Publishing with CreateSpace vs. IngramSpark poses a dilemma. Both options are viable, each offering perks all its own, but which one is best for you. Naturally, that depends on your needs, what you need to accomplish. This information is specifically for print books.

*Here is a breakdown of the advantages/disadvantages of each: 
*Thank you Dave Chesson, Kindlepeneur.

Besides the incidental costs to use either, the major differences are the ability to create hardcover books and the cost of color books. That much is self-evident.

Also, there is information out there that brick and mortar stores (e.g. Barnes and Noble) will not stock Amazon titles. They will if a customer orders your book. However, because of profitability too complicated to go into here, it is not worth their while  to stock Amazon books and they will not.

Another serious consideration is the cost of an ISBN. Amazon provides one gratis, but it cannot be used anywhere but with Amazon. The best option, IMHO, is to purchase your own through Bowker. They can be expensive – a single ISBN cost $125, but 10 cost only $250. If you intend to write more than one book this is the way to go.

If your intentions are to sell your books strictly here in the U.S. CreateSpace works, but if you have plans that include anywhere else in the world, IngramSpark has the advantage.

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Your book cover is one of your most important  marketing strategies. Unless you have a marketable name up  there with John Grisham, Stephen King, or Margaret Atwood, one that readers already know, their first exposure to your book will by its cover. You may not be able to “judge a book by its cover,” but you can certainly entice readers to pick up your book and look through it, read what you’ve written on the back to find out if they’d like to give it a read. Do not neglect the importance of your book cover.

I hired an artist for my first book. He is excellent. Roy A. Mauritsen (rmdragon@optonline.net). Check him out if you want a true professional. Since this new book was about motorcycles, I decided to use a photograph taken on a trip to South Dakota. It is a picture of me and my brother astride our bikes passing through a tunnel on Iron Mountain Rd. in South Dakota with Mount Rushmore in the background. The problem with the picture is that my protagonist, Chance, is a lone wolf. He rides alone. So, since I am not adroit with Photoshop, I hired an acquaintance who was. He erased one rider from the picture and filled in the background. He then added the title in the color and font I wanted, as well as my name, and converted it all into a JPEG format. The result is posted here.

Getting the book up on CreateSpace was simple enough. I converted the text from word to PDF for the content and used the JPEG photo for the cover. Now days a single click can also create your E-book rendition for Kindle.

Publishing on IngramSpark is a whole different matter. More about that in my next post.

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Use CreateSpace to publish your book is not difficult. It is involved, but doable. Here is a brief update on the steps necessary to get your book published by Createspace up to creating your book cover.

Go to createspace.com. This is a subsidiary of Amazon, but  use your search engine to go directly to createspace.com. You will need to set up an account if you do not already have one. I suggest you open an account page now and follow along as we progress here. You can toggle back and forth to make the procedures easier to follow.

Once you log in, you will see My Projects on your member dashboard. Click on “Add New Title” and the “Start Your New Project” page will come up where you will enter the title of your project, and the type of project. Since we are interested in publishing books, click on the “Paperback” option. As you complete this process, toward the end you will find how to create an ebook edition for Kindle if you desire to follow that route as well. I recommend you do. Createspace does not publish hardcover books. You will need Ingram/Sparks for that. [I am learning about that now myself and will post what I learn when I do.] Finally, click on “Get Started” button in the “Guided” setup process – unless you are an expert of course.

The “Title Information” page will appear. Complete as necessary.There are “What’s this?” flags to click on if you get confused as to what to do with each entries. Click on “Save and Continue.” Note that a column appears on the left-hand side of the page with the title of your project on top and the steps necessary to complete it beneath. There will be a white dash inside a red dot next to each step. As you complete each step that indicator will turn into a green check mark.

The next page is the ISBN page.

The ISBN is the International Standard Book Number. It is required for every book published. For detailed information on what it means and what the options are you can click on the ISBN and Compare ISBN option links that follow “What to do on this page.” The instructions outline the three methods of dealing with ISBNs. Once you decide click on “Save and Continue.” I purchased my own numbers. They are expensive. See my post for more in depth information: http://thomasmcgann.com/so-you-want-to-be-an-author/international-st…ook-numbers-isbn/

Next up is the Interior.

You need to select whether or not your book is black and white or color and choose between white or cream colored paper. Opinions vary on choice here. Some say that white is better for ease of reading while others say that cream is easier on the eyes. When it comes time to design the book cover, cream colored pages are slightly thicker requiring a slightly wider spine. This is of no great importance, but you need to know this for book cover design purposes. The dimensions of your book – height and width – is up to you. There are numerous choices but none larger than  8.5″ x 11.69″ (21.59 cm x 29.69 cm) with 6″x9″ being the most popular (which may be a good reason to be different.)

Now it is time to upload your book file. It can be any one of the following: .pdf, .doc, .docx or .rtf. Once downloaded and saved Createspace will provide an Interior Reviewer tool that will tell you any issues that may have arisen, along with a copy of what your book will look like, page by page, to help you solve any of those issues.

Next you must create your book cover. This will require a new post. Hang loose.

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              Paperback Books

Formatting your manuscript for paperback publication with CreateSpace (CS) is a completely different project from formatting it for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). This is Part I. Additional information to follow.

You can save yourself a lot of work by approaching paperback publication correctly. I tackled both projects without much forethought and it created a ton of extra work for me. I just sat down and started typing my manuscript. I should have formatted MS Word first before I typed a single letter. This would have saved me hours of work later in reformatting the manuscript to get it correct.

In addition, I formatted my manuscript for Kindle first in order to get it up and published. Then I used that draft to work in CreateSpace. Big mistake. The formatting for KDP is completely different, more complicated in some ways. Many of the formatting steps required for electronic publishing are unnecessary for a paperback. In fact, they get in the way, as I was to discover.

Upon completion of your manuscript, including copy editing and proofreading, the first thing you need to do is to make a copy and label it so you can easily identify on which version you are working. This is extremely important. Keep the original untouched, make a copy, and then work on that copy so that you always have the original to go back to should you make mistakes and need to start over.

OK, onto formatting your manuscript for paperback.

Create an account on CS and follow the instructions provided. Here is a great link that tells you all about what is required:  https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/InteriorPDF.jsp

First, you provide the title of your work. Next, you will require an ISBN. If you do not have your own (see previous post here for information on ISBNs), Amazon will provide one for you. As you complete each step, the little red circle adjacent to it will change to a green check-mark indicating that it has been properly completed. Each time you return to CS and log in, you need only to click on your book title to be taken to the next step.

Then, select the size of the book desired. I selected 6”x9” because it is common, a convenient size to carry about, and offers the widest distribution options. If your book has illustrations or pictures, you must allow for “bleed” to determine the exact trim size (click on the link for more information.) Next, select the interior type and paper color. Using colors in the book’s interior becomes prohibitively expensive. For that reason, I eliminated the color from several images I have in my work, and I am printing in B&W.

So far, so simple.

Divide your manuscript into three parts: the front matter, the body, and the back matter. This is a good idea, since each part can be formatted differently. For example, for the front matter (everything that comes before page one), the pagination can be eliminated completely, or a different font such as small roman numerals can be used. The copyright page, in particular, can require several different size fonts and, in some instances, italics.

In MS Word in the Page Layout pane, select the size of the book desired. The same tab also controls the margin settings (click here for more information on margins.) When a book is bound, the area in the center is known as the gutter. The gutter margins vary depending on the thickness of the book, the more pages, the larger the gutter margin needs to be. This is important for the dimensions  of the book cover. That is for another post.

For the body file, I choose to use page numbers centered in the footer. For the header, I choose to use different headers for odd and even pages. For odd pages, those on the right, I am using the chapter number and chapter title, and for even pages, I am using only the book title.

The use of chapter numbers and titles in the header requires that each chapter, i.e. section, be formatted separately. Originally, I had separated my chapters using page breaks. When it came time to include running headings I had to change each page break to a section break. Here’s a link to an explanation of the differences between the two. This was a major adjustments I had to make, one that took me hours to correct.

Highlight the header by double-clicking on the space above the page text. This will open the “Design” pane. In it, you will find a check box for different odd and even pages, so you can have different headings on alternate pages. From this pane, you can also insert page numbers at either the top or bottom, left, right, or centered, as you desire. You will also note a “link to previous” option in the navigation tab. This is crucial. It will light up, tying sections together. In order to change headings from one chapter to the next, this link must be turned off manually for each chapter.

This is as far as I’ve gotten. I am continuing to format my paperback and will keep you updated on my progress. Meanwhile, here are some cool links that may help:

https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1482

https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/InteriorPDF.jsp

If you open these links, you’ll find additional information available from the CS forums. I hope this helps.

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