Createspace. Amazon’s resource for creating, amongst other things, printed editions of books. Even as a fan of the Kindle for publishing I do have to admit to there being a certain thrill to holding a physical book in your hands. We all started reading with print so it speaks to something deep inside to have an actual book you have written in your grip.
So, is Createspace a good idea? Yes, for those of us self-publishing it is a great resource. Sure, most copies of our books out there will be digital but there are always a few people who stick with print and print only. Even though it may only get a few sales that is still new people reading what you’ve written, whioch can only be a good thing.
However, there is one issue – the useability of Createspace. There are a lot of steps in setting up your book, and I do mean a lot of steps. Even if you have already set up your book in Kindle Direct Publishing you cannot just port it across to Createspace. You may have already done all the formatting of the text but Createspace will ask for a PDF of the interior . . . and then it will mess with it a bit so you still have to go through and fix some problems. You may already have a cover but you will still need to upload it again, picking a template that includes the spine and back cover. Why it cannot drag across the interior text and front cover automatically by use of your book’s ASIN, I do not know. Oddly it will let you port everything across to KDP at the end of the process but you cannot do it the other way around.
After much effort, and occasional bad language, I know have all my books set up as print editions as well as digital. This is great but in a couple of days I have the joy of trying to convince Amazon that the print and Kindle editions need to be linked, based on my first experience of doing it this is unlikely to be a fun time!
Floating Down The Maran . . . 