Lulu Publishing Review: Is It Worth It?

With the increasing popularity of self-publishing, many writers are looking for options to help them succeed as authors. The good thing is that we have also seen an influx of businesses offering print-on-demand services, while others also include distribution services for self-published books.

Lulu Publishing, or as it’s also known, Lulu Press, is one of the most popular names for self-publishing. In fact, its name is considered among the likes of KDP Print and other large-scale players in the print-on-demand industry.

But Lulu has also received criticism for what authors feel is a substantial cut of their royalties. This has compelled authors to either price the books unreasonably high, or opt for very low to virtually no royalties. This opens up the question: is working with Lulu Press worth it then?

In this post, we hope to help you make an informed decision about whether you would like to pursue self-publishing through Lulu Press. We try to be as unbiased as possible, giving you details on costs, output quality, and comparisons to other companies offering similar services.

Is Lulu Publishing Legit?

Yes, the good news is that Lulu is legitimate. It is a real company that offers print-on-demand services for self-published books, comic books, photo books, and many other kinds of printed output.

If you are self-publishing a typical book that’s mostly text, you will need to upload a formatted PDF that meets Lulu’s requirements.

Then, Lulu allows you to customize the following:

Interior design: Will your pages be in standard black and white, premium black and white, standard color, or premium color?
Paper type: Would you like it to be 80# coated white, 60# white, or 60# cream?
Book binding: Choose between paperback, hardcover, coil, saddlestitch, or linen wrap.
Cover finish: Would you prefer a matte or glossy cover?

For book binding, hardcover books need at least 20 pages, while saddle stitch only works for pamphlets.

How Much Does It Cost to Publish with Lulu?

The cost of printing depends on the choices you made in the customization process. The good thing is that it’s very easy to make your selections with the click of a button.

Note that you will need to have your files ready for Lulu, as the company does not offer any editing, design, or marketing services. They do have a list of affiliates that you can opt for, or you can hire your own editor and designers.

For the purposes of this post, we made some customization choices and got the following price estimate: for a 5.5 x 8.5-inch paperback book, with 200 pages of standard black and white pages on 60# cream paper with a matte cover, the estimated cost is $5.25.

As you can see from the image above, it also specifies the requirements for your files, and a button where you can download the templates you need to format your files.

When it comes to quality, many authors report having a good experience with the quality of books that Lulu prints. The covers have a good resolution, the pages are thick, and the print is well-aligned without any bleed through. However, slightly more errors have been reported during the busy holiday season.

This means that, for the printing side of the self-publishing industry, Lulu can be a good choice. Comparing it to its closest competitors, ease of setup for Lulu falls somewhere between that of KDP Print, which is the easiest, and Ingram Spark, which is the hardest to master.

Print Distribution: Recommended!

An important thing to understand is that you are not really paying to have your books “distributed” through Lulu; instead, you are paying to get your books printed with Lulu, and the distribution plans come with the printing as a package deal.

In terms of distribution, Lulu is a good choice, as it sends your books over to its own Lulu Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and the Ingram network, among others, giving you a reach of more than 40,000 retailers globally.

The flip side is that this extensive network costs you, as they offer lower royalties, set at 80% of revenue or profits. Many authors think this is a high percentage of royalties, and end up disappointed when they earn way less than they expected.

The misunderstanding comes from the calculation of royalties as a percentage of profits and not of the list price. For example, if you get a royalty of 80% of profits, it definitely does not refer to getting 80% of the actual sales, because you first have to deduct costs, like printing and distribution fees.

At the time of this writing, distribution fees aren’t far behind print costs. So if your print cost is at $5.25, and distribution fee is about $6.50, you will need to sell your book at more than $11.75 to make any sort of profit. And then, only 80% of that goes to you, while Lulu takes the other 20%.

You can get around the distribution fees by selling only through the Lulu Bookstore, but that will also greatly limit your retail presence. At the end of the day, you really need to weigh the value of the distribution that Lulu offers alongside the book printing.

Ebook Distribution: Not Recommended!

When it comes to ebook distribution, though, it doesn’t make sense to sell through Lulu publishing, because they still charge you distribution fees, which will skyrocket your retail selling price.

However, selling print books through Lulu and working with a different ebook company is more reasonable. You may want to consider Kindle Direct Publishing, the ebook arm of KDP Print.

Cost of Printing with Lulu vs. Other Companies

To help you decide, we have compiled a table showing the costs of printing and distributing with Lulu versus some of the bigger names like Amazon’s KDP and Ingram:

Lulu Publishing: Yay or Nay?

If you want to print out a small number of quality self-published print books, Lulu is a good choice. This is also the case if your goal is to get your message out without really caring too much about profits.

But if your main aim is to maximize profits through your print book sales, or if you intend to sell your ebook through the same company, we recommend you check out your other options, such as KDP and Ingram Spark. But even then, make sure you compare the costs, as costing can vary depending on the type of book you want to publish.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

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