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Post by jamielynn on Oct 29, 2020 17:35:48 GMT
Well, it's a triple play for Lulu - my books vanished from Amazon, then Scribd and now Kobo as well. I'm BEYOND furious. And of course no reply from their customer service with an explanation. Is anyone else missing their books from Kobo now, too?
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Oct 29, 2020 17:55:47 GMT
Mine are still showing up in KOBO Us, HK, and NZ stores.
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Post by hulsey on Oct 29, 2020 18:34:03 GMT
My books have also vanished from Kobo. I'll contact Lulu tomorrow for what good it will do.
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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 29, 2020 18:37:33 GMT
Same here. I've contacted Lulu three times since this happened. Nothing. My sales have dropped through the floor. I told Lulu they are killing our sales but for all they care. They get paid, sitting at home working whenever they want. I have had to contact Amazon support four times to get it fixed there. They did it fast. Still no word from Lulu at all. I have no idea how to contact Scribd or Kobo. We are going to be lucky to make anything next month. So tired of this crap.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Oct 29, 2020 21:22:46 GMT
I need to contact Amazon to show the Lulu Press print versions of my work as unavailable or out of print [from Lulu Press], since I retired them and deleted every WIP last July.
*** Edit 16:35 hrs CDT ***
One thing to consider, Paul from LULU Press Inc hasn't logged in here since last June. Another thing to consider is a company that appears determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory likely doesn't really care about the typical client who depend on the service to make money.
Then again, what do I know?
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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 29, 2020 21:53:48 GMT
That is true. But the more they ignore us, the more of us will leave. Eventually they will have no business at all. They no longer do editing or cover making. So nothing left but publishing. No clients, no books, no money. I had wondered about Paul. It would have nice of him to log in once in awhile to at least keep us up on things. I guess since we changed the title of the forum he had no reason to return.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Oct 29, 2020 22:58:38 GMT
Well, going to the Lulu Press FacePain page or reading the blog at Lulu Press is kind of worthless so I looked at a top search result, from last July. writersweekly.com/angela-desk/more-complaints-about-lulu-press-lulu-publishingMore recently from October: www.bbb.org/us/nc/morrisville/profile/publishers-book/lulu-press-inc-0593-90003737My point is the less a company which has screwed the pooch with an upgrade communicates with the very clients who keep it running, the less confidence I or anyone should have with said company. The lack of communication isn't about this fora's changed name, it's more about a flubgrade from hell that isn't getting any better. I believe Paul's last Lulu Press blog was back in August. If clients aren't getting replies to Lulu Press support tickets, maybe it's "WTF 2020", or maybe it's simply bad management which no longer cares to try. I know if my butt was responsible for the company, the people responsible for the debacle would have been fired long before now. |
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Post by JesusNinja on Oct 30, 2020 3:31:46 GMT
Yep, everyone responsible for it would have been fired. I also would have compensated the authors in some manner other than giving them a 10 percent discount on buying books. There is a link on Lulu that I found by accident that explains what is happening. But seriously who's going to see that? Who is on there looking for that link? Most people aren't on the site unless they are publishing or checking revenue. The later we can't even do now. The site is a total Fubar. It was fine the way it was. They could have rebuilt the cover wizard removing the flash and everything would have been fine. No lost customers or bad reviews. I've seen on Youtube they are continuing their videos all smiling like nothing is going on. If they would at least have emailed all of us and warned us it wouldn't be quite so bad. Another thing is the timing. It's Q4 when most sales are done for Christmas. Lulu just screwed all of us for Q4. My sales on Amazon are next to zero. I lost all rankings and reviews of books they lost. Books are gone on Scribd and Kobos. Could Lulu management really be so stupid to screw up twice in one year?
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Post by tasmanianartist on Oct 30, 2020 3:59:17 GMT
Sometimes rodents know why they are leaving a sinking ship - I've left a few duplicates on Lulu for my own use, and to experiment with, other than that, the good ship Lulupop is taking on too much water for my liking, to stay afloat. Very sad, considering how good their system was, and how much confidence they gave the indie community with their system. 2020 is a year to remember. I'm a mere closet conspiracy theorist (I take it out during Halloween occasionally), but in this case the notion of a sellout is not that far fetched. But the system has to fit into the kogs and wheels of the established, large-scale publishing routines - the most broadly, commonly used modus operandi. Lulu was different, and did not fit into any other system (I remember back in 2008 reading about the Lulu system having been built on Apple-based (Mac) computers. It probably has nothing to do with it...), and why are they now 'updating' to be just like the others? I find it gross negligence to deal with their clients' income-producing merchandise the way they did. Although I did not advertise or promote my non-ISBN books, I nevertheless occasionally sold a book ...
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Post by hulsey on Oct 30, 2020 8:01:29 GMT
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Post by hulsey on Oct 30, 2020 8:03:06 GMT
All of my books apart from three are now back on Amazon. It seems they are rectifying the problem with distribution but we are losing money.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2020 8:39:30 GMT
One thing to consider, Paul from LULU Press Inc hasn't logged in here since last June. Another thing to consider is a company that appears determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory likely doesn't really care about the typical client who depend on the service to make money.
I checked today (30th Oct.) and Paul is still a member. Perhaps he just pops in to see what we are posting.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Oct 30, 2020 13:34:04 GMT
One thing to consider, Paul from LULU Press Inc hasn't logged in here since last June. Another thing to consider is a company that appears determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory likely doesn't really care about the typical client who depend on the service to make money.
I checked today (30th Oct.) and Paul is still a member. Perhaps he just pops in to see what we are posting. Paul is still a member and can visit the fora as a guest any time just as we can, however he hasn't logged in here since 23 June 2020. When I look at the members' list I can see when people signed up as well as the last time they logged in.
Another thing to consider is Paul's job at Lulu Press is [or perhaps was, I don't know if he's still there or not] more marketing / advertising as in not the technical end of the business. As much as he liked to spin things to make it sound like the upgrade mess wasn't so bad, speaking from what experience I had in sales it's hard to sell a pile of manure as if it were $20 gold eagles.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Oct 30, 2020 22:58:28 GMT
Yes, Paul is still there. At least he was this past Sunday.
His current title is Content Marketing Manager.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Oct 30, 2020 23:30:14 GMT
Yes, Paul is still there. At least he was this past Sunday. His current title is Content Marketing Manager. Makes me wonder what kind of corporate title I might have attained. |
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