Is self-publishing for you? A lot of authors shy away from this option because they don’t want to trust their book to just anybody. They’re right not to. Like most things involving intellectual property and money, you’ll find both the reputable companies and the outright crooks. CreateSpace is one of the outstanding companies and has helped thousands of authors and artists bring their work to the general public.

How Do You Publish With CreateSpace?

So maybe you’ve already signed up for a CreateSpace account but you still aren’t quite sure about something. This video should help get you started.

Why Publish With CreateSpace?

So you have a manuscript and now you want to get that sucker in print. You just worry about rejection slips from the more traditional publishing houses. Well, if you’re getting a ton of them, maybe you need to polish your manuscript a little bit. Maybe you’re submitting them to the wrong places (e.g. A publisher that usually handles romances won’t be inclined to touch a science fiction novel). Or maybe the timing just isn’t right. So pay appropriate attention to what those rejection slips are telling you.

Maybe it’s not you. Dr. Seuss got his share of rejection slips. All those publishers who turned down J.K. Rowling’s idea of a boy wizard dealing with the dangers of a modern magical world are probably kicking themselves right now. In that case, maybe self-publishing is your best bet. Let’s face it, with traditional publishers, you’re probably going to get a token advance on 10% royalties and you have to do most of the publicity work anyway. Publishing with a reputable self-publishing agent like CreateSpace can give you some flexible royalty/pricing options and get your book out there.

Doesn’t self-publishing attract the drivel? Sure it does. If you’ve been writing for a while, you know how tough it can be to objective about your work. Sometimes would-be authors get so wrapped up in their manuscript that they miss some pretty big flaws. That’s the whole reason self-publishing has such a negative reputation in some quarters. People tend to assume that a self-published book just wasn’t good enough to make the cut at the more traditional publishers. That’s not necessarily the case when a lot of authors just chose that route because they got frustrated.

Why go with CreateSpace? Well, first off, they’re associated with Amazon, which basically got its start by selling books. The fact that they push their Kindle e-reader lineup so much pretty much proves that they haven’t forgotten their roots. You can also pretty much set up a physical book that is created on demand by CreateSpace and add a Kindle eBook at the same time, with flexible pricing options. Flexible for you, I mean. You get to decide how much a copy of your book is worth.

Publish your book with CreateSpace

Tips For Creating Your CreateSpace Book

• Make sure both your manuscript and your cover page are formatted correctly. Read the rules carefully, because it took me a few tries to get the cover art exactly right for my first CreateSpace book. The cover has to have a little bit of a margin to allow for overflow. I’ve also seen complaints in book reviews about manuscripts that were incorrectly formatted. They were probably referring to the Kindle edition but I’ve actually seen formatting foobars in print books, as well.
• Don’t overprice it. Remember your college days when you used to wince at the price of textbooks? Those authors know that their books are only being bought because students need them. It boils down to simple supply and demand. You don’t want to overprice your book, especially if you’re a first-time author. Take a look at what similar books are going for in both hardcover and paperback.
• Don’t underprice it. “Oh, look, a $1.99 paperback. Is it any good?” I’ve had that reaction too. If you’re undercutting your book’s value, you’re probably making not as much profit as you could and also not encouraging the reading public to take you seriously.
• Get friends and family to write reviews for your book. If you’re the one writing a textbook, get them to tell you whether they could follow the subject matter even if they don’t have a background in computer programming. With CreateSpace, you can make changes and upload the manuscript as many times as you need to, even if it means you need to call it “Second Edition” about six weeks after the “First Edition”. Oh, and pay attention to the reviews. If people repeatedly say that something is confusing, it probably is even if it seems obvious to you.
• Do some stumping for your book. CreateSpace has options where you can buy a whole bunch of copies at wholesale prices. Seriously awesome if you are planning on doing book signings at your local bookstore.