My Experience with CreateSpace (Now KDP)
Here’s how it used to work. You thought you could write, so you joined a writers’ group, maybe attended some creative writing courses, started writing your novel, tossed it around among your fellow writers, had it critiqued and – when more or less happy that it was ready – you sent your manuscript off to a few agents and/or publishers, and then waited, and waited… and got on with your life, got married, raised a family, had grandchildren – but that novel was never published.
Why not? All your friends said they liked it. It just never ‘clicked’ with the ‘powers that be’. Finally you realised the awful truth. Getting published conventionally is like winning the lottery. It’s that unlikely for the ordinary person – even if they have extraordinary talents.
It doesn’t have to be like that any more. Because of print-on-demand technology there are a number of outfits like kdp.amazon.com offering you the chance to publish your work at virtually no cost. ISBNs and barcodes can come free. The process is painstaking but not really difficult – and you stay in control of your work from start to finish. Content, layout, font, covers – you decide what you want and go for it. The only small cost (not mandatory as you can proofread your work on-line if you prefer) is a few pounds for a proof copy of your book. You can check and amend it as many times as you wish (even after you’ve launched your work). There are optional paid services for varying from the standard (but that’s the point – they are optional), such as better quality paper, help with marketing, professionally-designed cover and many others – & you might wish to take advantage of any of these. But I took the standard option and am more than happy with the look and feel of the finished article.
On the admin side, I did have a small glitch with the U.S. tax interview form, but an exchange of e-mails with the friendly help-desk guys soon straightened me out.
As with all things in life, there’s a trade-off. Unless you opt for unrealistically high pricing, you won’t earn tremendous royalty rates on your book sales. That’s fair enough – KDP have to see a return on their investment. (The same also applies to conventional publishing). But at least your book will be ‘out there’, simply because you want it to be, not some faceless 'expert' who'll consign your work to the slush pile in fifteen seconds. And if your book does sell a lot of copies, you should also see a decent return.
So, if you’re not already famous, don’t live next door to a publisher, and don’t have an uncle in the business, you could do worse than consider trying KDP or something similar.
I don’t believe that print-on-demand is just a flash in the pan – it could just be the future of publishing.
Why not? All your friends said they liked it. It just never ‘clicked’ with the ‘powers that be’. Finally you realised the awful truth. Getting published conventionally is like winning the lottery. It’s that unlikely for the ordinary person – even if they have extraordinary talents.
It doesn’t have to be like that any more. Because of print-on-demand technology there are a number of outfits like kdp.amazon.com offering you the chance to publish your work at virtually no cost. ISBNs and barcodes can come free. The process is painstaking but not really difficult – and you stay in control of your work from start to finish. Content, layout, font, covers – you decide what you want and go for it. The only small cost (not mandatory as you can proofread your work on-line if you prefer) is a few pounds for a proof copy of your book. You can check and amend it as many times as you wish (even after you’ve launched your work). There are optional paid services for varying from the standard (but that’s the point – they are optional), such as better quality paper, help with marketing, professionally-designed cover and many others – & you might wish to take advantage of any of these. But I took the standard option and am more than happy with the look and feel of the finished article.
On the admin side, I did have a small glitch with the U.S. tax interview form, but an exchange of e-mails with the friendly help-desk guys soon straightened me out.
As with all things in life, there’s a trade-off. Unless you opt for unrealistically high pricing, you won’t earn tremendous royalty rates on your book sales. That’s fair enough – KDP have to see a return on their investment. (The same also applies to conventional publishing). But at least your book will be ‘out there’, simply because you want it to be, not some faceless 'expert' who'll consign your work to the slush pile in fifteen seconds. And if your book does sell a lot of copies, you should also see a decent return.
So, if you’re not already famous, don’t live next door to a publisher, and don’t have an uncle in the business, you could do worse than consider trying KDP or something similar.
I don’t believe that print-on-demand is just a flash in the pan – it could just be the future of publishing.
