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.

The post Publishing with CreateSpace vs. IngramSpark appeared first on Thomas McGann.

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.

The post Creating Your Book Cover appeared first on Thomas McGann.