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Post by potet on Jan 26, 2021 23:35:07 GMT
I have just come across several complaints by francophone Lulu authors on Trustpilot. Unsurprisingly they regret the previous system, and do not like the new one. In one of his answers, Wouter in charge of the French-speaking authors, asks us to be patient, and assures once finished the new platform will be even better than the old one. His answer is dated 2020-11-03, so quite recent. I am pleased Wouter is still a member of the Lulu staff because in the past he was quite efficient in solving a couple of problems I came across. The worst case was when Lulu delivered a cardbox of a dozen of my books ordered for the archivist of the University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Manila, two days after his departure from Paris. We were waiting for the books at his Paris hotel because he wanted me to sign them. Wouter had all the books reprinted and delivered by Fedex to the Manila address within a week.  |
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Post by JesusNinja on Jan 27, 2021 15:56:07 GMT
On Facebook during the early transition, many were stating their hatred for the new platform. Especially those that depended on the old cover wizard. That part I understand as it used Flash and Flash support ending earlier this month. There are other things missing such as the About Author settings. You can't add anything or change. You can't delete drafts and get stuck with five or so revisions instead one clean one. It's taking forever for books to be listed online and when they do they later disappear for months costing us money that is much needed. Also the search feature on the front page takes at least three or so clicks just to get to where you can search. The site overall is plain and ugly. No personality at all. I don't think Lulu is listening to their customers. It was a poorly planned update that was supposed to be two days, and it's still not fixed. That mistake lost Lulu many customers. I saw them on Facebook telling others where they found a better publisher and so on. There are many complaints against Lulu on Trustpilot. While I understand Wouter's side, patience and waiting is not working. Money has been lost that was much needed months ago. I have nine books in a series that do sell and so far seven or eight of them have been offline for months. My last payment was a mere $15. I've had not made that amount in years and cannot make bills with that. Before the update I was doing fine even with the pandemic going on. While there are some decent features on the new site, I prefer the old one too. Much easier to navigate. And if someone wanted to see all of your books they just clicked the next page. Now you click "see more" and the page reloads leaving you to scroll down past books you've already seen before getting to the rest. Then it's rinse and repeat if you want to see the rest of the books. That's a huge turn off as a customer looking for something to buy. Imagine having to do that on Amazon. If I didn't need money then I'd say let's just wait and see but that is not my situation nor many others here. But I see your point, I just wished they would hurry because this poorly planned mistake has killed my income.
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Post by potet on Jan 27, 2021 18:47:53 GMT
I completely agree with you. The absence of author's show-window makes it difficult for customers to find my books. Some have given up because they feel guilty, and think themselves too stupid to be able to navigate the new Lulu site.
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Post by benziger on Jan 28, 2021 13:33:13 GMT
There is now also a French section in this forum for people talking la plus belle des langues (and not liking or cannot writing in English). So, if you know some of them, feel free to tell them.
Self Publishing Hub > General > Français
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Post by potet on Jan 28, 2021 17:51:46 GMT
There is now also a French section in this forum for people talking la plus belle des langues (and not liking or cannot writing in English). So, if you know some of them, feel free to tell them.
Self Publishing Hub > General > Français
I have sometimes quarreled with French-speaking Lulu authors about trifles. For instance, in French, you have to leave a space before :, ;, !, ?, ", etc. with the consequence that you may find, for instance, a question mark dangling alone at the beginning of a line after justification. For this reason, I use the English punctuation system in French. This is frowned upon by some. On the other hand, I discovered authors who also lived for some time in Algeria, and relate their experiences. I bought their books, and they bought my Concombre en Afghanistan.  |
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