wsc3
Junior Reader
Posts: 16
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Post by wsc3 on Dec 10, 2020 21:51:36 GMT
Lulu changed the template this year (along with it’s website upgrade) for the book I print annually, and thus I had to reformat 360 pages when my project was uploaded and rejected (“Trim size unsupported”). I’ve used the same template for fifteen years. Did no one else have this problem?
Lulu should have sent out a loud warning earlier in the year of this change. Both the text and the cover had to be redesigned for my project. This made what was normally easy (printing) and made it excruciating and stressful. The notification I got from Lulu in April said,
“On April 25th, we will begin introducing major updates to our site. As part of this update, we’re improving the way we size cover files. With this update, you’ll use the same size cover for any product type. That means you can now create a premium, full-color version and a standard black & white version using the same cover. No resizing required! We call this a uniform Page Per Inch (or PPI) cover. This change allows you more flexibility in creating multiple versions of your book and simplifies cover sizing. It also allows us to introduce better paper options without increasing costs! No action is required at this time. The Lulu team will resize your cover to fit our new specifications.”
No resizing required? I beg to differ!! And no mention of the body of the book template change.
My next question is, so what happens to the books I have created with Lulu over the past 15 years, a number of which are still on Lulu’s web site? I can’t reprint anymore copies of these books because they are written in the old format, correct?
The best expedited shipping Lulu offered this year will ship in 9 – 11 days. Last year it was 2 - 3 days. Is this the “Amazon Effect”? And does the shipping estimate include production time as well? There was no mention of how long it will take Lulu to print my book. It seems unlikely I will get this before Christmas. Again, a notification from Lulu would have been helpful.
Finally, on the order page I can’t see the back cover of my book as before. I would like to verify here that it appears as it should.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Dec 10, 2020 22:10:41 GMT
Supposedly books that haven't been revised since the recent Lulu Press "upgrade" will use the old interior and cover files.
Regarding getting a book printed and shipped before Christmas, order if you're feeling lucky.
Perhaps others can provide more insight.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Dec 10, 2020 22:22:48 GMT
Welcome to the madhouse.
Re: "On April 25th, we will begin introducing major updates to our site. As part of this update, we’re improving the way we size cover files.", how I hate that. In the UK, we had the Royal Mail announcing to improve their deliveries. The "improvement" turned out to involve fewer collections from letter boxes and ever-later deliveries to people's homes.
But, to return to your point, our local history society has numerous books on Lulu and, when I ordered more, they were delivered just fine. They simply used the existing Cover and Interior PDFs which were unchanged from the old platform.
But others on this forum will tell you that all is not well, on the new platform, when it comes to modifying and republishing.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2020 5:23:00 GMT
Lulu changed the template this year (along with it’s website upgrade) for the book I print annually, and thus I had to reformat 360 pages when my project was uploaded and rejected (“Trim size unsupported”). I’ve used the same template for fifteen years. Did no one else have this problem? Lulu should have sent out a loud warning earlier in the year of this change. Both the text and the cover had to be redesigned for my project. This made what was normally easy (printing) and made it excruciating and stressful. The notification I got from Lulu in April said, “ On April 25th, we will begin introducing major updates to our site. As part of this update, we’re improving the way we size cover files. With this update, you’ll use the same size cover for any product type. That means you can now create a premium, full-color version and a standard black & white version using the same cover. No resizing required! We call this a uniform Page Per Inch (or PPI) cover. This change allows you more flexibility in creating multiple versions of your book and simplifies cover sizing. It also allows us to introduce better paper options without increasing costs! No action is required at this time. The Lulu team will resize your cover to fit our new specifications.” No resizing required? I beg to differ!! And no mention of the body of the book template change. My next question is, so what happens to the books I have created with Lulu over the past 15 years, a number of which are still on Lulu’s web site? I can’t reprint anymore copies of these books because they are written in the old format, correct? The best expedited shipping Lulu offered this year will ship in 9 – 11 days. Last year it was 2 - 3 days. Is this the “Amazon Effect”? And does the shipping estimate include production time as well? There was no mention of how long it will take Lulu to print my book. It seems unlikely I will get this before Christmas. Again, a notification from Lulu would have been helpful. Finally, on the order page I can’t see the back cover of my book as before. I would like to verify here that it appears as it should. As said by sirram and Retread-Retired-Cameron, they will print fine if you don't touch them. If you make any revision, you will have to reformat at least the cover. So don't touch anything. Another thing you can do is simply download your PDF, reprint that in a different size (with Lulu's required bleed), select shrink to fit, and that's all. Good luck.
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Post by JesusNinja on Dec 11, 2020 15:45:52 GMT
Just to add about shipping. I ordered a proof in Oct and got the extra printing and shipping time warning. It was ordered,printed, shipped, and delivered in under a week. Six days total I think. Might have been a fluke but it was fast. Now it's Christmas holidays so shipping might be a little slower. But the shipping change I noticed is that they used Fedex this time and that was for the cheapest shipping method at $4.99. So you might get lucky and you might not. I've noticed some other companies I'm dealing with ordering things shipping with Fedex too. Much faster than regular mail.
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wsc3
Junior Reader
Posts: 16
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Post by wsc3 on Dec 11, 2020 19:23:49 GMT
Supposedly books that haven't been revised since the recent Lulu Press "upgrade" will use the old interior and cover files. Regarding getting a book printed and shipped before Christmas, order if you're feeling lucky. Perhaps others can provide more insight. I've already ordered it, but why does it take 9 - 11 days? Where are the books for Lulu now printed? Are they overseas or where? I noticed that there's no indication on the website how long production (printing) takes.
I will certainly be looking for a new vendor for future books. Any suggestions?
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wsc3
Junior Reader
Posts: 16
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Post by wsc3 on Dec 11, 2020 19:33:27 GMT
Lulu changed the template this year (along with it’s website upgrade) for the book I print annually, and thus I had to reformat 360 pages when my project was uploaded and rejected (“Trim size unsupported”). I’ve used the same template for fifteen years. Did no one else have this problem? Lulu should have sent out a loud warning earlier in the year of this change. Both the text and the cover had to be redesigned for my project. This made what was normally easy (printing) and made it excruciating and stressful. The notification I got from Lulu in April said, “ On April 25th, we will begin introducing major updates to our site. As part of this update, we’re improving the way we size cover files. With this update, you’ll use the same size cover for any product type. That means you can now create a premium, full-color version and a standard black & white version using the same cover. No resizing required! We call this a uniform Page Per Inch (or PPI) cover. This change allows you more flexibility in creating multiple versions of your book and simplifies cover sizing. It also allows us to introduce better paper options without increasing costs! No action is required at this time. The Lulu team will resize your cover to fit our new specifications.” No resizing required? I beg to differ!! And no mention of the body of the book template change. My next question is, so what happens to the books I have created with Lulu over the past 15 years, a number of which are still on Lulu’s web site? I can’t reprint anymore copies of these books because they are written in the old format, correct? The best expedited shipping Lulu offered this year will ship in 9 – 11 days. Last year it was 2 - 3 days. Is this the “Amazon Effect”? And does the shipping estimate include production time as well? There was no mention of how long it will take Lulu to print my book. It seems unlikely I will get this before Christmas. Again, a notification from Lulu would have been helpful. Finally, on the order page I can’t see the back cover of my book as before. I would like to verify here that it appears as it should. As said by sirram and Retread-Retired-Cameron, they will print fine if you don't touch them. If you make any revision, you will have to reformat at least the cover. So don't touch anything. Another thing you can do is simply download your PDF, reprint that in a different size (with Lulu's required bleed), select shrink to fit, and that's all. Good luck.How do print the existing body of the book in the new size and "select shrink to fit" during the PDF conversion? I have Adobe Acrobat Pro and I don't see that option under any of the settings.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Dec 11, 2020 19:38:58 GMT
I've already ordered it, but why does it take 9 - 11 days? Where are the books for Lulu now printed? Are they overseas or where? I noticed that there's no indication on the website how long production (printing) takes.
I will certainly be looking for a new vendor for future books. Any suggestions?
Okay, the printers who fulfill orders for Lulu Press depend in part upon where the books are being shipped to. {I've had proofs printed by printers on the US West Coast as well as the East Coast.] As for Lulu Press' print partners, I have no idea.
Part of the time is how many books are in the queue to be printed before yours at a particular print shop. Another part of the time is the parcel being picked up by the shipping company and so on.
Regarding future books, it kind of depends on what you're trying to do. One suggestion is to do a print through Amazon's KDP, restricting it to the Amazon platform then doing a global release through Ingram Spark. If you buy your own ISBN and distribute through Ingram you keep more of the profit.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2020 5:16:01 GMT
As said by sirram and Retread-Retired-Cameron, they will print fine if you don't touch them. If you make any revision, you will have to reformat at least the cover. So don't touch anything. Another thing you can do is simply download your PDF, reprint that in a different size (with Lulu's required bleed), select shrink to fit, and that's all. Good luck.How do print the existing body of the book in the new size and "select shrink to fit" during the PDF conversion? I have Adobe Acrobat Pro and I don't see that option under any of the settings. They print perfectly. You should see it in the first screen when you opt to print. Near the collate pages and page number range selection. Not in Adobe Pro settings. Google "Print PDF shrink to fit." The first link will be Adobe instructions, but you don't really need them. It's straightforward.
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wsc3
Junior Reader
Posts: 16
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Post by wsc3 on Dec 12, 2020 21:43:30 GMT
Regarding future books, it kind of depends on what you're trying to do. One suggestion is to do a print through Amazon's KDP, restricting it to the Amazon platform then doing a global release through Ingram Spark. If you buy your own ISBN and distribute through Ingram you keep more of the profit.
I'm really just interesting in creating an 8 1/2 x 11 book and not publishing it. Is KDP an option for that?
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Dec 12, 2020 22:01:13 GMT
While I don't know about KDP, a local print house should be able to do that.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2020 3:53:52 GMT
Lulu changed the template this year (along with it’s website upgrade) for the book I print annually, and thus I had to reformat 360 pages when my project was uploaded and rejected (“Trim size unsupported”). I’ve used the same template for fifteen years. Did no one else have this problem? Lulu should have sent out a loud warning earlier in the year of this change. Both the text and the cover had to be redesigned for my project. This made what was normally easy (printing) and made it excruciating and stressful. The notification I got from Lulu in April said, “ On April 25th, we will begin introducing major updates to our site. As part of this update, we’re improving the way we size cover files. With this update, you’ll use the same size cover for any product type. That means you can now create a premium, full-color version and a standard black & white version using the same cover. No resizing required! We call this a uniform Page Per Inch (or PPI) cover. This change allows you more flexibility in creating multiple versions of your book and simplifies cover sizing. It also allows us to introduce better paper options without increasing costs! No action is required at this time. The Lulu team will resize your cover to fit our new specifications.” No resizing required? I beg to differ!! And no mention of the body of the book template change. My next question is, so what happens to the books I have created with Lulu over the past 15 years, a number of which are still on Lulu’s web site? I can’t reprint anymore copies of these books because they are written in the old format, correct? The best expedited shipping Lulu offered this year will ship in 9 – 11 days. Last year it was 2 - 3 days. Is this the “Amazon Effect”? And does the shipping estimate include production time as well? There was no mention of how long it will take Lulu to print my book. It seems unlikely I will get this before Christmas. Again, a notification from Lulu would have been helpful. Finally, on the order page I can’t see the back cover of my book as before. I would like to verify here that it appears as it should. Everyone is furious about the lack of sufficient warning and the extra work. However, if you don't revise your projects you likely can order and they will be as before. There are also tons of quick printers online, such as Bookbaby and many many others. KDP, as Retread-Retired-Cameron said, is one of them.
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Post by JesusNinja on Dec 13, 2020 7:11:29 GMT
I ordered a proof in Oct. I got the same 9 day shipping warning. But it was delievered within six days after I ordered it. Very fast. They are shipping with Fedex now instead of the Post Office. You might get lucky too.
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Post by Ken on Dec 13, 2020 10:15:29 GMT
All your old books will print as they did originally. You don’t need to change anything. As to where they will be printed it depends to some extent on the delivery address.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Dec 13, 2020 21:06:42 GMT
I assume the slower shipping times are due to the problems of social distancing in the print shops.
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