Lulu is Getting Pushy

[Theresa M. Moore]

This morning I received an email from the distro people at Lulu stating that if I wanted to use Createspace as a secondary publishing venue for one of my books, I would have to retire it from Lulu first. I am the publisher, and I own the ISBN. I purchased it through the Published by You package, in which I hold all the rights to publish. For Lulu to tell me where and when to print my books and place them is the height of insult. I am sick and tired of Lulu telling me what to do with my books. Other authors have been perfectly free to put their books into CreateSpace, and I have bent over backwards in defending Lulu to its detractors. Maybe the detractors are right.

Lulu is getting pushy beyond all reason, and if I am forced to pull this book out of Lulu, I will pull all the rest of my titles. Then I will shop my books to CreateSpace, anyway, and Lulu won't see another cent out of me. Does Lulu want that, or will it admit that it made a huge mistake? In any case, I feel I will have the right to sue for restraint of trade.

[Dawson Vosburg]

WHAT?!?!?! THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

I was recently on a conversation with Live Help and they said it was entirely allowed to have your content on CreateSpace.

I'm with you. If I can't do CreateSpace, then I have lost my way into bookstores! This is ridiculous.

[Elmore Hammes]

[Anne-Marie]

Hi guys,

You can always set up your book at a different print-on-demand company if you own the ISBN (such as if you purchased Published by You). Nothing has changed, it has always been this way.

But when you do this, whether it be at CreateSpace or other POD companies, they contact Lulu for our permission. We can only grant them permission once we remove your book from our distribution channels (by asking the author to retire it) to prevent bibliographic data conflict and inconsistent file handling.

[Theresa M. Moore]

No. They are the same stupid files from the same stupid PDFs; therefore there are no content creation issues. By retiring the title from Lulu distribution it is seen as EXACTLY the same as removing it from publication and any distribution channels I PAID FOR. Lulu has no exclusivity, and CreateSpace made a mistake in asking Lulu for "permission". For the distro people to assume incorrectly that the exclusive right to publish rests with them, they are acknowledging that the intent to sell a distribution package was made with that thought in mind. I have already had issues with listing my books on Google where I have had to tell Lulu that I own all the rights to the books and they need to relinquish all control over the publishing rights. I did not even know that a conflict in that area existed until I tried to list them. Google kindly referred me to Lulu to resolve that issue.

I refer you to http://www.mbbp.com/resources/iptech/publishing_legal.html for the clear language on a publisher's rights and the author's rights. If you think I am upset, you have seen nothing yet.

[Dawson Vosburg]

I must agree with TM. We own the rights! one of the founding ideas of POD is that THE AUTHOR RETAINS ALL RIGHTS!!!!!!

[Adam]

TM Moore,

By purchasing a Published by Lulu distribution package you agree to the terms and conditions in the Published By You License Agreement. As it relates to the following issue: