We compete directly with Lulu Press. But, when we reject a manuscript, we NEVER refer those authors to Lulu.

It’s been four years since we checked on what Lulu has been up to and we found TONS more complaints and 1-star reviews from Lulu.com’s authors!

Keep in mind that having an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau website simply means a company responded to each complaint. It does not mean that all of the problems were fixed.

I never pay attention to a company’s responses underneath complaints on third party sites unless the complaint is truly a fake one (and those are pretty easy to spot). And, a customer should never post a complaint to a website without first contacting the company, and giving them a reasonable period of time to respond. Unfortunately for Lulu, there are lots negative posts online where the authors stated they’d already opened a support ticket with Lulu (or more than one ticket), and the author had not received a response.

A customer should never feel so frustrated that they have to take their issue to a third party. You can click on the links below, and see the complaints in their entirety, and the company’s responses.

At BookLocker, we have a messaging system for our authors. All BookLocker employees can see all of the messages in that system. If an author is having any problem at all, the first person who sees that message sends an urgent Whatsapp note (we use that app to communicate with each other all day long, and at night as well because our cell phones ding when we do) to the employee handling that aspect of the author’s project. We have red, orange, and yellow alerts. And, it works! You can read what authors are saying about  BookLocker (38 5-star reviews!) on the BBB.org website RIGHT HERE and you can read numerous unsolicited BookLocker author testimonials HERE.

NOTE: We have not corrected the errors that were typed into complaints posted by Lulu’s customers online. Where you see ***’s in the Better Business Bureau complaints, that means the BBB has redacted that text.

Here’s a small snippet of what’s to follow about Lulu Press / Lulu.com:

• “Our middle school used them to print the yearbook and we ordered ours and the cover was correct but the inside was a satanic author’s book along which included pictures of his ‘member’. We were horrified and they actually sell this man’s book…”
• “Because of these mistakes, my entire event was impacted.
• “The reply I got was automated and closed without answering my questions.”
• “This situation stinks to high heaven!”
• “Really terrible quality books.”
• “It is not right that I paid for a service I did not receive.”
• “This time, when my copies arrived, they were in horrible quality with noticeable, un-fixable flaws. Almost every single cover of my book had permanent scuff marks, scratches and signs of wear or damage.”
• “The book was a budget, low quality, uncoated book…”
• “4 defective books included multiple errors including white patches on the cover, a third of the book missing, misaligned pages so that the book wouldn’t lay flat…”
• “This was, from beginning to end, nothing short of the least professional series of interactions I’ve ever had the misfortune of having.”
• “A long-time author driven away by systemic platform issues — extremely disappointing experience after 15 years of loyalty.”
• “The books they made had so much glue clumped up in the binding that the spines were rounded and lopsided.”
• “Lulu Publishing are absolutely AWFUL at their job.”
• “In the last year the quality of printing and binding (in the UK) has gone down and down. Misalignments, bad binding, poor folds, and books that fall apart during first read have been common.”
• “Fortunately I made a small test run so I only wasted $110 dollars as I must destroy the botched run of 6 copies. I am looking for another publisher.”

Better Business Bureau REVIEWS about Lulu.com are RIGHT HERE. And, COMPLAINTS are HERE.

Short snippets from those (there are MANY more details at the links above):

REVIEWS

This one was posted just two weeks ago: “Because of these mistakes, my entire event was impacted. I had ordered custom-printed copies for each of my employees, and Lulus errors completely ruined the experience and the effort I put into preparing for it.I expected professionalism and reliability, but received neither. I would strongly caution others to be very careful before relying on Lulu for any important or time-sensitive printing needs.” – Azam W

“My order is sitting in a warehouse. I e-mailed the company with order and tracking number. The reply I got was automated and closed without answering my questions.” – Serena F

“Book Search was a disaster pushed at me by Lulu; as instead of a brief review of my book posted online, my entire book was posted for everyone to read minus a couple of paragraphs at the end of each chapter. That would make pirating my book a cinch; as a person could copy & paste my book then republish it themselves. This situation stinks to high heaven! Of course Lulu has the perfect firewall to protect against disgruntled authors trying to contact them about problems like this, as there’s no way to directly contact a real person & the emails appear to be handled by their automated system that only gives generic responses to inquiries. This isn’t a good way to do business!” – Chris T

“Really terrible quality books. Even when using their templates for designing the book, the book came completely off and has white lines at the bottom of the book even with the full bleeds given. I contacted them and they reprinted it but sent the same terrible quality with all the prints off on the reprint too. The quality is absolutely terrible and they should not be in the market of printing photo books. I suggest using a different company for printing any photo books, even if you have to pay more it is worth it because Lulu Press is a major waste of time and money.” – Jon L

This was posted in February of that year: “I have not been paid my royalties in two months, what’s going on? It used to be on the 17th of every month, but now Lulu has not sent me anything since November–what’s the issue? I sent in a support ticket since there’s no landline on their end. Before I take legal action against Lulu, I went this route first. Fix the issue before I contact an attorney.” – Allen s

“I discovered that Lulu charges so many fees that an author will make almost nothing. In addition their printing charges, and miscellaneous charges create a situation in which an author must price their book so expensively, that there will be very few sales. In the case of my paperback version, I would have to charge $29.99 to make the same profit I would make from having the book printed on another site and charging just $9.99 for it. That is triple the sales price for the same book.” – Patrick C

COMPLAINTS

“I am writing to formally express my disappointment and concern regarding the handling of my recent order, placed on August 25, 2025. On September 2nd, I received an email stating that my order had shipped. When I tracked the shipment on September 4th, the status read shipping label created and that the carrier was waiting to receive the package. This same status remained when I checked again on September 6th. I submitted support tickets on both September 4th and 6th seeking clarity not even to complain at that time but simply to understand why the order was marked as shipped when the carrier had yet to receive ***** this day, I have received no communication from Lulu to explain the delay. This is not just frustrating; it is unacceptable. My order was crucial for an event that took place today…”

“It is not right that I paid for a service I did not receive. receiving expedited shipping. I should be refunded for the expidited shipping costs and if Lulu Press blames ****** they should recoup any loss from ***** and not me. should taking that cost up with its carrier who messed up the shipping, not holding me responsible. Despite the expidited shipping fee I paid, my order is being delivered to me much slower than the amount of time even standard shipping takes. I am a senior in high school and my last day of school is May 23, 2025, and I am heartbroken I will not be recieving my yearbook in time for my classmates and teachers to sign it.”

“I ordered 20 copies of my self-published book off of Lulu, something I have done multiple times in the past. This time, when my copies arrived, they were in horrible quality with noticeable, un-fixable flaws. Almost every single cover of my book had permanent scuff marks, scratches and signs of wear or damage. They did not look like high quality, ready-to-read books. They looked NOTICEABLY damaged. I paid over $100 to print and ship these books for an upcoming book fair and to have them arrive in such horrible condition makes me irate. I have no option but to discount these books at %50 what they retailed at because of how damaged the covers are.”

“My friend, who was also the editor of my book ordered a book via ******. This was not via a third party rather it was directly from ******. When she received the book, she immediately called me asking me what happened with the book. As she knew the quality of my work and my book, she questioned the validity of the printing job. The book was not the book I approved. The book was a budget, low quality, uncoated book that Lulu was selling via ******. The book was printed by ****** with low standards. She sent the book back.”

“We ordered 18; the 4 defective books included multiple errors including white patches on the cover, a third of the book missing, misaligned pages so that the book wouldn’t lay flat.We first asked for the books to be replaced in May”

“This was, from beginning to end, nothing short of the least professional series of interactions I’ve ever had the misfortune of having. /Re: Support Ticket #****** filed August 15, 2023 /I paid for printing 11 copies of my book. I was shipped unprofessional print-quality products: the pages were printed skewed as though the cutting process was misaligned, and there were irregular white bars on every page despite my properly formatting my book for full-bleed printing by Lulu Press’s specifications.”

There are MANY more complaints HERE.

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TrustPilot

“I ordered my books for a large event and they are now over a week late and are still in production with no sign of when they will be done.” – N Shilton

“A long-time author driven away by systemic platform issues — extremely disappointing experience after 15 years of loyalty. At the moment, the platform feels like a minefield of avoidable obstacles. I write this review not out of anger, but out of deep disappointment. I hope it helps other authors make an informed decision…” – Wim Dahlmann

“I made three orders for 5.5×8.5 inch paperback books from Lulu (seven books, total) in October and November, 2025. The books they made had so much glue clumped up in the binding that the spines were rounded and lopsided. I complained to them and their responses were that these misshapen bindings were bound ‘correctly’, ‘to our specifications’, and ‘an aesthetic difference’. They attempted to gaslight me, suggesting that their substandard work was normal and that I was being unreasonable for expecting flat spines on a paperback book. Don’t let them do this to you.” – Daniel Ward

“Lulu are garbage! Lulu Publishing are absolutely AWFUL at their job. I wrote a 230 page book of colour cartoons 6 months ago and their publishing processes for authors are awful.” – Phil Swales

“I have used Lulu for several years as a small hybrid publisher. In the last year the quality of printing and binding (in the UK) has gone down and down. Misalignments, bad binding, poor folds, and books that fall apart during first read have been common. About one in ten of the books I order has a problem. Customer service is unhelpful, the excuses are ridiculous.” – Martin Costello

“Unsatisfactory Support. I chose Lulu because my Chatbot said they offered good customer support. Not so. A brief conversation with a human would have solved problems. My online queries for help were answered robotically and unsatisfactorily. Fortunately I made a small test run so I only wasted $110 dollars as I must destroy the botched run of 6 copies. I am looking for another publisher.” – Dana Wilson

There are MANY more 1-star reviews from just the past 12 months RIGHT HERE.

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There are LOTS of 1-star reviews about Lulu.com on ConsumerAffairs.com.

You don’t want to miss this one!

“Our middle school used them to print the yearbook and we ordered ours and the cover was correct but the inside was a satanic author’s book along which included pictures of his “member”. We were horrified and they actually sell this man’s book through their site. All we got was an excuse about how sometimes these things happen when printing in mass.” – Ashley

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Needless to say, we recommend all authors continue to avoid Lulu.

RELATED

• And, MORE Complaints About Lulu Press!
• MORE COMPLAINTS about Lulu.com! WHAT the HECK is going on over there?!
• More Lulu Complaints – Thinking Of Using Lulu To Publish Your Book? You Might Want To Read These Authors’ Complaints First! By Angela Hoy
• Complaints About Lulu Are Spilling Onto Lulu’s Own Twitter Page
• LULU CONTINUES TO RECEIVE LOTS OF COMPLAINTS
• Has Lulu Gotten Too Big For Its Britches?
• Lulu Responds to Angela’s Article with Marketing Blurbage, Implies False Accusation about “Accuracy”
• UH OH – PART II! What are Employees of CreateSpace and Lulu Saying About Those Companies?

Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)

See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.

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Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE

90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy

Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.

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BOOK PROPOSALS THAT WORKED! Real Book Proposals That Landed $10K - $100K Publishing Contracts - by Angela Hoy

Peek over the shoulders of highly successful, published authors to see how they landed publishing contracts worth $10,000 to $100,000! An enticing yet professional book proposal is the key!

BONUS! Successful ghostwriter, Anton Marco, shares his secret for landing ghostwriting clients. Don’t miss Anton’s real ghostwriting contract at the end of this book! It provides an example of what he charges and the payment terms he requires from each client.