Has anyone had experience with CreateSpace?? (Oh dear, I feel a bit cheeky coming back with a pestering question after not being around for a while... :redface I'd like to know what the paper's like for full-colour books... and what the process is with self-publishers who live outside the US. The idea milling about in my brain only came to me a little while ago, and I don't want to let it go without a fight!
There was actually a discussion about Createspace very recently--it's probably still on the first page of this subforum. That said, you are asking about the quality and process rather than the value of Createspace, correct? I haven't done a full color book, but the proof that I received for my black and white novella was nice. The cover quality was exactly like it had been in the PDF I uploaded, the binding (Perfect Bound paperback) is strong and clean, although the glue was a bit uneven (thicker at the top of the spine and thinner at the bottom, but the spine was still nice and flat, not lumpy), and the black and white print quality is great. The paper is a crisp white, smooth and while not very thick it does have a fairly strong feel to it.
I was thinking about using Createspace for publishing my novel, and would be curious to hear what others have experienced with them.
Absolutely zero complaints. The advantages to CreateSpace are: Ease of use Cost Quality of the finished product Excellent resources available But you need to be aware that you will be responsible for: The quality of the writing (CreateSpace only offers help with editing and content at significant additional cost) All formatting of the content. All marketing (they make your book available, but they do not market it in any way) I hope this helps.
Thanks Terry! Would you recommend CreateSpace over other publishers of its kind? I am basing my book on the blog I have been writing for 3 years, so I already have an established readership I will be marketing to, I will also be building a flash based website to advertise/market the book. What I like about createspace is that is connected directly with Amazon. Do you find more people buy hard copies of the book or e book/kindle versions?
I've only just published my first book through CreateSpace and do not have enough history yet to give you a good answer. I have not yet set up my Kindle version. That's a project for this week end.
i don't know if any of the createspace type of self-publishing venues will take on full-color books, if what you mean by that is a children's picture book... and if they do, the cost to you would be prohibitive... i once mentored a lady artist who wanted to self-publish a book of poems accompanied by her art work and it cost her over $15,000 for 500 copies, from a vanity press... so, at $30+ per book outlay, which amount she then had to up, to make any profit, not many were sold, as you can well imagine... as for being in another country, that won't make any difference other than having to arrange for payment in the publisher's preferred currency...
CreateSpace will work with full color, even photography, with no up-front charges. CreateSpace only takes a cut of the book when it is sold, and there are no minimum quantities to buy.
Probably not. I sent it out a couple of times when I first finished it and had no success. I gave up on it too soon back then and let it hide for a long time. I don't think it is very viable commercially. It's a vampire story more in the vein of 'Salem's Lot than Twilight. There's not much being published these days about vampires who aren't angst riddled hunks, and my Aaron Geist is more monster than man. I have a soft spot for him, though, and decided to give him his wings through CreateSpace while I work on my next -- more commercially viable novel. I know that there will be a few copies of The Legacy of Aaron Geist sold, and if only a handful of people read it and enjoy it then I will be happy for my first book.
...but--and it's a big one!--the price they will charge you per copy [even with so-called 'author discount'] in order for you to sell it, will be so high you'll have few buyers other than family and friends...
The pricing structure at CreateSpace is very transparent. You can go to the site and use their calculator to determin pricing based on number of pages, trim size, B&W or color content, and a number of other variables. I suggest you give it a look and see if you feel it is too expensive or not rather than take my word for it, or that of anyone who hasn't used it. Print-On-Demand publishing is evolving rapidly. If you are interested you should have fun checking it out. I am happy with the cost, cover price, and royalty for my book
absolutely!... who besides a good friend or loved one would willingly pay $13-30+ for a usually poorly-put-together paperback by an unknown writer, when famous ones' pb's can be had for $8-9 [or less, when on sale]?
I highly recommend the OP browse through This Thread. In fact, it may be a good idea to get the thread stickied, because A LOT of people will be inquiring about self publishing.
Let's look at some real numbers instead of guessing; A 250 page book in standard trade paperback size (5 X 8) through Createspace can be sold for $8.50 and the author gets a 34% royalty through their Createspace store ($2.95), or 14% ($1.25) through Amazon.com. And I can tell you that the quality of the product is equal to any other trade paperback on my shelves. If you don't like POD publishing that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But the things you are saying about cost and quality do not apply to CreateSpace, and that sort of misinformation isn't fair to other readers of this thread. Anyone interested should check it out for themselves at the CreateSpace website. All of the costs are right there.
I was going to say most of self published books on my shelves have been around £4.99 and very well produced, they look no different on my shelves to those traditionally published, well except they have more original covers. Personally I buy a book based on the cover, blurb, and writing style when I flick through. Never used to bother to check if it is self published or not. I have been delighted with the funky, fresh stories I have recived that haven't been over edited - I now specifically look for self published as I am appreciating the strength of writing that has been untouched by the publishing houses.
I am still weighing up if I want my book to be self published - currently waiting to hear from one (I messed up the author questionairre, I think). Have another that is waiting to look at it as well.
I"ve done full colour illustrated books through Blurb and received from Createspace today my proof novel. It looks exactly right - except that I'm finding quite a few typoes that fell beneath my radar... once I've sorted those out, I might even put it up for sale.
Oh and I too would rather support lesser known authors then read the dribble produced by the well-known ones. I am reading Lesley Pearce at the moment - one of the best selling female authors in the world - and her writing style makes me feel like I'm about eight. Except that the content is VERY adult. Anyhow, I'll save that rant for my blog review. I've read a lot of self-published books and I would have to say that whilst some of them are poorly written rubbish ("Org's Odyssey" for example, may be the worst book I've ever finished), I do enjoy the "Fresh and new" feel that I get from them, that extra quirky-uniqueness that is so hard to find in the over editted, sanitised mass-market stuff.
Actually, with a Pro account ($39.00) you can sell on their estore at $6.99 and on Amazon.com for $8.99 and make a profit (though a smaller one). I would advise against buying books to sell on your own. Peddling books is extremely inefficient, though giving them as samples if you want local distributors to carry it is a good idea. If you want Create Space to pitch you to larger distributors, you do need to increase the overall price to about $13.00 per book. But that really comes down to how you want to market. Online sales are currently overtaking brick-and-mortar sales (December was the first time online sales exceeded store sales for Christmas shopping). But at 50% of the market, it's a good idea to invest at least a little in one or the other for additional exposure. I have yet to see the quality of Create Space's printing, but I hear it is industry standard and good print.
