Lulu Lens

by Nick Popio Community Architect
August 14, 2009
Comments (30)

Lulu Lens: Would you pay a flat fee per year for 2 Day shipping on all orders?

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Yesterday we announced our plans to improve shipping costs and simplify our existing shipping options. We also know that shipping is something we need to constantly improve on in order to ensure that you have the best experience possible. With that in mind, I want to get your feedback on a new idea we have been considering. Would you pay a flat fee per year if you received Express (2 Day) shipping on all of your orders? If so, what do you think a reasonable price for such a service would be?

As always, we appreciate your feedback, and it will help us decide if this is a program we should consider or not. Please let us know what you think!

by Nick Popio Community Architect
August 9, 2009
Comments (19)

Lulu Lens: How Can We Improve Our Distribution Process?

In Lulu Lens —

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First, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been participating in our Lulu Lens discussions. You’ve all given us incredibly valuable feedback, and I have been recording all of it and sharing it with our Product Development team. They are looking at which ones we can implement and I will be keeping you all up-to-date on our progress. So thank you for contributing, and keep it up!

This week we want to focus a little more on our distribution. We are looking at ways we can improve the process overall, and so any insight you can give us would be very valuable. Specifically, we want to know what aspects of our existing process have been confusing or frustrating for you? Hopefully, we can use your feedback to streamline the process and help you get your book into the distribution channels that are most beneficial to you.

by Nick Popio Community Architect
July 31, 2009
Comments (16)

Lulu Lens: How can we help you build a more meaningful connection with your readers?

In Lulu Lens —

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One of the things we consistently hear from users is that they want us to provide them with better tools to connect with their readers. Obviously this has a lot of value, both for the author and for Lulu, and we want to help you achieve this goal. We have a few things in the works, which we are looking forward to sharing with you soon, but we want your suggestions as well.

Last week, one of Julie’s suggestions was a great lead-in to this week’s topic. She suggested that we have “opt-in mailing lists that authors can use to send promotional offers to customers.” This is a fantastic idea and would certainly help authors and readers connect more. We are also looking at creating an author homepage, which would give authors full control over how their information is displayed on the site. What other ideas do you have for how Lulu can help you build meaningful connections with your readers?

by Nick Popio Community Architect
July 24, 2009
Comments (45)

Lulu Lens: How can we help readers better find your book?

In Lulu Lens —

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing how to get your book into broader distribution, and once it’s there what can be done to help it stand out. Now, we want your feedback on how Lulu can help bring readers to you?

Currently, approximately 90% of our traffic on Lulu is self-published authors. This means we have a lot of people interested in publishing, but very few people browsing for books. Most of the time, people purchase books via direct links to the author’s book. We want to try to come up with ways to help readers find the Lulu books they would be interested in, but may not even know about yet. We certainly have some ideas on how to accomplish this with more focus on selling on our homepage, helping quality content bubble to the top, and recommendations, but we want to hear from you. What can Lulu do to help readers find the Lulu books they want?

by Nick Popio Community Architect
July 17, 2009
Comments (13)

Lulu Lens – How Can We Help Your Book Stand Out?

In Lulu Lens —

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Recently, we’ve been talking a lot about getting your book out there. With tools like weRead and our efforts to get you into new distribution channels, your period romantic comedy can be easily found alongside “Pride and Prejudice”, and your self-help book can be found with “The Secret”. Last week we asked you, “Where would you like to distribute your products?” Many of you told us that you wanted to be able to find your book in a brick & mortar store, and we are listening to you. We’re looking at a variety of ways to help you realize your dreams, and for your book to be found in as many places as possible. However, this begs the question of once your book gets there, how can Lulu help your book standout?

Whether it’s on the Lulu site, Amazon, or even in a brick & mortar store, people need to be able to find your work and be interested enough to purchase it. How can we help you? We may not be able to do everything you suggest, but we will be listening to you and taking your feedback into account as we implement new and better ways to help you succeed, which is always our priority.

by Nick Popio Community Architect
July 12, 2009
Comments (37)

Lulu Lens: Where Would You Like To Distribute Your Products?

In Lulu Lens —

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One of the most important aspects of selling your content online is making sure your audience can easily find your work. At Lulu, we strive to make sure that if you choose to distribute your content that it can be found – not just on Lulu, but on other online retailers as well. We offer ISBNs, which come with listings on Bowker’s Books in Print, Amazon, and other online retail sites. Recently, we launched a program to get books without an ISBN onto Amazon Marketplace via a pilot program. Now, we are are looking at more avenues to help you get your work into the hands of your audience, and we want your feedback: Where would you like to distribute your products?

Feel free to suggest anything from the Barnes & Noble website to their brick & mortar stores to some kind of premium listing on Lulu, or anything you want. We may not be able to get your content into every channel you suggest, but we will be listening to you and taking your feedback into account.

by Nick Popio Community Architect
July 3, 2009
Comments (37)

Lulu Lens: Would You Use A Customer Service Portal?

In Lulu Lens, Lulu News —

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Those of you who follow our blog know that we are trying to improve our customer service, and that we are making a concentrated effort to get your feedback on some of our upcoming initiatives. With both of these things in mind, this week’s Lulu Lens is focused on the idea of a Customer Service Portal (CSP). Our goal is straightforward – provide an on-demand window into the live status of your support cases.

Using the CSP, you would have easy access to your support cases and the notes our customer service team has added to them. We would also work to build a knowledge base of Lulu generated articles to help you resolve issues you run into and encourage users to create their own articles describing their solutions. We want to hear from you: How valuable would a CSP be for you?

by Nick Popio Community Architect
June 26, 2009
Comments (8)

Lulu Lens: What Would You Like To Be Able To Do On Lulu With Your Online Photos?

In Lulu Lens —

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We’ve been soliciting your feedback via the forums, and now using the Lulu Lens on the blog, post for a couple of weeks now, and we want to keep hearing what you have to say. This week, we’re focusing on online photos. At this point, most of us have digital photos up on sites like Facebook, Flickr, Imageshack, and Photobucket, but often they just sit on those sites. Our friends can see them, but it’s harder to show them off offline.

Lulu wants to help you do more with your online photos, and we want your feedback on how you would like us to help you do that. We already have some options for you like photo ingestion from Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket for our photobooks or minibooks. We’re also considering helping you put your photos into the date cells on a calendar so you can have a photo of your best friend appear on the date of their birthday.

What ideas do you have? What products or options can we provide you with to help you make the most out of your online photos?

by Nick Popio Community Architect
June 19, 2009
Comments (31)

Lulu Lens: What Trim Size Do You Want To See?

In Lulu Lens, Lulu News —

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Last week we decided to try something new, and actively talk to our users about what we’re discussing internally. To get your feedback I posted to the forums and asked, “What would you like to see more of  in the Lulu Community?” We’ve received some great responses so far, and I encourage everyone to continue participating. This gave us the great idea of having a weekly post called the Lulu Lens which asks you for your opinion on a specific topic. Of course, we won’t be able to do everything, but we will be listening to you more and taking your feedback into account.

Each week, we will be posting a new topic, and looking for your feedback so we can gather data and make decisions based on what you have to say.

This week, we want to know: What trim size not currently available on the site would you like to see us offer?

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Our Current Trim Sizes

Let us know!