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. 

I love what Twitter has done for me, but….

I love what Twitter has done for me. It’s connected me to some amazing people including my two literary angels, @HelenHollick a wonderful historical writer who then introduced me to the woman who became my copy editor, Jo Field www.myspace.com/tawford, who is also an author in her own right.

But at the same time, I cannot believe how it’s changed since I joined back in March. It's getting so crowded now that I can’t possibly keep up with everything that’s going on (perhaps my “follow” list is too long?). I know they’ve added some new tools to help sort through the barrage of sentiments and insights (I use this term lightly), but I still find it overwhelming. It’s like being at a party and being bombarded by stories, occupations, and interests of the 664 people (that’s how many people I’m following). And sadly, many of the people are just not that interesting, and the ones that are, are either lost in the digital stream, or difficult to find to start with.

In this age of advanced “communication” and information overload, I see the same ideas repeating themselves over and over again. And frankly, it’s often a bore - but herein may lay a silver lining...

Over the last few years, I often pondered the future of books and wondered if people will still take the time to read them when they can more easily fill up hours with online sound bites? I have to admit that I have succumbed to far too much time passively being entertained by the likes of Nigahiga and KeJumba. Although they may be hilarious at times, I wonder how I will feel one day towards the end of my life looking back? Will I regret the times spent with these pursuits instead of reading great books, or will it matter at all?

Recently I ploughed - and yes, I did feel like one of those horses I saw at the fair pulling far too much weight- through Anna Karenina. Had it not been “required reading” for my book club, I never would have read it, even though I have always wanted to. It was long and tedious at times, and inspired and touching at others. Do I regret the forty hours it took me to read it? Absolutely not. Has it inspired me to read other classics? Yes!

On the other hand, do I regret that I spent half of Saturday on YouTube? Yes, a little bit. It makes me wonder: although both activities would fall in the “entertainment” category, why do they seem so different? Is it my constant guilt and fear of wasting my life? Or does it point to something deeper? Something more primal?

I have come to the conclusion that as much as we may think we want life to be easy and to be fed like babies - whether that’s by food companies or the entertainment industry -we all have a desire for something more. I believe people are born with a desire for something that can only be attained by a bit of effort. It takes work to grow an apple orchard, pick the fruit and make your own cider (believe me I know!). Of course it would be much easier to take a can out of the cupboard and crack it open, but nothing compares with the taste of freshly pressed cider and the accompanying feeling of satisfaction.

I have become convinced that people will always read books, whether on electronic media or in print, and be willing to do the “work” to get to the ending. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.

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!