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Prosperity7

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Does anyone know how to get a listing of the number of copies sold from publishers like lulu? I mean for all the books lulu sells. I wanted to see their specific success rate in terms of copies sold by title, or some similar type of information which whole tell me their actual success rate.
 
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James D. Macdonald

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When you have a Lulu account, you go to the "My Account" tab. You'll be asked to log in. Do so. You'll go to a page that lists your activity. One of the sections is "My Sales & Revenue Summary." Click on "More details" in that section, and you'll get a month-by-month list of all your sales. Click on a month, and you'll get a list of all the sales in that month, by day.

For example, I click on 06/07/14 (the day the royalties were sent for the preceeding month) and see:

Atlanta Nights -- Lulupress LSI US 1
Atlanta Nights -- Lulupress LSI UK 1
Atlanta Nights -- Print 10
The Confessions of Peter Crossman -- Print 1

That is, one copy of Atlanta Nights was sold by an on-line or brick-and-mortar bookstore in the US, one was sold by an on-line or brick-and-mortar bookstore in the UK, and 10 copies were sold directly from Lulu's website. One copy of The Confessions of Peter Crossman was sold through the Lulu website.

The sales through Lulu are updated for the current month on a daily basis. The information from LSI comes in about two weeks after the end of each month, is posted then, and the royalties are sent.

Total income for that month was $12.39.
 

Prosperity7

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When you have a Lulu account, you go to the "My Account" tab. You'll be asked to log in. Do so. You'll go to a page that lists your activity. One of the sections is "My Sales & Revenue Summary." Click on "More details" in that section, and you'll get a month-by-month list of all your sales. Click on a month, and you'll get a list of all the sales in that month, by day.

For example, I click on 06/07/14 (the day the royalties were sent for the preceeding month) and see:

Atlanta Nights -- Lulupress LSI US 1
Atlanta Nights -- Lulupress LSI UK 1
Atlanta Nights -- Print 10
The Confessions of Peter Crossman -- Print 1

That is, one copy of Atlanta Nights was sold by an on-line or brick-and-mortar bookstore in the US, one was sold by an on-line or brick-and-mortar bookstore in the UK, and 10 copies were sold directly from Lulu's website. One copy of The Confessions of Peter Crossman was sold through the Lulu website.

The sales through Lulu are updated for the current month on a daily basis. The information from LSI comes in about two weeks after the end of each month, is posted then, and the royalties are sent.

Total income for that month was $12.39.

I'm sorry, I wasnt' specific enough with my question.

Does anyone know how to get a listing of the number of copies sold from publishers like lulu? I mean for all the books lulu sells. I wanted to see their specific success rate in terms of copies sold by title, or some similar type of information which whole tell me their actual success rate.
 

Richard White

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Lulu is a printer not a publisher.

They aren't worried about how many books they sell. That's the author/publisher that uses them to print the books to worry about.

What they worry about is getting enough people to use their printing services.
 

Prosperity7

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Lulu is a printer not a publisher.

They aren't worried about how many books they sell. That's the author/publisher that uses them to print the books to worry about.

What they worry about is getting enough people to use their printing services.

Thank you for your reply. If these guys take a percentage, then I don't understand why they wouldn't be interested inthe number of copies sold.
 
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James D. Macdonald

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I'm sure they're interested, but I'm not sure why they'd tell anyone. They make a profit on every single unit they sell, both on the printing and on the percentage of the cover price they take.

To get on their top-hundred seller list all you need to do is sell hundreds, not thousands. I doubt that many of their books have topped the thousand mark.
 

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Does anyone know how to get a listing of the number of copies sold from publishers like lulu? I mean for all the books lulu sells. I wanted to see their specific success rate in terms of copies sold by title, or some similar type of information which whole tell me their actual success rate.
"Success rate" is entirely up to the author, not the printer. (With or without an ISBN or distribution package, Lulu is essentially just a book printer with a Web storefront. Lulu does no promotion.) It is pretty much like asking Office Depot's "success rate" in sales of manuscripts run off and bound in its shops. Meaningless question.

--Ken
 

veinglory

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Short answer: on average not many. I saw some estimates a while back that were in the 20-50 per year range for printers like Lulu, iuniverse etc.
 

Ralyks

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With vanity PODs or PODs like Lulu (which does not charge an upfront fee but which in effect "charges" per copy printing fees), sales figures have nothing to do with the efforts or quality of the publisher and everything to do with the efforts of the author or the quality of the work. If you are going the vanity POD route, don't worry about a POD's sales figures--they don't mean much. Worry about the cost to you, the cover price they will set for your book, the quality of the printing and binding, and the services they provide.
 

veinglory

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I think the sales have plenty to do with the printer's qualities--such as the price of the book, the distribution etc. Just as with other presses, if their methods allow the book to be affordable and accessible, it will sell more. Self-POD publishers are generally neither--but some are better than others.
 
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