Monthly Archives: May 2009

by Adam
May 21, 2009
Comments (16)

June Author Sales Contest Standings

In News —

June Contest Standings: Updated as of 06/28/09

1. Irene Zingg
2. Timothy Chou
3. Farzin Mojtabai
4. Jason Carpenter
5. James Danko
6. Chris Juergensen
7. Damian Vraniak
8. Eve Schillo
9. Christopher Stets
10. Barbara Blanks

June Contest Standings: Updated as of 06/25/09
Just another update as there was some noteworthy late movement taking place in the top 3.

1. Timothy Chou
2. Farzin Mojtabai
3. Jason Carpenter
4. Chris Juergensen
5. James Danko
6. Christopher Stets
7. Eve Schillo
8. Barbara Blanks
9. Robert Kaneko
10. Damian Vraniak

June Contest Standings: Updated as of 06/24/09
Here’s a look at the top-selling authors as of June 24th, 2009. As we near the finish to the June author sales contest it is still anyone’s game. Historically, we’ve seen some of the largest shifts near the end of these contests, so now is the time to get out there and clinch your victory.

1. Farzin Mojtabai
2. Jason Carpenter
3. Timothy Chou
4. Chris Juergensen
5. James Danko
6. Christopher Stets
7. Eve Schillo
8. Barbara Blanks
9. Robert Kaneko
10. Damian Vraniak

June Contest Standings: Updated as of 06/19/09

Here’s a look at the top-selling authors as of June 19th, 2009. We’ll be updating the standings regularly before the winners are officially announced on July 15th. Be sure to keep checking back!

1. Farzin Mojtabai
2. Jason Carpenter
3. Timothy Chou
4. Chris Juergensen
5. James Danko
6. Christopher Stets
7. Eve Schillo
8. Barbara Blanks
9. Robert Kaneko
10. Damian Vraniak

There is still plenty of time to enter and stake your claim to $2,750 in prize money. Remember, we’re offering a $1,500 cash 1st place prize, a $750 cash 2nd place prize and a $500 cash 3rd place prize for this month’s top-selling authors.

Regards,

-Adam

———————————————————————–

With May’s Author Sales Contest coming to a close in a couple of days, it’s about time we start posting details on our upcoming June contest. Since these past few months of hosting sales contests have been so successful, we figured, why mess up a good thing? So, after the winners for May’s contest are confirmed, we’ll reset the counters back to zero and start off fresh.

June’s Author Sales Contest will begin on the first of the month and the rules are pretty much the same;  who ever earns the highest number of sales for their content on Lulu throughout June, wins. The three highest selling authors will receive $500, $750 and $1,500 respectively, with the top three titles (and a few honorable mentions) highlighted on the site and Lulu newsletter. To sweeten the deal even further, our June first place winner will also be treated to an exclusive interview posted prominently here, in our very own Lulu blog.

To enter the contest you must register through the entry form on the Author Sales Contest page.  Registration is open now through the end of May.  For more information head on over to the contest page and sign up.

Early standing will be posted approximately 1 week after the start of the contest with updates posted regularly thereafter. Click here to see last months winners.

Good luck everyone!

-Adam

by Carol
May 20, 2009
Comments (2)

Author Interview: Poet Nikhil Parekh

In Author Success Stories, News — Tagged: , , , ,

I first learned of Nikhil Parekh in the Lulu Community forums. He posts multiple poems in the Poetry Corner forum every day, and I found myself very curious and wanted to know more about who this very talented writer was.

Poet Nikhil Parekh

Poet Nikhil Parekh


Hi, Nikhil. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me for the Lulu blog. Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Nikhil Parekh. I am a Love Poet & Five-Time World Record Holder with the Limca Book of Records India (Only 2nd in official world rankings to the Guinness Book of World Records) for my Poetry. I am located on planet earth as is everyone around me by God’s grace. But pragmatically speaking I live in Ahmedabad, a royally sweltering city of India. To know more about me, my poetry, poetry books, awards and works please visit me online at www.nikhilparekh.org or www.nikhilparekh.com

So, to begin with, I would love to know how it all started.

Wrote my first poem at age 12 yrs or so. That was about a ‘dog’ whom I perceived as a peaceful friend. Penned a few sprinkling of poems during this time. After that didn’t write till age 21 yrs. But after completing college and my Civil Engineering studies I have been writing in my mortal capacity since last 9.5 yrs or so. The ramification of which has rendered over 7000 pages of my Poetry on God, Love, World Peace, Womb,  Anti Terror, Environment, Life, Death, Lovers, Love, Unity, Brotherhood, Humanity.

Continue Reading »

by mchen
May 18, 2009
Comments (38)

International Shipping Solutions

In News —

Over the past several months, we have heard our international customers tell us that our shipping costs are too high and that we need to change things. In March, Nick discussed some of the reasons behind these issues and promised we would give the community more information as soon as we could. Meanwhile, the issues with international shipping have continued and the community has rightly questioned both the reasons behind them and what if anything can be done to lower the cost. We sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience you have experienced from our current shipping methods, but we have been taking all of your feedback into account and have been working hard to resolve these issues once and for all.

We have already rolled out the following solutions, and we will continue to improve our offerings across the world.

We have:

  • Expanded our capabilities in Europe.  This should greatly reduce the shipping costs anywhere in Europe.
  • Extended flat rate pricing in Europe on orders for one, two, and three books.
  • Introduced flat rate pricing on international mail shipments on orders of one, two and three hardcover books from the US

Additionally, we are implementing the following changes that we hope to make available to you by the end of this summer:

  • Expand our capabilities in Europe to produce more hardcover trim sizes to lower shipping rates on that product line.
  • Analyze our pricing for Australian customers, and explore areas we could lower our shipping rates.
  • Change U.S. and Canada domestic mail and ground shipments to competitive flat rates
  • Expand our West Coast capabilities to lower shipping rates to West Coast customers

Implementing these changes requires significant upgrades to our current processes as well as  our supply chain management, but with your support and feedback we are confident we can bring you continuous improvement.

Thank you all for your input and patience.  We welcome your comments.

by Adam
May 15, 2009
No Comments

April Sales Contest Results Are In!

In Contests — Tagged:

April 09 Author Sales Contest Results are in!

Congratulations to our winners:

Arts & Photography Winner – Prize: $500
Name:  Allison Theus
A Book of Mostly Creatures

Business & Economics Winner – Prize: $500
Name:  William Koleszar
The Chief Marketing Officer Journal – Volume I

Computers & Internet Winner – Prize: $500
Name:  Edgar Landivar
Comunicaciones Unificadas con Elastix (Vol. 1)

Education & Language Winner – Prize: $500
Name:  Robert Prince
Surgical Tech Success Handbook

Literature & Fiction Winner – Prize: $500
Name:  Franc Tireur
Où va la Russie, et la France avec elle ?

Thanks again to everyone who participated and good luck to all participants in the May contest!

by admin
May 12, 2009
Comments (5)

Twitter Etiquette

In Marketing Tips — Tagged: ,

twitterEver since the world sat glued to the TV waiting for Oprah to send her first Tweet, I have seen more and more people join Twitter and get frustrated because they “don’t see the point” of it. There is much more to using Twitter than just letting people know what you had for lunch or that your cat threw up again. Smart authors can use the service to gain a valuable audience that can turn into readers. Wil Wheaton used Twitter and his blog to increase his network and when his book, Sunken Treasure, was released it rocketed to the top of the Lulu Top 100 Sellers Chart.

As with anything, gaining Twitter followers does not happen overnight. I initially wrote about how to use Twitter last year to find an audience, but with more and more people using the service, having your voice heard can be difficult. These simple tips should help you gain followers and stay followed by those who can turn into readers of your Lulu.com content.

Censor Yourself: Before you post anything, think if you’d actually like to read the Tweet if it came from someone you were following.

ReTweet: I often ReTweet links or posts that I find useful, interesting or humorous. I find that people whose Tweets I have Retweeted often Retweet my Tweets (say that 3x fast). This allows my message to reach an even larger audience.

Don’t Spam: An alarming trend is happening, many people are simply sending out the same message to every celebrity using Twitter over and over. These messages are not read by the celebrity and often cause the sender to be unfollowed or blocked.

These simple tips can help you build an audience and establish relationships using Twitter and ultimately help you sell more of your Lulu.com content.

Follow Lulu here.
Follow me here.
Sign-up for Twitter here.

Read more about using Social Networking here.

by Nick
May 7, 2009
Comments (12)

Video Tutorials

In News —

We are continuously reevaluating our help section to learn what topics our users are looking at, and try to help them find the answers they need. However, we also recognize that it helps to see things in action and how they are supposed to function. As a result, we have been creating video tutorials to  help walk users through some of the different aspects of our site. Currently, we have tutorials for “How to publish a book”, “How to create a book cover”, and “How to make a photo book”. You can see all of our video tutorials here.

How to publish a book

Now we’re looking for feedback from our users. Please comment with what aspects of our site you would like to see a step-by-step video tutotial for and we will try to create one and add it to the site.

by Adam
May 2, 2009
Comments (15)

Announcing Lulu’s May Author Sales Contest

In Contests, News — Tagged:

May Contest Results Update:

We apologize for the delay in announcing the official results for the May Author Sales Contest. Although most of the contest winners have already been notified, we are still confirming the official results for our 3rd place winner. Once these results have been fully verified we will officially announce our winners, we expect within the next couple of days.

Thank you for your patience and your continued participation in our Lulu author sales contests.

-Adam

May Contest Standings Update:  05/19/09

Here’s a look at the top-selling authors as of May 17th, 2009.  We’ll be updating the standings regularly before the winners are officially announced on June 15, 2009.  Be sure to keep checking back!

1. Swords & Wizardry
2. Carolyn Vance
3. Garrett Thompson
4. Bill Misner
5. Kara Louise
6. Freya Ashby
7. Rena Klingenberg
8. Richard Mulligan
9. Timothy Chou
10. Sherry Santos

There is still plenty of time to enter and stake your claim to $2,750 in prize money. Remember, we’re offering a $1,500 cash 1st place prize, a $750 cash 2nd place prize and a $500 cash 3rd place prize for this month’s top-selling authors.

Regards,

-Adam

———————————————————————–

Back by popular demand, we’re rolling out this month’s Author Sales Contest to include all categories!  The rules are the same, who ever sells the most, wins.

The three highest selling authors in May will receive $1,500, $750 and $500 respectively, with the top three titles (and a few honorable mentions) highlighted on the site and Lulu newsletter. As an added bonus, the first place winner will also be treated to an exclusive interview posted prominently here, in our very own Lulu blog. Click here to see March’s winners.

To enter the contest you must register through the entry form on the Author Sales Contest page.  Registration is open now through the end of May.  For more information head on over to the contest page and sign up.

Good luck everyone!

-Adam

by Jay
May 1, 2009
Comments (8)

Lulu’s new site design

In News — Tagged: ,

Lulu.com is undergoing a redesign.

See our site with a 960 grid overlay

See our site with a 960 grid overlay

So far, we’ve remade our home page and our Publish section with an emphasis on more concise text and bigger graphics. Our pages are built with using a 960 grid system.

We’ve still got a ways to go. Our Services section is next (I think). We hope you like the direction our site is headed.