Lulu Direct , 74 reviews

I used this app to help me sell my book. I went through a self publishing process and when I was ready to go to market, Shopify provided all the tools needed to set up my on line store. I was particularly pleased to receive expert personal attention when needed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Poor communication, especially with price increases, delays etc. I wish they would communicate with us about pending price increases as they affect our bottom line.

UPDATE: Rating updated from 3 to 4. The company is committed to making things work, and it is seen. Customer service is 10 stars! Top notch. They are very responsive and kind and work very hard to resolve issues. Things have improved since my last review. Give them a try. I believe in this app and will keep using.

Old review
Not sure how to review this app. On one hand, I am happy to have the app, but it is so new they are STILL working out bugs. Very frustrating.

Lulu is a dream come true. You are able to print books on demand and ship them all over the world! But that is where my love affair stopped. The app is new and there are constantly kinks.

The support team is responsive on half of the issues and none responsive on the other half. So I am somewhere in the middle of loving this app and hating the growing pains.

PROS
You can get your book printed on demand and shipped all over the world.

CONS
My first order was messed up, thank goodness I was the guinea pig on the order. I always do a test order to see what the customer sees. Still waiting on a response for a REAL reason why my book was printed incorrectly and everyone else was not.

If you are selling a few books this app is great. If you are selling a few hundred books, be prepared to spend hours manually fulfill all those orders yourself. Very time-consuming. I am so happy for this app, that I am willing to overlook this. But the app within Shopify is very difficult to maneuver back and forth for order fulfillment. You will need patience.

International shipping is not tracked. I hope they resolve this issue soon as of right now there is no way to provide proof of delivery. (as sellers we need this protection) Cheapest shipping option internationally says 'priority', but priority shipping has no tracking info. The next best options will cost twice as much as your book. Again, happy to have the app, so will keep overlooking these issues and pray Lulu works it out.

I will wait patiently until they work the kinks out. When they do I will update my review.

We're issuing "how to" mini-books and this is a convenient and streamlined way to deliver our products straight to customers.

I launched a print on demand store for stationery. And have had a horrible experience in terms of the length of time it takes for orders to be delivered in addition to customer assistance. The "estimated time frames" are merely suggestions. The real dates of arrival could be more than 2 weeks past then... Also, they never actually say how long production takes. however, once they list your order's status as "in production" they refuse to allow you to cancel your orders. Would definitely look into other print on demand partners for books

Everything about this app is easygoing but the processing and shipping are insane. I am better off ordering in bulk in processing the orders myself.

At first I was intimidated by Lulu’s self-publishing platform because I had never published a book and am not proficient in Adobe Suite products which several of the templates require. My customer support expert, Tim S, was fantastic. He answered all my many questions, in detail, within 1-2 business days and was helpful in sending me templates to help me format my book. He even helped prepare my files when I ran into a printing issue with certain images not printing correctly - he helped me understand what the problem was with my file and fixed the issues for me so that my books would print correctly. When I received a damaged book I ordered for myself as a sample, he issued me a refund so that I could get a new sample book clear of shipping damage, which was considerate. He was always professional, positive, responsive, and immensely helpful in the setup process of my book. I am so grateful to have had his support through the file creation process and initial ordering process to help me get my book set up online correctly. I'm proud to now officially be a published author and happy the quality of the books looks very nice. I can't speak to other customer rep experiences at Lulu but Tim S. was 5 stars! Thank you Tim!!

A little slow on actually processing and shipping orders but amazing customer service and high-quality book production.

Lulu xPress is an application designed to drop-ship books using a simple interface to upload your cover and interior and quickly go on sale. It does exactly what it says it will do.

While there are alternatives, Lulu is a world class provider of books that is difficult to avoid when reading about publishing options for the independent author. The interface does away with print ready pdfs and any need for human interaction when proofing a book but also makes the process intuitive so anyone can do it just like their more well known distribution options. xPress opens up their services to independent publishers as well with Press and the customer service of a long standing / reputable company already in place is really great.

This is a new application. Updates very frequent and we haven't had any issues.

Update: 2/5/2021. I am no longer using this app. I had a lot of calendars ordered that took months to arrive, and only did get printed and shipped because I contacted customer service relentlessly. I have entire threads of emails. Customer service did help get the orders fulfilled after customers started complaining, and after MANY emails back and forth. The calendars were really nice, and I would have preferred to keep using Lulu but not at the expense of my customers' business. Update: I really wanted to come back and change my original review saying things were resolved, but I can't. After multiple attempts, I finally got a human on the phone, who I thought was helpful. They did enable my product in my store so that customers could order, which they did, however, it has been 20 days now and the order has not even gone to production because the original issue was not fixed. I am stuck with $400 in sales, no product, angry customers, and still, no answer when (or if) they will get their product at the height of the holiday season. If I could give zero stars I would since they have done nothing to assist nor can I get any product. I made a calendar for my Shopify store, it shows up in my store but you can't order it, I keep getting an error message when attempting to place an order. I have contacted their customer service, no response. I contacted Shopify, they confirmed it was not on their end and contacted Lulu xPress's customer service copying me on the email and I did get an email back several days later. I sent screenshots as requested and since then nothing. I have tried for 10-days to resolve this and nothing. I will move on to another app and start over.

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!