Back
when I was writing The Second Mouse Goes
Digital, I made a brief statement about Amazon’s newest publishing offer:
I
knew there was something going on that we mere authors were not being told. I just
failed to guess what it was. However, it did not take long for the rest of the
story to appear. Since CreateSpace‘s facilities are located in Charleston,
South Carolina, the local newspaper was the first to leak the word to
employees. In January, Charleston’s Post
and Courier published the following announcement from Amazon:
Many
customers discovered the changes when BookBaby leaped into a golden opportunity
to steal customers from Amazon. On January 17, their webpage
announced CreateSpace’s changes and then pointed out that they offered most of
the services that CreateSpace was discontinuing. They promised never to abandon
their customers like those big companies had just done. Others
learned of the change when they visited CreateSpace’s webpage:
Needless to say, my chapter on “Choosing the Right Production
Company” would have been quite different if I had written it in 2018 rather
than 2017. Nevertheless, I can sum up my advice simply. Now that Amazon has
changed CreateSpace’s role, it really doesn’t make much difference which of the
two big companies you choose to produce and market your book. You’ll do your own marketing, which I’ve
always recommended. You’re going to hire your own editor, a layout designer,
and a cover designer, just as “The Second Mouse Goes Digital” suggests. If you
are good with software, you can purchase your own editing software like
Grammarly and a layout program like Vellum. You can design your own cover, too,
although I don’t recommend that plan unless you are already a talented graphic
artist. And here’s my bottom line. ·
In 2012, I published The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese. I used
CreateSpace to design my cover, do the page layouts, and the editing. They
charged me close to $3000.00. ·
In 2017, I published The Second Mouse Goes Digital. I paid a
cover designer around $250.00 and spent slightly more that $500.00 on software
to do the layout and editing. That software expense, however, was a one-time
outlay that will pay for itself as I use it for other publications. ·
In both cases, I used
CreateSpace for book production and distribution at no cost to me other than
for the books I purchase from them at cost to use for resale or give-aways. The two editions are virtually identical. If anything, the newer
book has the edge in terms of interior design. Amazon and self-publishers both
win! |
