Storefronts.

Just Kevin · March 2018

Originally it was possible to rearrange our books in what used to be the Storefronts, but that option was removed along with the change of name to Storefront. It can be frustrating that they are listed in order of publication. A series of books, for example, need to be listed in order of series, not in order of publication where the last one published is listed first. When can we have the option back to list our books in the order we want?

benziger · May 2018

Oh, yes please! In the past, we made a couple of ideas, some of them were taken into consideration, but never realised. (f.eg. categories)

benziger · June 9

Categories or keywords by which the books can be sorted would be very helpful, especially if I actively use Lulu and publish more than 2-3 books here. This would generously increase your sales.

In the old form were a lot of very reasonable suggestions, but in all the years only the suggestions disappeared (with the old forum), unfortunately nothing implemented yet. I don't quite understand why Lulu refuses these improvements to allow us to increase sales, as Lulu participates in every sale.

NB. If you look to the old forum: https://web.archive.org/web/20160312234353/http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Suggest/idb-p/Suggest just the five first topics are about it (and the propositions were "sheduled for release" or "status: considering" - it's now about 8 years later) - you see, the internet forgets never...

Just Kevin · June 13

Hrmm, I do recall it being possible to arrange our books in any order, and 8 years ago (and add videos) but the Storefronts were 'improved' and the options vanished.

Paul_Lulu · June 13

I can't speak to 8 years ago when the new spotlights were implemented, but I can say now we have a lot of data showing that most of our users don't use the spotlights in favor of their own webpages or social profiles.
That's a huge part of why we haven't put a lot of effort into redesigning them. Secondary to that, we're inching closer to a full site redesign. Once we have the facelift completed, we will certainly introduce some form of improved author spotlight type page.

potetjp · June 13

As it is, the spotlight is good enough to me.

A_A_Cain · June 13

potetjp said:

As it is, the spotlight is good enough to me.

Agree, it's a nice little bookshop for me - I have "Buy Here" links to it from various places.

It's intuitive that the latest content is at the top of the page (like it is in most other list structures). The best way to keep it changing is to add more content, not shuffle it around - but the content is the slow bit:).

Looking forward to the promised changes, Paul - any timeframe?

Paul_Lulu · June 17

Look for some of the major upgrades to the site/wizard/bookstore very soon. I'm not certain that the updated spotlight pages will be in the initial release, but it should follow quickly if it's not.

Arachis_2013 · June 17

Even having the titles listed alphabetically would make it easier for (potential) buyers to locate a particular book. Especially for those of us with several pages of books available.

benziger · June 24

This are great news @Paul_Lulu ! I hope it really goes a step further this time.

Some time ago this was proposed and widely supported: Storefronts with tabs. Maybe a first standard tab would be "New" ("Nouveautés", "Neuheiten"): max one page, the newest ones.

A second standard tab could be "Bestsellers": all books sold at least for one time, the most wanted on the top.

Furthermore, there should be the possibility to tag existing and new books with up to some (e.g. five) tags. This tags appears as Tabs. If I am a publisher, such a tab can be the name of an author with some books or for different series, ... . Or as an author I write novels and children books. ....

Just Kevin · June 28

It's intuitive that the latest content is at the top of the page (like it is in most other list structures). The best way to keep it changing is to add more content, not shuffle it around - but the content is the slow bit:).

That is not really helpful to those who write a series of books, often years apart(!) with other stories between them, and would like to have a series listed together.

A_A_Cain · June 29

Just Kevin said:

It's intuitive that the latest content is at the top of the page (like it is in most other list structures). The best way to keep it changing is to add more content, not shuffle it around - but the content is the slow bit:).

That is not really helpful to those who write a series of books, often years apart(!) with other stories between them, and would like to have a series listed together.

Let's hope the site upgrades provide folk with flexibility then. As a new user my challenge is content and getting people to buy it, not worrying about features that aren't available. It is what it is, until it changes

.

Just Kevin · July 2

It's features that can help people see what's on offer in order to buy them.

A_A_Cain · July 3

It's getting them to press "buy now" that's the problem

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TheJesusNinja · July 6

I rarely make sales on here anyway. What I'd like more is to have more control over our books on Amazon. At one time before the merger with KDP, their support would work with me from Author Central and allow me to add key search tags. Now they won't and sales are dropping like flies. Which means Lulu is losing too. Would it be that difficult to give authors a code associated with their account / email and maybe setup agreement with Amazon so we could add the key words. Our books are no longer getting found. Mine used to stay on the first few pages using key words I knew people would use looking for my books. The ones we list on here don't get added I hear, so your book just disappears in the millions of others. For instance if I type in Kung fu books on Amazon there is a huge list. The first few pages are the better sellers. My books would be right there at the top. Now I can't find them using the same keywords. Many people suggest changing them every so often. I did that and kept my books at the few page or so. Of course that doesn't mean your book will sell, but at least it will get seen. Can lulu come up with anything to help with that? At least we can still use Author Central and rewrite the blurb and add more books, and a write up about ourselves. Since the merge Amazon support want even talk to me now. It's depressing and it reflects in my sales.

Storefronts.

Active · Last Updated March 2018

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