What Can Lulu Do For You?

7 min read

At Lulu, we talk a lot about direct sales. A lot. But that isn’t the only way to distribute your work. We like to encourage our authors to consider adding a direct sales method to their distribution lineup because of the unique benefits it offers, like:

Earning more revenue per sale
Collecting customer data
White-label order fulfillment
Customizable book design

However, if you find yourself looking at that list and thinking, “Wtf am I supposed to do with customer data?” or “What does white-label mean?” then it might be better to start with one of our other options. And don’t worry, we have several ways for you to publish, print, and prosper with Lulu.

Which Lulu is Right for You?

There are a few different ways you can use Lulu to reach your goals as an author, publisher, entrepreneur, business owner, or creative. I’ll outline them below, but a few things to keep in mind are that regardless of the platform, you will reap the sweet, sweet Lulu benefits, including:

No order minimums or maximums
No inventory management
Self-serve printing and ordering
Automated print and fulfillment
Over 3k book formats to choose from
Free title uploads and revisions
Place multiple orders at once with our Order Import Tool
High-quality print-on-demand books
Amazing customer support and ecommerce onboarding team
Global retail print network
Working with a certified B Corp!

Using Lulu as a Printer

If you are starting out in your publishing journey, looking for samples for a client or testing a new product for your business, you may just be looking for a way to publish and print copies of your work to try out the process. Perfect—we’ve got you. Since Lulu is powered by print-on-demand technology, you can easily upload your project to our site and simply use our platform to print physical copies of your book. There are no minimums, so you can easily print one copy at a time until you’ve created exactly what you (and your customers) are looking for. And if it isn’t what they’re looking for, Lulu’s platform allows you to easily make changes to your print projects, enabling the agility to be responsive to market trends and get updated materials out quickly. Short run printing can also be a wonderful asset for keeping copies of your books, product guides, workbooks or magazines on hand for events, trade shows or client meetings.

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We have several tutorials, blogs, and podcasts about this, but all it takes is two PDF files—one for your book’s interior and one for your cover (including front, spine, and back cover). Create a free account at lulu.com, select “My Projects” then “Create a Project” and follow the prompts to upload and order print copies of your book. But before you do, be sure to sign up for our email list so you can use our weekly promo code for your order!

Using Lulu as a printer can be quick and efficient, even if you are placing multiple orders for multiple projects at once. Our Order Import tool is available for all Lulu users, allowing you to upload a CSV file with information for multiple orders to Lulu and place all orders at once. This is a great solution for pre-orders, bulk orders, client gifts, quarterly reports, fulfilling crowdfunding rewards, and more.

I’d also like to mention this is an excellent way to create unique and out of the box gifts for birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. Have you ever seen the look on someone’s face when they open up a calendar with their beloved sweet angel baby pupper on every page? Or a journal with their name on it that offers daily, weekly, or monthly encouragement to live their best life? Trust me, it beats socks every time.

Using Lulu as a Bookstore

If you’re interested in selling your books with Lulu but aren’t ready to create a full-blown website, that’s great. Get started with the Lulu Bookstore. Our bookstore allows you to sell your books globally, never worry about inventory, and get paid monthly via PayPal or quarterly via check. You can add your book to the Lulu Bookstore instantly upon publishing, but we all know you’re a savvy professional and will be ordering a proof copy first. Once you have received and reviewed your proof, you can choose to list the book on our bookstore via three access levels:

General Access: Anyone who searches for your book in our bookstore can find it.
Select Access: Only the chosen ones with the specific link you provide can find and purchase your book.
Private Access: No one can find this puppy but you.

Share the link to your Lulu Bookstore listing with friends and fans so they can easily purchase your work, or if you’re publishing multiple projects, create an Author Spotlight page to link to all of your books in one place, share a bit about you, and include any other links your readers might find valuable.

All sales made through the Lulu Bookstore will be automatically fulfilled by Lulu, and you can track your orders through the “Sales & Payments” dashboard in your Lulu account.

Using Lulu as a Distributor

You’re selling through the Lulu Bookstore. It’s amazing. You can’t believe how easy and accessible it is. Then one day you go to your local bookstore and would you believe it? They want to sell your book too! But they only carry books they can order from wholesale distributors like Ingram Content Group. What can you do? You can enroll your book in Retail Distribution! Lulu allows you to distribute your books to Ingram's catalog, making it possible for bookstores to order and stock your books.

With Lulu’s Retail Distribution, you can make your book available to over 40,000 retailers. This option can be great for discoverability and reaching more readers. It’s important to note that each retail channel you sell through will want its cut, so when exploring distribution, we recommend checking out our pricing calculator so you can see how much you can make per sale and ensure your book is eligible for Retail Distribution.

Enrolling your books in Retail Distribution can take several weeks, so be sure to plan accordingly. As with the Lulu Bookstore, all of your sales data from each channel will be reported on the “Sales & Payments” dashboard in your Lulu account.

Using Lulu as a Fulfillment Partner

If you have navigated through these options and are ready for more revenue and more visibility over your data and your customers, you, my friend, are ready for Lulu Direct. Or maybe you just skipped the first three options because you’re wild like that. Either way, we’re here now. You can think of Lulu Direct as a fulfillment partner for your book business. Readers will come to your website, order your books, and receive them in the mail without ever having to know Lulu is printing and fulfilling the order.

You will need your own website to get started. Lulu Direct integrates with Wix, WooCommerce, and Shopify. If you have built a website using a different platform, have high order volume or custom workflows, our Print API might be a better option for you.

Once you have your website up and running, you can integrate with Lulu Direct or our Print API for free. These integrations allow you to sell your books directly through your own website to your customers. As I mentioned earlier, this option unlocks additional benefits for you, including:

Earning more revenue per sale
Collecting customer data
White-label order fulfillment
Customizable book design

Earning more revenue per sale might seem like the standout advantage, but personally, I think it’s the customer data. When you’re able to see who is buying your books and collect information like their email, interests, and geographic region, it opens up a whole new world of actionable insights that can help you market smarter and build a sustainable business.

Lulu Direct is the more involved option of the four I’ve listed here, but if you are interested in brand continuity, growing your business, or building a community instead of just a customer base, it’s well worth the effort.

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Picking the Right Path

If you are unsure where to start with Lulu, here are a few good questions to ask yourself:

Are you hoping to make money from the project?
Do you already know your target audience?
Is your aim to build a sustainable author business?

If so, then Lulu Direct is probably where you want to end up. If you’re working on a passion project, testing samples for a client, or working on a new print product for your business, using Lulu as a printer is a good start. If you’re just starting out and trying desperately to understand what all this self-publishing stuff is all about, and your company wants to see some proof of concept before going all in, the Lulu Bookstore is a great option, then maybe Retail Distribution when you’re ready.

And if you’re wondering why you can’t find the tab for this season's hottest and most expensive leggings, I can’t help you, but I wish you the best.

Chelsea

Chelsea Bennett is the Education and Community Manager for Lulu.com and host of Lulu’s YouTube series. Chelsea writes blogs and connects with Lulu creators across the web.