Scaling Your Business with Custom Books Using the Print API
Growing any business requires developing new revenue streams. For authors, publishers, and content creators, that usually means supplementing one content product (like paid coaching sessions) with another (like a book).
But for businesses that rely on customizable books or need to provide printed books at scale without storing books on hand, a Book Printing API (Application Programming Interface) provides the best solution.
If you’re part of a medium to large business, connecting Lulu’s API printing is the perfect solution for several use cases:
- Printing high-quantities of books with no upfront fees or inventory management
- Offering custom books, journals, or manuals that require unique printing for each book
- Selling books without the need for a third-party retail site or distributor
- Printing internal manuals and reports that are updated regularly
Let’s look at how Lulu’s API works and how you can use it for your business printing needs.
What is a Book Printing API?
The Lulu API is a RESTful API that communicates with JSON-encoded messages. We secure communication with OpenID Connect and transport layer security (HTTPS).
Our API is a set of instructions that allows our software to connect with and work harmoniously with your business site’s software. This connection enables a sale on your website to trigger a printing request through our print network.
By integrating our API, you fully automate book production and order fulfillment. Because each order through the Lulu API is a unique request, you can offer various customization options for your users.
That can include varying Lulu product specifications, like ink or paper type. Most importantly, you can allow your readers to input information reflected in the print file.
Each order is printed using custom PDF files for the book’s interior and cover. By programmatically generating your PDF for each order, the door opens to various customizations!
Some typical customizations include:
- Adding a child’s name to a children’s book
- Creating custom planners for meals, exercise, and more
- Applying up-to-date charts, graphs, or other data
You can access the book printing API in a production and in a sandbox environment. The sandbox can be used for development and testing purposes. Sandbox jobs will not be forwarded to a Lulu production facility, and you will not be charged for them.
API Quickstart Guide
A free guide to integrating Lulu’s Print API with your site, including details and documentation to ensure a successful connection.
Key Benefits of Using Lulu’s Print API for Businesses
We’ve talked about the usefulness of customization for your customers and print-on-demand to save your business money, but there are other important benefits.
Lulu’s print API works with our distribution network, allowing us to print your books as close to the destination as possible. That means we can ship to over 150 countries worldwide and keep the shipping costs and times low.
Another crucial benefit of Lulu’s API print-on-demand service is the high-quality printing you’ve come to expect from Lulu. Our API uses the exact same printers and the same printing processes we use for all of Lulu’s printed products.
Integrating a book printing API offers distinct advantages for various stakeholders in the publishing industry.
For Creators & Businesses
Individual creators and small businesses that sell books as part of their product offerings generally use API printing for customization options. Lulu’s print API is designed to allow you to offer unique products tailored to your business niche and your audience’s needs!
As your business grows, your printing needs will also grow. This is another area where the print API shines; adding additional products or expanding your existing product line simply means uploading a PDF file for printing.
For Authors & Publishers
The print API’s key benefits for individual authors and small publishers are cost, time to market, and scalability.
While the complexity of implementing an API connection is a deterrent, if you’re selling an increasing number of your books, it’s worth it. You’ll save time once you’re set up with a simple process for providing your book’s files. And you’ll save money with on-demand printing, removing the expense of large orders, warehousing those books, and fulfilling orders.
Examples of Custom Book Printing
The options are, more or less, endless. Because every print order is a unique call to our print API, you can use a unique print file. That means endless customization options for your book’s interior.
Some examples include custom astrology books—because you can customize each file, you can use your readers’ data (like date of birth or their astrological sign) to personalize the book’s contents for that individual reader.
Health, nutrition, and diet planning books are another great example of customization. You can collect lots of data from your readers, like their weight, age, and other physical attributes, as well as their diet and exercise habits, then use all the information to personalize their fitness plan
Another popular example of customization is for children’s books. With your young reader’s name, you could personalize the story to make them the main character!
These are just a few popular examples, but with Lulu’s variety of print options and the ability to supply a unique file for each print order, the possibilities are endless.
Scaling Your Business With the Lulu Book Printing API
You might have noticed something in common for businesses, creators, and authors: scalability.
If your products or services lend themselves to books, and your customer base is constantly growing, using a direct connection for your books is always the best option. When you manage your own site and your products, you completely control your customers’ experience.
You’ll also control costs—Lulu’s API is free to use and only charges you the print cost + shipping. Pricing information is readily available, so knowing your profit margins and planning your revenue is easy.
Finally, customization options allow you to offer new products and options for your growing audience easily, as well as revise or update existing products.
Integrating Lulu’s Print API with Your Business
For most developers, implementing an API starts with the developer documentation.
You can also read our in-depth guide to using the Lulu API to know everything you need to start.
To cover it briefly here, there are four steps to implementing the Lulu API:
- Create a Lulu account through our Developer’s Portal.
- Create print book SKUs from our pricing calculator to match the size and specifications of your books.
- Using the sandbox environment, connect the API endpoints and test the connection with your ecommerce platform.
- Create a test order and verify the API is working.
File Storage
Unlike publishing on Lulu, the print API uses files you provide for every print order. To access these files, we use a URL to download the interior and cover PDFs.
Using encoded basic authentication in the URL is ok.
We validate and normalize your files (basically, we make sure we can print them) before sending them to production. If problems with the file occur, the order will be rejected or canceled, and an error message will be displayed.
Future-Proof Your Business with Lulu’s Print API
Lulu’s print API offers a range of benefits for authors, publishers, and developers. Customization, affordability, and control are important when you’re working to grow your audience and business. If you’re interested in learning more about Lulu’s print API and all the ways our print-on-demand can help your business, you can contact our team for more information.
