Publishing conundrums

Reading brings me great pleasure. I also love writing. Over the years, my poetry and prose have been published in print and online. Some works appear in anthologies, and the print quality differs project to project.

In the early stages of one anthology, I did not realise that Amazon would be involved in the process. By time it dawned on me, I had already committed to contributing a piece of writing to the book.

When my book arrived, each page had _____(title) and the word ‘COPY’ on it. Not good. The formatting included very large margins and a smaller font than I would have chosen, however that was not the fault of Amazon.

There are many reasons why I’d prefer not to deal with Amazon, and my aversion is not because of one shoddy book. More about that another time.

Future projects

If I choose to submit anything to a future anthology, I will ask about the editor’s printing plans in advance. For now, I am happy to be working on a full collection of my poetry, and another writing project.

Corporations are vampires, and self-publishing also brings challenges.

Indie publishing

I’ve self-published chapbooks, edited books, and published many group projects.

‘Fur, feather, pen’ (2022) featured poetry and short stories by ten writers, along with my photography. It was printed on A4 recycled paper, using environmentally-friendly toner. Biomass (plant material) was one of the main ink ingredients.

Today, as I look at my copy of the black and white publication, the quality is excellent. No colour fading has occurred. I love the texture of the paper. Fur, Feather, Pen was expensive to produce.

Keen to print a book in at an affordable price, and to avoid Amazon at the same time, I decided to check out Lulu.

Print on demand with Lulu

I uploaded my nonfiction book about recovery from fibromyalgia to Lulu.com in November.

The platform was ok, but far from easy to use. Lots of information was missing around formatting and images. Still, I gave it three weeks of effort. Learning is tiring, and we can’t expect to navigate any new system with ease immediately.

From the moment I hit ‘publish’ on the Lulu platform, daily emails arrived. It became very annoying, very quickly! First, marketing tips. Then a note from friendly Laurie (who does not exist), followed by questions about my author goals. When I ignored email number four, a fifth one arrived next day, offering me 10% off my first order. For the sixth email, ‘Laurie’ reached out again. On and on it went.

Due to other priorities, I mostly ignored the Lulu avalanche for one week. As soon as I had time to tend to my admin, I unsubscribed. I’d also sent a query, so every email from Lulu had to be opened in case it was a reply to my question.

Customer care

Customer care responses from human staff working for Lulu takes 3-5 days. That is not a problem. Being bombarded by the company is.

We are in the age of AI, with automated systems churning out relentless crap. Lulu’s approach made me feel like a cog in the wheel of capitalism. Three messages arrived in one day to say that a query was being dealt with: robotic messages. My patience was wearing thin.

Paper disaster

When the book arrived, two weeks after my order was placed, the cover was fine. Inside was a disaster.

Reading the book is a chore, if not impossible. The paper is so flimsy that it is transparent enough for lines of text from other pages show through!

I have requested a full refund. I also removed my intellectual property from the site.

The human touch?

Lulu employs 51-200 employees. It is such a shame that nobody is checking the printed books. Or so it would seem. Who in their right mind would post books of such poor quality?

Some people stick with Lulu to work out problem after problem, according to online reviews. Not me. I am out of patience, and will seek a solution elsewhere.

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Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment below.

-Kathryn.