An In-Depth Review of Lulu Books for Indie Authors: Pros, Cons & Personal Experience
- Jan 23
- 5 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
Billing itself as the world's largest independent bookstore, Lulu Books is a popular self-publishing platform for indie authors. This review explores Lulu Books for writers, covering benefits, drawbacks, and personal experiences. Lulu also lets you publish calendars, magazines and graphic novels.
My Rating: Bookstore 4/5 - Global Distribution 1/5
What Lulu Books Offers Indie Authors
Lulu Books provides a self-publishing service, where authors can upload manuscripts, design covers, and publish print and digital books. The platform supports a variety of formats, including paperback, hardcover, and eBooks.
Lulu distributes print and ebook titles via the Ingram Book Group, which links to more than 40,000 retailers and libraries globally. With Lulu's Global Distribution service, books are included in Ingram’s catalog, enabling independent bookstores to place orders.
Lulu claims to charge a one-time fee of $5 to enable Global Distribution. While this seems kind of odd, considering they use Ingram, which is free for authors to join and upload books, it's still apparently a good deal when compared with money-grubbing sites like BookBaby.
Unfortunately, as you progress down the global distribution trail, you learn a few things fast. First, the one-time fee for distribution does NOT apply to all books, as implied.
You pay $5 per book, per format. Costs can rack up fast if you have a lot of books and/or want to publish in a variety of formats. If the book fails to pass the process, an author may be on the hook for another $5. Lulu does not handle promotion, and it's still up to you to flog your book(s).
Not only do the costs mount, but the average wait time to get your book online is a shocking 6-8 weeks. Lulu justifies this by claiming to have a review process done by humans.
It sounds Dickensian these days, but customer service assures me they really do use live humans to review the books. Of course, the CS rep I got was a bona fide idiot and had no clue how to resolve my main problem ... and I ended up canceling my account ... but don't let that stop you!
Oddly, every other publisher online publishes/distributes and makes eBooks available right away, with updates done instantly (Google Play); or, takes a few days at most (Draft2Digital). If you publish eBooks through Ingram, you'll wait 2-3 days for processing, less time for updates, and, like Google and D2D, it's free.
Customer Service: If you just use the online bookstore, you might wait a while for an answer from CS, if it ever comes. If you're a potential cash cow for global distribution or other paid services, you get a response sooner. It doesn't necessarily make the rep any more knowledgeable.
No ISBN needed to publish in the Bookstore
In most cases your book must have an ISBN (International Book Standard Number) to be published, but not if you're selling print or eBooks through the Lulu Bookstore. For global distribution you'll need an ISBN, and can use your own or get one free from Lulu.
Upload Process
Print formats are plenty. You can choose hardcover in different styles, or paperback; cream or white paper; matte or glossy cover, and other options. Besides print books and ebooks, you can make graphic novels, planners, magazines, calendars and collections of poetry.
Overall, the upload process on Lulu is user-friendly, but there are some tricky parts especially in the realm of print books. Manuscript files must be uploaded in .pdf for print, and appropriately sized. Otherwise, they default to letter size (8.5"x11").
For ebooks, you can upload a .docx, .rtf, or .odt file, and Lulu will automatically convert your manuscript to an .epub. Epubs have a flowing format rather than a fixed style like .pdf, and can be easily read across various media or platforms.
For ebook covers, unless you are quite familiar with making wraparound PDF cover, use the cover formatting tool. There's a small learning curve but it's overall effective.
Fees and Costs: Are There Extra or Hidden Charges?
Printing Costs
These depend on book size, page count, and paper type. As with other self-publishing sites like Draft2Digital and IngramSpark, they're deducted from the sale price.
Distribution Fees
When books sell through third-party retailers, Lulu takes a commission on top of printing costs, the usual policy for self-publishing platforms. As mentioned above, you pay $5 per book per format to distribute through Lulu.
Optional Services
Lulu offers paid services such as professional editing, cover design, and marketing packages, but these are up to you.
Drawbacks and Limitations
Royalty Rates
While Lulu offers competitive royalties, the percentage may be lower when books are sold through third-party or fourth-party retailers due to additional fees.
No Marketing Support
Lulu does not provide extensive marketing or promotional services. Authors must handle most of the marketing themselves to drive sales, which is a common policy for self-publishing platforms.
Limited Ebook Features
Lulu’s eBook formatting and distribution are basic compared to some competitors (for instance, Draft2Digital gives you cool little icons to decorate your chapter headings and scene breaks), which may be a drawback for authors focusing heavily on digital sales.
How Lulu Bookstore Rates as a Book Seller
At Lulu Bookstore, readers can buy books directly.
Traffic and Sales Volume
Lulu Bookstore does not publicly disclose exact user numbers, but the site attracts a steady flow of buyers looking for unique or self-published titles. Competition is steadily increasing as AI books and freeloads flood the market, and without promotion your work will not float.
Customer Experience
Buyers report reliable shipping and good print quality. Lulu’s website is easy to navigate for purchasing books.
Authors considering Lulu should be ready to manage their own marketing. No book sells just because of the platform it's on -- writers need to invest time, and often money, promoting their work, to make it stand out from vast millions of others, including AI books and a rising flood of freeloads (free books).
Beware of hidden costs, and fees you shouldn't have to pay. Best of luck on your writing journey!
More Suggestions:
Comments