Well, I had to give up with the Lulu.com European attempts to get my first book printed. After receiving both proofs in less than acceptable condition, we looked for assurances from Lulu that they would fix the problems with their Spanish printer, but the problems persisted for myself and others, and I decided not to take a chance on a third attempt, since the first two were found lacking. I could not get one of Lulu's staff to guarantee that they had fixed the problems I experienced, either. Lulu's printer in the USA seems to be okay from the feedback in the forums, but their European counterpart has yet to deliver a quality product to me and several others, and Lulu will not print our Euro books in the USA for us. No reason given, they just won't. I would assume it is due to the agreement with their Euro printer, with whom we are stuck, if European authors want to use Lulu.com as their printer.
Lulu has also ceased communicating with us in the forums, where we were asking for assurances that they had fixed the problems. Several additional authors received orders that were subpar right after me, and now nobody from Lulu will respond in the forum, nor have the problems been fixed. It appears they hope we will just go away, and since the forums are now silent, one can assume many have.
I also feel that my lifestyle had a great deal to do with their responses, and lack of same. When I wrote to them about a moderator who belittled my input about the quality I had received - input given in a professional and detailed manner, I was ignored. This miscreant is the same man who offered to help with an editing problem I was experiencing, until he found out I was a gay author, so his reaction to me in a public forum was no surprise. An old bigot is a bigot locked into his persona, and unlikely to change. Lulu's lack of response to an obvious breach of its etiquette was a surprise. Silence is complicity, to a reasonable mind. Needless to say, I do not feel that as a gay author I was - or am - welcome at Lulu.com, and I would prefer to spend my money where I am welcome.
So, I have solicited bids from other European printers and it will cost more for the book to be published, but I see no point in printing a low-quality product, just for the sake of price. My readers deserve the best quality book I can produce, in both word and construction.
I will update everyone as we progress. So far, it looks like the printing will be done in London. We shall see, and bugger the bigots.
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