I discovered this morning that LULU have started an opt-out service which has them post your book on Amazon's marketplace for you. They add a 30% mark-up onto your book and your cut remains the same. This is, apparently, instead of the old opt-in system where you paid $25 per book.
I'm not sure what I think of this yet. It's only on their .com site which presents some unique challenges for Duty & Honour (as opposed to the more probable search of Duty & Honor from the States). It is the only route I have direct into the US market as, due to circumstances beyond, I haven't got onto IPR yet. So its good and bad. It might complicate matters for people who are seeing your books priced at two different levels though, if you have multiple routes into the US market.
You can opt out.
Thoughts?
Neil
Me too
Submitted by Newt Newport on Wed, 27/05/2009 - 12:52.
I awoke fresh and bunny to find that Lulu had added me to Amazon.com.
I have mixed feelings. It would have been nice if they had told me in advance giving me the opportunity to opt-out before my publications (issue 1 and 2 of Hearts in Glorantha) had gone live on Amazon.com. It does kinda put a kibosh on me getting listed at places at IPR. And adding 30% to an already high US price (because I use A4 the US version for some reason automatically works out £1 more expensive) may not go down well with my US customers. On the plus side D101 Games are now in the American market with zero effort on my part.
I'm going to give it a month to see how Print sales of HiG increase, without me telling anyone.
Regards
;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company
Aha!
Submitted by Tim Gray on Wed, 27/05/2009 - 18:53.
I just saw one of those mails. Decided it looked like spam and spent an annoying few minutes trying to find a Lulu email address I could forward it to without comment. (The site doesn't give one, just on-page forms.)
I couldn't find myself on either Amazon site to confirm. Oh, but now I search by title I can find things.
Assuming it's legit, I reckon Lulu is laying itself open to problems if it does something without asking and someone has a big problem with it.
No idea what I think about it myself. My gut reaction is to slap them down. Maybe I should decide when there's more sunshine. ;)
They are wallies though. According to the Lulu forum they initially added a bunch of products that weren't set to be publically accessible, like drafts or private projects. Then asked publishers to take the time to tell them what to remove.
Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk
Couple of interesting articles
Submitted by Newt Newport on Thu, 28/05/2009 - 10:30.
From the Lulu Book Review blog
The author's intial thoughts yesterday
http://llbookreview.com/2009/05/lulu-joins-amazon-marketplace-how-to-make-marketplace-work-for-you/
and an updated article today
http://llbookreview.com/2009/05/lulu-joins-amazon-marketplace-part-2/
Regards
;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company
I've been a grumpy bugger
Submitted by Newt Newport on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 09:56.
Well more than one month on and being on Amazon.com has generated me no additional sales, so I've asked to have my titles removed.
Probably didn't help that Lulu never put the description on the amazon.com entry. Doh!
Regards
;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company
But did it cost you
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 11:27.
But did it cost you anything? If it's not costing you anything, and it's not detrimental to your sales, then what's the harm of leaving them up there?
It cost me zilch
Submitted by Newt Newport on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 12:50.
But as I said I was being a grumpy bugger...
1. Lulu added it to Amazon.com without even asking me.
2. They didn't add a description up, which makes them listing there almost pointless (as sales have proven)
3. Plus (and this is the big decider for me) you still are paying their exorbitant postage prices along with an additional £1 on the price if you are buying.
I'm moving towards using Lulu simply to provide me with printed copies, since I can't really justify to myself my customers paying the horrendous postage costs. This is especially relevant to both issues of Hearts In Glorantha, where Lulu's p&p costs even for Uk customers is almost as much as the price of the mag!!
Regards
;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company