This is the fifth post on my experiment comparing making a print-on-demand mini book with making a similar book by hand.
The book I made using Lulu arrived the other day (this post relates my experience laying out the book). You can’t just buy one mini-book, you have to buy them in multiples of 4 (or $15.96 + shipping). They arrived in a ridiculously large box looking very forlorn.
And right they should look unhappy, as I was too when I opened the books. If you remember I was confused by the Lulu layout software and what the preview was showing me. After I ordered my books, a Lulu staff member answered the forum queries about this, confirming my assumption: “This is where you can expect the printer to trim the page. For this reason you should not put important text and/or images in this area [outside the rectangle].”
The image to the left is the Lulu preview with a dotted rectangle — anything outside that area might be trimmed. So I kept the parts of my images that mattered inside the rectangle. A photo of the book that arrived is below the preview — they trimmed inside this “safe area.”
And, unfortunately, that’s not all. The spreads are badly folded, so that the left-hand page is not completely pink, but has a white stripe (different width on every page) at the gutter. And the Lulu logo is emblazoned on the back of the book — can’t remove it or put my own logo. Finally, the preview that is available after the book is “published” — authors use this to promote their books, so prospective buyers can see inside the book before buying — shows the trim as about 1/4″ above and below the dotted rectangle. WYSIWYG it isn’t.
The books arrived last Friday (Jul 17) and over the weekend I submitted their complaint form stating the printing had gone awry, including pictures of the bad trim and gutter problems. After 5 days, I haven’t heard a peep back.
My conclusion: lousy production, lousy customer service, bad product. I won’t be making another book with them.
Wow, it looked so promising…sorry Lulu turned out to be a real bummer. But glad to know it before I try to order mini books from them. Thanks for doing the research and sharing your findings!
That is a shame. Thank you for sharing and detailing your experience.
A bit late to mention this now, but I have read of other people having similar non-response issues. Just goes to show that hand made may, after all, still be the best way to go for intimate runs! Thanks for all your work.
(I have seen very well-presented books made by “Blurb” although not such small ones.)
Have you investigated the Flickr-affiliated Qoop’s mini books? I’m tempted, but I’d love to hear what other people’s experiences have been before I plunk down my cash.
I have not tried Qoop yet, but had a good experience using Blurb. Blurb doesn’t offer “mini” sizes. I got one 6″x6″ 40 page soft cover photo book for about $20-$25 after shipping & tax. There are price breaks for larger orders, though. I think I upgraded from regular to premium paper. If I order another small photo book from Blurb I would get a hard cover rather than soft cover. I gave to book to my mom for Christmas, and now 8 months out the front cover is beginning to curl!
Yeah, thanks for detailing this. I’ve referred people to them who want to do home publishing, but with the caveat that I have no idea what the result is. An uncle and a friend have done some stuff like this, I’ll try to find out who the companies they worked with are.
I am very sorry you had a bad experience with us. If you email me at npopio@lulu.com with your oerder #, I will refund you.
Regards,
Nick Popio
I just had a similar terrible experience with Lulu.com and experienced their terrible customer service.
I worked for years as a designer and art director and when it came time to develop invitations for my upcoming wedding, I was excited to lay them out myself. I decided to print small saddle-stiched booklets via Lulu. I had read that the Lulu system is difficult so I did extensive research through their layers and layers of info on their (difficult to use) site to ensure that I had accounted for all of their peculiarities. (You do not set up your files for Lulu the same way you would to send them to a normal printer.)
Despite my research, when the booklets arrived, I found they had turned my 8-page book into a 12-page and had added blank pages and changed the pagination so that the pages which once faced each other as spreads were now broken front-to-back. The book is entirely art-dependent and only makes sense if the spreads face each other, so the invitations ($300 worth) were unusable.
I immediately filed a case via their email system (you’re not allowed to call them, which should have been my first warning) and waited as time ticks closer to my wedding. They requested documentation and I sent them photos. They reply with questions but after you respond they don’t get back to you for another day or two or more and then come back with more questions, so the process drags out. After several back-and-forths they finally acknowledged the problem and said they may be able to reprint. Then today they came back saying that because there was information on the website about the issue, that they would not help me reprint … leaving me with $300 of scrap paper, instead of wedding books. I am now left without invitations four weeks before my wedding.
I looked at the link they sent me after showing that they cover this problem on the site and it is a single sentence hidden 3/4 of the way down on a subpage that covers exactly 15 subjects on just one subsection of the instructions. If you printed this section (which is just the information on Covers) it is nine pages of rules and regulations.
This site is difficult to use and has few safeguards in place. There is no online proofing process (must professional online printers will require that you review and approve a print-ready PDF distilled from their production files to ensure that the process does not cause issues with transparency, pagination or trim) and very little recourse if something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, they seem to have a “Buyer Beware” approach which means you are out of luck if you don’t read every last word of instructions on their website.
I will be sticking with my local printhouses who take pride in their work and would never let shoddy work stand without correction or compensation.