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The New Book: To Store or Not To Store
11 years ago
General
I'm looking for feedback on this: I have a new book out and I'm planning on re-releasing all of the old books I have done, but I'm pondering streamlining the process.
Previously, I had the books printed, shipped to me, and then I handled the shipping. This could be problematic, especially for international customers, since it meant me packing them, finding out what the shipping would cost, letting the customer know so they could pay, then actually taking them into the post office. This was slow and a lot of work, but being something of a control-freak, it meant I was able to monitor the entire process.
However, since I print through Lulu, and I'm considering selling a number of different books now, the option of putting them up for sale on Lulu and letting people just buy them and ship them from Lulu is starting to look more and more attractive. This also has the added benefit that Lulu has print/distribution centers all over the world and a buyer is liable (though not guaranteed) to have have a print/distribution center in their country which makes shipping cheaper and faster. Also, I believe that Lulu takes credit cards and debit cards from all over, whereas I can only work through Paypal and snailmai.l
The downsides are of course that I don't have the control over the process that I did, I make marginally less profit on each book, since Lulu would be taking a cut, and my payout would be slower since Lulu pays out on a scheduled basis and not.
What are your opinions and recommendations? Do any of you have experience with doing this yourselves? Are there better alternatives?
Previously, I had the books printed, shipped to me, and then I handled the shipping. This could be problematic, especially for international customers, since it meant me packing them, finding out what the shipping would cost, letting the customer know so they could pay, then actually taking them into the post office. This was slow and a lot of work, but being something of a control-freak, it meant I was able to monitor the entire process.
However, since I print through Lulu, and I'm considering selling a number of different books now, the option of putting them up for sale on Lulu and letting people just buy them and ship them from Lulu is starting to look more and more attractive. This also has the added benefit that Lulu has print/distribution centers all over the world and a buyer is liable (though not guaranteed) to have have a print/distribution center in their country which makes shipping cheaper and faster. Also, I believe that Lulu takes credit cards and debit cards from all over, whereas I can only work through Paypal and snailmai.l
The downsides are of course that I don't have the control over the process that I did, I make marginally less profit on each book, since Lulu would be taking a cut, and my payout would be slower since Lulu pays out on a scheduled basis and not.
What are your opinions and recommendations? Do any of you have experience with doing this yourselves? Are there better alternatives?
If profit is a concern, you could consider upping the price per item. If control is a concern, well, I don't see too many alternatives.
Another advantage with international sales is Lulu will take care of the new EU tax system (VAT MOSS) for you. I know of at least one artist (
Seriously though, while being able to tell when stuff happens on the shipping side of things is nice, IMHO it's details you really don't need to obsess over, provided you trust Lulu to do a good job. Since I doubt they'd be in business if that was the case, I'd let them handle the details, which should free up some of your time and take a bit of stress away from you. Win, win. *shrug*