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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 15, 2020 3:56:23 GMT
Is anyone else still missing books? After five weeks they finally got my last missing book on Amazon. No telling how much money I've lost this month because of Lulu. All of my books are still missing on Kobos and Scribd. Barnes and Noble is still good so far. Although my latest ebook is still not there. The paperback is listed there but no cover or blurb. The ebook is still not there. It got listed on Amazon before Barnes. My last book is still not on Apple. I do most of my sales off Amazon, Apple, and Scribd. This used to take two weeks. Lulu said it's supposed to be automatic now. But this is twice as slow so far.
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Post by jamielynn on Nov 16, 2020 14:59:58 GMT
After three and a half weeks, all of my books are back on Amazon but all of them are still missing from Kobo and Scribd. Lulu has stopped responding to my emails, demanding to know when they would be relisted. Gee, what a shock! I will have ZERO sales for November because of them. This was the last straw for me. I'm planning on pulling all of my books from Lulu at the end of December and republishing them all myself through KDP, etc. in the beginning of 2021. I'm done letting someone else have this kind of control over my books, that they can remove them whenever they feel like it.
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 16, 2020 18:02:17 GMT
Same here. I dread seeing my check this month. This is totally bullcrap. I've never seen any company ran this way. My books are still missing and support said they shouldn't be. I told them it's more than just me. I sent them the ISBNs but have not heard back. There is also a site called. 24symbols that had my books. There are no longer there. My latest book is not on Apple yet which is usually the first place to show. The paperback hit Barnes but still no ebook. No paperback on Amazon. They said the whole distribution process is automated. I really think they are all sitting at home listing them individually. Staring at their iphones and playing xbox and then for a few minutes working. This update has been the worst thing lulu ever did. I used to follow a stream of a guy who publishes with KDP. He did a couple of videos for lulu and interviewed the girl who does lulu university. He was getting ready to do a big episode for her and got a call from her saying not to do it. She was in a huge panic and told him he might ruin his rep if the video came out showing his support for lulu publishing. I've never seen any other company do this. You always build and test first. Making sure what the people want and need to use the site. Lulu did none of this. Just checked again. Paperback still not on Amazon. Ebook still not on Apple, Barnes, etc. The bad thing is Lulu used to store our files on the site. So some of them I've lost over time and no way to replace them if I did decide to move. Streetlib pays PayPal and I've spoken to them. But they charge $5 a month for file storage over 5 megs. That's one book. KDP doesn't use PayPal and I don't want them having my banking info. So if lulu doesn't get it's feces consolidated don't know what I'm going to do.
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Post by hulsey on Nov 16, 2020 18:35:41 GMT
All of my books are now back on Amazon apart from one Kindle copy. It's unbelievable that they are missing on Kobo etc. Monthly payment is due tomorrow, but no sign of any October sales report. What a fiasco!
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 17, 2020 1:04:06 GMT
I just received my monthly report just now. Only 54 sales. The profit will suck. Next month will be the bad one since the books were missing all of this month. I think I know what's going on though. Lulu is removing Core Source as our distributor. I think that belongs to Ingrams. So that means Lulu will adding our books to the sites themselves. According them this will improve profits by eliminating Ingram. I can see that if it's true. So the books missing is probably from the removal of this core but Lulu isn't telling you that. They just say the books shouldn't be missing or if they are which is one thing they said, they should be back within two weeks. My Amazon books came back because "I" contacted them and asked to replace them. One of the books was just now added back by Lulu. According to my report that book was my best seller in October. So money gone. The site I mentioned above, "24Symbols" I think is added by Ingram. The books are now missing from there as well. This update by Lulu was not thought out very well. Whoever made these decisions would be fired anywhere else. They've cost lulu a lot of money through lost book sales and lost customers. Lack of communication is the worst thing. If they had at least sent out an email telling us about this last thing, I might not be so angry. Not to mention the two day update that still is not fixed.If Amazon paid by PayPal I'd just go there. The money is better. But I don't like giving out bank info.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Nov 17, 2020 1:25:42 GMT
What is this "Sales Report" you guys continually talk about?
Does Lulu send you an e-mail notification of your monthly sales?
In almost 6 years of doing business with Lulu, I have NEVER received notification of sales other than by my logging on to Lulu and downloading the CSV file from their website.
Am I missing something here?
On the plus side, all of my books are present and accounted for. No complaints.
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 17, 2020 3:54:25 GMT
Never have gotten an email from Lulu concerning sales. On the 5th or 7th of each month you would get in your sales section a monetary number of the amount you made that month. The amount was before taxes. Then on the 17th of each month I would get an email from Lulu and PayPal saying that a payment had been made to my account. None of that now at all.
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Post by jamielynn on Nov 17, 2020 11:51:02 GMT
On the plus side, all of my books are present and accounted for. No complaints.
All of your books are also listed on Kobo and Scribd? It's been over two weeks now and mine are all still missing from both those sites.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Nov 17, 2020 12:55:28 GMT
Ah! Thanks for the info, guys.
I neither e-pub nor do I PayPal.
Paper books, paper checks. That must be the difference.
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 17, 2020 19:00:35 GMT
On the plus side, all of my books are present and accounted for. No complaints.
All of your books are also listed on Kobo and Scribd? It's been over two weeks now and mine are all still missing from both those sites.
My books are still missing from Kobos and Scribd. There were also missing from 24symbol.com. Ingram posts to that site. So anything site that Ingram posted our books too is gone. Lulu is now adding our books to the sites themselves. Now it's just Amazon, Barnes,Kobos,Scribd, and Apple I think. So we will be missing a few sales from the other sites Ingram posted too. It's so screwed up. Used to take two weeks for ebooks to hit Amazon. Usually on Apple within the week and the same with Barnes. Now my ebook hit Amazon, but not Barnes. But the paperback hit Barnes but not Amazon. Neither is on Apple yet. Nor Scribd or Kobos. Can't make money like this. If we don't Lulu doesn't. Seems they would figure that out. Pay out a little more and hire some decent programmers, get it done. High more support people get things done. Easy... |
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 17, 2020 19:04:17 GMT
I just checked my books are still not listed on either site. I sent them the ISBN's as requested two weeks ago. Nothing....Blue and Gold , yes that's the reason you don't get the emails. Checks are sent out quarterly. PayPal gets paid once a month on the 17th.
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