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Post by JesusNinja on Jun 15, 2020 1:42:05 GMT
Apparently they don't believe they are going under or have a lot of faith enough of us will stay to keep things going for them. I just found this video done on the 10th of this month www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjhI8zxSbnU This was put together by Paul and Chelsea of Lulu. |
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Post by Sorry on Jun 15, 2020 1:53:57 GMT
Bad link.
404 error.
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Post by JesusNinja on Jun 15, 2020 1:58:20 GMT
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Post by ronmiller on Jun 16, 2020 14:32:40 GMT
One minute in and I discovered that Lulu founder Bob Young was dumb and naive enough to think that a scam vanity publisher was the only available option ("he would have had to buy 1000s of books!"...even the notorious Vantage Press didn't require its authors to do anything like that). Be interesting to see what the rest of you think of the remaining hour+...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 15:33:31 GMT
One minute in and I discovered that Lulu founder Bob Young was dumb and naive enough to think that a scam vanity publisher was the only available option ("he would have had to buy 1000s of books!"...even the notorious Vantage Press didn't require its authors to do anything like that). Be interesting to see what the rest of you think of the remaining hour+... Ron, can you explain your post please? I do not understand. Are you being sarcastic? Are you suggesting that Lulu is now a Vanity publisher? Did you read something new on Facebook? |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jun 16, 2020 16:21:07 GMT
In listening to the beginning of the Lulu Press webinar about what to know about Self Publishing the person talking mentions [from what I could hear over a balloon pop app in the hands of a toddler] that Bob Young wanted to write about his experience with Red Hat and no Traditional Publisher was interested so he turned to a vanity publisher as his only option. That company made him buy thousands of copies of his book, some of which are still sitting at Lulu Press waiting to be given away.
Since there are Traditional Publishers willing to take on and publish nonfiction success stories by rich people [since the little people love true success stories by and about rich people] either there was something seriously wrong with the writing or the rich person in question wasn't into listening to what the publishing house was saying.
Factor in, Preditors & Editors was operating when Bob Young decided on the vanity route. Preditors & Editors kept an alphabetical list of scam publishers. It's reasonable to expect someone who made it big in the software industry would know how to do a web search or have an assistant do so in order to check out who they were doing business with.
Hence Ron's "dumb and naive enough" comment since it doesn't take a genius to figure out when a horseshoe is hot without touching it. Now if someone who is supposed to have a lot of business acumen walks blindly into a scam, you do the math.
I think I'll skip listening to the rest of the hour.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 16:44:10 GMT
In listening to the beginning of the Lulu Press webinar about what to know about Self Publishing the person talking mentions [from what I could hear over a balloon pop app in the hands of a toddler] that Bob Young wanted to write about his experience with Red Hat and no Traditional Publisher was interested so he turned to a vanity publisher as his only option. That company made him buy thousands of copies of his book, some of which are still sitting at Lulu Press waiting to be given away. Since there are Traditional Publishers willing to take on and publish nonfiction success stories by rich people [since the little people love true success stories by and about rich people] either there was something seriously wrong with the writing or the rich person in question wasn't into listening to what the publishing house was saying. Factor in, Preditors & Editors was operating when Bob Young decided on the vanity route. Preditors & Editors kept an alphabetical list of scam publishers. It's reasonable to expect someone who made it big in the software industry would know how to do a web search or have an assistant do so in order to check out who they were doing business with. Hence Ron's "dumb and naive enough" comment since it doesn't take a genius to figure out when a horseshoe is hot without touching it. Now if someone who is supposed to have a lot of business acumen walks blindly into a scam, you do the math. I think I'll skip listening to the rest of the hour. Ok, we are referring to a webinar. Thank you for clarifying. I can understand his frustration and naivete, and I'm glad he was. He started a whole new tidal wave of publishing. |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jun 16, 2020 17:39:02 GMT
Frustration I can understand. Losing some money learning the ins and outs of an avocation, again understandable.
Someone with that much money and access to resources being naive and not thoroughly researching a new endeavor when it comes to business dealings, that's another matter.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 18:20:22 GMT
Frustration I can understand. Losing some money learning the ins and outs of an avocation, again understandable. Someone with that much money and access to resources being naive and not thoroughly researching a new endeavor when it comes to business dealings, that's another matter. But he did succeed. Lulu was a huge success and others emulated it. So, his passion paid off, research or no research. |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jun 16, 2020 19:18:33 GMT
Frustration I can understand. Losing some money learning the ins and outs of an avocation, again understandable. Someone with that much money and access to resources being naive and not thoroughly researching a new endeavor when it comes to business dealings, that's another matter. But he did succeed. Lulu was a huge success and others emulated it. So, his passion paid off, research or no research. And now that former success is still struggling after roughly 52 days to fix its site in order to remain in operation after an upgrade that was supposed to take a weekend.
Had that upgrade been adequately planned, had enough research and testing been done to properly identify and eliminate potential issues beforehand, Lulu Press wouldn't have so many unhappy clients now because they'd have been busy for nearly two months using a functioning site and doing their thing.
As an example, if I have to have an operation, I want a surgeon who has done their research, studied and worked hard to get where they're at in their field, and is steady enough to see the project through without killing me. What I don't want is someone working on me who simply has a passion for medicine, has never studied medicine, and never researched the difference between a hangnail and tonsils.
Yes, sometimes passion pays off but a lot of times it doesn't. Sometimes a person can succeed despite the odds, but most people don't. Yes, the company was a success and others emulated it but that was then and this is now. The longer it takes for Lulu Press to fix a problematic upgrade that never should have been rolled out before every potential issue had been discovered and taken care of the less likely it is to remain a success story.
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Post by ronmiller on Jun 16, 2020 20:35:14 GMT
One minute in and I discovered that Lulu founder Bob Young was dumb and naive enough to think that a scam vanity publisher was the only available option ("he would have had to buy 1000s of books!"...even the notorious Vantage Press didn't require its authors to do anything like that). Be interesting to see what the rest of you think of the remaining hour+... Ron, can you explain your post please? I do not understand. Are you being sarcastic? Are you suggesting that Lulu is now a Vanity publisher? Did you read something new on Facebook? No...the video explained how after having his book rejected by traditional publishers Young wanted to publish through a vanity press but didn't want to have to buy "thousands of copies" of his book. |
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Post by ronmiller on Jun 16, 2020 20:38:40 GMT
In listening to the beginning of the Lulu Press webinar about what to know about Self Publishing the person talking mentions [from what I could hear over a balloon pop app in the hands of a toddler] that Bob Young wanted to write about his experience with Red Hat and no Traditional Publisher was interested so he turned to a vanity publisher as his only option. That company made him buy thousands of copies of his book, some of which are still sitting at Lulu Press waiting to be given away. Since there are Traditional Publishers willing to take on and publish nonfiction success stories by rich people [since the little people love true success stories by and about rich people] either there was something seriously wrong with the writing or the rich person in question wasn't into listening to what the publishing house was saying. Factor in, Preditors & Editors was operating when Bob Young decided on the vanity route. Preditors & Editors kept an alphabetical list of scam publishers. It's reasonable to expect someone who made it big in the software industry would know how to do a web search or have an assistant do so in order to check out who they were doing business with. Hence Ron's "dumb and naive enough" comment since it doesn't take a genius to figure out when a horseshoe is hot without touching it. Now if someone who is supposed to have a lot of business acumen walks blindly into a scam, you do the math. I think I'll skip listening to the rest of the hour. I agree. There are a lot of questions raised by that story... |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 21:56:17 GMT
Ron, can you explain your post please? I do not understand. Are you being sarcastic? Are you suggesting that Lulu is now a Vanity publisher? Did you read something new on Facebook? No...the video explained how after having his book rejected by traditional publishers Young wanted to publish through a vanity press but didn't want to have to buy "thousands of copies" of his book. I understand.
Author House was smooth-talking me for about a month, but I decided against it. It felt like buying love. It's only real if it's free. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 21:58:35 GMT
But he did succeed. Lulu was a huge success and others emulated it. So, his passion paid off, research or no research. And now that former success is still struggling after roughly 52 days to fix its site in order to remain in operation after an upgrade that was supposed to take a weekend.
Had that upgrade been adequately planned, had enough research and testing been done to properly identify and eliminate potential issues beforehand, Lulu Press wouldn't have so many unhappy clients now because they'd have been busy for nearly two months using a functioning site and doing their thing.
As an example, if I have to have an operation, I want a surgeon who has done their research, studied and worked hard to get where they're at in their field, and is steady enough to see the project through without killing me. What I don't want is someone working on me who simply has a passion for medicine, has never studied medicine, and never researched the difference between a hangnail and tonsils.
Yes, sometimes passion pays off but a lot of times it doesn't. Sometimes a person can succeed despite the odds, but most people don't. Yes, the company was a success and others emulated it but that was then and this is now. The longer it takes for Lulu Press to fix a problematic upgrade that never should have been rolled out before every potential issue had been discovered and taken care of the less likely it is to remain a success story.
Success for 16 years counts for something. But I can see your point. |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jun 17, 2020 1:44:16 GMT
I get that success for 16 years counts for something. Just before the "upgrade" people were still able to enter into a contract for various services through Lulu Press. Once the "upgrade" went into effect Lulu Press no longer offered those services, rather it began steering people who needed assistance with various aspects of getting a book ready. A few people who had entered into contracts before the "upgrade" complained on the Lulu Press Facepain page and elsewhere that they weren't getting the services they'd already paid for and they also weren't issued refunds. While I can't say with 100% certainty which company was providing those services, Author House sounds familiar for some reason.
True or not on the services contracted paid for and not rendered, those kinds of complaints tend to erode trust in a business. Add in an "upgrade" resulting in a site with decreased functionality from the previous iteration, the lack of emails making the upcoming changes readily apparent well in advance, and how long support requests are taking. The lack of outreach is as a result underwhelming.
The webinar, as much of it as I could watch before I had to get to other duties, didn't instill any confidence that a once successful company was going to continue to be as successful in the future simply because current performance is an indicator of future performance.
At this point it's about chow call, and while I'm five pounds above "ideal BMI" for my age and height, an evening meal is nice.
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