An In-Depth Review of Lulu Books for Indie Authors: Pros, Cons & Personal Experience
- sylviakayrose
- Jan 23
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days 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, personal experiences, as well as practical details about publishing and selling your print and ebooks. Lulu also publishes calendars, magazines and graphic novels.
My Rating: 4/5
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.
Benefits of Publishing with Lulu
Wide Distribution Options
Lulu has access to global distribution channels, helping indie authors reach readers worldwide. This includes print-on-demand services, which reduce upfront costs and inventory risks.
User-Friendly Upload Process
Many users find Lulu’s upload and formatting tools straightforward. The platform guides authors through file preparation, cover design, and pricing, making it accessible even for those new to self-publishing.
Below is a rough backstage view of my Squirrels print book cover in process. When uploading pics, sure to drag all edges past the blue/purple bleed lines (these lines don't show in the finished book cover).
No Upfront Costs for Publishing
Authors can publish without paying upfront fees. Lulu earns revenue by taking a percentage of sales, which means authors don’t risk money before their book sells. In a world where companies increasingly try to suck as much profit as possible from indie writers, it's vital to be aware of, and minimize, your upfront costs.
Print Quality and Options
Lulu is known for decent print quality and offers various paper types, binding options, and trim sizes, giving authors flexibility in how their books look and feel.
Author Control
Authors retain full rights to their work and can update or revise their books at any time. The ability to update and revise as necessary is one of the true bonuses of this site, as some distributers can charge $25.00 per change, or enforce a 3-month waiting period before free changes can be made to print books.
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.
Dynamic Pricing
Lulu’s pricing calculator is easy to use. Simply enter in the royalty you wish to receive, and prices are automatically adjusted across different denominations (Canadian dollar, British pound, etc).
Instant Gratification
Your book shows up in the Lulu bookstore immediately after it's published. Store search found mine flawlessly. You can start promoting right away.
Financially, It's Win/Win for Authors and Readers
Lulu has the lowest price with the highest profit margin of any online distributor I know. My horror comedy paperback Squirrels, for instance, sells at $9.99 US with a royalty of $3.00 on Lulu, an excellent deal for the reader and writer. By comparison, through Draft2Digital (also an excellent self-publishing platform btw) the paperback is $14.99 and returns $1.67 to the author.
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").
A brief technical interlude about print books:
To format a 6x9 inch .pdf manuscript for Lulu, set your document page size to 6.125 x 9.125 inches, allowing a 0.125-inch bleed. If you don't add the bleed line margin, Lulu will put a white border around your manuscript to accommodate the bit trimmed off during printing. If it happens, you'll receive this message:
According to Lulu customer service, if your book manuscript file doesn't contain pictures, you can try to fix the dimensions if you want, or simply ignore the message. Images in your interior content, however, have to be sized appropriately. Also, the white border will appear if you choose cream paper for the interior. I prefer cream paper so emailed Lulu customer service about a fix for this on Jan 29 2026, and will update as soon as I hear.
If you can't format your book to size in your .pdf program, you can get it resized at a free online service like avepdf.com.
For print books, you can create and upload the cover as a .pdf, or use Lulu’s straightforward online tools to design it. Unless you're very familiar with .pdf I'd recommend the latter. Lulu provides templates and guides to help with formatting.
First-time users might need time to understand the design format, pricing structure and distribution options fully. Lulu offers customer support by email and (in my experience) responds within a few days. It's obvious they're used to dealing with overwrought authors, as I virtually yelled at them, and customer service straightened out the problem in a pleasant and helpful way.
For ebooks, you can upload a .docx, .rtf, or .odt file, and Lulu will quickly 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 more control, submit your own .epub. If you don't have .epub capabilities yourself, you can upload or paste the document into Google Docs, tweak as necessary and File>>Download>as .epub. Be sure to properly format your manuscript -- for example, spacing between paragraphs, POVs or scene changes must be manually configured in the document before you convert it to .epub.
For ebook covers, upload your image to the specs on the page. You'll find this very versatile, fast and simple to do.
Fees and Costs: Are There Hidden Charges?
Lulu does not charge upfront fees for publishing or listing books. Instead, it deducts printing costs and a percentage of sales as commission. Here’s a breakdown:
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.
Optional Services
Lulu offers paid services such as professional editing, cover design, and marketing packages, but these are up to you.
There are no hidden fees, but authors should carefully review pricing details to understand how royalties are calculated.
Drawbacks and Limitations
Global Distribution Charge
Lulu charges a one-time fee of $4.99 for global distribution through Ingram. This is a bit off-putting as an author can just cut out the middleman, join Ingram, and use their distribution services for free. However, to publish on Ingram, you must supply your own ISBN. Canada supplies ISBNs no charge, but they cost about $125 in the States unless you buy in bulk.
If you MUST pay for distribution, Lulu's charge of $4.99 is reasonable when you look at costs of $400.00 from publishing site BookBaby. Both BookBaby and Lulu use the Ingram distribution network.
Mailouts
Once you list your work with Lulu you will receive a deluge of emails encouraging you to print and buy your book(s). If that's what you want, hurrah! Otherwise you have to "unsubscribe" from their mailouts.
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.
User Experiences and Reviews
Indie authors who have used Lulu Books share mixed but mostly positive experiences:
Positive Feedback
Many praise Lulu for its ease of use, especially for print books. The print quality and customer service receive good marks. Authors appreciate the control over pricing and distribution.
Challenges Noted
Some users mention that royalty calculations can be confusing. Others find the eBook tools less advanced than competitors like Draft2Digital.
Community Insights
Forums and review sites show Lulu works well for authors who want print-on-demand services with global reach, but are prepared to handle their own marketing.
How Lulu Rates as a Book Seller
At Lulu Bookstore, readers can buy books directly. While it does not have the same traffic as Amazon, Lulu’s niche is in supporting indie authors with print-on-demand and global distribution.
Traffic and Sales Volume
Lulu does not publicly disclose exact user numbers, but estimates suggest millions of books have been published through the platform. The site attracts a steady flow of buyers looking for unique or self-published titles.
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, and carefully plan pricing to maximize royalties. 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. Best of luck on your writing journey!
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