Book design and typography

FAQs

Your publisher account

Q: What exactly is a publisher account and why do I need it? A: Effectively your account is the gateway to having your books printed and distributed through a cost effective print on demand (POD) channel. You manage your titles, information, pricing and where your books are sold and receive a commission payment for each sale into your nominated bank account. So all profits are yours! Q: I don’t have nor want an Amazon account so I can’t use CreateSpace. A: You don’t need one. Although CreateSpace is a division of Amazon you can set up your print account separate by going to createspace.com with your specific user name and password or you can use your Amazon account details too. Kindle Direct Publishing, KDP, is the eBook division of Amazon and does use your Amazon account details only. Q: What is Ingram Spark and does it have any advantages over CreateSpace? A: Ingram Spark is the self publishing division of Ingram, the world’s largest book distributor and is a POD alternative to CreateSpace but there are some differences. Both distribute worldwide through online and traditional book retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Unlike CreateSpace, Ingram charges for file uploads and revisions although now offers free distribution too. Ingram does distribute to Australia, Amazon is not fully established there yet. Quality for both is effectively similar but if you want hardbacks, then only Ingram can provide that print option. One advantage of CreateSpace is your books are always in stock on Amazon worldwide and the sale routes through more quickly. Also CreateSpace can act as your publisher and provide a free ISBN number, which for many writers is a perfect compromise. Q: How do I receive my Createspace retail sales commission? A: You nominate one bank account in your country of residence using the international IBAN details. Payment is monthly and currency auto-converted if sales are in another Amazon area. The same principle but different admin, holds for Ingram Spark and also KDP. If you nominate the same bank account and use the three distributors, you will have three different incomings appearing on your statement. Q: I just want to write, this looks too complicated. Can you do it all for me? A: Yes. To ensure all these steps we can help you through every process as necessary or set up your account directly from your information provided and complete your book upload then hand back your account to be secured by you with a changed password.

Understanding your CreateSpace account

This is a short overview to give you a more detailed understanding of how your individual book summary is organised on CreateSpace, particularly the main three columns: Setup, Review and Distribute. Once your account is up and available, you start by clicking on add a new title which kicks off Setup, where you commence with the name of project which is your book title. Mark the paperback option and choose the guided set up process which proceeds with requiring the rest of your title information including author name and description. When all is saved and completed successfully a green tick appears in the summary as above in Notes for Anna. It is at this stage that you must choose the ISBN requirement. If you have already decided to publish under a chosen business name and bought a block of 10 ISBN numbers from Bowker or Neilsen, then insert your publishing name and allocate a number and continue to the next section to upload your inner file and cover. Alternatively, and a great option for many writers publishing for the first time, is to allow CreateSpace to be your publisher. Click the free ISBN and it will allocate you a number. You will need this for the cover and so will we, in order to to complete your design and make your cover file. If so, you will end the process here for now and return later when we have both inner and cover files ready. This is fine and the rest of your book summary page will have red dots for later completion. Next section will be to upload the inner and cover pdf files. Important here is to ensure you include the correct book trim sizing and whether black&white or colour and you can choose your paper colour. Similarly on the cover you can choose matte or gloss. In general, we recommend creme paper and a matt cover for fiction and white paper and a gloss cover for non-fiction. Finally, you will complete the set up by submitting your files for a 24-hour CreateSpace approval and if successful a receipt will be emailed to you with a link to check and review your book, either online or via a downloadable PdF and then approve your book for immediate publishing. The last process is to fix your pricing and distribution channels. The pricing choices are self evident, but we recommend setting US, UK and Europe prices individually, noting there is a minimum which Amazon allows. Your commission rates are viewable per channel on distribution. We recommend including expanded distribution too. An option to publish an eBook directly from your CreateSpace files onto KDP through an internal Amazon conversion is provided and you may wish to choose this too. Normally, we prefer to upload separate files to KDP. Usually, within a few days, your book will appear on Amazon sites worldwide for sale and to order author copies immediately at cost price from your account. You are now a published author. Time to look at marketing and generate sales! Click on Services, Prices or Contact on the menu bar to return

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Book design and typography