Monday, May 03, 2010

CreateSpace makes Publishing both Easy and Hard


I’m in the process of publishing paperbacks with CreateSpace for all 3 of my books. I’m finding the process both easy and difficult. The easy and hard parts are that it’s 100% free (which I love) and a Do-It-Yourself format (which I sorta love). Formatting my books in MS Word 2007 was a true joy and piece of cake, until it came down to the page numbering. Believe it or not, getting something as simple-sounding as the page numbers to begin where I wanted and not screw up the rest of the document was just short of a nightmare. I spent way more hours than I care to admit and visited literally dozens of forums on this topic and considered writing a post for the correct procedure (or at least one that eventually worked for me). What a pain in the ass! So if anyone has questions, let me know and I’ll understand your desire to purchase a gun and obtain MS Word 2007 designer addresses.
My decision for CreateSpace over Lulu was simple because they’re owned by Amazon which makes getting listed there easier and cheaper. I did cheat with money and spent the 39 bucks for the upgraded Pro-Plan which gives a larger percentage of profits.
Another hard part – lately I’ve been having trouble getting my covers to be approved, some hold-up with the physical size being too large though I was sure I copied the template guide perfectly.
The other hard part is that if you need any assistance, you’ve got to find it in the forums or figure it out yourself. Since it’s free they don’t pay for a support staff to hold your hand during the process. That’s understandable. I just want to get it done so if someone wants to order physical copies of my book, they can.
I’ve heard it makes sense to order a proof copy long before you spend many hours getting every detail just right. In the event you need to make wholesale changes, you’ll save yourself from repeating those hours. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
(If you watch any of my Youtube videos, you might see my holding up a proof copy of How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks – All for FREE. Actually the proof copy came out better than I expected. So far so good.)
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