- As a continuing part
of the Self-Published Book Unboxing Series,
I am going to compare two big Print On Demand
distribution platforms in Lulu and KDP Print.
Stick around.
(upbeat electronic music)
Welcome to Self-Publishing with Dale,
where you'll learn to publish books that sell
and build an unstoppable brand.
And as we continue to push forward
in the Self-Published Book Unboxing Series,
it's my pleasure to show a comparison
between KDP Print books and Lulu.com books.
As some of you may have seen in my previous video
of the Lulu.com book unboxing,
I am very happy with their quality,
and I'm very happy with the delivery time.
But before we get into this,
I do have to address the fact
that I have a few indie authors
that are responsible for helping me out
with this Self-Published Book Unboxing Series.
And it should be noted that the review
of each one of these are on the products,
not so much the contents or the manuscript in general.
This only reflects the Print on Demand distribution platform
and not the authors.
So let's start this out with Lulu.com book
by Jay Hamilton,
and the delivery time, again,
much like in the previous time I'd mentioned,
it was lightning fast.
It only took five days for this book
to go from warehouse to my doorstep.
So I'm really super impressed
with Lulu's ability to deliver my product
to me in record time.
As far as shipping and handling goes,
they actually have this shipped
in a bubble wrap envelope again.
Listen, folks, I'm gonna scream this
from the top of the mountains every single time.
Bubble wrap envelopes for books
is not a sufficient way to ship a book.
If it was a used book, it would be a different thing,
but when I wanna get a new book
and keep it in mint condition,
I want it to be supported,
and bubble wrap envelopes don't cut the mustard.
However, much like what I got
from my last experience with Lulu,
this still came in great shape.
It wasn't kicked around, it wasn't bent,
there was nothing outwardly wrong with the book itself.
As far as quality goes, again, Lulu nails it.
I mean, the glossy cover is really good,
the white interior is amazing,
the print is awesome,
the cut of the book looks fantastic.
Overall, I am overly impressed at this point
with what Lulu delivers.
They're head and shoulders above what I've seen
in other Print on Demand distribution platforms.
But what about KDP Print?
This is where it gets interesting.
I had two different authors send me their books
from KDP Print,
and both of them were about the same size
at about six by nine,
and both of them were ordered right about the same time.
But the experiences were a lot different.
And we're gonna compare Lulu and KDP Print
in just a second.
So we're gonna compare first KDP Print
versus KDP Print.
So let's start it out with a good friend of mine
and fellow subscriber here on YouTube, Tony Jacobsen.
And Tony sent me out his book here from KDP Print.
Here's where it gets interesting.
It took 16 days for Amazon to ship this book
from their warehouse
and for it to arrive on my doorstep, 16 days.
He didn't do anything different than anybody else did
with any of the other KDP Print orders.
But for some reason,
this took a long time to get to my house.
What gives here, KDP?
The next thing is, shipping and handling.
Much like all the other ones, bubble wrap envelopes
doesn't cut the mustard,
but thankfully, Tony's book arrived on my doorstep
in mint condition.
Super happy with how it came,
despite it taking so long.
Last but not least,
much like I had mentioned before,
the quality of KDP Print books is pretty good.
Good, glossy covers, the white interior looks excellent,
very super, super happy with how this book came out.
This is awesome, to say the least.
So great work on this one, KDP Print.
But there is another side of the coin here,
and I had this discussion with the author himself,
and this is a good friend of the channel, Mark Brown,
'cause he actually sent me his book,
and it did get damaged.
And unfortunately, you may not be able to see this up close.
The binding became bent up here,
there was a couple of pages that were folded
because it came in a bubble wrap envelope,
and it was pretty much manhandled in transit here.
But this is where it's gonna blow you away.
Mark is out in the U.K.
He ordered this from the U.S. site to be delivered to me,
and it got here,
and the fastest of all of the print orders
that was done in this Self-Published Book Unboxing Series,
in four days.
That's right, his book got here quicker
than anyone else's.
Is it possible that maybe a world class footballer
kicked it all the way from the warehouse to here,
and that's why it got here in record time?
I'm not sure, either way, it got here fast.
But where they got it wrong was the packaging.
And, you know, I got this damaged book,
and I let Mark know, of course,
and in most instances, if you ever get a book
or a product from Amazon
that is less than what you expected,
with it's damaged, you must report it.
Don't just post in my comments on a YouTube channel
that you got a damaged product
and you're unhappy with their services.
I don't control that.
Amazon does, you need to immediately get ahold of them
through wherever you ordered it,
be it through your Amazon KDP Dashboard
or through Amazon.com,
either way, get ahold of them, report damages like this
so they can make replacements for it.
So as far as the comparison goes
between these two print platforms,
I am really happy with the shipping of KDP Print
when it comes to four days.
But this is the exception to the rule.
And it seems like with the faster shipping,
I sacrifice quality.
But then again, it took a little longer,
and I got it in perfect shape.
However, if I'm gonna wait that long
to get a good quality book,
I might as well go ahead and shorten that time
and go with Lulu.com,
because they have a better quality, in my opinion,
and they've got a good track record with me.
I've yet to receive a damaged product from them
despite shipping in bubble wrap envelopes.
So I'm gonna have to give this one up.
This is my opinion, I think that Lulu has the leg up
over on KDP Print when it comes
to delivery, shipping and handling, and quality.
What do you think?
You think Lulu.com is all that and a bag of chips,
or do you lean more in favor of KDP Print?
I definitely would love to hear from you.
But hey, the party is not over.
Oh, yes, the Self-Published Book Unboxing Series
continues on, so you're gonna wanna make sure
that you join me in the next video
where we're gonna be doing a three-way comparison
of some of the Print on Demand distribution platforms,
so make sure you join me on over there.