My CreateSpace Experience Part 5

In this final post regarding CreateSpace we’ll look at completing, proofing, pricing and distributing your book. After clearing the interior reviewer and successfully uploading a cover, it’s time to order and review proof copies of your book. Once you are satisfied that your manuscript looks good and is error free, it’s an easy click to order proof copies.

You are provided with two proof options- a free downloadable PDF of your manuscript as it will appear in your book and the opportunity to order one or more physical copies. I recommend ordering some physical copies and giving a few of them to trusted proofreaders. Even after porting the manuscript to the 5×8 CreateSpace template and carefully checking the text with the interior reviewer I still found errors in The System – A Detroit Story – which was published as an eBook and on the market for months. It was profoundly embarrassing.

In few days a box will be on your porch with your proof copies. It’s exciting to unpack the box and hold a physical copy in your hands, feeling its weight and flipping through the pages. Even though I’m first and foremost an eBook author, I’ll admit it seems “more real” holding a physical book.

I believe the only way to catch all errors in a manuscript is to read every page out loud. Errors pop up like prairie dogs. Why? I have a theory. When you read without articulating you are not seeing the words, but the images created by the words along with other sensory stimuli induced by words. It’s semantic and has meaning. When you read aloud you are merely parroting the printed words and are not sensory or image focused. It’s purely lexical. This method works for me. That being said, proofing is a painful, boring and time eating process for you and your proofreaders. Thank, reward, and do something nice for your proofreaders. It’s as boring for them as it is for you and they will catch errors that you will not.

After you approve your proof the next step is to set pricing and distribution. CreateSpace calculates the estimated cost of your book when you provide the  book size, ink and paper type along with a page length. This is the price that you the author will pay (along with shipping) for production copies.

Pricing depends on where you distribute your books. I chose the U.S., the U.K. (pricing in pounds) and E.U. countries (pricing in Euros) since my eBooks sell relatively well abroad. This will bring up a form where you set your price. You can experiment with different prices and dollar to pound and Euro conversion takes place automatically, along with royalty calculations. I try selling my books as low as reasonably possible since my eBooks are priced at $2.99. It looks fishy to a reader to see a book priced at three dollars for the eBook and fifteen dollars for the paperback. Be careful making this decision. If you sell a lot of eBooks in the U.K. and Europe then give it a shot. All three of my books are available in paperback in all of the markets. If they don’t sell well overseas, I’ll pull them out and drop the U.S. price. That’s one of the beauties of self publishing- pricing is flexible and you make the decisions and can react fast to your markets.

If you already have your eBook on Amazon, your paperback will automatically be linked to your Kindle book page. CreateSpace offers an expanded distribution service which I have not used. If anyone reading this has experience with that, please post a reply or link to a post here.

Overall, my experience with CreateSpace was absolutely positive, and I wouldn’t think of going anywhere else to produce paperbacks. The only roadblocks were the template error and my ignorance and inexperience. Now, I can port an eBook and get it into the paperback market in a matter of days. So will you once you get the hang of it.