Dec
7th
2021
No more books. · 9:50pm Dec 7th, 2021
Well, it was a good run. Lulu just sent out a message stating that they will not allow fanfiction, in any form, to be sold through their site, even privately, and that they're shutting down my account there. As of now, every book is offline.
It's disappointing that they chose to go that way, but I suppose it's not surprising. At least we got a good couple of years out of it, and I hope anyone who was wanting to get a copy was able to do so.
I guess there's not much else to say about it. It was still a fun project, and getting physical copies of my own stories was cool. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to go through with it! 
N-NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That sucks sooo much.
I am glad I already have all your books from them. Though im still waiting for Fragments to be delivered.
Oh my god. I've ordered some books from other authors literally 10 days ago, and now they're doing this. I don't know if I should consider myself lucky that I got to order two books there just some days before shutting down (tho I still see them as available for purchase, I guess, it will take some time to get rid of all fanfiction there), or unlucky because I only now learned that you had your books there.
Well, now I can only hope that someday your things will be published by other publishers like Ministry of Image, I would absolutely love to own a physical copy of your Fo:E - The Chrysalis
5614651
Yeah, I don't know if this is part of some big search-and-purge process, or if it's just something that got reported to them so they felt they had to do something about it. If there's any other fanfiction books there you want to get, well, hard to say how long it'll stay there...
At this point, I don't really have any plans to search out a new publishing site, especially since most would probably end the same way. If some place like Ministry of Image was interested in publishing my stories, though... well, I certainly couldn't say no to that
I guess I should be glad I ordered The Chrysalis before it was too late. But now that I know I could have gotten the Fragments trilogy, I can't help but be disappointed. At least we can still enjoy everything here, right?
Man that REALLY sucks. I was actually hoping to order all your books this Christmas with some bonus Christmas-induced influx of money, I'm really bummed now :(
"No fanfiction" has been their official policy for a while, but they haven't been policing it very hard. If this message means they're going to try harder then... I guess now is the time to grab ponyfics before they disappear?
Not that I don't already have most of them...
Damn that sucks. I was thinking of picking up a copy of your fallout equestria fic.
Wow. :O Wonder if we'll be seeing this happen more often in the near future.
So a bunch of pony fanfics are still there but a much larger number are gone.
The thing i noticed is the ones that are still there do not have the MLP or "MY little Pony" keyword tag against the books.
Were your books tagged with MLP?
Its just a thought but i wonder if the did a mass purge on the keyword.
Also you might be interested in this blog post from 2019 in regards to fanfiction
https://blog.lulu.com/fanfiction-what-is-it-and-why-should-you-care/
It seems like they work on the grounds of. its not technically allowed but we will leave it there if we don't know about it or its not reported.
(checks) Mine are still there, but they are "private you need the link in order to order, not on the global searchable Lulu site" type.
5614729
So were mine.
5614726
I don't remember for certain, but seeing as I kept them private and needing a direct link rather than being searchable, I don't think I set any tags at all, because they wouldn't do anything. The email I received only specifically mentioned The Chrysalis (and typed out, rather than form-filled), so my stories might have caught attention because of the Fallout elements of that story rather than the MLP elements.
5614736
Hmmm you may be right. as I just went though a bunch more stuff I bought and its still up.
I don't know of any other fallout fics on lulu so can't check
It really sucks they closed your account entirely as your other fics are great to. I am just glad i own them all already. I hope you manage to get your fics back up somewhere for physical copies.
Well that sucks to hear. Hopefully another site will allow you to publish your stories.
*hug* I’m sorry to hear that
SHHHHHHHHHIT. I didn't order all of your books >< >< ><
Oh dammit, I've been planning to order eventually but it slipped my mind. When they took down iisaw's books I really should've gone around and picked up the other hard copies I wanted. Ministry of Image did pick them up though so maybe.
Ah. Welp. Pity.
Well, as was mentioned in the comments, it looks like not everything from Ponyfeather Publishing's catalog has gone down yet, from a quick check, but it sounds like it may be a matter of not-too-much time, if they're really starting to crack down.
I guess now Glorious Mother Russia will be the global hub of My Little Pony fanfiction printing? Unless someone else starts up a press somewhere. (Or unless there's already another one I'm not aware of.)
Anyway, thanks for letting people know.
Damnit, I was thinking of buying a few fanfics soon from lulu :/
5614857
PFP's unaffected (so far), as are all the other Lulu-based ponyfic prints I've spot-checked. This is (unfortunately) just business as usual, as 5614693 mentioned -- printing fanfic has always been against Lulu's TOS, but they don't appear to do any proactive policing.
5614924
Oh! Okay, that seems like at least hopeful news and information; thanks!
5614924
What do you mean by PFP?
5614960
Ponyfeather Publishing, which Reese mentioned in their comment I was replying to.
5614961
I hate acronyms, so much.
I might have panic bought a bunch more pony books.
I might need to rearrange my bookshelves again.
I might be able to squeeze the Optimalverse stories in that other shelf on the left with the Fallout Equestria ones, then move some of the Pratchett up to ...
Oof, wow. I'm glad I bought all three books of The Chrysalis.
Dang, sorry to hear that Phoenix. I am glad I finished my Chrysalis collection, though I did end up missing out on both Fragments and A New Way.
Either way, I am super happy with what I've got, and consider the short amount of time I spent helping with Without a Hive to be well worthwhile. Both copies have front and center placement on my dining room bookshelf. I guess that means I won't be able to return the favor and send you a copy of Crystals & Chitin when I am done. Maybe other printers are still accepting?
5615008
I haven't really looked into it, though I imagine most printers are going to have copyright rules that could lead to the same results eventually. Then again, "eventually" might be a while. My books were there for more than two years before they decided to remove them. I don't know what other publishers might be like.
5614726
The article makes a very shaky distinction between transfiction and fanfiction, with the example of the former being Mark Twain's borrowing Sherlock Holmes in A Double-Barreled Detective Story. They say the difference is in whether you're adding anything original, which... I've read some very original fanfiction. The unspoken argument very much seems to be "Mark Twain can do it but you can't."
The section on copyright and fair use ignores that "Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole" in fanfiction is typically zero. Nobody's transcribing episode scripts, and fanfiction isn't in any way pirating the show. Simply using the name of a character or setting is not copyright infringement, or nobody would ever be able to talk about what they're watching or reading.
Now, I'm not saying Lulu are the bad guys. They're operating under the threat of legal action themselves, and like us their main way of working is "get away with it". The article represents the position they're required to take, not what they actually believe.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/619597724865527829/919046914941538304/MJ4PCyo-F8sS0GTgwn2Ei9V4-HhNbibS88ACb_xdFGJoV1QtL26t7h9dWaJz2l_9Sg61I1qd1YCp2N4O-ozBEVbGj7punkIQ4UYcYTJ6zJPgdIMM_0joaPqjyep7TQnPoXL1bUjud96d7L_CdzwaScPzrYhw7IL_1j-pZEF4WYt5EPasONEC3xZya2rW9DO2xzwEBoX5Z3McN5C6m6lEB-WOMhYEU39wILs0-UCFlVjBuZWGBk6jv_-AxV5IPaiaSMVMHV2MiKL22raNpt7SS8M1vLvyeFc2_07vTV1KDSFJJQX4okIFJY1l0ZbSEV-ZhbXWlQFi9z5sNwuOKpRmK0oZQ7U5IZH2-unyPxJlBDpf9e6bYliPe0JA1kNbGZVj2KanpM_JAThR3-K_tH8KdDuVRHsgO7IEnEfDbWI45quR_V_OefrIGwqqlyfhNlJxJ9xswx5ZJ3Z-gtZCvSiWgkb8Mpw2Nca0g1XAOEfAIdy8gMgHBjMhFVtHdHo4..png
So this just arrived. I am glad the orders made were still delivered.
5615770
That's very good to hear!
Well, that's very disappointing, I had planned on eventually ordering at least the first volume :c I feel like Ministry of Image would be a great place to pick it up, since you already have the formatting, designs, and covers all done! I wonder if we can submit ideas to them...
I was literally about to buy your books right now too. Damn. If there's any way to buy your printed works again, please message, I'd really like them ucu
Ooooooh my gosh I am so glad I bought them a few months back! I had been debating it for years when I finally did
Aw, heck. I was planning on getting one of those when I had more money!
Would you ever consider another site, though, like Ministry of Image?
5614729
Mine were private, too. That's not the problem.
5614736
Lulu doesn't really care as long as they have deniability. When someone reports it to them, they have to take action to avoid legal exposure. Somebody ratted you out.
5616923
They nuked his account.
5614972
Remember: It's not that you have too many books, it's that you don't have enough bookshelves.
5626269
I don't have enough house.
5626327
I'm sure you have a lot of furniture that can be replaced by free-standing shelves. Most people have chairs and small tables that they don't really use that often!
Bummer I just saw lulu having a sale and came here to see if I could get one :(
No....
https://ponyfeatherpublishing.com/
5642754
They don't take unsolicited works. They reach out to authors they want to publish, rather than the other way around.
Honestly, at this point I'm not really looking for a new publisher, but I appreciate the sentiment.
5642781
Oh..... okay....
Oh. Oh no. https://youtu.be/gSY7XH_WW8U