Amazon's POD CreateSpace
As if one publish on demand service wasn't enough, last August Amazon.com began CreateSpace, which seems to be more for audio and video projects than the paperback book publishing they advertise. Apparently the only way to easily discover costs and benefits is to register and begin a project, although a FAQ exists specifically about books, and you might glean some insight from a pricing page. I love the example they use--a 100 B&W book priced at $25 "would earn a royalty of $14.85 per sale." Whee! Oh, wait--who would pay $25 for a 100-page trade paperback?
Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:
Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:
the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!An overview on the book service is available.
Labels: books, contest, Self-Publishing
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 9:15 AM
4 Comments:
I heard about this, and it should be fun to follow who wins!
"100 B&W book priced at $25." I also read that and pretty much thought the same thing as you.
Personally, I won't be signing up for CreateSpace because they don't list your book with Ingram so that bookstores can purchase it. I tried the POD route, and honestly, I think I'm going to go back to submitting to traditional publishers. Yep, back to rejections, but maybe one day I'll get that acceptance without having to pay for it. ;)
Hey, Misti! Long time no ... nice to see you and thanks for the comment.
What so many writers don't understand about self-publishing is that publishing (in either form) is a business. A big business.
I wish you better luck in returning to the traditional route.
When the people running the POD part of the business figure out that you can't sell a book over the retail price point, no matter how badly the author is being ripped off, the industry will be on the road to recovery.
I don't see that happening anytime soon.
You can be successful self publishing. You need the right book and the right program. Probably most important, as Georganna referenced above, you have to treat your book as a business.
Mark
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