My Experience with CreateSpace

Several people have asked me to write about my experience using CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon, to publish my first novel Anna’s Tears.

After careful consideration of other options, some of which offered very similar services, the deciding factor was CreateSpace’s relationship with Amazon. I can’t comment on the quality of the other services as I have not used them, but I can say that so far I have been extremely pleased with my decision.

Two of the many things that have stood out with CreateSpace have been their “a la carte” options, meaning I can pick and choose what services I want to purchase from them and their top-notch customer service.

As a side-note, if you have the ability to generate your own cover and format your interior text, then CreateSpace’s free publication option may be for you. I have an author friend who is much more technically inclined than me so this works well for him.

A la carte:

As I have often said, I can write a novel but am not very good at coming up with the marketing materials related it. This came as a great surprise to me as I have written more marketing documents than I can count, but when it came to generating text about my own work, I couldn’t capture its essence in a compelling manner.

Consequently I decided to buy Promotional Text Creation. I also needed help to generate the cover of the book and with typesetting. For this I purchased Total Design Freedom Custom Interior and Unique Book Cover.

Something I like is that I can opt out of purchasing promotional materials or other marketing related services at this time, but can always add it later if I want to. One of the other companies I looked at does not give you this option.

Customer Service:

From my very first interaction with a CreateSpace employee, I felt as though the company was behind me and my project. I know that that this may sound silly to some people (and no, they’re not paying me to say this!) but every person I interacted with seemed sincerely interested in me as an individual and not just “another author”.

The first customer service person I spoke with gave me as much time as I needed to answer my questions, explain the services I was considering and how everything would work. She also followed up with an email outlining my options and provided a summary of our discussion.

After I had decided what I wanted to do, they held my hand during every step of the way. At one point during the editing process, there was a mix-up regarding the number of edits and rounds of that I was allowed and after I explained my quandary, they accommodated me without any hassle what so ever.

More on Services Purchased:

Getting the front cover and interior text generated was easy. I filled in a form that they provided outlining what I was looking for in terms of mood, image, etc. Within a couple of weeks I was given two cover options and two text style options. They used stock photos for the covers, but they presented them in a way that was unique and professional looking. In fact they were both so good, I had a hard time selecting one. The processed allowed me to request some changes to the covers and interior styles, which I did. I have had many compliments on how great the cover looks, and its ability to grab attention. People often look for the name of the traditional publisher when they see the book and are surprised to learn that it is self-published.

As part of their service they send you two proofs to approve. Not only was it a huge rush to see my manuscripts in the form of a real book, I can assert that errors really did “jump off the page” of the first proof despite many rounds of editing and checking.

Not having the time or inclination to figure out how to do it on my own, I also decided to purchase their Kindle-Ready Conversion option, which made things really easy. They provide instructions on how to upload the files and when I ran into trouble, they were only a call away. And I must say that Anna’s Tears does look great on the Kindle!

Finally, I purchased the Pro Plan which included being added to the Extended Distribution Channel making my book available to other book vendors and libraries.

Nuts and Bolts:

I found CreateSpace’s email notification and the “call me” button on their website to be really useful. They responded to me in a timely manner and almost always gave me exactly what I was looking for with their first attempt.

Because they have a print on demand service, there are no minimum orders, and I’ve been extremely happy with the quality. It doesn’t look at all like a self-published novel.

Generally there has been a pretty quick turn around between customers ordering the book and getting it. I have heard of some delays with Canadian orders (although mine showed up quickly), but not with US orders.

Money Stuff:

Obviously CreateSpace makes some money off of the services that they deliver but I felt that it was still very affordable, especially since I did not have any minimum order. The other way they make money is sales of books by their parent company Amazon and others. Although I would want to get exposure for my book in a broader way through a traditional publisher, I’m happy with the royalty percentage that I get with CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle.

In an ideal world, you would want people to order your book from your CreateSpace page, as you earn a higher royalty this way, but people seem to be more comfortable with the Amazon brand, and have opted to order from there more often than not.

Taxes:

If you are not a US Citizen, I would suggest that you find out if your country of residence has a tax treaty with the US. In my case, as a Canadian, filling in a few forms and waiting around for them to be processed has meant that the automatic withholding of the 30% US tax has been waived and I only have to pay Canadian taxes on royalties.

When filling in your forms to get your ITIN, make sure you fill them out correctly the first time. There are other blogs that tell you how to do this. I made the mistake of going to the closest IRS office where I was given wrong instructions which led to a rejection of my application and a delay. For my second attempt I was happy to learn that most US banks employ State Notaries who can notarize your documents for you at a reasonable price, which is much more convenient that the trip to the closest IRS office. Just be sure that the individual notarizes all of your documentation, including the copy of your ID.

I hope that you have found this to be helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions on this, or if there is anything you want to hear more about.

Yours in writing, Nathalie nathaliemholmes@gmail.com

Available on Amazon!

It is with tremendous joy and pride that I am announcing that Anna's Tears is now available on Amazon.

Thank you to all of you who sent me the fairy dust and believed in my project! You can view my Author page here:   http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006B9W33Q

Thanks especially to fellow authors Helen Hollick and Jo Field for your encouragement. 

Excuses, excuses…

[Preface: Ironically I wrote this article three weeks ago and since it’s about excuses, I don’t need to excuse myself that it took so long to post.]

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to get over myself and actually put keyboard to pixel.

By getting over myself, I don’t mean that I think that my ego is too big, it’s just that I need to let go of the idea of perfection. You see, originally, I had intended to update my blog at least every month and Twitter three times a week --which, believe it or not, was an acceptable interval back when I started. But when I was told that to be “heard” I needed a weekly blog and to tweet at least 3-6 times per day, it all fell apart.

Yes, I hear you thinking,“Oh, great! Now she has another excuse created by those nebulous marketing types.” In truth, the stark reality that my writing would be likely become wasted zeros and ones floating around in the internet alternate universe did make it all seem pointless . It’s not that I want to be a celebrity, but I don’t get enough joy from simply "writing for the sake of writing" as I hear other authors claim they do. I get joy from knowing others read what I have written and maybe get something out of it, even if it’s just making them feel less alone in their neurotic thoughts!

The part about “getting over myself” also includes the crazy notion that there are “keepers-of-the-blog-counts” out there that actually notice how often I post blog entries! Now that is a crazy idea in and of itself, and just another glimpse into the dark crevices of my grey matter.

So now, after way too long of an introduction, I say: “to heck with perfectionism!”

Although I’m not convinced that I can actually do it, and that there won’t be a litany of excuses to follow, I’m going to endeavour to write more often - whatever interval that ends up being.

While we are on the idea of excuses, I’m going to start to tweet my top excuses for not writing. The first, of course, will be “I was too busy writing a blog entry.”

Announcing.... "Anna's Tears"

May I have a drum roll please? Rat tat tat... Announcing name of my debut novel, for those who missed it: "Anna's Tears".   Now should a very large publisher, with a boat load of cash, want to change the title… well I'd be open to suggestions!

I know some of you are thinking – “OMG, she’d sell out. She’d give up her creative for cash – what a terrible thing!”

We darlings, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but this is business after all. As we all know, from the book publisher’s perspective, publishing has A LOT to do with making money. I struggled for years trying to reconcile spirituality and money. And, much to my surprise, I found out that they are not incompatible.

This all came to a head when I toyed with the idea of teaching yoga for a living. I had been a student of yoga for over ten years and had experienced much healing from it and wanted to share it with others. But I still needed to have an income. I wondered, “How can I possibly teach yoga for a living and yet take money for it?” Somehow, it seemed wrong. It was okay for me to exchange my office skills and ability to navigate in “cubicle land” for money, but when it came to yoga, in my mind, the rules changed.

After lots of reading and journaling on the topic, I came to realize that money wasn’t the problem, it was my perception of it that was. Money is just energy. Like everything, it can be used for good, or not. It can help a person, or not. Whether it is derived from office work or from my creative or spiritual, doesn’t really matter to the Universe.

I came to realize that I was just exchanging my energy – my knowledge of yoga – for my student’s energy, which happened to take the form of money. We were just bartering; simply exchanging something for something else. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now back to “Anna’s Tears”. In the end, it’s not the title of the book that matters, it’s the contents.

I want to get the book into people’s hands and have them experience Anna’s and the other character’s tragedies and victories. I want them to shed tears and rejoice along with me. I want them to be moved to be better people; to know they have the strength within to overcome the misery that life throws at them; to be inspired. And if none of that, to at least give them an escape from their day to day lives.

So, when a publisher decides to take on my book, God willing, and if they think they can sell more copies with a different title, well, then that’s what I’ll do! 

Pass the caviar dah'ling, err, no I mean the oysters….

OK, so after all of that hype (ok, just a tweet and a blog entry) I decided not to post my query letter on Query Shark. Yes, you heard me correctly. Although I said I would on my previous blog, I’ve decided that the timing isn’t right. As my version of the Tao Te Ching, by Stephen Mitchell, said this morning:

“Prevent trouble before it arises...” - Oops, that’s the wrong passage.

Flip, flip. Ok, found the right one:

“Forcing a project to completion,/ You ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action / by letting things take their course.”

So alas my friends, you will have to wait for me to venture into the Query Shark- infested waters until the time is right. I am slowly learning that, like a child, the book has its own energy and it’s not up to me to decide what it will do and when. I realize this may sound completely nutty to many of you out there, but it is what it is.

My novel, Anna’s Tears, is being lovingly (at least I think so) reviewed by my book club of ten years and after that I will send it for a thorough copy-edit. And then… well the future, and her mysterious ways, will let me know the next step; if I just take the time to listen that is.

On another note, did you know that people have actually been asking me to update my bog? I know, I find it hard to believe as well! I hope you enjoyed this short post.

See, I’m getting there; eventually I’ll be able to write that query in two tweets or less!

If Janet Reid Says So...

So, I've taken the time to write a 69,250 word novel. And I've sent out about eight query letters, with only one, "Thanks, but no", response. I know the book is great - all my friends say so! But I'm perplexed as to how to write a query letter that's even half as good as my book.

As I said on Twitter recently, I'm an author, not a poet (guaranteed someone will slam me for my assumption that poems are always short. Yes, I've read The Faerie Queene, the whole 1200 pages of it!)

But the reality is, I'm not so good with being able to sell a book in two tweets. But I guess that's what the world has come to. These darn computers have foiled everything. I should have written the book on my Olivetti (that's a type-writer for you younger kids out there) back when I was twelve.

In fact, there are a lot of things that technology has made me do, like starting this blog. I figure if Janet Reid, Query Shark, says I need a website (and I quote, "what counts as a website? Blog=yes. Twitter=no. Facebook=no. Myspace=no. LinkedIn=no") then that's what I'm going to do.

For those of you who don't know Janet, she's a genius at tearing apart query letters, hence the big shark teeth. To tell the truth, she scares me. But she seems to be onto something with her blog, and my greatest wish right now is to get a fantastic agent and get my book into the hands of real people.

And that, my friends, is how we find ourselves here. What will be my next step, you ask? Well, aside from fretting over how to fill up a blog with something better than my own random and somewhat neurotic thoughts, I will attempt to write a query that is worthy of Query Shark's bite. Wish me luck and stay tuned. I hear that some people survive.