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Books with distribution have one retail price for all retail sales; on Lulu, on Amazon, and through other bookstores. A single retail price is not only a good business practice, it ensures that our retail partners are not selling your title at a disadvantage, and it is compliant with markets that operate under a "fixed-price law". Your royalty on sales through the Lulu Marketplace, however, is significantly higher than the royalty on sales where the retailer buys at a discount from Lulu.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:28 | Back to top

After you receive your book and are happy with it, go to your Project List and click Approve/Deny Book next to the title. This displays the Approve Book page. In the Retail Pricing & Royalty section, click Edit to set the retail price. The Retail Pricing & Royalty section has a real-time calculator to help you work through the retail price and royalty combinations.

When it is first displayed, the amount in the Retail Print field is the minimum retail price for the book. At a minimum, the wholesale price (retail price / 2) must be enough to cover the production cost of publishing the book, your royalty, and the Lulu commission:

Minimum wholesale price = Production cost + Royalty + Lulu commission

It is probably easiest to set the retail price and let Lulu calculate your maximum royalty. Using our $20 retail price, the wholesale is automatically $10. $10 minus production costs = what's left over for your royalty and the Lulu commission. The calculator maximizes this.

You can

• Enter a Retail Print price and Lulu calculates your royalty and the Lulu commission.
• Enter a royalty amount and Lulu calculates the retail price and the Lulu commission.
• Enter $0 in the Your Royalty field to reset the price back to the minimum.

IMPORTANT: The retail price is a suggested retail price. You have the option of pricing your book even higher, which will allow for greater profits, and greater royalties. However, if the book is overpriced or "priced out of market," it may not sell as many copies as it would at a lower price.

Would you like to see an example?

Retail Price Calculator

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:29 | Back to top

Retailers and Wholesalers make money by buying books at a discount off of the retail price you as a creator have set on your work. Most retailers and wholesalers buy at a 50% discount, returnable, with freight paid to the store or warehouse. This is a full "trade discount". A "short discount" is typically 20% off retail and often restricts the availability of books as there is not enough margin for a retailer to carry it. Because of Lulu's relationships with wholesalers and retailers, and our automated bibliographic feeds and print partners, we enable your book to be made available through these channels on a non-returnable, free freight basis. The discount extended to retailers and wholesalers may vary, however, given different laws, conventions within certain markets, and what the retailer will buy. Lulu's pricing calculator doubles Manufacturing Cost plus Creator Compensation and Lulu fee. This is an intuitively clear calculation and it allows Lulu to have the margin to negotiate with retailers and wholesalers to list your book. In dealing with channel partners there are setup costs, cross-docking charges or in-bound freight costs to reach that wholesaler, which are in addition to the discount.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:27 | Back to top