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Createspace Expanded Distribution: Pros/Cons
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Expanded distribution does not change the royalty you receive from Amazon or Createspace. Those will always be the same percentages based on production costs. However, expanding your options means there is now a middleman (Ingram, if I recall) who requires a cut of the profits, as well as the reseller, who will expect to make a profit as well, which is why your cut is greatly reduced. There is no risk of losing money by selecting expanded distribution *if* you were already planning on pricing your book high enough to make this option viable. Some people think they have a better chance at selling more books on Amazon if they have a lower price. It all depends. Truth be told, unless you've got a proven track record for selling, you won't see too many sales from expanded distribution channels.
I hope that helped and didn't further confuse you.
Christina, thanks for your comments. I realized that it would not affect my royalties for sales through Amazon or Createspace. I was just wondering if anyone had done it and found that sales increased by making their book available through the additional sales channels.
Personally, I have elected for expanded distribution, but I hardly sell any paperback books at all, so I have not had any third party sales.
We were on expanded distribution for about a year. We opted in when they dropped the flat fee and raised the minimum price to account for the middleman.We saw no sales on any of the expanded channels, and the given the length of our books, the minimum price got to be too high in our estimation. We opted out when we released our third book, and while we have seen a tiny increase in sales, it may be more from the increased exposure of having a third book than the price drop, or it could be mere chance. (We sell so few paperbacks that the sales can be considered zero for all practical purposes.)
I've had my paperback in expanded distribution since I published it about 2 years ago. I see it more as a courtesy to readers than a way to make money; like Owen, my paperback sales are insignificant compared to e-books. I do sell one or two each month through the expanded channels, so I think it makes sense to leave it there.
My paperback/ebook ratio appears to be quite different than everyone else. My Kindle sales account for about 12% of my total sales. I'm thinking that I might try Expanded Distribution for one of my books and see what happens.
I really don't know anything about it, but CS in general has been funny. I can see how many copies have sold, yet people are selling "used" copies on Amazon and ebay, and I can tell no one has actually bought them.
I guess I like that places are selling the book or putting out that weren't before, even if no one is buying.
I've sold a couple of copies through expanded distribution and as it costs me nothing I see no reason not to use it. But then I have my books priced high enough to qualify anyway so I don't consider it a negative at all.
B. wrote: "I really don't know anything about it, but CS in general has been funny. I can see how many copies have sold, yet people are selling "used" copies on Amazon and ebay, and I can tell no one has ac..."
Those "used" books are phantom inventory. The seller likely had a reseller account and will have the book printed and shipped should anyone actually purchase from them.
My e books sales are far outstripping my print versions. Also, I find it interesting that Kobo out of Canada outsells Amazon by a wide margin. (Lest I seem too successful, I am talking double digits, not triple!)
I opted for expanded distribution for my debut novel (released at the beginning of April) to make it easy for my Canadian fans (mostly family and friends of family) to purchase the paperback. The royalty is a pittance on the expanded sales, but at least it adds to the tally of books sold.
Christina mentions Ingram. I am planning to sell through Ingram at some point. Not right away. I will publish my debut novel next month with CS and all of the eBooks. Question: does Expanded Distribution mean CS will distribute books through Ingram? My objective is to sell print books internationally, especially in Asia. Thus my need to sell through Ingram to get into book stores in some of those countries.
Not sure if CS distributes to Ingram, but Lulu.com does, and with Lulu you can also create hardcovers.
Stanton wrote: "Christina mentions Ingram. I am planning to sell through Ingram at some point. Not right away. I will publish my debut novel next month with CS and all of the eBooks. Question: does Expanded Distri..."I've heard that CS does, but I cannot personally confirm it.
CS does distribute through Ingram. However, all that means is your book will be listed in the Ingram catalog. You still have to do the legwork to convince a bookstore to stock your books. Most will not stock POD books, since they can't return them.That's one advantage of using Ingram Spark instead of CS or Lulu, because they allow returns. I haven't used them myself, though, so I can't vouch for how well that works.
Ken wrote: "CS does distribute through Ingram. However, all that means is your book will be listed in the Ingram catalog. You still have to do the legwork to convince a bookstore to stock your books. Most will..."Ingram will allow for returns if you shell out the money for your own ISBN set and I believe that to be quite a bit more than their standard package, which is more than CS, and keep in mind that if you don't mind CS as your publisher, you can do this for free.
Ken wrote: "CS does distribute through Ingram. However, all that means is your book will be listed in the Ingram catalog. You still have to do the legwork to convince a bookstore to stock your books. Most will..."
If you go directly with Ingram you'll have to pay a fee, or order a minimum number of books. Going through Lulu or CS gets you there but costs you nothing.
If you go directly with Ingram you'll have to pay a fee, or order a minimum number of books. Going through Lulu or CS gets you there but costs you nothing.
My bet is that since Createspace decided to make this option free to everyone they must have realized that authors don't really benefit from it or make much sales from it. Not saying that's the reason but given it was a paid option and now it's free it makes you wonder hoe much authors really do make from it.
My third book I paid for expanded distribution (2 years ago cost $35). It did well at first before tapering off. (Computer issues plague the sequel blergh). Since expanded distribution is now free I see my books in other bookstores (though not in my local shops) and they do okay depending on season and genre. Released my 9th novel recently and it moved a physical copy (these days I'm making more from ebooks.) Just keep producing
Since I started this topic, I thought I'd give an update. I enabled Expanded Distribution for all three of my novels and they are now appearing on Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.ca, although they still haven't shown up on Indigo/Chapters.I am hoping that Canadian readers will be able to purchase the paperback versions without having to pay the exorbitant shipping costs for cross-border shipping if order on Amazon.com. On Amazon.ca, it says the book is "Temporarily out of stock" which surprised me since it's print-on-demand. However, it does say it ships from and is sold by Amazon.ca so it should qualify for the free shipping on orders over $25. When I contacted support, they seemed to contradict what it says on the website. He said it would be sold by a third party, not Amazon, and would still ship from the US. Does anyone have experience as to what will actually happen?
The way I see it is that Create Space sells through Amazon. EDC results in more sellers on Amazon but the rates of these sellers are significantly higher. So it is not likely that anyone would select them at Amazon and royalty would not be impacted at Amazon.EDC does result in negligible royalty but the advantage is that it opens a market, which was otherwise closed without EDC. So any sale through this channel is actually a bonus!!
BTW, if you feel that Canada is treated like a step-child, I wonder what you will feel about us who are based in India - not only does CS not provide POD services here, they also do not make ANY payment unless earnings cross 100 in (each of) the currencies. So for us, it is actually providing some earnings to CS and EDC. But one hopes for some readership.
Note that if you want to use both CreateSpace AND IngramSpark (for example, because you want to increase your distribution to bookstores by providing them a higher % of the sale and having only one middle man), then you should NOT use Expanded Distribution. NEVER. (It won't work even if you unmarked the Expanded Distribution).The reason for this is that if you marked Expanded Distribution, Ingram receives the ISBN from CreateSpace and includes it in its database. If you then try to use it on IngramSpark, it will be simply rejected as duplicate. You would require a different ISBN, which -if the book is exactly the same (cover, size, pages, etc)- would be against ISBN rules. Mind you, this also occurs for example with Lulu.
So if you plan to publish with both CS and Ingram, make sure you do not ever mark the Expanded Distribution. It took me two books and a lot of research before I realized what was happening and why my books were rejected by Ingram.
Would this happen even if you obtained your own ISBN ab-initio. This is what I have done (obtaining an ISBN for a self-publisher in India is both easy and free). So createspace have used my ISBN for the book.
Anju wrote: "Would this happen even if you obtained your own ISBN ab-initio. This is what I have done (obtaining an ISBN for a self-publisher in India is both easy and free). So createspace have used my ISBN fo..."Actually yes. I use always my own ISBNs, so that's why it took me so long to figure out what was happening. That is also the reason why Lulu does not permit ISBNs that have been used elsewhere (even if they're yours).
I mentioned this before but I wonder the reason behind why Createspace made this feature free after you had to pay for it before. Not complaining just curious, I'd like to think it's beneficial and even more so if you really look into it and work off it.
Justin wrote: "I mentioned this before but I wonder the reason behind why Createspace made this feature free after you had to pay for it before. Not complaining just curious, I'd like to think it's beneficial and..."When people had to pay for it, was it also raising the price of the book or did it keep the book at the same price?
G.G. wrote: "Justin wrote: "I mentioned this before but I wonder the reason behind why Createspace made this feature free after you had to pay for it before. Not complaining just curious, I'd like to think it's..."I don't remember to be honest. I don't think it raised the price of the book.
Then maybe we have our answer. It's not really free. It's hidden in the price of the book. The ones buying it are paying for it. (And the author suffers a bit since any potential buyer has to pay more for it.) Createspace doesn't lose anything.
G.G. wrote: "Then maybe we have our answer. It's not really free. It's hidden in the price of the book..."Actually, authors had to pay $25 to be included in the Expanded Distribution, but the cost of the book was the same. However, what happens is that the royalties of Expanded Distribution to the author are lower, because there is another middleman (Ingram).
So ultimately it's the author who receives less money, not the buyer who pays more.
I was skeptical about expanded distribution (since it raised my book price to slightly more than I wished), but I have sold one that way, and I liked to be able to tell people the book is available online everywhere.
Just stopped by the Createspace website and found that I had expanded distribution sales in October. Exactly two, of my recent book, for a total of 52 cents royalty. These are my first ever for expanded. I downloaded the report and apparently the price increase I made in October hadn't taken effect yet (they indicate a 6 to 8 week lag). When I priced my books on Createspace, I never expected to sell anything on expanded distribution, so I didn't worry about the royalty. On the other hand, it's the sales themselves that are important, not the amount I'm paid, and if I hadn't opted for expanded I would never have made those sales at all. I also had a sale of the same paperback through Lulu in October for considerably more. After all these months of selling only ebooks for that particular novel, suddenly I've had three paperback sales. Not a big event, certainly, but it makes me happy enough just to know that three people wanted a more permanent version of my book, and that I'll be read by someone, somewhere.
CS expanded distribution sells books through Createspace Direct (wholesale to certified independent bookstores and resellers), libraries and academic institutions, and major online and offline retailers. Unfortunately, they don't tell you which one of these your book sells to (I'm assuming the latter). In my case they say only that 2 books sold at the same time for $13.99. I was not notified (so far, of all the distributors I do business with, only Smashwords notifies me by email of sales), so I happened onto the info by luck, and my author ranking didn't change. Sounds like a complaint, but sales are sales, so I'm happy about it.
I don't know that any bookstore will buy and stock books by a relatively obscure author, but if a customer makes a request for the book they'll most likely order it for him. As I understand it, Ingram offers a return policy, but they'll charge it back to the author. So an author may end up buying back a lot of copies of his own books if readers don't like it. I make my books available to Ingram through Lulu and, I think, Createspace.
I don't know that any bookstore will buy and stock books by a relatively obscure author, but if a customer makes a request for the book they'll most likely order it for him. As I understand it, Ingram offers a return policy, but they'll charge it back to the author. So an author may end up buying back a lot of copies of his own books if readers don't like it. I make my books available to Ingram through Lulu and, I think, Createspace.
Does CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution include any Japanese booksellers? This isn't a major issue with my current book, but my next book is about figure skating. This is a HUGE sport in Japan, and I'm hoping to find a way to make my book available there.
I just checked the Japan listings for my books, and they do have the Createspace paperbacks. I hit the "translate" button and got the price for the "paper bag" version. I think the Bing translator needs a little work.
Is it okay to skip expanded distribution and publish directly with both Createspace and Ingram if I am currently enrolled in Kindle Unlimited? Or does that violate KU policies?Also, does skipping expanded distribution mean I lose international sales?
Apologize if these questions sound silly, just got into publishing less than a month ago.
Jens wrote: "Does CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution include any Japanese booksellers? This isn't a major issue with my current book, but my next book is about figure skating. This is a HUGE sport in Japan, an..."Just on the subject of translating books into Japanese... It's totally impossible through auto-translations. There are so many words between English & Japanese that do not correspond. The Japanese have their own thought concepts that can provide unique ways of describing emotions and outlooks - but equally the other way round too. There is always the need for a human translator with knowledge of both English - English and American - English. (Heck, even us Brits and Americans have different words for things!)
Hadley, Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited is only for e-books, so you have don't have to worry about being enrolled in KDP Select and distributing paperbacks through Createspace or any number of distributors (expanded or not). There is no exclusivity for paperback. And to clarify further, there is no violation unless you go with e-book distribution through Ingram for example (or any other e-book distributor), while being enrolled in KDP Select.
I have a question regarding Expanded Distribution. Does it "trump" (so bad that word will now become obsolete)... regular distribution in regards to royalties? Or, is it an add-on. In other words, will there be times the regular distribution kicks in instead?
If they order through Amazon, it will go as regular. If they order through a store front, library, or school, it will go through as expanded.
Ian wrote: "Jens wrote: "Does CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution include any Japanese booksellers? This isn't a major issue with my current book, but my next book is about figure skating. This is a HUGE sport..."Regarding Japanese translations, all Japanese citizens are required to take English in school, so most of them will be able to read your book in English. Your work will be distributed in Japan, I've actually made a couple sales there for my fantasy novel.
P.D. Workman (Pamela) wrote: "If they order through Amazon, it will go as regular. If they order through a store front, library, or school, it will go through as expanded." Thank you for the simple clarification. Wasn't sure.
I like the option of expanded distribution because I feel it helps me get my book out to a wider audience, even if my royalties are just cents. However, I did have to price my books higher than I would have liked in order to enable this option. If I priced my books (color interior and cover) lower than $9.99, I would have made no royalty which is not allowed.
It's too early to tell if expanded distribution is benefiting me at all. The way I saw it when I published, it would cost me nothing to participate. I had to price my book a little higher, but only marginally so. Figure I've got nothing to lose.
I know one of the cons is the reduced royalty on sales. For example, my three novels sell for $9.50 each and I make about $2.20 in royalties for each sale. The Kindle version sells for $3.50 and I also earn a royalty of about $2.20 for each sale. If I choose Expanded Distribution, the royalty for each sale drops to 31 cents.
Since the royalty was so small, I've never chosen the Expanded Distribution option, but I'm now wondering if I'm missing out on potential sales by only selling through Amazon.
Any advice?