# The Createspace Experience



## David Gordon Burke (Apr 5, 2015)

Hey all and long time no see.

Have been enjoying my forced semi-retirement (translation .... got my butt fired)

Along the way I managed to finally finish my short story collection ¨Mexican Mutts, Tequila Pups and Chili Dogs - True stories of the Dogs of Mexico´ I like the way it turned out even though I had to go the Self Edit route this time.  I realice there are a few flaws.  Not going to keep me up nights worring about them.

So the next step (I figure) is to get my 3 projects into print.  
Sincé Amazon is alreading holding a bunch of my earning in their various international branches, might as well keep them in business so I went with Createspace.

First MASSIVE WARNING - If you are designing a cover (or having it done for you) make sure there is a .5 inch border all around with no TEXT.  If the title or author info etc. bleeds into that space it won´t be accepted.  Oh, and you can´t just add a white border .... not accepted either.

Next, you need a back cover.  So get a clear agreement with your graphic artist from the get go.  
I didn´t do that.  I figure for what you are paying the guy, he should relinquish all original files along with the fotoshop file to you.  After all, this is what you are paying for.  But they don´t want to do that.  

So I ended up getting freaky with it.  Cranked up the old Corel Draw and made my own back covers.  Not a graphic artist but I know enough to align text and manage a layer and a mask or effect or two.  Done.

The Createspace interface.....I´ll say it right now ..... IT´S A NIGHTMARE.

If you adjust your original text file, you have to redo your cover.  Click, Click, Click, Click till the end of time.  I´ve been at it about 8 hours.  Got two out of three books done.

So, make sure you review every last details.  Sure you can always go back and fix issues but don´t you want that first copy that lands in your hands to be perfect?

Will report more on the process as I get in deeper and deeper.


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## Schrody (Apr 6, 2015)

Geez, and I thought it's gonna be a piece of cake. I'm not sure I wanna publish on CreateSpace anymore.


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## Terry D (Apr 6, 2015)

Schrody said:


> Geez, and I thought it's gonna be a piece of cake. I'm not sure I wanna publish on CreateSpace anymore.



It's not that bad. There are things to keep in mind, but Createspace walks you through them. Once the file are loaded you can preview them to see if it looks the way you want, if not just tweak and re-submit it only takes a few minutes. I've done three books via Createspace and would not consider it a nightmare.


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## David Gordon Burke (Apr 6, 2015)

The nightmare is and was trying to work with graphics that were created for ebook and which turn out to be incompatible with createspace.  It went one step further.  I did about 8 - 10 hours getting the covers uploaded and the content files in order.  This included doing my own tweaks on the covers.

Then I got three emails from createspace.  Two of the three books were ready to rock.  The third was rejected because the covers (front and back) had a white border.  Well YEAH.  The covers are WHITE.  Apparently, White is a NO NO.  I have no idea why but the only option was to put an off-whitish border around the edge of the front and back cover.  

So again, if you are planning - formatting and uploading an Ebook but DO plan to jump out of KDP and into the Amazon print service that is Createspace, this is something to keep in mind.

So now I got into the Pricing section.  This is interesting.  Depending on the price of your book, the royalty isn´t much.  I plan to sell my books for $10 and $12.  This gives me a little leeway to either raise the price or drop it a bit.  (neither put the minimum nor went with the maximum)  What I did realize is that the porcentage of royalty is completely different from the straight 35% or 70% paid out in KDP for Ebooks.  What is happening here is that the percentage increases the higher the price.  The first and minimun price is covering everything .... printing, shipping and the division of profits.  Then, each additional buck is only covering profits so ...... higher percentage for you.  (Of course there is on percentage paid on a book you don´t sell so I kept it reasonable)  

More news from the front lines as it comes in.  Next step it to get the final approval and then order copies for myself.  If they look good I give the big thumbs up and they start to sell (in a perfect fantasy world that is).

David Gordon Burke


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## Alecc0 (Apr 7, 2015)

I also found the process a bit draining, and getting a really good idea of what the printed version will look like was harder than it should have been. They try to complete the review process in a good time (within 12 hours), but submitting and then having to change something, or worse, waiting several weeks for the proof copy to find something isn't right and then having to re-submit and wait to be reviewed and then see the outcome again... it took me a much longer time to get my novel published than it really should have. Also, the first time I ordered a proof copy it was lost in the post and had to be re-ordered, and ended up taking almost 2 months to get that copy! But that said, it's worth doing to get a book on Amazon, I guess it doesn't have to be a nightmare for everyone.


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## David Gordon Burke (Apr 7, 2015)

Here´s yet another issue.  My solution was to completely leave this step out.  Damn.
I got onto youtube, searched Createspace and watched some author unwrap his book when it came in the mail.  
It looked really good.  Obviously the guy has the cash to get someone to do really good covers.  I am already in deep economically in this author and indie publishing hobby so I´m not spending any more money.  My back covers are in the acceptable range but not 100% PRO.  So be it.  

Then I saw that the guy had PAGE NUMBERS.  Wow.  Never thought of that.  Figured that Createspace might take care of that.  Not so.

And then to add insult to injury, I couldn´t get page numbers on my original word file.  Well, I could have done it if I wanted to start to count from the cover but how much would that suck?  And sadly, I couldn´t figure it out given that my word program is a spanish version.  Makes figuring out these things a drag. 

So I opted to leave it out.  Whatever.

I am going to need to figure this out for my non-fiction tutorials so if anyone knows how it is done and could put up a tutorial I am sure that many folk would appreciate it.

BTW ... I was inspired to start the entire process again.  I have gone through the word files meticulously to be sure that there are no extra spaces or missing .  (I generaly double space paragraphs)  Found a few typos.  Got that all worked out.  After all ebook is temporary but print is forever.

David Gordon Burke


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## TKent (Apr 7, 2015)

David, I used a word template that already had page numbers and section formatting etc. I will try to find a link to it.

As far as book covers, great that you posted this here. If someone has been publishing digital only, they would have no idea that they would need a PDF of the full book cover for createspace, and if you are having it done by someone, it is important that you let them know you need front/back/spine.

I ended up with my spine offline by just a tiny, tiny bit despite using the Photoshop template that I generated from their site, so I had to tweak it a bit to get perfect.

Nice of you to share your experiences here


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## TKent (Apr 7, 2015)

Here is the link to the interior templates:

https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1323


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## David Gordon Burke (Apr 9, 2015)

They should call those the INFERIOR templates.  Actually, the non-formatted ones without the numbers are what you need but the formatted templates are a mess.  They have different sized headers and footers all over the place.Well, as it turns out, it´s really not that difficult to do it for yourself.  Just need to get on the right site that explains it clearly.  Of course, having the same version of word as they are using / demonstrating with definitely helps.  Having it in the same language helps also.  I had neither but I still managed to get the job done with this demo / tutorial.http://www.gcflearnfree.org/word2013/17.3Now to re-upload to Createspace and see if it gets accepted.  If so, this is the winner and I will go ahead and order my proofs.  I could put up another whole thread on ´What the hell to do when you can´t afford a Graphic Artist and your Computer only has an outdated version of Corel Draw¨ but I think you get the point.  Overall, with pro front covers and my semi-pro-broke-my-back-blood-sweat-and-tears back covers plus (finally) 100% perfect interior formatting matched with my AWESOME story content ------- I believe it is worthy of going to print.  And yes, it is partly a vanity project.  I will be lucky if I sell enough copies to get one paycheck before or during my retirement.  (might end up being an inheritance thing for who knows who)  Still, worth the effort.  The indie-self-publishing thing isn´t always and only about selling books.  It can help you parlay your talents into other kinds of income / work.  Having those bad boys in my hands is definitely (aside from SEXY) a plus in that regard.Will report further.David Gordon Burke


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## kellypeace (Apr 11, 2015)

Going to publish on Createspace soon so thank you for this.


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## Nicholas McConnaughay (Apr 12, 2015)

David Gordon Burke said:


> Here´s yet another issue.  My solution was to completely leave this step out.  Damn.
> I got onto youtube, searched Createspace and watched some author unwrap his book when it came in the mail.
> It looked really good.  Obviously the guy has the cash to get someone to do really good covers.  I am already in deep economically in this author and indie publishing hobby so I´m not spending any more money.  My back covers are in the acceptable range but not 100% PRO.  So be it.
> 
> ...



I suppose you could download OpenOffice (a free Word alternative) and use that and add page numbers. It's capable of opening Word files as well.


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## movieman (Apr 14, 2015)

Nicholas McConnaughay said:


> I suppose you could download OpenOffice (a free Word alternative) and use that and add page numbers. It's capable of opening Word files as well.



I use LibreOffice (another fork of OpenOffice) for Createspace, and it's pretty easy now I have a working template for them. But creating that template and tweaking it took a few days. Covers are still a pain, though I can put one together from an ebook cover in an hour or two now.


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## David Gordon Burke (Apr 21, 2015)

So the proofs arrived today.  Awesome.  They look much better than the on line preview led me to imagine.  Create space rocks.  Highly impressed.  
Within the next few months I should have 11 ebooks and 5 print editions.  
Very cool.
David Gordon Burke


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## TKent (Apr 21, 2015)

Sorry they didn't work for you!  I used one for Creep and it turned out great using the template although I changed a lot of the styles (fonts, font sizes, etc.). 



David Gordon Burke said:


> They should call those the INFERIOR templates.  Actually, the non-formatted ones without the numbers are what you need but the formatted templates are a mess.  They have different sized headers and footers all over the place.Well, as it turns out, it´s really not that difficult to do it for yourself.  Just need to get on the right site that explains it clearly.  Of course, having the same version of word as they are using / demonstrating with definitely helps.  Having it in the same language helps also.  I had neither but I still managed to get the job done with this demo / tutorial.http://www.gcflearnfree.org/word2013/17.3Now to re-upload to Createspace and see if it gets accepted.  If so, this is the winner and I will go ahead and order my proofs.  I could put up another whole thread on ´What the hell to do when you can´t afford a Graphic Artist and your Computer only has an outdated version of Corel Draw¨ but I think you get the point.  Overall, with pro front covers and my semi-pro-broke-my-back-blood-sweat-and-tears back covers plus (finally) 100% perfect interior formatting matched with my AWESOME story content ------- I believe it is worthy of going to print.  And yes, it is partly a vanity project.  I will be lucky if I sell enough copies to get one paycheck before or during my retirement.  (might end up being an inheritance thing for who knows who)  Still, worth the effort.  The indie-self-publishing thing isn´t always and only about selling books.  It can help you parlay your talents into other kinds of income / work.  Having those bad boys in my hands is definitely (aside from SEXY) a plus in that regard.Will report further.David Gordon Burke


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## David Gordon Burke (Apr 21, 2015)

The next step will be to notify Createspace that I accept the finished result and the books will be available.  Next I will have to figure out if there are any new promotional opportunities in print.  

A final hint .... if you are doing any of your own graphics work, print it. This gives you a better idea of how the final product will look.  The computer screen is deceptive.

David Gordon Burke


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## sportourer1 (Aug 15, 2015)

It has been a waste of time for me, the product is too expensive and my ebooks outsell by a long way


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## David Gordon Burke (Aug 18, 2015)

sportourer1 said:


> It has been a waste of time for me, the product is too expensive and my ebooks outsell by a long way



The issue is an easy one.  I have three basic markets - 1.  My English fiction / Non-fiction books.  2.  My books for Spanish speakers who wish to learn English.  (Tutorials)  3.  My print editions.  The first two markets are split between all the Amazon subsiduaries so getting paid is a very slow process.  Each one collects and then pays out once you hit the $100 US mark.  So the Dot Com owes me a payout now.  The Spanish dot ES owes me about 60 Euros.  The Mexican for some reason deposits monthly so that 40 pesos means I can buy an extra order of tacos every month.

The Createspace isn´t split between as many subsiduaries.  And the payout per book is higher.  I have 4 titles with them and yes, sales are brutally slow.  But ... Do I want that $100 payout once every year or so?  Of course.  

David Gordon Burke


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## Terry D (Aug 18, 2015)

sportourer1 said:


> It has been a waste of time for me, the product is too expensive and my ebooks outsell by a long way



If you wait for print books to move through CreateSpace (via Amazon, B&N, or other orders) it will be a long wait. I've sold a few that way, but not many. Where I have made money via CreateSpace is buy buying copies myself at the reduced rate and selling them through local bookstores. We will offer the books at a reduced rate, but still plenty high for the bookseller to make money and for me to make a decent profit. I can also sell them myself at an even greater discount and make even more profit.


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