Lulu Direct

I am using Lulu xPress as the print-on-demand partner for my book, Dances with David: 21st-century responses to the Psalms by an eco-spiritual poet, which is available at www.DancesWithDavidPoems.ca. Lulu xPress and Shopify have radically changed what is possible for me as an author. I published my last book traditionally through a small publishing house. I had to order a certain quantity which I prepaid (at cost), then I had to find ways to sell them, such as attending poetry events. This put me out of pocket and limited me to selling to people I could meet in person in my own region. With Lulu xPress and Shopify, I can sell anywhere in the world without being out of pocket for a print run. The books are printed and shipped to customers as the order comes in. My second customer was someone on another continent who saw me on a Zoom meeting - she bought my book without me having to do anything. No payment-taking, no shipping... nice and easy for the customer and for me. With Lulu xPress, I can also offer a variety of price points so I can appeal to various budgets. For $19.90, I can offer a paperback using 60# paper and standard ink; for $46.90 I can offer a hardcover using 80# coated paper and premium ink. There are two other combinations in between, giving me four editions I can offer at $19.90, $24.90, $37.90 and $46.90, depending on what the customer wants. I could never have done this with traditional publishing. Using Lulu xPress also allows me to keep my pricing affordable. If I had chosen to use Lulu's distributing services instead of Lulu xPress and self-marketing, my books would have been twice the price for the consumer, which would have made the whole project a non-starter. I am very satisfied with the print quality of all the various editions, and I feel proud to sell it. So far, the service has been very good as well, with any problems being resolved promptly. Wish me luck, ya'all! And go publish your own book with Lulu xPress!

I connected this app to my website so that my journals can ship to the customers directly without me having to order in bulk. There must be a glitch in the system because several of the orders from my website has not transferred over to the app. Thankfully my number of orders is self manageable or this is something that I would not have easily caught. In trying to resolve the issue, Lulu is currently not taking calls, they are only handling everything through email which requires a longer wait time. I have customers ordering items as Christmas gifts and I can't even process their order which is so frustrating from a business stance.

Lulu has been great to work with! We print and ship around 100+ books per month. Very few issues with that volume of orders and when there have been any issues Kristen with customer support has very quickly fixed the issue (even when the error was due to customer issues and not Lulu). Highly recommend!

I wanted to sell paperbacks of my own books at a discount independent of the larger companies if you know what I mean. Lulu looked good. I contacted them with my concerns and they assured me I would be pleased and there's no contract. The quality of the books is great. My readers have told me so and I have ordered them myself at cost by momentarily dropping the price on my products page on Shopify.
The only problem left was constantly having to correct shipping prices both foreign and domestic. I contacted Cary Penrose who called me at my request and patiently talked me through setting up live shipping worldwide. It worked and now my readers in England can order delivery any way they want. I find Lulu very convenient and have had no complaints about pricing or delivery. I have just started advertising internationally, so time will tell how this works out when the volume picks up.

I used the app to print my cookbook. First, the app is easy to use and they don't charge for changes to your file like some POD companies. The price was so much better than the competition that I was concerned about the quality. However, when the book arrived all doubt disappeared! It was beautiful! I did standard color on premium paper with a gloss cover and could not be happier with the results! I would recommend them for any printing needs.

We’d highly recommend this app! Lulu xPress does all the printing and ships right to the customer. All we have to do on our end is fulfill the order, then Lulu xPress takes over. Seamless! It saves us time and we don’t have to carry inventory. Lulu xPress is a user-friendly app that walks you through the whole process of uploading your book and they have friendly and helpful tech staff who quickly assist with any questions. Five stars!

When i am trying to connect Lulu direct to my shopify store and open the app, it fails to load and brings up a new tab saying unable to find correct link to website. So this leaves me unable to use Lulu direct for my needs. If anyone could help me out on this situation, I would be very grateful thankyou.

This app opens up an entire new dimension to GoArchitect.co we are able to create new publications that can be treated as live documents and updated on the fly when new information is discovered or new content is desired.

It does have some startup pains however, while the actual print quality is excellent, the accuracy of the orders can be hit and miss. I have received numerous test orders that have been in one way or another incorrect. Things like the pages being backwards that make the end product unusable.

The company is very responsive however and have been working through the issues. When the general quality assurance is raised, this app DESERVES 5 stars.

UPDATE 8/28
Many of the previous issues seem to have been fixed. The quality has risen and new product options have been added. Their customer service is also excellent.
Minor issues now are more a matter of missing features. It would be cool if the app allowed for a custom receipt to be mailed with the books.

I've been using lulu for over a year now. The quality of books printed at lulu vs. anywhere else is exceptional. What I love most about the app is the customer service. Kristen, specifically, is my most favorite customer service rep I've ever encountered and if it wasn't for her I would not be such a loyal customer! The only problems with lulu and the app are the shipping prices, which are not competitive and not easy to translate to the customer. This is a huge problem that needs to be fixed, but I believe that it is being worked on which is good. I hope it is fixed soon. Still, it does not deter me from using the app as it is very easily integrates with shopify. Also the timing from order to delivery does take awhile too, but again, this is known and something they are working on. I appreciate the open communication and lulu's dedication to continuously self-improve.

Awesome app and amazing team behind it!

Lulu xPress is exactly what we had been looking for and has been crucial in our books' success. The team behind this app (special shoutout to Nick!) has been incredibly supportive and responsive from the very beginning - from installing the app and getting the products all set up to now selling hundreds of books every week.

The app allowed us to truly make the experience our own (branding is so important when it comes to e-commerce!) and seamlessly integrate books alongside other products in our store. We look forward to launching and selling more books using this app and highly recommend it for any print-on-demand needs.