My Decision to Use CreateSpace
When I first published Still Boy Crazy After All These Years, I only published it for Kindle. It was easy to do, and there was no cost involved. Sure, there was some formatting to do, and a cover to design, but it really wasn't bad at all. I had to get a little help online with the table of contents, and it took me a little time to create a cover that was appealing. I found that you can download one BigStock photo without joining and paying for the service, so I searched their database for a redhead with long hair that would look like I pictured Maggie. And there she was! After a few tries, I had a cover I was happy with, and it was free.
I'm an impatient sort. Yes, it took me nine years to get this book out of my head and down on the computer. But now that it is done, I want everything to happen RIGHT NOW. Well, being a completely new, unknown author, with a single book on Amazon, sales were not happening right away. I nosed around a bit, and decided to run a three-day free promotion on the book. I was thrilled to see it downloaded 141 times in three days! And then begain the waiting for reviews to come... tap tap tap... well, they are coming, albeit slowly. But these things take time.
Then I got to thinking, not everyone has a Kindle, or the Kindle app. And there are a lot of people who just prefer to hold a book in their hands. Being a newbie at this publishing thing, I thought (incorrectly) that you had to pay for print copies to be made. Then I landed on CreateSpace and started reading. Lo and behold, CreateSpace costs nothing! You create your book, upload the text and cover, and then proof it (you can order a proof copy for next to nothing, or review it online). I definitely recommend getting the proof copy. Mine cost less than three dollars and I had it in a few days. There's just something about holding your book in your hands for the first time...
The beauty of CreateSpace (and maybe other similar companies) is that the book is printed on demand, so you don't have to order a thousand copies and pay for them up front. If someone orders a copy, they print it and send it out. Amazing. You get your royalty, Amazon gets their cut, everybody's happy.
Getting the book ready took a little time. The formatting is completely different from the Kindle version, but they have some cool templates out there that I found. You just download a template, and then dump your Word file right into it and voila! It's practically done. I did have a little challenge getting the headers to be different on opposing pages, and getting the page numbers to start on page 2, but the online Word help was useful there. After about an hour of pure frustration, I got it.
The cover, too, had to be redesigned to include a front, spine, and back. Another challenge. I am not a graphic artist. But a template came to the rescue for that too. There is a place on CreateSpace where you can enter the size of your book that you selected, and the number of pages, and it gives you a perfect template with exact measurements. I then took those measurements to Microsoft Publisher and created a "custom" layout. From there it was easy to design the cover - front, back, and spine. My book was ready to publish!
I uploaded everything into CreateSpace, and within 12 hours I was notified that everything was good for publication, and I could order a proof. Once I got the proof copy, I did go back and make a couple of changes to the cover, and I fixed one formatting oops that I missed the first time. Another 12 hours for review, and it was ready to go. In the meantime, you can go ahead and enter your price for the book and where you would like it to be sold, all of those little details.
Before I left for work in the morning the next day, I went on to the CreateSpace website and clicked Publish. At lunchtime I looked on Amazon, and there were four different sellers hawking copies of my printed book! And interestingly, there were four different prices. Amazon listed it for the retail price I selected, and the other three had added a few dollars to it. Interesting; I didn't know that would happen. Apparently they pick up new books and tack on a profit margin for themselves. I wonder how that works for them when every customer can see all of the prices listed one right after the other.
So now, I am waiting for those reviews to start rolling in, and thinking about what my next book will be about. Next time, it will be much easier!
I'm an impatient sort. Yes, it took me nine years to get this book out of my head and down on the computer. But now that it is done, I want everything to happen RIGHT NOW. Well, being a completely new, unknown author, with a single book on Amazon, sales were not happening right away. I nosed around a bit, and decided to run a three-day free promotion on the book. I was thrilled to see it downloaded 141 times in three days! And then begain the waiting for reviews to come... tap tap tap... well, they are coming, albeit slowly. But these things take time.
Then I got to thinking, not everyone has a Kindle, or the Kindle app. And there are a lot of people who just prefer to hold a book in their hands. Being a newbie at this publishing thing, I thought (incorrectly) that you had to pay for print copies to be made. Then I landed on CreateSpace and started reading. Lo and behold, CreateSpace costs nothing! You create your book, upload the text and cover, and then proof it (you can order a proof copy for next to nothing, or review it online). I definitely recommend getting the proof copy. Mine cost less than three dollars and I had it in a few days. There's just something about holding your book in your hands for the first time...
The beauty of CreateSpace (and maybe other similar companies) is that the book is printed on demand, so you don't have to order a thousand copies and pay for them up front. If someone orders a copy, they print it and send it out. Amazing. You get your royalty, Amazon gets their cut, everybody's happy.
Getting the book ready took a little time. The formatting is completely different from the Kindle version, but they have some cool templates out there that I found. You just download a template, and then dump your Word file right into it and voila! It's practically done. I did have a little challenge getting the headers to be different on opposing pages, and getting the page numbers to start on page 2, but the online Word help was useful there. After about an hour of pure frustration, I got it.
The cover, too, had to be redesigned to include a front, spine, and back. Another challenge. I am not a graphic artist. But a template came to the rescue for that too. There is a place on CreateSpace where you can enter the size of your book that you selected, and the number of pages, and it gives you a perfect template with exact measurements. I then took those measurements to Microsoft Publisher and created a "custom" layout. From there it was easy to design the cover - front, back, and spine. My book was ready to publish!
I uploaded everything into CreateSpace, and within 12 hours I was notified that everything was good for publication, and I could order a proof. Once I got the proof copy, I did go back and make a couple of changes to the cover, and I fixed one formatting oops that I missed the first time. Another 12 hours for review, and it was ready to go. In the meantime, you can go ahead and enter your price for the book and where you would like it to be sold, all of those little details.
Before I left for work in the morning the next day, I went on to the CreateSpace website and clicked Publish. At lunchtime I looked on Amazon, and there were four different sellers hawking copies of my printed book! And interestingly, there were four different prices. Amazon listed it for the retail price I selected, and the other three had added a few dollars to it. Interesting; I didn't know that would happen. Apparently they pick up new books and tack on a profit margin for themselves. I wonder how that works for them when every customer can see all of the prices listed one right after the other.
So now, I am waiting for those reviews to start rolling in, and thinking about what my next book will be about. Next time, it will be much easier!
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