Lulu Publishing: Is the Hardcover with Dust Jacket Any Good?

About this video

As part of his self-published book unboxing series, Roberts examines a Lulu hardback with dust jacket produced for author James R. Morgan III, focusing on delivery time, quality, shipping and handling, and costs and profits. The order took five days to fulfill and three days to deliver — eight days total — and arrived undamaged in a corrugated cardboard box, with shipping and handling of $3.99 at the cheapest rate. The book is 6 by 9 with a matte-finish dust jacket; underneath, the book is wrapped in canvas with gold embossing on the spine. At 492 pages on cream-colored paper, it is image-dense, yet Roberts found the printing clean with no page warping or ink saturation, unlike warping he had seen in an earlier Lulu hardback of his own and a Barnes & Noble Press book. He reports a wholesale cost of $22.49 against a retail price of $49.99, praising Morgan for pricing quality content higher than many indie authors do. The key caveat is that this format can only be fulfilled through Lulu and is not available through expanded distribution, so authors must drive buyers to Lulu — but they keep a bigger cut without a middleman. Roberts gives it two thumbs up and a banana sticker.

Key takeaways

• The book took five days to fulfill plus three days to deliver (eight days total), arrived undamaged in a corrugated cardboard box, and shipping and handling cost $3.99 at the cheapest rate.
• The 6 by 9 hardback has a matte dust jacket over a canvas-wrapped cover with gold embossing on the spine.
• Despite being image-dense at 492 pages on cream-colored paper, Roberts found no page warping or ink saturation, unlike problems he saw in an earlier Lulu hardback and a Barnes & Noble Press book.
• Roberts reports a wholesale cost of $22.49 and a retail price of $49.99, and urges authors with quality content not to be afraid to price higher than the low prices many indie authors choose.
• The format can only be fulfilled through Lulu, not expanded distribution to retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble; the trade-off is a bigger cut without a middleman but having to direct traffic to Lulu yourself.

Episode details: published April 19, 2019 · 10:14 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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