5 Things I've Learned About CreateSpace

After a lengthy sabbatical, I've picked up the blog pen again to keep you abreast of my adventures in self-publishing land.


To catch everyone up:  I was offered two eBook agreements by small time post-apocalyptic eBook publishers, and after wrestling with my indecision, I chose not to do either.  Stupid, perhaps, but some part of me felt that this was something I had to do alone.


Fast forward to today - I'm in the midst of editing the printed version of my book, after getting it to CreateSpace via Amazon.  It's print-on-demand, so there's no cost, just a percentage of your sales.  As opposed to publishing houses like AuthorHouse, I think this is totally worth it.  Sure other places like AuthorHouse offer a lot of perks, but they're also expensive.


So, without further ado:  5 things I've learned about CreateSpace:

1. It's pretty easy to use, but the layout must be exactly to their specs.  Don't mess with it, or your book will look amateurish. 
2. It does require an ISBN number.  If you're self published and don't have one yet, get one.  It's about $129, and if you go through CreateSpace to get it they'll add it to their distribution list for libraries.  Not really relevant for an R-rated book such as Under a Broken Sun, but definitely something I'm going to do with The Timepiece Chronicles.
1. NOTE:  Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing does NOT require an ISBN - they assign an Amazon number regardless.  So if you're not planning on printing, don't worry about it.
2. However, if you want to protect your work thoroughly, it does help ;)
3. I pretty much just added 2 because my teacher always said when outlining every 1 must have at least a 2.
3. The cover can be a bit tricky, but if you have the cover for your eBook already prepared, it's not too hard to get it into the format and size CreateSpace requires.  Just don't expect a "slam it in" or as the old infomercial used to say, "set it and forget it".  It'll take some tweaking.
4. The site overall does a good job of walking you through what you need, and letting you know if something doesn't fit or doesn't work.
5. Finally, when you get it all complete, for about $12 you can send yourself a PROOF copy to review and edit.  I HIGHLY recommend this, one because it's TOTALLY COOL to see your book in soft cover for the first time, and two, it's a lot easier to edit when it's in book form, because you read it like a real book.  And if you're like me, you'll find a lot of errors you would've caught in any real book.

That's it for now.  In the interest of keeping blogs short, I'll sign off.

Coming up:  trouble with my inner child, and how that stopped me from writing, and 10 reasons why I left Apple and switched to Surface Pro 3.

Later on, my writing family!

Decisions, Decisions.

I got an offer from Permuted Publishing!  A three book deal for Under a Broken Sun, which is pretty exciting!

So why am I not bouncing off the walls?

Because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!

Is it a good offer?  A bad offer?  What do I look for when signing my rights away?

The challenge of being a self-published author.

I'm searching for agents, but if you go to an agent with a publisher in hand, they're less likely to work with you, especially if it's a smaller niche publisher like Permuted (they are strictly post-apocalytpic).  Plus an agent knows the big boys - Simon & Schuster, etc, which means bigger advances.

In other words, I don't want to jump at the first person expressing interest.

BUT, do I risk turning them down just to have them disappear?  And then maybe never get another offer again?

WHAT TO DO!?!?

Leave advice via the comments.  It's free, and will be taken as such.  :)

Oh well.  Book 2 calls.  WRITE ON!

Amazon vs. Nook for Self Publishers

Not that I'm an expert, but I have tried over the past two months selling on both Amazon and Nook, and here's what I can tell you:

Nookie books just ain't worth it.

In the time since I've set up a Nook sale, versus amazon, I've sold 1 book on the Nook site.  265 on the Amazon site.  Now that's not a scientific study, and if I pushed it more with direct links to the site on Facebook (see previous posts on advertising on Facebook), maybe I would've gotten, I dunno, maybe 10.  Point is there's a night and day difference.

Among them:
1)  Amazon was a HELLUVA lot easier to format the document to their specs.  Nook has a manual process that almost allows you to either type in the document (like someone's gonna type 80,000 words on a web page) or upload a document, which is translated into a document to edit.  The chapter breaks were all messed up, which I set up by simple page breaks.

2)  Amazon has better marketing for self-published authors.  The KDP Select program, which I dropped out of to get onto Nook, has some promotions opportunities to take advantage of like free giveaway days (5 per every 90 days) and a countdown promotion (the price of your book starts low and gradually increases, which seems a little backward, but whatever).  The point is, when you're doing these promotions, Amazon is pushing it for you.   How?  Because...

3)  Amazon is linked to by a ton of freebie sites.  When you offer your book for free, hundreds (maybe thousands, I didn't count) are updated automatically for people looking for free good reads.  That adds to your readership, which increases your chances of reviews, which increases your chances of more readers.

4)  Amazon's reach is obvious versus Nook.  Barnes & Noble should be commended for trying to stay in competition with Amazon, but with the Kindle Fire going gangbusters and the multiple Kindle offerings, Nook is on life-support, and someone's gonna pull the plug.  You never want to see a monopoly form, and iBook from Mac still has a chance due to the popularity of Apple, but Nook just can't compete.

5)  As the article linked above also mentioned, Amazon is much more global in reach.  For me that's not as huge a deal, since my books both take place in America and are more or less American-centric, but I did have a huge amount of sales in the UK, as they are a great target audience for secular or atheistic post-apocalyptic stories like mine.  And the freebies have sent my book to 8 different countries.  That's exciting, if nothing else.  Great to say my book is in 9 countries.  (Not translated into 9 languages, though.  That's BIG time.)

There's more, and I'd be happy to take questions based on my brief experience, of if self-published authors have other experiences, let me know.

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight