CreateSpace - Anyone Use it?

[ph0ebus]

Hi all,

I am familiar with the self-publishing site Lulu.com but I see some books being made available via an Amazon subsidiary called CreateSpace which allows you to publish and sell your works via Amazon. Has anyone used it and if so, I would like to hear about your experiences with it (for better or for worse).

Thanks,

-Daniel

[centurion]

Never even heard of it before!

[ph0ebus]

Sooooo....noone else has given CreateSpace a go?

[seaJane]

Got a couple of friends who use it - will ask them.

[Guest]

There may be sites that give it rave reviews, but this isn't one of them.

CreateSpacesSucks.com!

Mike

[seaJane]

For UK customers I do know that the printed copies come from Gloucestershire not the USA - to be hoped that different printer/packager = no problems!

[Ron da Valli]

I have just received a proof copy of my book "Rhyl Lads In Foreign Fields" about the fallen of Rhyl during the Great War. It looks very good. Photos look better than expected as they advised me of problems with old photos of less than 300dpi. Just submitted a revised draft after correcting some spelling errors on my part!

[Felix C]

I tried it using only the free options up to the penultimate stage(so no proof for me) and note the following:

1. Download and use the offered free templates for text and photos

2. The cover selection is limited so provide your own. There is a template as well.

3. Provide your own ISBN

I read this

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/894767-my-experience-with-createspace

and this

http://amillionmilesfromanywhere.blogspot.jp/2012/04/my-authors-proof-from-createspace-pics.html

[Ron da Valli]

I have just received my final proof copy of my book "Rhyl Lads In Foreign Fields". I am quite pleased with the quality of the book, both the cover and the interior. The binding seems superior to similar books from Lulu. Thumbs up from me! The free templates made all the difference for me. I found the Lulu templates unworkable. Everything has been quite straightforward. I recommend Createspace for any budding self publishers.

[seaJane]

A friend thinks highly enough of it to be publishing 5 of her books on it.

[ph0ebus]

All the feedback is greatly appreciated. I am taking it all in and will come up with a plan on how to get my material out there, one way or another.

Best regards,

-Daniel

[Airshipped]

On the question of production etc?

In terms of price transparency they can be a bit vague, e.g. you prepare 1,001 things and they then turn around with a "oh that isn't covered by the design/print price plan you've chosen. It'll be 1,001 extra for 123 tables or 321 images" and so forth. Best to take back the draft script and work with proofers or copy editors yourself for certain tasks. I found that an "editorial evaluation" was quite general and money that could've been better spent on including some additional images. On the other hand I was quite happy with their turnaround times. Overall it really depends upon your price point at which you hope to get it to a publishable standard, the time-frame within which you're working and so forth.

On the question of distribution?

They also get you onto Amazon.com, and the production of the Kindle edition is quite seamless, just a week or two extra and it's available in that format. However, they do seek to tie you into their own deal, e.g. the 70% royalty rate isn't available if you go outside Kindle as your e-reader distribution network. And for bricks-and-mortar distribution? Not great: they set the wholesale price point a little high, probably to ensure the majority of sales are via Amazon, but it can mean a ridiculous price being quoted on the high street. (Bear in mind too that the high street stores don't actually bother taking in stock, i.e. they just order it from Amazon when a reader requests it in-store, so there's no additional on-the-shelf advertising taking place and it's in effect bread from your mouth when copies sell via the "expanded distribution" network).

On balance I was happy with the experience, as although it was a little bruising it got me sales in quite unexpected places, such as Japan and Korea.

On the question of getting paid?

Satisfaction may also depend upon where you live. I'd imagine from your casualty list that your primary Amazon listing would be amazon.de, which should guarantee that you'll be paid in euro. I was stuck with Amazon.com, quite problematic in terms of getting paid: they won't pay royalties to Ireland via EFT, so I was stuck with dollar-denominated cheques, for which it cost up to €100 to cash in Irish banks (for those banks that would take them). The Irish banks blamed the US clearing banks for the high charges but at the end of the day I had no discretion and so the default script the tellers would read out to me, e.g. "why don't they effect payment via EFT?" was a constant source of grumpiness to me. CreateSpace/Amazon's line was "oh but why not use a US bank account?". Indeed! No bread? Well, just have the cake instead ...

[Ron da Valli]

I did everything myself. The proofing, cover design etc. The whole thing cost me nothing, just the cost of buying copies of my book, which I thought quite reasonable. I used an independent publisher for my first book. They charged for cover design and for each individual image I used. They did a good job but I'm more impressed with second effort.

[Bernard_Lewis]

I'm looking at this for a niche book on rugby.

Looks as if you need a good level of Word skills to get the formatting right (prior to conversion to PDF) but I think I'l give it a go once I've sorted out the manuscript.

Anyone had any experience of Createspace since the last post here, please?

Bernard

[Ron da Valli]

Hello Bernard,

I have just published my third book through Createspace, again with no problems. I also use Apache Open Office instead of Microsoft Word. That is also free. Your copies come from the US of A and so take a few weeks to arrive. You could get around that by setting the minimum allowed price for your book and ordering from Amazon .co.uk. Don't forget to put the price back up afterwards!

[Bernard_Lewis]

Thanks for that. I'm using Libreoffice and have downloaded a couple of guides on formatting for Createspace. Fingers crossed!

Bernard

[seaJane]

One thing I have found out is that if you are from the UK and selling in America (which, I think that you are, by definition, because CreateSpace is an American firm) the US Inland Revenue Service claims a whopping 33% of your profit in tax.

You can get round this by applying for something called an ITIN (Income Tax International Number, I think) but the procedure seems highly labyrinthine and I haven't found a place online that explains it simply yet.

(trying to get something of my own published)

sJ

[Bernard_Lewis]

Thanks Seajane. I was aware of that hurdle, too! It's on the to do list...

Bernard

[seaJane]

Perhaps we should do it together!

[Bernard_Lewis]

Cheeky! My wife wouldn't understand...

Actually I've not looked into it in depth but think a trip to London might be required to visit the US embassy or something? We do trot up to London from sunny Wales occasionally but its not an everyday thing (

Bernard

[seaJane]

I have heard that it needs the Embassy trip but I've also heard that it's possible to e-mail an application or make it online ... only I've lost the reference.

It's the visit to London that puts me off - not that it's so very far, but I don't have the stamina I used to, and after my last appalling experience of queuing in the Passport Office (I'd have been a lot better off in a wheelchair; they don't cater for people who just need somewhere to sit down while they sign a form) I would really have to brace myself ...