Manual fulfillment works…until it doesn’t. In this episode, Matt & Lauren break down the risks and realities of manually packing and shipping orders, signs it’s time to update your existing solutions, and the backend automations that can help you successfully scale with your growing sales.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Learn More About Lulu’s Sales & Fulfillment Options

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #32 | Your 7-Step Guide to Building an Online Bookstore
• Ep #80 | Scaling Up: What to Know About Bulk Book Printing
• Ep #106 | Building Your Book Business Using Lulu’s Print APIs

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Simplify Selling Books with Lulu’s Order Import Tool
• POD Solutions for Growing Businesses
• Direct Sales Basics for Selling Your Book with Lulu

💡 Watch These Videos

• How to Get Started with Direct Sales
• Distributing Your Book With Lulu: What You Need to Know
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [9:00] “You also want to be prepared for those one-off situations, I can handle this as is right now, but if there's any unexpected spike or roadblock that's going to throw off the whole system, you need to have a plan in place for how to manage that and how to handle that.”

🎙️ [31:20] “Small problems become big problems if you let them.”

🎙️ [44:01] “Being able to open up over 150 new markets, you know, overnight with virtually no money up front and just a little bit of your time? Like, that is – there's no faster way to scale a business like that.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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In this episode, Lauren & Matt discuss how entrepreneurs are using Lulu’s suite of APIs to build brand-first book businesses. We break down how savvy creators can use API integrations to automate, personalize, and scale their printing and fulfillment, and why you may want to do the same.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Learn More About Lulu’s APIs
• Lulu’s API Knowledge Base
• Developers Page
• The Pathless Path by Paul Millard

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #61 | Creating a Custom Book Business Using Lulu's Print API
• Ep #70 | How Does Selling Direct Actually Work?

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Scaling Your Business with Custom Books Using the Print API
• Personalization at Scale: How Lulu’s API Enables Customized Printing

💡 Watch These Videos

• Selling Direct with a Print API
• Webinar | The Business of Books: How To Use Lulu's Print API To Scale Your Business
  
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [2:58] “Right now, it's easier than ever to take something like our suite of APIs that are open to, you know, open source and create some really cool front end for like, personalized books. And then we just handle all of the fulfillment. It makes everything super easy.”

🎙️ [14:37] “We give you all the tools you need. You have to go build your sandcastle in the sandbox by yourself.”

🎙️ [37:24] “The APIs’ best and built for three things: automation, personalization, and scalability.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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Books can be the product or the tool that helps sell the product…and sometimes even both. In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore how print-on-demand empowers creators and businesses to use books to build their business, earn revenue, generate leads, and fuel brand growth.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #33 | Books You Can Create Using Your Existing Content
• Ep #54 | Can Books Add Value to Your Business (Beyond Just Revenue)?
• Ep #58 | Creative Ways to Use Print-on-Demand to Support Your Business

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• 5 Ways Large Organizations Can Benefit from Lulu's Book Solutions
• Scale Your Book Printing with Lulu

💡 Watch These Videos

• Ep #79 | Book Launch Blueprint: How Justin Moore Sold Over 1,000 Books in 90 Days
• 8 Reasons Your Business Needs Print-On-Demand
• 6 Unique Ways to Use Print-on-Demand

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [7:40] “Even people that I talk to that are enthusiastic about the idea of publishing a book…that are just like, yeah, I think it would be really valuable for me, for some reason or another, to publish a book with my content. But I'm not much of a writer, so I don't really know if I can. And I always push back on that.”

🎙️ [12:35] “If the concept will fall victim to technology or progress or AI, then that's going to happen regardless of the medium that you use to put the content out there.”

🎙️ [39:00] “How many of them are creating a custom piece of content and getting it into the mailbox of one of their prospective clients, versus you just landing another piece of white noise in their inbox? I'd rather be in the mailbox, not the inbox.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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In this episode, Lauren & Matt cover five different types of paid ads that can help you sell more books. We review the pros, cons, and best practices for:

🔍 Paid Search

🗣️ Paid Social Media Campaigns

📧 Email & Newsletter Sponsorships

🎙️ Pre-Roll & Mid-Roll Ads

📖 Trade Publication Print Ads

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• SparkToro
• This Old Marketing
• Written Word Media
• BookBub
• BookFunnel

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #47 | Metrics That Matter: A Guide for Authors & Creators
• Ep #76 | Making the Most of Partnerships to Grow Your Audience
• Ep #96 | Building a Landing Page for Your Book

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Boost Book Sales with Paid Search Ads
• Tracking Your Marketing Efforts With UTM Tags
  
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [12:34] “With paid search you don't need to be creating the coolest, greatest graphics and video content of all time. You can still do really effective things without a creative bone in your body.”

🎙️ [18:21] “One of the biggest mistakes people make too, in any type of paid ad scenario, is they drive everybody to Amazon to buy their book. Like, you're spending money to capture traffic, but then you're turning around and driving them right over to Amazon. It doesn't make any sense.”

🎙️ [41:04] “Just add value. That's all. If your content is valuable, if somebody finds value in it, whether the value is entertainment, education, whatever, it doesn't matter. If you're adding value, and they feel like it's worth their time to read it, it doesn't matter if it's a sponsored ad or not.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren debate the merits of using social media as a book marketing tool in 2026. Short answer? Yes, social still plays an important role! Long answer? Listen to learn about:

• Why social platforms should be used for discovery, not as the home base for your entire brand.
• How to show up with content that adds value and supports your long-term goals.
• Common mistakes that turn social media into a black hole time vortex.

Tune in now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Pew Research Center | Americans’ Social Media Use 2025
• Katie Brinkley’s Podcast Episode on Instagram | Apple | Spotify
• Adobe Express | Social Media Marketing Strategies: Complete 2025 Guide
• Deloitte Digital | 2025 State of Social Research

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #44 | How to Repurpose Your Book and Other Content for Social Media
• Ep #86 | Maximizing Your First Impression in the Attention Economy
• Ep #94 | Crafting a Content Strategy That Actually Works

💡 Read the Social Media 101 Series on the Lulu Blog

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [3:39] “Chasing virality is an exhausting and never ending tactic that in the end, for most authors, small publishers, even the larger publishers, is just not a winning tactic.”

🎙️ [29:58] “If you don't bring anything to the table, don't expect to eat.”

🎙️ [44:53] “That's the difference between building on rented land and building on owned land. You're using your social media as a content delivery platform to get people interested in your content that you're creating. And then they're coming to those content channels from social media.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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In December 2025, a sports romance series off Harlequin’s backlist, with modest sales and a niche fanbase, exploded into an overnight international sensation when the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry aired on Crave and HBO Max. New fans scrambled to get their hands on copies of the six-book series and were quickly disappointed by the realization that the titles were sold out everywhere.

What could Harlequin have done to meet the unexpected demand and avoid unknown losses in book sales? What can other publishers and authors do to capitalize on the moment? To start, they can listen to Lauren & Matt explore solutions for publishers and authors facing unexpected virality and demand that outpaces inventory supply.

Tune in now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

📚 Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #64 | Extend Your Books’ Shelf Life with Backlist Book Marketing
• Ep #68 | Maximizing Your Chances of Discoverability in Generative AI Search
• Ep #86 | Maximizing Your First Impression in the Attention Economy

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Digital Printing for Traditional Publishers
• Print-on-Demand is the Perfect Solution for Selling Backlist Titles
• 5 Ways Large Organizations Can Benefit from Lulu's Book Solutions

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [6:06] “As I was watching this unfold in real time, the whole time I was thinking, God, this would be a perfect opportunity to implement a hybrid solution here where a traditional publisher could supplement their inventory with print-on-demand books.”

🎙️ [19:27] “When you dig into the traditional publishing world and you look at where their revenues come from, most, if not all of them make more money off their backlist than they do their front lists. And not having these systems in place to protect yourself, to future proof your inventory when virality hits or some sort of marketing surge happens…it's just wild to me that every publisher doesn't have this stopgap in place these days.”

🎙️ [42:32] “Just because one book went viral doesn't mean everyone is going to go viral, but it still means that you have opportunities to seize that moment too.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
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In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore four different ways publishers integrate AI tools to better support and streamline internal workflows. While we never advocate for using AI as a substitute for human creativity or editorial judgment, these tools can be a great way to help:

1. Clean up and optimize book metadata
2. Route and triage manuscript submissions
3. Track version changes and content updates
4. Track, plan, and modify production schedules

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Learn More About

• IBPA | The Fast-Changing World of AI and Publishing
• Publishers Weekly | When It Comes to AI, Adapt or Else, Says Keith Riegert

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #59 | Mastering Book Metadata to Maximize Market Reach
• Ep #78 | How to Use Generative AI to Sell More Books
• Ep #100 | Looking Ahead at Publishing Trends for 2026

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Think Outside the Bot: How AI Can Help Content Creators
• Genres, BISAC Subject Codes, and You
• What the Hell Is Metadata?
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [4:46] “The simple rule of thumb here is that AI can click, copy, sort, summarize. But humans should choose, shape, and approve.”

🎙️ [22:05] “I just think that any time you're dealing with multiple drafts of something and you're using an outdated tool and workflow and process, you're just bound for all kinds of heartache and trouble.”

🎙️ [45:34] “Use it as a tool to free up the creative people on your team, or yourself personally. So that you can devote more time to those creative pursuits, that creative work and the things that specifically need that human touch. Let it do the boring work so that you can do the fun stuff.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
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In this episode, Lauren & Matt peer into their crystal balls for a look into the future (or make some very sound projections grounded in knowledge and experience). We take turns sharing our insights and expectations for what’s to come in the publishing industry in 2026, including:

🔮 Print-on-demand will become as important to the publishing supply chain as other tech solutions over the years

🔮 Authors will explore more ways to build their brand by blending self-publishing and traditional publishing strategies

🔮 Traditional publishers will adopt direct sales practices, both to increase their profit margins and to build relationships with readers

But the real question is…was there confetti in Matt’s future? Watch the episode on YouTube to find out!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Check out Matt’s book Profit On-Demand: The Creator’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business with Print-on-Demand
• Lulu’s 2025 Books & Business Insights Report

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #78 | How to Use Generative AI to Sell More Books
• Ep #97 | How Print-On-Demand is Fueling the Resurgence of Magazines
• Ep #99 | 2025 Plot Twists in Publishing (That Everyone Saw Coming)

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Digital Printing for Traditional Publishers
• Amazon Isn’t the Only Option: Going Wide to Diversify Your Book Sales
• What Can Lulu Do For You?
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [5:58] “Print-on-demand models will become as important, I think, to the publishing supply chain as some of the other things that have surfaced over the years.”

🎙️ [29:23] “Anytime you can gain a full percentage point, multiple or even double digit percentage points, like that's an opportunity you want to jump at. So when you look at what direct sales affords you, when that's implemented properly, especially with a print-on-demand model, there's just no arguing with that.”

🎙️ [35:35] “I think if we…let's say six months from now, we talk about the trend of POD for new users coming into the ecosystem. Yeah, I bet it's more than an uptick.”

💀 Can’t wait for our next episode? Check out our Resources page for links to our blog, our YouTube channel, and more.
💀 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at luludotcom!
💀 Email us at podcast@lulu.com
💀 Sign up for our mailing list.