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Post by JesusNinja on Jun 4, 2020 23:11:19 GMT
Reading through the comments on Lulu's facebook page. So many people still having problems logging in, books missing, bad proofs, trouble with cover creator, etc. And these are very recent within the week. Many including myself still no past revenue, incorrect payment listed on one sale, still not fixed, no reviews migrated,no author page text migrated. I really don't see the promised finished product by tomorrow. Evidently Lulu is not reading their own FB page. This is setting sales back so much. My father asked me if I had published anything new. I told him it's pretty much pointless and they won't send it out till the end of the month and even then who knows how long it's going to take to reach Amazon. Could do that myself in days. Got hopes for them but lack of commutation now them retiring my books that should be selling is getting old.
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Post by benziger on Jun 5, 2020 14:12:25 GMT
Yes, on Facebook you can only read the very latest comments, because whenever there is a new message regarding the migration, the old message with all comments, questions, user help, etc. is simply deleted. This drives some users to the boiling point. Accordingly, they have started to rate Lulu badly on Trustpilot. At the beginning of May Lulu put someone there to answer the comments. But they don't do that anymore. I have never seen a reply from Lulu on Facebook. One user regularly backups the Facebook page. This way the old comments can be read. The number of angry authors has decreased in feeling. I see three reasons for this: - resignation and fatigue - switch to the competition - it works I myself published three new books in May, but at IngramSpark with the coupon code of Mag2024 (INGRAMSPARK2020 allegedly valid until the end of June* for free instead of 49$ setup fee). Last weekend I received the test copies in electronic form. Accordingly I estimate the time from creation to retail to be about 2 weeks. (Freely according to the motto: don't put all eggs in one basket - although I would rather have everything in one place for accounting purposes.)
* If it has expired, there will be another one in the autumn.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jun 5, 2020 14:59:31 GMT
Often enough a lot of people won't take the time to rate or review a business that's performing badly, they simply take their business elsewhere. One could easily posit that the reason there aren't more bad reviews happening is because the people who would do them have given up on Lulu Press due to the lack of transparency regarding an ill-thought and ill-managed upgrade as well as the lack of response to end-user dissatisfaction. Case in point, Tim S. of Lulu Press hasn't posted a reply at Trust Pilot ending in "Warm regards" since last Friday, the 29th. To be honest, it's kind of a good thing he hasn't made any replies this week, because that consistent "Warm regards" ending makes every response sound like part of a stock set of cookie-cutter replies.
I'm just waiting for the print versions I have already published through Lulu Press to be retired before migrating them to KDP for Amazon distribution, since that is part of the fine print on "distributing" through Lulu Press. Early next year when I can afford a block of ISBNs I can do Ingramspark.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2020 15:32:06 GMT
Yes, on Facebook you can only read the very latest comments, because whenever there is a new message regarding the migration, the old message with all comments, questions, user help, etc. is simply deleted. This drives some users to the boiling point. Accordingly, they have started to rate Lulu badly on Trustpilot. At the beginning of May Lulu put someone there to answer the comments. But they don't do that anymore. I have never seen a reply from Lulu on Facebook. One user regularly backups the Facebook page. This way the old comments can be read. The number of angry authors has decreased in feeling. I see three reasons for this: - resignation and fatigue - switch to the competition - it works I myself published three new books in May, but at IngramSpark with the coupon code of Mag2024 (INGRAMSPARK2020 allegedly valid until the end of June* for free instead of 49$ setup fee). Last weekend I received the test copies in electronic form. Accordingly I estimate the time from creation to retail to be about 2 weeks. (Freely according to the motto: don't put all eggs in one basket - although I would rather have everything in one place for accounting purposes.)
* If it has expired, there will be another one in the autumn.
It takes one day from approval to retail with KDP and Ingram Spark. Also, the coupon code has been extended to the end of June, I believe. |
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Post by JesusNinja on Jun 5, 2020 18:01:35 GMT
The books I just published were ebooks. Done on 4/11/2020 I've never had to wait more than two weeks for them to reach Amazon. Lulu said they had been sent. Amazon says they don't have them. But they also are not on Scribd, Kobo, or Ratuken. So giving lulu the benefit of a doubt why is it taking for the other sites to list them? I just approved my paperback but that's not going to get sent out until the end of June according to Lulu. So another two months after that? I'd rather stay at Lulu. I've been very happy there until this mess. It's just too much trouble to change sites and I can't afford ISBN's. I was actually getting content with the fixes until they retired one of my books meant for distribution. So now another three months to get that one up too. Just frustrated, need money as many of do I'm sure. But overall I like the new site but it still needs links for creating/deleting author page and or text. Project delete/retire links instead of support choosing what to retire. Hoping it will be over soon.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2020 19:12:23 GMT
The books I just published were ebooks. Done on 4/11/2020 I've never had to wait more than two weeks for them to reach Amazon. Lulu said they had been sent. Amazon says they don't have them. But they also are not on Scribd, Kobo, or Ratuken. So giving lulu the benefit of a doubt why is it taking for the other sites to list them? I just approved my paperback but that's not going to get sent out until the end of June according to Lulu. So another two months after that? I'd rather stay at Lulu. I've been very happy there until this mess. It's just too much trouble to change sites and I can't afford ISBN's. I was actually getting content with the fixes until they retired one of my books meant for distribution. So now another three months to get that one up too. Just frustrated, need money as many of do I'm sure. But overall I like the new site but it still needs links for creating/deleting author page and or text. Project delete/retire links instead of support choosing what to retire. Hoping it will be over soon. Look up the ISBN in quotation marks. |
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Post by JesusNinja on Jun 5, 2020 20:10:53 GMT
Thanks Maggie, just tried that. It shows up on Google as on Lulu only. I've searched each of the major sites and it's only on Apple and Barnes nowhere else. Six more days will be two months now. I tried searching for the other book and it shows nowhere on Google. I did find it on Apple though. But nowhere else after weeks now, right before the update hit.
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Post by benziger on Jun 25, 2020 21:26:45 GMT
I looked at Lulu's Facebook page again today. Actually, it's kind of sad: This week, a bunch of writers were discussing the pros and cons of competitors because they lost confidence. There are reasons listed against Amazon and D2D seems to have more supporters than Smashwords. |
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Post by Winteris on Jun 26, 2020 21:09:50 GMT
True Lulu isn't making any friends I'm afraid. I have gotten some answers from support few and far between. But seriously taking nine weeks to get an ebook on Amazon and still not there? I am though one of the lucky ones I guess as my books are all there but one is retired against my will that should be in distro, Can't add text to page yet. But other than the promised links and options not there yet and books not on Amazon the rest is working. I can publish fine but what's the point they aren't pushing anything into distro until the end of the month. I could have signed up with KDP and been selling long before now. There a lot of people still out of work, they'd be more than happy to help lulu get things working if they'd hire them. I really think Paul or some rep should be coming here once in a while and giving some updates instead of waiting a week to put in Facebook.
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Jul 1, 2020 1:44:28 GMT
It's now said that most people are fast to vent their feelings on the likes of Trustpilot because it is so easy, but only if they are not happy about something. It's rare that people voluntarily bother to rate something they have no problems with. Which possibly means that all glowing comments are fake ...
I once moaned on Trustpilot, in a polite manner, about a company who boasted they take all credit/debit cards and displayed the logos of them. But in fact they do not. Payment only via Paypal, and it is Paypal who you can log credit/debit cards with. It's common practice more and more and you only get to find out it's Paypal only at the checkout. Time wasted if you don't use Paypal. My gripe was actually deleted after being 'approved' by Trustpilot … But I do wonder how much business it lost by only taking payment via Paypal.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Jul 1, 2020 1:51:24 GMT
I do not do business with PayPal. Never will.
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