Re-inventing the Wheel – part 2 of Formatting for Paperback
Today we are going to continue with our discussion of formatting for paperback.
Last week I asked the question of why you would want to list your book on IngramSpark. I had several correct answers sent my way. Yay!
Before I share the answer, let’s do a mini review…
You want to make the creation as easy as possible and as normal as possible – in other words, you want to find a simple process to create your PDF and not combine a whole bunch of activities that end up taking you hours of work. In addition, you want your book to look like the industry standard. You want your book to be noticed for the outstanding story, not the funky formatting. You don’t want the formatting to be noticed, essentially – you want it to exist to be in the background.
Many authors upload a Word doc directly to CreateSpace and that can be done, but if you are going to upload to IngramSpark, you will need a PDF, so bypass the Word doc and go straight to the creation of PDF – remove one step in the process.
As I said in last week’s post – stop contorting yourself – find a straightforward process. As we move back towards last week’s question of why to upload to IngramSpark, let’s talk about the requirements for uploading to that platform. Although there is mention briefly of a PDF created from a Word doc, the guide that IngramSpark produces to guide authors in the creation of files needed only talks about PDFs generated from Adobe’s InDesign or Quark.
In actual fact the help documents state: “Please note that PDFs created using the “save as” function from MS Word are not supported.”
If you know differently, please correct me, but as far as I know, you can’t just upload any old PDF to IngramSparks.
Why would you pay the fee and upload to the Ingram Spark list?
The short answer is so that your book is available for purchase from everyone, everywhere.
There is an excellent article about having your paperback available on both CreateSpace and IngramSpark. I was originally published on the Self-Publishing Advice blog by Karen Myers. The title is “How to Use CreateSpace and IngramSpark Together.” I suggest giving it a read – full of information.
This article points out some obvious and not so obvious facts:
Amazon and Barnes & Noble are business rivals and as such, Barnes & Noble is unlikely to list your paperback in stock if it is only available on Amazon but will do so if it is available from Ingram
Some bookstores have a philosophical objection to ordering from CreateSpace, and others don’t have a philosophical objecting, but choose to only order from the Ingram list – depends on their business practices
CreateSpace is not a world wide distributor – except for Amazon – so if your book is ordered from a bookstore in India, it will likely be distributed to the store via Ingram – resulting in lower royalties for you.
Amazon only offers one discount in expanded distribution – 60% and bookstores will expect 55%
Then we have the issue of returns. As was said in the above article:
Historically publishers grant booksellers the right to return unwanted or overstocked copies of books. IngramSpark allows you to designate whether or not your titles can be returned. Please note that many booksellers will not stock books that are not returnable; however, the cost of the returned books is deducted from the proceeds of your titles.
It is my understanding that CreateSpace books are not returnable. Books coming from IngramSparks are.
This, of course brings up the question of whether or not you want to deal with returns. That is a personal decision.
Ultimately, what are your dreams for your book? What are your goals?
If you want your book available on-line to people shopping on Amazon and you want to focus your sales on ebooks, then that is what you need to do.
However, if you want your books available for order in every bookstore the world over, you need to be looking at IngramSparks. And this means moving beyond a formatted Word doc to a PDF created using InDesign.
I recently had someone say to me – “I have expanded distribution through Amazon – so why aren’t my books being carried in Barnes & Noble.” Find below screenshots from my CreateSpace account:
The top graphic shows the three choices for expanded distribution. The next two graphics show the help blurb for BookStores and Libraries. It would seem that CreateSpace books will be carried in other stores and available at libraries.
And interesting quote from the article by Karen Myers above:
When you use the CS expanded services, what happens is that CS uses Ingram to distribute the print book (like many other small vendors). It registers your book in the Ingram database, as “Publisher=CreateSpace” (EVEN IF YOU USE YOUR OWN ISBN, NOT ONE PROVIDED BY CS). This means when a bookstore (including online bookstores) looks for your print book, they search the Ingram database, find it under “Publisher=CreateSpace”, and if they are sensitive about Amazon as a competitor they may refuse to carry it. For example, at Barnes&Noble, where my ebooks are sold, my print books appeared as “available from third parties” (when I only used CS). Some bookstores think of Amazon as competition, and others associate CS with “indies” and scorn indies as presumed low quality.
One final comment about using IngramSparks in combination with CreateSpace – there is a difference in royalties between the two. There is an incredibly good article to explain this by Jim Giammatteo HERE.
One of the issues that was brought up in Karen’s post is purchasing ISBNs, but let’s attack that subject in a future post.
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I’m happy to announce that my Goodreads book is finally live! An Author’s Guide to Goodreads: How to Network with Millions of Readers is available on Amazon Kindle.
It will gradually become available on other platforms as time progresses. I uploaded it to Amazon first and will start the process of the other platforms today.
To help people understand Goodreads, I’ve created a companion video course to go with. The book is currently $2.99 and the course is free.
I encourage you to buy yourself a Christmas present and start learning today!
The post Re-inventing the Wheel – part 2 of Formatting for Paperback appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
