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Post by ronmiller on May 5, 2020 13:35:43 GMT
I just had my first experience with the new Lulu book wizards. And I am less than impressed.
All I wanted to do was to change the cover on an existing book and this was made A. much more complicated and fussy than the old cover wizard and B. ultimately didn't result in what I wanted.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on May 5, 2020 13:42:32 GMT
I just had my first experience with the new Lulu book wizards. And I am less than impressed. All I wanted to do was to change the cover on an existing book and this was made A. much more complicated and fussy than the old cover wizard and B. ultimately didn't result in what I wanted. You probably need to wait until Lulu Press actually installs the new cover wizard, whenever that will be. Paul stated this one is mediocre at best and isn't permanent.
It would have been nice if Lulu Press had sent an email and advised people to make certain changes before the system change -- if any such email was sent I didn't get it.
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Post by ronmiller on May 5, 2020 15:45:34 GMT
I certainly hope that it is not permanent because it certainly is mediocre.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on May 5, 2020 16:42:27 GMT
It would be nice to see a decent cover designer. It would also be nice not having it be such a pain in the butt to simply change a price.
******
Funny how Paul or someone else at Lulu Press isn't logging in to tell us all to relax because everything is going swimmingly.
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Post by BlueAndGold on May 6, 2020 1:09:32 GMT
It obviously isn't going very well at all. Today was DAY ELEVEN of what was supposed to be a "few hours" project, two Saturdays ago. As far as I can tell, there has been no progress in my projects since last Friday. Only one of my books has a cover image; and all of my books are still "pending distribution review," whatever that is. There is still no sales history present. I don't have a warm fuzzy feeling about this. At this point I agree it has been a disaster. I'm glad my livelyhood does not depend on their system. Sadly, I understand some people do.  |
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Post by Winteriscoming on May 6, 2020 22:05:15 GMT
I just had my first experience with the new Lulu book wizards. And I am less than impressed. All I wanted to do was to change the cover on an existing book and this was made A. much more complicated and fussy than the old cover wizard and B. ultimately didn't result in what I wanted. You probably need to wait until Lulu Press actually installs the new cover wizard, whenever that will be. Paul stated this one is mediocre at best and isn't permanent.
It would have been nice if Lulu Press had sent an email and advised people to make certain changes before the system change -- if any such email was sent I didn't get it.
Doesn't help waiting for those who need to publish now. We've lost two weeks of work due to this. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.. |
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Post by Rosalie on May 7, 2020 9:01:07 GMT
A dumb person would have TESTED the new site and data transfer before doing it live. This is a massive failure and I have zero confidence they will EVER get it right. Every 'suggestion' they come up with proves to be ineffective or a flat-out lie.
This could actually be the end of LULU. The site is unusable for authors now.
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Post by ronmiller on May 7, 2020 12:02:55 GMT
Lulu is busy fixing an awful lot of things that were never broken.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on May 7, 2020 15:08:22 GMT
If it ain't broke don't break it because you might not be able to find a tech who can fix it.
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Post by adrianallan on May 7, 2020 20:07:32 GMT
It's been a real disaster. Lulu must be well aware of this, and are extending the 20% reduction to keep goodwill among its long-term customers. I imagine some very tense meetings are taking place along the lines of saving face. It wouldn't surprise me if some on the board of Lulu have even discussed the possibility of moving everything back to the old platform - because it least it functioned !
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2020 20:18:02 GMT
It's been a real disaster. Lulu must be well aware of this, and are extending the 20% reduction to keep goodwill among its long-term customers. I imagine some very tense meetings are taking place along the lines of saving face. It wouldn't surprise me if some on the board of Lulu have even discussed the possibility of moving everything back to the old platform - because it least it functioned ! They should reverse it.
Ingram Spark just did a site overhaul as well. And t works.
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Post by adrianallan on May 7, 2020 20:26:06 GMT
I agree they should reverse it. The problem is that tech teams need to be seen to be innovative to justify their own wages.
In addition, there is a perception that corporate branding must follow current fashion. My son remarked that the old website "looked like it was made around 2010". But it honestly did not bother me in the slightest.
There was the immediate issue of flash player, which will soon be not supported and obviously needed to be ditched.
If there is a lesson in all of this, it is surely that unless you have hundreds of thousands to spend like Amazon and the best tech and web design teams on the planet, it is far safer to make incrememtal changes.
Doing this big all-encompassing upgrade was a fatal mistake that could cost the company dearly.
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rlk
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Post by rlk on May 7, 2020 21:15:53 GMT
A real irony to me is the Mr. Scott who founded Lulu made mega$$$$ when he sold Red Hat. That was a linux platform OS that many companies and even ISPs used to avoid the nasty insecure world of Microsoft. I know because a major ISP that I was an executive with in the late 1990s used it.
The point is that after making millions, has Mr. Scott vanished back to his native Canada or is he still involved with Lulu? Since it is a privately owned company incorporated in Delaware you can't find that kind of information. If he was smart enough to create and sell Red Hat, he damn sure should be smart enough to avoid the current Lulu mess.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on May 7, 2020 23:35:42 GMT
A real irony to me is the Mr. Scott who founded Lulu made mega$$$$ when he sold Red Hat. That was a linux platform OS that many companies and even ISPs used to avoid the nasty insecure world of Microsoft. I know because a major ISP that I was an executive with in the late 1990s used it. The point is that after making millions, has Mr. Scott vanished back to his native Canada or is he still involved with Lulu? Since it is a privately owned company incorporated in Delaware you can't find that kind of information. If he was smart enough to create and sell Red Hat, he damn sure should be smart enough to avoid the current Lulu mess. The irony is Bob Young bought Red Hat Linux from Marc Ewing in 1995, after which the software leasing company Young had at the time [ACC Corporation] merged with Ewing's company to become Red Hat Software.
Bob Young went on to found Lulu Press, Inc. in 2002.
Not sure who the Mr Young you're referring to is as he isn't mentioned.
***** Edit 19:23 hrs *****
After a bit more digging, while Kathy Hensgen is listed as President & COO [COO meaning Chief Operating Officer] Robert "Bob" Young, a Canadian, is still listed as CEO. Lulu Press, Inc. is incorporated in Deleware, U.S., but is headquartered in North Carolina. Again, not sure Mr Scott is, but I learned how to start digging up information in a different school.
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rlk
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Post by rlk on May 8, 2020 21:40:31 GMT
My goof on transposing names. I was referring to Bob Young.
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