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Heidi
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Apr 20, 2013 09:05PM
I'm new to the group. Sorry if this has been asked before. But can anyone give me the idiot's guide to createspace? It says you can sell through amazon etc but that just means online sales correct? I can have copies shipped to me to sell myself right? Ive heard that some bookstores like Hastings (the only one in my town) wont work with anything amazon related. Is that true? I couldn't do a book signing there? Anything else vital I need to know?
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Heidi, I published through Createspace. Basically, Createspace will distribute your POD paperback outside of Amazon - if you pay extra for the expanded distribution. The minimum price you will be allowed to set for your paperback edition will be higher because of the extended distribution costs. My package provided me with 40 free copies shipped to me for my use. Any additional copies that I order would be at a substantial discount (just a tad over $4 a copy) that can be shipped not only to me but to another party like a reviewer or blogger. Expanded distribution does mean that your bookstore can order copies to sell on your shelves, but there appears to be some evidence from other threads that independents are reluctant to order and sell books from Createspace/Amazon. You should check with your local bookstore to find out if they have any issues with Createspace. You may be surprised to find them more receptive in helping a local celeb. I hope that helps.
Heidi,It's very difficult to get any POD books into bookshops because the shops' margins are so low (the wholesalers take a whopping cut.) I don't know if bookshops have anything extra against CreateSpace.
I found I could create a book with CreateSpace that was very cheap to produce. So, author copies and copies sold through Amazon's online store, could be kept at a low price. However, if I put them into extended distribution (i.e. could theoretically go into bookshops if they agreed despite their low margin) the price of the book had to be significantly raised to cover the wholesalers fees.
Heidi, when I feel a bit better I'll tell you about an approach I did to get local places to invite me to do a booksigning. Don't let me forget. It invoves a post I put on twitter.
Heidi,As a CreateSpace author, if you decide to become one, you can order as many copies of your own book as you like at cost. For a local bookstore signing, the best option would be either to buy the copies yourself and sell them at a discount at the store, or extract a commitment and a check from the store to cover production costs and your royalty, then order the books yourself and have them shipped to the store.
Expanded Distribution costs only $25 and allows bookstores (and libraries, if you accept the free CreateSpace ISBN rather than setting your own publisher) to order the books. But as others have noted, you either have to raise the price of the book, which affects online sales, or accept minimal royalties—say, 50 cents on a book selling for $16.99.
Also as noted, CreateSpace offers packages that include a certain number of free copies. Those do assume that you are willing to pay up front for editing or other services, though. At least, I think so.
Hope that helps.
Heidi wrote: "I'm new to the group. Sorry if this has been asked before. But can anyone give me the idiot's guide to createspace? It says you can sell through amazon etc but that just means online sales correct..."Have you signed up for an account on CS site? I have - not sure if I will use them yet but I wanted to find out more about them and I think all the info should be on the site. I don't think that creating a user account actually means you have to use them for your book.
My paperback is through createspace. I was experimenting at first, and had copies sent to me, which was a good thing because *I* goofed and forget to add page numbers, thinking they'd be included automatically, so my point in jumping in here is that it was simple to reupload the book, no problems. Also, since its POD I didn't have to come up with capital seed money.
However, I have yet to try to do booksignings or libraries/bookstores.
The upside is if you know how to format the book, its easy to set up.
The downsides are:
-- there isn't a way (or at least I didn't figure out a way) to have your cover wrap over the spine and fill back and front, nor bleed. IF someone knows how to do that, let me know.
-- IN order to make anything close to a reasonable profit, I had to make the price higher than I would have otherwise, which probably deflates internet sales to some degree.
-- you have to experiment with different sizes in order to get your page numbers to work out, cost/profit wise.
-- I had color illustrations, which had to be b&W or else the cost would be exorbitant.
-- wasn't entirely thrilled with the sturdiness of the pages. For example, I can't use a flair pen or anything that bleeds to sign the inside plate. I have to use a ballpoint. Which I make up for by doing a little drawing, but still.
The Createspace experience was pretty easy for me. They walk you through all the steps. I've been doing design and layout for a long time, so I did my own book design and cover rather than using their templates. Selling books--now, that's an entirely different story :)
John wrote: "there isn't a way (or at least I didn't figure out a way) to have your cover wrap over the spine and fill back and front, nor bleed. IF someone knows how to do that, let me know."John, are you using CreateSpace's Cover Creator? It doesn't seem to be set up for that, unless you use the completely blank cover and upload your own TIFF file (make sure it is at least 450 dots/pixels per inch, or CS will howl about the resolution being too low).
That requires you to have a program like Photoshop or Photoshop Express, in which case you might just as well avoid Cover Creator altogether and create a camera-ready PDF. Make it Acrobat 4 compatible and set the resolution to 450 dpi on export, and you should be okay. But you do have to measure the cover to a fare-thee-well to make it work.
Note that CS will still complain about the resolution being too low, but you can ignore it. The cover will print just fine.
I have not had problems with paper quality. I recommend the cream paper. It looks better and is thicker.
Hope that helps.
C.P. wrote: "Hope that helps"yes it does, thank you. I'm going to try that here in a bit and see if that works. I'm an expert at Photoshop, but was confused about adding the cover image (first time using createspace) It's nice to be in such a helpful community!
John wrote: "C.P. wrote: "Hope that helps"yes it does, thank you. I'm going to try that here in a bit and see if that works. I'm an expert at Photoshop, but was confused about adding the cover image (first tim..."
If you need help, send me a message. I actually use InDesign for my covers because I am so much more familiar with it, but I know enough about Photoshop to be useful if needed.
C.P. wrote: "John wrote: "C.P. wrote: "Hope that helps"yes it does, thank you. I'm going to try that here in a bit and see if that works. I'm an expert at Photoshop, but was confused about adding the cover ima..."
thanks, but like I said, I'm an expert at photoshop. I've been using it for over 25 years. I'm a graphic artist. the part I was unfamiliar with was interfacing with create space. :)
John, I downloaded a cover a template from CreateSpace. It seemed weird. The template was much larger that the cover, with loads of blank space at the top and sides. However, I fitted my own images over the template for front, back AND spine. I didn't wrap a cover image through the spine but see no reason why that method would not have allowed it.
Heidi wrote: "I'm new to the group. Sorry if this has been asked before. But can anyone give me the idiot's guide to createspace? It says you can sell through amazon etc but that just means online sales correct..."I have talked with a number of independent bookstores, and many do have a problem with Createspace. From what I can tell this issue is two-fold: 1. they want a return guarantee policy, and 2. they hate Amazon and don't want anything to do with a company affiliated with the enemy. This one I have the most trouble understanding. Every single book in their shop is also available on Amazon already!
I've found a couple of stores that will take the books on consignment. But that means you have to supply the books, and if they don't sell, you have to agree to take them back.
John wrote: "My paperback is through createspace. I was experimenting at first, and had copies sent to me, which was a good thing because *I* goofed and forget to add page numbers, thinking they'd be included a..."The cover art for my most recent novel definitely did wrap around from front to back all in one image. Here's the link if you want to take a look.
http://www.threewritersofromance.com/...
John wrote: "thanks, but like I said, I'm an expert at photoshop. I've been using it for over 25 years. I'm a graphic artist. the part I was unfamiliar with was interfacing with create space. :)"So much the better. All the information you need is here: https://www.createspace.com/Products/....
Download the cover template by all means, but then calculate your own spine width based on the final number of pages for your book (the templates are estimates). And save as Acrobat 4, because it flattens any transparency in a way that doesn't look weird. Otherwise, the process is pretty straightforward—much easier than Photoshop! ;)
C.P. wrote: "John wrote: "thanks, but like I said, I'm an expert at photoshop. I've been using it for over 25 years. I'm a graphic artist. the part I was unfamiliar with was interfacing with create space. :)"..."
thanks!
Ken wrote: "The Createspace experience was pretty easy for me. They walk you through all the steps. I've been doing design and layout for a long time, so I did my own book design and cover rather than using th..."I'm with you on this one. Having to get things ready and following guidlines from Smashwords actually made createspace and KDP pretty simple. Although I don't have the book design experience you have, creating one is fairly decent in the right resolution.
I created a separate front and back, didn't worry about the wraparound, I used the wizard itself
C.P. wrote: "Download the cover template by all means"..."
I did that, and worked with it. It concerns me there is a whole bunch of white space surrounding the cover, by using the template. Am I supposed to leave that in, or trim it out?
I left the white space in. It worked fine.
If you're planning to submit the PDF, leave it in. CreateSpace prefers that really large page size, although the new instructions say you can use any size so long as the cover itself is absolutely centered.If you plan to save your cover as a TIFF and upload it to the blank template in Cover Creator (I forget what it's called, The Pine or something equally silly, but if you page through the options, you will find it eventually), then you can trim most of it out—again so long as you have the cover itself perfectly centered in what remains. I think I remember that it worked best to leave at least half an inch of white space around the file, though.
The only advantages of using the Cover Creator seem to be that you can see on screen where the trim will fall and that the program supplies the white box for the bar code instead of requiring you to place it yourself. You also get a pre-approval when you submit the file. You do have to go through the boxes and "explain" to CreateSpace that you don't want it writing your author and title info on top of the stuff you put in yourself, though.
John wrote: "My paperback is through createspace. I was experimenting at first, and had copies sent to me, which was a good thing because *I* goofed and forget to add page numbers, thinking they'd be included a..."I haven't had any problem creating covers using createspace's instructions on cover size, bleed, trim allowances, etc. I don't use the CS template. I now use a combination of Photoshop and MS Word to make them, but previously got by fine with the combination of Preview (an Apple program included on my Mac) and MS Word.
I agree with C.P. regarding cream paper.
Here is an example of the latest cover I created.
