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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 14, 2020 2:24:37 GMT
I just tried to publish my first book since the update. It took almost 20 minutes! The old wizard was so much easier. Then it completed two versions? I can't delete either one or even know which is a draft. The books says it's in distribution but it's not even been checked by Lulu yet. I downloaded the "source" files and they were epub not MS Docs. I can't open it either to see how the conversion went and if I need to fix anything. On another note I contacted support over a week ago for something, still no response. Lulu used to be great. I could have published both versions of my book tonight in the old days. Now it's all screwed up. At least fix it so we can delete files.
Another thing, the author page is butt ugly. Why would anyone want to buy something from such an ugly page. Wasn't it months ago they were going to fix the about author part. Still nothing , still no revenue report, still no reply from support. Sigh....
Automated response? Still? Going on a year now Lulu.
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Post by potet on Oct 14, 2020 11:25:49 GMT
Something wrong with Lulu. I am quite worried.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2020 19:02:17 GMT
Something wrong with Lulu. I am quite worried. What happened? |
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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 14, 2020 19:23:23 GMT
Publishing wizard is way too complicated. I forgot how to make the one piece cover and thought I'd use the template wizard they have. It's so lacking and terrible. I did get the ebook published finally. Tech support is still taking forever to reply if at all. It's been months now. Things should be fixed. The author pages are ugly. Clicking on your book to its page is ugly. I just don't like it.
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Post by tasmanianartist on Oct 15, 2020 0:06:49 GMT
jesusninja - try mybestseller.co.uk or Amazon's POD provider KDP. I can understand Lulu's attempt at getting the backyard dabblers onto a more professional level, but I agree, a 'full stop cold start' revamp of software of this magnitude was ill advised. Having said that - have a cup of tea, read and make an effort to understand the instructions, take your time and follow their step-by-step guides. I personally had a few roadblocks but taking my time and going to the effort of understanding the new way of doing covers and interiors has paid off - the books are there without problems (in my case private and direct link only). You will have your 'AHA' moments - but above all, if you want to stay with Lulu, attain the skills of patience, if you are unable, you need to go to mybestseller.co.uk, they do the technical bits for you, and hold your hand on your way to becoming a self-publisher - I haven't used KDP, but they are more like Lulu - DIY.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2020 5:18:21 GMT
I think the fact that Lulu was completely free is what attracted me to self publish with them. I did find it difficult to make an all in-one-cover after the update, but eventually succeeded. My book also successfully went global. I was disappointed that we can no longer make our eBooks free. However I just hope Lulu stays free.
PS I am worried that by the time I am ready to publish my next book, like JesusNinja, I will have forgotten how to make the all-in-one cover. I agree JN the new Lulu cover wizard is awful. Lulu asked me to put in order of priority, a list of things to make Lulu better. I put "improve cover wizard" first.
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Post by tasmanianartist on Oct 15, 2020 5:53:49 GMT
Cheat-sheet anyone? Any and all repetitive processes online (to do with books) get written down on some sort of cheat sheet - that way, even if something changes, I have the basics and can follow what buttons to press next. I can highly recommend it.
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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 16, 2020 21:50:00 GMT
I do apologize for being negative. The site was awesome the way it was. I know many agree with me. The Author pages are unsightly with no way to add anything "About the author" or anything. The cover wizard used to be user friendly. Now it's terrible, forcing people to learn to make one piece covers if they can afford the software. And now we no longer get the reports early like before.It was nice knowing ahead of time what we were getting paid.And now it's just a spreadsheet. It's been months now they could have added the revenue figure by now. It's hard to believe after all of this time they are still flooded with support calls and emails.Maybe hire some top notch programmers and get it done right.
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Post by rimbaud1968 on Oct 17, 2020 21:52:34 GMT
The new Lulu is hopeless. I published many books on the old one and am distraught to see what has happened.
I can't even get the past the ISBN field. It tells me the ISBN is "already in use" -- it's not, I just bought the damn thing an hour ago.
It tells me fonts aren't imbedded -- they are!
Then it tells me my images are either too big or too small.
Ugh!
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Post by benziger on Oct 17, 2020 22:49:00 GMT
A Software Engineer from Lulu told in an interview: "Final interview was where it really went bad, with a senior executive. He came off very egocentric and not particularly pleasant, and bragged about how an effective manager could run a technical company without knowing anything about tech. Basically: I don’t need to understand this to make decisions about it. Questions about the future plans for Lulu yielded suggested that after being crushed by Amazon’s publishing arm, they were going to try to cater to some (very small) niche markets. I think the final straw was that he pushed for an early start date if hired and wouldn’t accept a few extra weeks to allow for knowledge transfer. Also seemed horribly offended that I wouldn’t reveal where else I was interviewing."
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Post by BlueAndGold on Oct 17, 2020 23:05:10 GMT
> ...and bragged about how an effective manager could run a technical company without knowing anything about tech.
This guy is an idiot. I have spent a career in electronics and have experienced that sort of attitude a number of times. Each time was a complete disaster. This, perhaps, hints at the root cause of the Lulu Disaster.
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Post by tasmanianartist on Oct 18, 2020 3:16:04 GMT
I feel for everyone who hits these stumbling blocks with Lulu.com. I now have books up with Lulu that are ONLY private or 'direct link', have no ISBN, and don't require to make me an income. So I can put up with all the <bleep> -ups, while dabbling.
At the same time, I have the same books up on Mybestseller.co.uk (again without ISBN) but public. At least with that company the staff assists on a personal basis step by step via email, and the books are at least available for readers to purchase.
Unfortunately, there are NO OTHER POD companies that offer a cover wizard like Lulu's old one - THEY ARE ALL like the new Lulu cover creator. Basic, and with about half a dozen choices (even the one at Mybestseller.co.uk). So, wherever you go, you are forced to either fork out a lot of money to someone for making the cover for you, or knuckle down and learn to make a full cover PDF with the template as given.
But any hickups/blocks with ISBN - immediately create a ticket with Lulu and don't let up.
If you can progress past the stage with the 'font not embedded' and 'image size' notes, I would ignore them - only you know your text PDF to that extent. (Note: sometimes re-printing the PDF with a new name CAN change its background info (the hidden data that tells servers what's what), and avoid such notes.) Try the free PDF program called 'doPDF8' - I've used the old version for over a decade, and new users are happy with the new versions.
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Post by benziger on Oct 18, 2020 8:27:28 GMT
At the same time, I have the same books up on Mybestseller.co.uk (again without ISBN) but public. If you go to 'Profile' -> 'Edit Profile' -> 'Personal', you may ad the link to your books as 'Website' or even as a second line in your Signature.
Search engines love such links, so over time Google will no longer show the defunct site on lulu in the top 3.
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