I had been working with Lulu for almost 2 years. I had already published several titles using their distribution packages, and spent about $1,500 on setting them up for sale to major booksellers, including Amazon. After an exhaustive bout of self-promotion of these books I discovered that the glitter had tarnished somewhat. For one thing, it appears that Lulu does not offer a return policy on books they print, which means that stocking them on the shelves became impossible. Second, the ISBNs and barcodes which I purchased from them were already in circulation when I discontinued the packages, so I cannot register with a direct distributor like Lightning Source right away. Lulu insisted that I now have to wait 6-8 weeks for the distribution channels to clear, which represents a significant loss of outside income for me. Further, I sold very few books through them; only one seemed to attract interest since it was nonfiction.
Lulu claimed that it was a way for a new author to get published. However, many authors do not get farther than that unless they want to spend hundreds of dollars in order to have their book publicized. The retailers which demand a return policy will not deal with Lulu, so in essence Lulu becomes a closed system retailer like Amazon, but without any of the real selling power. Lulu's public image leaves the impression that it is the best, but in fact they have only succeeded in sucking in unsuspecting authors wary of other POD publishing companies before they have a chance to learn the truth.
I filed a complaint with the BBB, in which Lulu tried to obfuscate the case by issuing canned responses, just like the ones they use when any author tries to resolve legitimate issues with the quality of the books, the lack of sales and the inconsistency in reporting. Several key questions have been asked of them over and over and the clear lack of response or canned responses from their operating manual indicates they have no will or desire to perform in a professional manner.
Further, any forum to which any authors having a complaint or an issue to resolve could post is managed by individuals who are not employees of the company and authors who want to discuss anything having to do with Lulu's problems are frequently locked out. Certain of the moderators use the power of the kill button to block anyone out who disagree's with Lulu's business model or questions why Lulu cannot change policies which clearly interfere with the author's ability to retain control over titles and rights. The issues have angered many authors already stuck like flies in amber.
Luckily I got out before many more titles were conscripted by Lulu, but I recommend that if you want to be a published author that you invest in a pdf maker and good imaging software and produce the books yourself. For the proper ISBNs, Bowker sells single ISBNs so if you're just starting out you can still buy just one. Avoid any POD printer that pretends to help you publish or offer expensive packages that you could spend yourself on setting up and printing your own book under your own imprint. There are real legitimate POD printers that will set you up to sell without all the extra stuff. Do some research and avoid self-publisher aids like Lulu.
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