Is CreateSpace a scam?

[musicpainter22]

I have no reason to suspect that it is so far, short of some angry people on forums who probably forgot to advertise, thus causing them not to sell any of their titles. But all the information I'm getting is conflicting, and I want to know for sure before I go any further. I'm going to be ready to put the book up on Amazon in a few days, and I want to be absolutely positive that I'm not setting myself up for disaster.

[Christin K]

Createspace is ABSOLUTELY NOT A SCAM. It's a real, on-demand publishing house that will publish your title in a very affordable, very easy manner, and then make it available for sale on Amazon.com, Target.com and in their own e-store. Amazon owns the company, as well as Target.com.

This is a great way to publish books if you don't want to wait around to be discovered by commercial publishing companies. There are a couple things you must realize first however: ALL MARKETING AND ADVERTISING IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. The book printing and production is theirs, they will put it up for sale for you, but after that--you are ON YOUR OWN. They never say they will sell your book for you--that is up to you.

All self-publishing companies do it like this. NONE of them market your titles. Even when you publish through a commercial publisher, such as Houghton-Mifflin or Simon &Schuster you have no guarantees that they will promote you! The biggest difference is that if you go commercial, the RIGHTS to your title will not be yours to keep until your contract runs out--with Createspace, you retain ALL RIGHTS all the time. You can take that Createspace book you just had done and shop it around to any publishing company you wish. You would not be allowed to do that if you had a commercial publishing contract. Not only that, but if you don't sell a MINIMUM number of books with a commercial publisher, they will DROP YOU--or "remainder" your books (sell them below cost and you get no royalties!). That's a bad deal for some authors. Unless you are Stephen King, or John Grisham, you're publicity is largely going to be in your hands here, too. They might send you on a book-signing or two, but they aren't going to send you on shows like Oprah or Letterman to promote your title unless you're already a superstar.

I think Createspace is a fine idea, especially for first-time authors. It gives you an opportunity to see your book in print, hear what others think about it, and find out just how hard it is to get a book sold. All marketing and advertising is completely up to you--and if you DON'T do it, your book will not sell. Period. That's not their responsibility, and they never claim it is on their website.

You can advertise in lots of places for free--Facebook, Myspace, forums, blogs, have your own web site--whatever you like, you can do. Buy a banner ad on some popular email program--target your audience and find out where and what they look at on the web--and go for it. You can even order a bunch of copies of your own title and go sit on a street corner and sell them if you want--but remember: IF YOU ORDER YOUR OWN TITLES, YOU EARN NO ROYALTIES. Your sales figures do not include books YOU order yourself.

Since publishing my two titles on Createspace in May, I've sold 6 copies--2 in May and 4 in June. When some reviews get posted on Amazon, sales will increase even more. And when I do the signing I'm doing next month, they will increase even more. It's not a fast process--it's slow--but it WORKS.

People who get disgruntled about self-publishing need to remember two things: first, you SELL what you ADVERTISE. Marketing = SALES. If you don't advertise your title, no one will know about it. It's not up to the publisher to do this--it's up to YOU.

Second: Createspace does not "read" and "judge" your title. They only PRODUCE IT. You can publish almost anything--good bad or ugly on that site. Maybe your book isn't selling because it isn't that good! You must be prepared to find that out if you are going to be a success in any creative field--writing, painting, acting, singing---anything.

You have aboslutely nothing to lose by using Createspace. If you don't like the result, change it, or ignore it. You own all rights to your book, so you can do whatever you want with it. Advertise, don't advertise, sell, don't sell--it's yours to do with whatever you wish. It doesn't cost you ANYTHING to let them print a book--you will get your royalties on every title sold. You even have the option to withdraw your book from their lists.

Remember this: Royalties get paid out ONLY when they exceed $20. If you don't use Direct Deposit, they will be paid out after you reach $28--the extra $8 is a fee for processing your royalites with paper checks and mailing them. (It's a one-time fee). Your books will be available on Amazon.com, Target.com and on Createspace's e-store. You can tell any number of people where to find your titles to sell them, and you can tell them any way you wish.

I have been extremely satisfied with their business and intend to use them over and over again. I'm finally selling books after failing to get a commercial publisher interested for more than a decade. Anyone who thinks this is a bad thing is either misguided or they don't understand the process and what the alternatives are.

Good luck with your book--go for it and don't worry!! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.