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Creator Revenue is the total monies you earn from the sale of your published material. Creator Revenue includes "Royalties" and "Other Revenue."

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:00 | Back to top

When a creator buys a Lulu distribution service and their material is assigned a Lulu-owned ISBN, Lulu becomes the publisher of record and all earnings are regarded as royalties for that material, regardless of delivery format. The creator revenue generated by sales of material with a Lulu-owned ISBN meets the true and legal definition of a royalty. Royalties are reported to the IRS and are subject to withholding.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:00 | Back to top

If your book does not have a Lulu-owned ISBN, then your earnings are not royalties but simply, "Other Revenue," which is the amount of money you make on each sale of your published material. "Other Revenues" are not subject to withholding and are not reported to the IRS.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:00 | Back to top

Royalties are accrued when a book that has a Lulu ISBN is sold. Creator revenues include Royalties and other revenue which is accrued when books or other published material is sold that has not been assigned a Lulu-owned ISBN. Only royalties are subject to withholding and are reported to the IRS.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:01 | Back to top

All creator revenue which meets the true and legal definition of a royalty is subject to withholding.

If you are a U.S. Domestic entity:

• Complete and submit a W-9 form that we keep on file. A properly completed W-9 form provides your Social Security Number (SSN), Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), or Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN).
• With a valid W-9 form on file, your withholding rate is 0%. If we have no W-9 form on file, your withholding rate is the default backup withholding rate for U.S. domestic entities as set by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States; currently this rate is 28%.
• Please see, What is a US Domestic Entity? for more information.

If you are a Foreign entity:

• Withholding is waived when your published material is delivered, either physically or electronically, outside the United States.
• When your published material is delivered, either physically or electronically, into the United States, the Royalties earned on these sales are subject to US withholding.
• Foreign entities should complete and submit a W-8BEN form that remains on file with Lulu. A properly completed form provides us with your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) as assigned by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States, and also assigns you to a Beneficial Country.
• With a valid W-8BEN form on file, your withholding rate is the percentage defined in the tax treaty between the U.S. and your Beneficial Country as appropriate for royalties. These rates vary by country.
• Without a valid W-8BEN form on file, your withholding rate is the default backup withholding rate for foreign entities as set by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. Currently this rate is 30%.
• Please see, What is a Foreign Entity? for more information.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:01 | Back to top

Only the subset of creator revenues which meet the true and legal definition of a royalty are subject to withholding. For more information, please see What are Royalties?

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:01 | Back to top

Only books with Lulu-owned ISBNs are subject to withholding. If you own your own ISBN, your earnings are "Other Revenue" not "Royalties" and are not subject to withholding.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:01 | Back to top

A US Domestic Entity is a individual, company or organization that typically (but not always) resides in the United States and is required to pay taxes to the government of the United States.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:38 | Back to top

A foreign entity is an individual, company or organization that typically (but not always) resides outside of the United States and primarily pays taxes to a government other than the United States.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:01 | Back to top

With a valid W-8BEN form on file with Lulu, your withholding rate is set at the percentage defined in the tax treaty between the U.S. and your Beneficial Country as appropriate for royalties. These rates vary by country. Without a valid W-8BEN form on file, your withholding rate is set at the default backup withholding rate for foreign entities as determined by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. Currently this rate is 30%.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top

If you have a W-8BEN on file at Lulu with a valid Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) or an Employment Identification Number (EIN) then you can claim treaty benefits. To see if your country has a treaty rate, check the IRS’s website at www.irs.gov

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Upon approval of your distribution license agreement you agree to submit a completed W-9 or a W-8BEN form. The information on your submitted tax form should match the payee information you entered under Change Remission Settings. You can also find them on the IRS website. If you have questions on how to submit your form you can email us.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:42:51 | Back to top

Creator Revenues are based on payments actually received by Lulu for your content. This means that your Creator Revenues may be adjusted for refunds or fraudulent orders for which Lulu does not receive payment. Lulu makes a good faith effort to pay you using the contact information in our records. If you change your remission information, it may delay your Creator Revenues payment. Find additional terms of payment in our Member Agreement.

Note: The Current period on your My Lulu, My Revenue page shows open (not yet paid) revenues.

PayPal Option

If you select PayPal as your payment choice (by selecting the PayPal option and completing the associated Email field on your Change remission address and settings page) and your accumulated Creator Revenues amount to $5 or more, and all of your tax and address information is complete (if required), you receive your Creator Revenues monthly.

PayPal payments for each month are made on or before the end of the following month. For example: payment for January sales are made by the end of February, payment for February sales are made by the end of March, etc.

Unpaid Creator Revenues roll into the next payment period. The $5 threshold must be met for sales in that Creator Revenues period. For example, your Creator Revenues for sales through April 30th must total $5 or more in order to receive a payment in May.

Paypal payments can be made in the following currencies: Euros, Pounds, US dollars.

Paper Check Option

If you select paper checks as your payment choice (by leaving the PayPal Email field blank on your Change remission address and settings) and your accumulated Creator Revenues amount to $20 or more, and all of your tax and address information is complete (if required), you receive your Creator Revenues quarterly.

Paper check payments are in US dollars and are not available in other currencies.

Creator Revenues checks are issued within 45 days following the end of the quarter, specifically:

• By February 15 (for October, November, and December sales)
• By May 15 (for January, February, and March sales)
• By August 15 (for April, May, and June sales)
• By November 15 (for July, August, and September sales)

The $20 threshold must be met for sales in that Creator Revenues period. For examples, your Creator Revenues for sales through March 31st must total $20 or more in order to receive a payment by May 15th.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top

Creator Revenues are based on payments actually received by Lulu for your content. This means that your Creator Revenues may be adjusted for refunds or fraudulent orders for which Lulu does not receive payment.

Lulu has to allow a reasonable amount of time during which refunds or credit charge-backs can be processed.

For distribution and other retail sales channels, Lulu is routinely not paid by the traditional distributor for up to 160 days. We do not consider 160 days to be a "reasonable" amount of time for our authors to wait, so Lulu frequently "floats" these payments — making Creator Revenues payments to you before we receive the money ourselves. We can only do this with secured retail channels or the risk and capital required would be prohibitive for us to be able to continue to operate.

Lulu will make a good faith effort to pay you using the contact information in our records and according to the payment schedule in When are creator revenues paid? If you make changes in your remission information it may delay your Creator Revenues payment.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top

We pay Creator Revenues by either check or directly into a PayPal account, as defined in your Remission Address.

Depending on the type of account you have with PayPal, PayPal may deduct a service charge for disbursing your Creator Revenues. This fee is determined by PayPal — Lulu has no control over it.

The Payment Terms section of the Member Agreement outlines when and how we pay Creator Revenues. For all the details, see the payment terms in the Member Agreement.

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Creator Revenues splitting is not available to our general customer base at this time. We are working on functionality to make automatic Creator Revenues splitting among multiple creators one of our regular features.

We're currently running a small Beta program with companies who have expressed an interest in this feature. We hope to expand the program in the near future. If you'd like to be added to our waiting list for this program, please fill out a help request form with an explanation of your situation and how Creator Revenues splitting would help. If we feel our system would match with your needs, we'll contact you about the current status of the program. If you are part of our Beta program and need help with Creator Revenues splitting, follow these instructions.

1. Go to your Project List in your My Lulu tab. Click the Revise icon next to the project with the Creator Revenues that you would like to split.
2. On the Project Details page, click the Revise icon in the Creator Revenues Split field.
3. The Revise Creator Revenues Split section displays a list of authors in your Contact List. Enter the amounts you want to distribute to various contacts.
4. Click the >Save< button. Your Creator Revenues division will be applied to future sales of this content.

After you have set Creator Revenues splits on a project, the Creator Revenues earned by each creator appears in the Creator Revenue Split. Follow these steps to find this information.

1. Go to your My Lulu tab and click on the My Revenue section.
2. At the top of the revenue summary, click the Creator Revenue Split link to see that information.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top

When you publish your book to sell only through the Lulu Marketplace, you set a Lulu price. Remember:

Lulu Price = Production Cost + Creator Revenues + Lulu Commission

For books:

Production Cost = Materials/base cost + Printing cost

The materials/base cost is currently $4.53. The printing cost is the number of pages multiplied by either .02 per page for black-and-white content or .15 per page for color content.

Note: If you purchase a Published By Lulu or Published By You Distribution Service for your book, we price the book according to the retail pricing formula. Retail price is the full amount that a customer pays for your book through a distribution channel. When your book is listed in Books In Print, the retail price accompanies it. Your Lulu Marketplace price must match the retail price.

For more information, please see What are the differences among the Lulu price, the retail price, and the wholesale price?

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To check your balance, click My Revenue at the top of your My Lulu tab.

Recent Revenue, the default report, shows you the following information.

• Summary: the Creator Revenues you earned for the current period or previous periods, broken down by each title sold.
• Detail: each individual sale made on Lulu, including the content ID number, the title of your creation and the date it was sold.
• Overview: your Creator Revenue payment history.
• Creator Revenue Split: a breakdown of Creator Revenue into Royalties and Other Revenue.

All-Time Revenue (linked above the Choose date section of your Creator Revenues page) provides the following information.

• Previous Payments: a complete history of your Creator Revenue payments.
• Total Content: by Content ID, the total sold for each of each of your projects.
• Total Zero Creator Revenues: summarizes the number of titles you purchased yourself, orders placed by Customer Service to replace faulty items, and sales of titles you published and offered for sale without specifying a Creator Revenue.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top

Lulu receives monthly statements of off-site retail sales for books with Distribution. These sales can take 6 to 8 weeks to post in your account.

Retail sales appear in your account as one consolidated cart per retail channel (as if one customer bought all the copies).

To see your retail sales, go to My Lulu tab, then click My Revenue. Click the Detail link at the top of the report to see available information.

When are creator revenues paid? can tell you when to expect payment for these sales.

Last updated: 2008-08-22 10:43:02 | Back to top