I've only recently joined Lulu and probably about the time that the recent pricing debacle started. As you will see from my memebrs page I am not an author but a book designer and publisher.
Rather than post this thread on the main Lulu forum at the moment I thought it might be interesting to harvest the views here in this smaller community.
I really don't understand what all the fuss is about concerning Amazons prices. (forget they way Lulu may or have may not changed their pricing structure).
Before finding Lulu I would have to have found a traditional book printer and to make any project cost effective to order print runs with a minimum of 1,000 copies and very occasionaly perhaps only 500.
Lets look as some figures -
If the cost per unit was say £8.50 I could have sold the book directly at £9.90 making a profit of £1.40.
If I wanted to sell the book trhough Amazon, Waterstones or similar outlets they would have wanted a typical discount of 40% so i would have to make the published rrp £16.50 to maintain my £1.40 per unit profit.
Therefore when I registered the ISBN the price published on the Whitaker/Neilsen book database (available to all retailers) would be that £16.50.
Thus I find it very difficult in reading some of the threads concerning Amazon pricing to understand why some folks are getting so upset. Could it just be blissful ignorance of thing in the real world and a lack of busines/commercial/induistrial experience?
I welcome your thoughts.
