UPDATE: 09/20/2018 - Amazon is merging CreateSpace into the Amazon owned Kindle Direct Publishing platform (KDP). KDP will be the new way to self-publish. I'm testing out the service myself now and will report on it later.
Using Amazon to self-publish is a newer and quality way to get your book to the public. With both digital and traditional book formatting, it’s a useful approach for getting your authored work published.
CreateSpace is Amazon’s own in-house book publishing company which will print your book and make it available worldwide via Amazon.com. Up until recently, self-publishing had a less than stellar reputation, however, in the modern market self-publishing is used by legitimate, writers, some of which have had best sellers.
If you want to get your book officially published, the CreateSpace online book publishing system is definitely a platform to consider. Here's a brief walkthrough of their publishing process.
It goes without saying you’ll need a finished project for publishing. But you’ll need to do a bit more than provide a document file. It also needs to be correctly formatted.
Setting your margins, headers, page numbers, and the like can be challenging if you've never done it before. Luckily CreateSpace offers pre-formatted templates to use to write your work. This completely removes the post writing formatting work.
Next, you’ll have to upload your work to CreateSpace. The process is relatively easy, and you fill out expected information such as the book’s title, credits, a description, and select some formatting choices such as page color and the size of the book.
In addition to your manuscript, you’ll need to upload a cover. CreateSpace has a tool to create a cover if you don’t have one. You can also select a custom ISBN, but that’s only needed if you plan to publish the work through a traditional publisher later on; in most cases, the provided auto-generated ISBN works perfectly fine.
Once your book has been submitted, CreateSpace reviews the project for any errors. Generally, within 24 hours, you’ll be informed of any mistakes that need to be corrected before you submit the final manuscript.
Mistakes are commonly formatting issues that don't translate well to print. For example, when posting on the internet, multicolored text is easy to read, but that doesn't translate well to paper.
After your work has been approved, you set up the distribution channels and pricing. An important part of pricing is the royalties you'll earn when a book sells. Factors such as the length of the book and format can directly affect your royalty payments.
Be sure to review your figures before publishing. For example, increasing the size of your font makes the book longer, which in turn makes it more expensive to print, and then leads to lower royalties.
CreateSpace also offers several selling channels. Their store and an Amazon listing are included for free. For a fee, you can have your work listed in the expanded channel which makes it available to other stores.
Note that just because your book is available doesn't mean these stores will start selling it. However, it will be on their list as an option if the demand is there.
Once your work has been published and is available for purchase, the last step is the promotion of the book itself. CreateSpace offers traditional tools such as press releases.
But using social media is a good idea and goes a long way towards informing interested readers. Amazon also lets you track how well your book is selling.
If you have a book in you that’s eager to come out check out CreateSpace as a self-publishing option. CreateSpace makes book publishing easy and quick. Now, if only writing was as easy and quick.
