The Joy of Using CreateSpace

I don't love CreateSpace (CS),  an Amazon.com company, but I feel and think it's the best to use for book self-publishers like me. Two other major ones, Lulu and Book Baby aren't nearly as good. Lulu doesn't have an Interior Reviewer like CS. That's a fatal flaw. Book Baby would charge me $10.45 in print costs for 308 pages, whereas CS was $5.54 for the same book. So they're out.

If CS was smart, they'd charge a $25 annual membership fee just to use Interior Reviewer (IR), it's that good. They could offer a free 7-day trial to test it but not upload a manuscript permanently. You'll see for yourself. Save yourself $349 from CS and other companies to format it for you, and, with patience and time, do it yourself and save big on IR.

So I do love CS. Using it is easy . . . yet quite tricky, for a first timer like me. It took me 12 months to write Episodes, about my mental illness that hardly anyone knows (they will soon). It was close enuff, so I started editing, cutting and polishing. A month later I changed margins and was down to 316 pages instead of 330. Cut some more. Down to 298 pages, and it was done! Then I ran it thru IR and had to change margins again. 308 pages.

It said I had margin errors. Too small, yet my type fit perfectly within its dotted lines, and each page had plenty of space around the edges. I didn't understand so after four more tries at unsuccessful reformatting, I talked to a rep three days ago. "The dotted lines represent the trim lines." That is, where the edges were to be cut! They clearly don't say that. And this knowledge coming after I had spent weeks reformatting, renumbering, and redoing 38 endnotes! At first I was pissed when they told me this, so I emailed them a complaint. Then I got busy again with this new fact.  

It took me 8 tries to get the margins  and gutter right, but now it truly fits perfectly. For real this time. And now it's 350 pages. 350! Yes it'll cost more to print, about $6, so I'll have to raise my $9 price. So Interior Reviewer, which comes free with CS membership, is a miracle and lifesaver.  It's that good. And now membership is free, whether you use CS to publish or not. (Don't use them to get your ISBN if you can help it)

So then I went to work on reformatting the 350 pages. My original goal for length was 300 pp. So I cut out two Appendices and others and got it down to 332 pages. Fini!

One other important thing about CS and Amazon. Royalties. If people buy it from CreateSpace.com directly, they get 20% in royalties of your list price. They should deduct the print cost, after all they sub that out and i'm sure make a profit on it. If you buy my book on Amazon they get their 20% on top of everything. AQ rip off. Just because of their big name I guess, 'cause they do nothing to earn it except put it on their site with a few bells and whistles. Oh well.

So when Episodes comes out in two weeks, please buy it from CreateSpace.com! It's the same price either way.

What are you using for your self-publishing platform?

By Rodney Richards. Subscribe or email me at 1950ablia@gmail.com with comments. I'd love them.