Andrew Seiple's Blog: Transmissions From the Teslaverse - Posts Tagged "amazon-createspace"

For a couple of years now, Amazon Createspace has always been my go-to for making print books.

Oh, it's not perfect; formatting can be a pain until you learn the idiosyncrasies of the template, and it's fussy about the cover images that it accepts. Also, the ISBNs that used to cost me $10 went up to $99 last year, thanks to a deal with Bowker running out or something like that.

But honestly? Once you learn the quirks and compensate for them, it's still one of the best source of POD books for Indie authors. Sure, there's also Ingram Spark/Lightning Source, but from what I've seen, they're more complicated and require more money. Not a lot more, but enough that Createspace is the better bargain.

I might feel differently about them if I wanted more customization for my books. I view IS/LS as the advanced mode. If you know you're going to sell a ton, and are willing to put a few more days of work in on'em, then it might be a factor.

But as it is, Createspace is simple, cost-effective... and makes pretty darn good book.

Print books aren't a huge seller for me. Figure they make up two percent of my profits in online sales. But the ability to get them shipped to me at cost means I can sell them at conventions and turn a small profit. Usually it's enough to pay for the books and the conventions, if I'm lucky.

But it's a marketing vector I wouldn't have covered otherwise, and it also lets me donate books to libraries for another method of attack.

And I got to hand a signed copy of my first to my Dad, and watch his reaction. That's a lot to me.

Now Createspace is being phased out, so they say. Amazon KDP is picking up the slack. But... they don't have full capabilities on their paperback creation yet. They don't offer proof copies, or print author-bought copies at cost.

Someday they might do that. Until they do, it's Createspace all the way.