1. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    Have any of you had success with CreateSpace?

    Discussion in 'Electronic Publishing' started by DrWhozit, Nov 19, 2013.

    While joining here, I saw this as an extension of Amazon. I've had good luck with them as a customer. I'm wondering what and what costs to expect with these folks?
     
  2. Krishan

    Krishan Active Member

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    I haven't used CreateSpace, but I have looked vaguely in their direction before. They seem competitively priced, but designed to lock you into selling primarily through Amazon. If that doesn't bother you, then I'd say they were probably a pretty good choice.
     
  3. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    I created an account and asked a lot of questions. It doesn't look like a racket like some of the self publishing houses. I'd have to read their terms again to see if I get that "locked in" clause.

    Thanx for responding to this. I was hoping for someone who's had some real experience with them, still that's an interesting take.
     
  4. Edward M. Grant

    Edward M. Grant Contributor Contributor

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    Not any more. Used to be you could go to Amazon for free, or pay $25 for 'expanded distribution' to other sites. Now it's free for all sites, so my Createspace novel is in B&N and other book stores too.

    Of course you still get much better royalties selling direct through Createspace, or through Amazon. But $1 a novel from a B&N sale is better than $0.
     
  5. Edward M. Grant

    Edward M. Grant Contributor Contributor

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    Oh, as for sales, I've sold a handful of books through Amazon and Createspace since I started putting them on there about a year ago. Nothing through any other stores yet, as I only just enabled that option when they made it free.

    So not a great deal of success, but it only cost me a bit of time and no money, and the print copies of my books look good on my book shelf.
     
  6. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    Cool! That's encouraging.
     
  7. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    Thought I might add that CS was reluctant to give an example of royalties to expect. There was the issue of page volume. Although I expected I might make a few pennies per book sold, ebook or otherwise, that question went basically unanswered. How many pages were in your book? Also, how much did the printed version cost?

    Thanks, too, for your response. I think that is important for those reading this to know.
     
  8. Edward M. Grant

    Edward M. Grant Contributor Contributor

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    Mine? I have everything from a 24 page short story to a 300-ish page novel for sale. The only two that have sold are the novel and a 12,000-ish word short story, but I've only sold about half a dozen in total, so that's not really a representative sample. The shorts are really way too expensive for the word count -- $4.99 is about the lowest price you can sell any book there, no matter how few pages -- so I do them mostly for myself; author copies are about $2.

    I'd have to check to make sure, but I think my royalties range from about $1 for a short story through Amazon or a novel sale through their expanded distribution, to about $4 for a novel sale through Amazon. Some people try to price really low and make only a few cents a book, but these are trade paperbacks rather than mass market, so charging $10-15 for a novel is in line with trade-published books I've bought in stores. Also, Amazon tends to discount by at least 10% off the list price anyway.

    Another thing to be aware of is that the price goes by page, not by the amount of paper in the book; I believe they print on a standard paper size and then chop off any excess. So a 300 page 6x9 book costs the same as a 300 page 5x8 book. You can reduce prices by increasing the page size to reduce the page count.

    Of course, given I've only sold half a dozen books in a year or so, I may be doing everything wrong :).
     
  9. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    I already discussed the possibility of using YouTube to pitch someone's book. Naturally, one doesn't want it to resemble a radio broadcast voiced over a single frame photo. That sucks.
    I was told by CS that I can promote my own book(s) through whatever means I have to do so. 300 pages is a good bit of writing, editing, etcetera. Have you had any reader reviews?

    Pardon me if I pick your brain on these issues a bit. If you had checked out the thread I started about Novels vs Films, you'd already know I'm putting together a reasonably good graphics machine. Just picked up an HD 32" Emerson at a pawn shop for $140 this morning, so I'm a step closer to being able to do some decent work. Next is upgrading to W7-64bit. In that, it may be next spring before I can do covers for others.
     
  10. Edward M. Grant

    Edward M. Grant Contributor Contributor

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    I think I only have one Amazon review on that novel so far, probably from the time I gave 1,000 ebooks away in a weekend. It's been the most effective method I've found so far to get reviews.
     
  11. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    Hmmmm...

    Is that your method, or a recommended one?
     
  12. live2write

    live2write Senior Member

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    One thing you can do is find bloggers that read books or enovels, give a book away in exchange for a review on amazon and their blog.
     
  13. aClem

    aClem Active Member

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    I've been using both Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace. Like everyone, I would love to sell a lot of copies. Unlike some, I am happy to sell anything, I have vanity copies (proofs) of my books just to show off a little. I have only sold 3 CreateSpace books, and have yet to break the $10 royalty level. But it's not difficult to put together a print on demand version if you've already done the ebook. I've had more luck with Kindle Direct, mostly because of an email list from a blog I do and a friend's blog. Still, sales are not doing much more than buy me lunch, and this is in a semi-third world country.

    Ah, but my NEXT book(s) will be of wider appeal (I fervently HOPE).

    By the way, I am pretty good at designing covers and formatting photos for inclusion in Kindle books. I work very cheap(ly) and might even do some free work for someone willing to read a draft of the beginning of my latest undertaking and give me some feedback. I also do videos, so if you're thinking of doing a youtube video to promote your book, you might want to contact me.
     
  14. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    See? I'm not the only artist out here sympathetic to the writer's need for artwork. Neither am I the only one implying this is an important part of selling a novel.

    @aClem
    Have you tried promoting via YouTube? If so, any success you would attribute to that effort?
     
  15. aClem

    aClem Active Member

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    Yes, I've done videos for all of my books. The trick is getting the videos watched. I can't say how many of my sales came from the videos, not too many I think. But I enjoy doing the videos anyway so I'll keep doing it no matter what.
     
  16. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    It seems that certain types of video material goes viral quicker than others. Maybe if you have a 1 year old or a Labrador puppy reading your book then morph/animate the lips to insult the viewer: "Oh." (the puppy looks at the camera) "You haven't read it yet? So much for educated conversation." (Returns to reading...)
     
  17. aClem

    aClem Active Member

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    I LOVE it!!!! I have just the software for that too! Do you have a title you'd like promoted? I can think of a few variations for my stuff. Thanks for the great idea.
     
  18. DrWhozit

    DrWhozit Banned

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    Ideas is me.

    https://www.writingforums.org/threads/novels-versus-film-making.129400/page-2#post-1171760

    This has turned into discussions about CG. Might be a place to talk shop...

    I'm a DIY promoter type of guy, so I'm good. Still, if it catches on, we both might find some interested in cover art. I think it's nearly impossible to write a scene without the mind's vision machine running in the background. I don't know how other writers really think.
     
  19. Krishan

    Krishan Active Member

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    That's good to know. Perhaps I'll give them another look.
     

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