Once I made the decision to self-publish in the fall of 2011, I spent a considerable amount of time looking for the right publisher. If you Google 'self-publishers,' you'll find numerous lists of vendors to help you with the process. The ones I ran across repeatedly were AuthorHouse, Lightning Source, Book Surge, Lulu, CreateSpace, Tate Publishing, Dog Ear, Smashwords, Infinity, Writersworld, iUniverse, and Xulon Press.
I visited all their websites and based on my needs, pricing and their terms, I narrowed it down to CreateSpace and iUniverse. I can't stress enough how important it is to fully understand their terms. The last thing you want are surprises after you're well into your project.
After discussing my book with each of the finalist's sales reps, I chose CreateSpace.
CreateSpace Packages (effective November 2011)
Marketing Pro - $4,999
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, custom book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, promotional text creation, and video book trailer.
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, custom book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, promotional text creation, and video book trailer.
Advanced - $2,534
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, and promotional text creation.
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, and promotional text creation.
Essentials - $1,798
Comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Standard - $728
Unique book cover, custom book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Unique book cover, custom book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Author's Advantage - $398
Standard book cover, standard book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Standard book cover, standard book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.
Author's Express - $248
For authors who have created their own PDF file and just require someone to review their file and provide phone support for getting published on their own.
For authors who have created their own PDF file and just require someone to review their file and provide phone support for getting published on their own.
I chose the Advanced option, but later paid an additional $600 to take advantage of their custom book cover service.
Steps Taken During the Process
Editing
• I submitted my manuscript according to their guidelines.
• Their editor edited the manuscript using Microsoft Office Word's Track Changes feature so I could accept or reject his recommendations. Changes included grammar, punctuation, spelling, and consistency. Along with the edited manuscript, I received a five-page letter that included the editor's thoughts on what I did well and where he thought the narrative could be improved. Comments included character development, plot flow, organization, structure, tone and style.
• I submitted a revised manuscript taking the editor's recommendations into consideration.
• They sent the manuscript back for my review and approval. At this point, I was allowed to make up to 80 more changes without incurring additional costs.
• I submitted a few more changes to the manuscript.
• They sent me a revised manuscript for review and approval.
• Their editor edited the manuscript using Microsoft Office Word's Track Changes feature so I could accept or reject his recommendations. Changes included grammar, punctuation, spelling, and consistency. Along with the edited manuscript, I received a five-page letter that included the editor's thoughts on what I did well and where he thought the narrative could be improved. Comments included character development, plot flow, organization, structure, tone and style.
• I submitted a revised manuscript taking the editor's recommendations into consideration.
• They sent the manuscript back for my review and approval. At this point, I was allowed to make up to 80 more changes without incurring additional costs.
• I submitted a few more changes to the manuscript.
• They sent me a revised manuscript for review and approval.
Formatting
• I was offered various options for the formatting of the interior of the book (font style and size, left and right-hand page headers, page number placement, and paper color), and once I made these choices, they provided a dozen or so mocked-up pages for review and approval.
Promotion
• They provided several promotional text drafts for my review and approval. Included were a press release, a one-sentence story synopsis (maximum 200 characters), a short story synopsis (2,000 character maximum), an extended story synopsis (4,000 character maximum), back cover text (250 word maximum) and three versions of my bio (140 - 1,000 characters).
• I sent back the promotional text with some revisions.
• They sent back the revised promotional text for review and approval.
• I sent back the promotional text with some revisions.
• They sent back the revised promotional text for review and approval.
Cover Design & Layout
• I was allowed to choose the graphic designer for the front cover design from a list of six different artists. The graphic designer I selected provided a pencil sketch of the front cover based on how I completed their questionnaire in addition to some photographs I had sent her. I gave her my comments on the initial sketch, and she sent a second sketch incorporating my comments and including more detail. We went back and forth a couple more times before she submitted a full-color version of the cover. After I approved the illustration, she created two cover concepts that incorporated the title of the book and author name along with back cover and spine layouts.
• I chose the layout I liked best.
• She sent me final proofs for review and approval.
• I chose the layout I liked best.
• She sent me final proofs for review and approval.
Final Approval
• The entire manuscript in a PDF book format was created for my review and approval. At this point, I was allowed to make 80 more changes to it without any additional charge.
• I submitted a few changes.
• After incorporating my changes, they sent the manuscript back for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed one copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval at which time I was again allowed to make up to 80 changes without being charged.
• I submitted a few changes.
• They sent a revised PDF file for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed another copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval. After I approved it, the book was ready to be released. The Kindle version was available two weeks later.
• I submitted a few changes.
• After incorporating my changes, they sent the manuscript back for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed one copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval at which time I was again allowed to make up to 80 changes without being charged.
• I submitted a few changes.
• They sent a revised PDF file for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed another copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval. After I approved it, the book was ready to be released. The Kindle version was available two weeks later.
Marketing
• Once the book was ready for distribution, CreateSpace sent out the press release to 3,258 local and national media contacts they chose based on demographics for the book's genre. Within 48 hours of the press release, I was invited to be interviewed by a local TV station and submit a copy of my book for review by Midwest Book Review.
What I Liked About Working With CreateSpace
1. They assigned my project to a team (mine was Team Apollo) so that the same people worked on it from beginning to end.
2. They managed the project in short methodical steps, each of which required my approval before they continued with the next one.
3. I could contact the team's coordinator by phone or by sending a message from my CreateSpace project page. Their response time was excellent. Their staff was pleasant and very accommodating.
4. They offered a phone consultation before each major phase of the project so that I fully understood what was going to take place. There were no surprises along the way.
2. They managed the project in short methodical steps, each of which required my approval before they continued with the next one.
3. I could contact the team's coordinator by phone or by sending a message from my CreateSpace project page. Their response time was excellent. Their staff was pleasant and very accommodating.
4. They offered a phone consultation before each major phase of the project so that I fully understood what was going to take place. There were no surprises along the way.
A Couple of Things I Wish They Would Have Done Differently
1. I preferred my bio to be printed on the inside back cover but was told they were unable to do that given their printing equipment. So my bio ended up as the second to the last page of the book, the last page being a blank one. That was disappointing. I suppose I could have revised the synopsis on the back cover so that the bio could fit there as well, but at that point, it would have cost extra because I had already approved the back cover. Lesson learned for next time.
2. The other disappointment was in the first-in first-out method they used for completing jobs in their work queue. This worked out well in the beginning when the work they did for me was in big chunks, but toward the end, when I had only very minor changes, my work had to wait in line behind other authors in front of me who were in the beginning phases of their projects. For example, the graphic artist who created my book cover (who was fantastic I might add) took a reasonable amount of time each step of the way. But at one point I asked for a minor change, something that couldn't have taken more than a few minutes to make, and I had to wait eight business days for her to do it because she had other jobs in her queue. That held up releasing my book - everything else was done at that point. If it were me, I would take care of the small jobs first just to get them out of the way.
Royalties
The way CreateSpace calculates royalties is as follows:
If bought through CreateSpace's eStore - Retail price X 80% less the cost to print
If bought through amazon.com - Retail price X 60% less the cost to print
If bought through any other source - Retail price X 40% less the cost to print
If bought through amazon.com - Retail price X 60% less the cost to print
If bought through any other source - Retail price X 40% less the cost to print
My book is 9X6 with 355 pages and retails for $14.95. The cost to print it is $5.24. If everyone buys my book through amazon.com, my breakeven point is 840 books.
Conclusion
The entire process took five months, and I can say it went quite smoothly. Based on my experience, I can recommend CreateSpace for self-publishing.
Florence Osmund earned her master's degree from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. After more than three decades of experience in management positions in corporate America, she retired to write books and just released her first novel, "The Coach House." Osmund currently resides in Chicago where she is working on the sequel to her first book. Please visit her website at http://www.florenceosmund.com for new author advice and other writer-related information.
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