Books on Amazon

[Wendy Glindon]

Hi Guys

How long does it take to get a newly published book onto Amazon?  I published my first Lulu book two weeks ago and keep checking Amazon but its not yet listed.

[byrondunn53]

Dear wendy dont expect to see it for a while as it seem to take a long while i have been waiting at least four months for my first book and three months for my second and some have waited a lot longer than you and me so your have to be patient it used to be six to eight weeks but i fear it no longer is the case.
so be patient.

[Wendy Glindon]

Oh dear thats a shame.  I have three more books that I was thinking of 'Lulu-ing' but desperately need them to be on Amazon by February.

My only alternative is to do it the hard way and get them self printed which is a real pain - ordering boxes of books - buying packaging - sending them out.  Groan!

[Ken Anderson]

Yes, it's disappointing.
I know it's no help but I always plan for timescales of six months to have the final checked, double checked and ready for resale.

[byrondunn53]

Yes its a shame if you need it by february but that may be your only choice but I douth you would have got it printed by a normal publisher in that time either as i think a normal one could take as long and thats if they where happy to publish it, but on the up side you will have the book to distrubute which has to be a good thing until lulu get your book out to Amazon then you can let that take over. I wish you all the best with your book and may it sell well for you.

[iaintlukewarm]

it takes about 4 to 6 wks

[kevinlomas]

But, in the meantime, they will be available on your own Lulu Spotlight within hours.

[LisaShea]

Dear Wendy -

If your aim is to have Lulu print them and not Amazon/CreateSpace then one option is to take the orders on Amazon by making yourself an external seller of the book. Then when you get the order in for a book, go to Lulu and order a copy and have them send it directly to that buyer. That way you're not dealing with piles of books in your house or shipping material or anything else. The book goes right to the buyer. Lulu has always been amazingly fast for me in terms of book turnaround, so there shouldn't be an issue in that area.

I do have piles of my Weddings & Courtships books in my house, and I manually ship them. I don't recommend going that route. They take up space and are a pain to deal with.

So the direct-mail is an option to consider.

Lisa

[kevinlomas]

Are you wishing to be on Amazon because you will sell more? That is simply not the case unless you advertise your books by many methods. But as I already said, you can do that with your own Spotlight on Lulu right now.

[Ken Anderson]

It looks as though the June/July backlog is cleared now.
Post July stills seems to be running well past the 8 week timescale.

The turkeys are going to be safe !