CreateSpace is an Amazon company that specializes in self-publishing services including books, ebooks, music and film.
I tried out CreateSpace for the first time, a few weeks ago and I'm certainly glad I did.
I had been wanting to publish a collection of my poetry for a long time. I had started and stopped this project many times. With a couple of other self-publishing services that I had tried previously, including Lulu and IUniverse, there was always something that kept me procrastinating and not focused on actually completing my book.
In terms of Lulu, I had high hopes initally after reading some reviews about their services. But when I attempted to download my completed poetry document file at their site; right off the bat, I was faced with an error message that made no sense at all. Listing several font errors for a font I wasn't even using! I was turned off big time and decided not to waste any more time there!
CreateSpace makes the whole process of self-publishing a book not only easy but fun too! I was able to download my poetry document and with only a bit of minor tweaking to adjust for the page size I had chosen; it was ready to go within a couple of days, after being checked over by the CreateSpace team.
Here's how my book turned out:
And here's a link to the Amazon page with the Click Inside the Book feature included. (The back cover may be still appearing as it was for the first one I created (green) as this may still be in the processed of being updated on the Amazon product page.)
I then had a few things I wanted to change after I received the first copies of my book, including the cover and a few tweaks of the text, that were minor errors I had missed. No problem. I submitted an updated document, chose a new cover photo (this time, one I took myself) and presto, my book was on it's way to being updated to my complete satisfaction.
CreateSpace provides a Cover Creator option that makes this process so easy. And completely customizable. Not some "cookie cutter" same old, same old....options, as is the case with some of the other self-publishing companies offerings.
And with Amazon behind a book, well the opportunities to take it to whatever level you aspire to, are definitely there. Channels offered include: Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Europe, UK...library distribution, online distributors....impressive!
Their support services are excellent too. And again, an area that I think is so important and is lacking with too many companies, of all types it seems. I had numerous questions along the way and all were answered in a friendly, timely and professional way. No "jumping through hoops" to get someone to respond to questions and that's something that I really appreciate.
Price-wise. Hard to believe. For a mere $25. investment I not only was able to create my book to my complete satisfaction. The $25. also included the expanded distribution options, mentioned above and only available through CreateSpace,editing assistance and a free ISBN number. This was $25. very well spent! And without the expanded distribution, initial costs are FREE! Hard to go wrong.
Only two things that I can think of that would have made my experience with CreateSpace even better.
I had asked about the title and my name being included on the spine of the book but was told that for a book with 70 pages (as mine is) the spine was too small to allow for print. I know that Lulu does offer this service and it would be most helpful to have this provided at CreateSpace, especially when targeting bookstores and libraries for selling prospects.
Also, when checking the proof of my book online at the CreateSpace site, the magnify page option is a bit "wonky" with only a very large and rather small size of magnification offered. To have incremental zoom options, again would be helpful and appreciated.
I am now working on another book, this one a collection of my haiku poems. I am also putting together a marketing plan specifically targeted to regional libraries including a media release for both of my poetry books. Wish me luck! To see a labour of love come together as has been the case with both of these book projects is oh so satisfying!
If you've been delaying your own creative indie project be it a book, ebook, Cd....make sure to stop by CreateSpace to find out just how easy, inexpensive and rewarding it can be.
Overall rating for this service: Very Good. 4 out of 5.
