sales that took place after Lulu's price-rises kicked in. Revenue is also showing as negative in the CSV file.. Lulu's currency bug is so annoying. Our default currency is GBP but Lulu persists in showing USD unless I pretend to revise each book to find out what the GBP equivalent is. Also annoying is Lulu's sloppy terminology. In the above screenshot, it says: "Print Cost", "Distribution Fees", "Gross Profit", "Lulu Share". But in the sales CSV file (which I just downloaded), it says: "Retail Share", "Base Price", "Net Revenue", "Lulu Share" and "Revenue After Fees". But my main question is: Why is our revenue (on real book sales) negative when Lulu said they would raise our prices to cover the costs - which should surely mean that revenue would be zero, not negative? |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 12, 2022 17:53:24 GMT
I still haven't increased our prices (pending discussion at committee meeting this Friday). So, for now, all Internet (Global Distribution) sales will make zero revenue. That's what Lulu said. But, have a look at one of our books (same screenshot as potet's above): <button disabled="" class="c-attachment-insert--linked o-btn--sm">Attachment Deleted</button>_ The second table is showing negative revenue, not zero revenue. How can that be? Is Lulu expecting to bill us for the (in this example) 0.30 GBP? I have just downloaded our latest sales CSV file, which includes real book sales that took place after Lulu's price-rises kicked in. Revenue is also showing as negative in the CSV file.. Lulu's currency bug is so annoying. Our default currency is GBP but Lulu persists in showing USD unless I pretend to revise each book to find out what the GBP equivalent is. Also annoying is Lulu's sloppy terminology. In the above screenshot, it says: "Print Cost", "Distribution Fees", "Gross Profit", "Lulu Share". But in the sales CSV file (which I just downloaded), it says: "Retail Share", "Base Price", "Net Revenue", "Lulu Share" and "Revenue After Fees". But my main question is: Why is our revenue (on real book sales) negative when Lulu said they would raise our prices to cover the costs - which should surely mean that revenue would be zero, not negative? In the first example the Distribution fees are zero across the table making some decent Revenue. In the second example Distribution Fees are listed which does away with positive Revenue for all currencies except USD, where the Revenue is a paltry $0.09 and nothing to really bank.
From the two examples it would appear Lulu Press has not raised your prices.
As for Lulu Press charging you the difference in order to not lose money, you might want to enter a Help Ticket to find out.
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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 12, 2022 19:56:02 GMT
I have just raised a Help Ticket and will keep you all informed.
Apart from anything else, Lulu's price increases are unbelievably high. Do any of you know why? The increases are way above inflation, yet I've not come across a single explanation from Lulu.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 12, 2022 20:26:50 GMT
I have just raised a Help Ticket and will keep you all informed. Apart from anything else, Lulu's price increases are unbelievably high. Do any of you know why? The increases are way above inflation, yet I've not come across a single explanation from Lulu. If you factor in a few different things it makes more sense.
1) The US Federal Minimum Wage hasn't increased since July 2009, and sits at $7.25 per hour. If the Minimum Wage had been designed to keep up with inflation, it would currently sit at $24 per hour. Instead the Minimum Wage up until 1968 was tied to gains in productivity, and it did a decent enough job until then with keeping wages from falling grossly behind inflation. The reason why the US Minimum Wage hasn't kept going up in line with productivity gains is due primarily to legislators listening more to the scions of business than paying attention to constituents who lack disposable funds . Some states have a higher minimum wage, but none of them are close to $24 [while farm workers and wait-staff tend to get screwed over].
2) This is related to the first point. Then you have businesses which scaled back due to the pandemic and the logistical challenges related to people hoarding schtuff while supply was lower. Factor in a lot of US workers getting fed up with getting the stinky end of the deal for over forty years and saying enough. Then when commerce began opening up again manufacturing and shipping couldn't keep up with demand [there is still a rotating short supply of items at local grocery stores].
3) This one is a result of the first two items. Add in a level of inflation in the US from January 2021 to January 2022 [7.5%] which hasn't been seen since 1982. I'm just happy our mortgage interest rate is fixed and low, the 16% rates I saw in the 80s were ridiculous.
Hope that helps, time for kaffee.
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 12, 2022 22:14:37 GMT
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Post by potet on Apr 13, 2022 9:40:50 GMT
Cameron, you've got to increase your revenue yourself for each title, and the sales prices will adjust automatically.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 13, 2022 13:51:20 GMT
Cameron, you've got to increase your revenue yourself for each title, and the sales prices will adjust automatically. I'm aware. |
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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 13, 2022 17:00:35 GMT
To those above who think Lulu's price increases are due to inflation, I don't think that is the case. Here in the UK, inflation is currently running at around 6 to 7%. Yet, Lulu's fees have increased by much much more than that. I have just checked one of our books and Lulu's Base Price has increased by nearly 70%.
For Internet Sales (Global Distribution), things get worse. The Retail Share (e.g. Amazon's cut) is typically 50% of the list price of our books. So, as soon as we raise our prices, the Retail Share will rise in proportion.
This is a little hard to measure due to Lulu bugs. The support ticket I raised yesterday has yet to be responded to.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 13, 2022 17:47:47 GMT
To those above who think Lulu's price increases are due to inflation, I don't think that is the case. Here in the UK, inflation is currently running at around 6 to 7%. Yet, Lulu's fees have increased by much much more than that. I have just checked one of our books and Lulu's Base Price has increased by nearly 70%. For Internet Sales (Global Distribution), things get worse. The Retail Share (e.g. Amazon's cut) is typically 50% of the list price of our books. So, as soon as we raise our prices, the Retail Share will rise in proportion. This is a little hard to measure due to Lulu bugs. The support ticket I raised yesterday has yet to be responded to. Just for grins, while you're at it why not find out how often Lulu Press raises prices. |
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Apr 13, 2022 23:30:24 GMT
Inflation is not static, it's the rate at which it is rising, and it is rising fast, worldwide, and will only get worse. However, the current rate which is at 7% does not seem based on reality when actually trying to buy things. Energy bills alone in the UK have gone up 54%. Diesel almost reached £2 a litre, and so on.
I cannot recall what my books cost to print at Lulu, but looking at the prices now they don't seem to have risen 70%, but there are a few now in the negative profit bracket, but I never set that high in the first place.
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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 15, 2022 15:50:47 GMT
As above, I raised a Lulu support ticket re: our latest revenue earnings being negative (as a result of Lulu's steep price rises).
Lulu Support have responded as follows:
"... Price changes that you make within your account on Lulu can take 6-8 weeks to be implemented with our retail partners due to their own individual review processes. Though you may see "negative" revenue, we do not take that money from your earnings. It will reflect as 0. Please return to your projects and update and approve the pricing ...."
Fair enough - and a bit of a relief that we won't owe Lulu any money before we raise our prices.
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