Tag Archives: Copyright Permission

Uploading your Self-Publishing Paperback to KDP Print

We all know that KDP Print is likely to be taking over from Createspace when they finally close their doors (after all we’ve seen go on in the last 12 mth) I thought it would be good to do a presentation for those who wish to use KDP Print.

In the early days, I heard a lot of complaints.  Their book cover wrap kept rejecting book covers which Createspace always accepted. There were no Author priced copies, the author was paying the same as any other customer… etc.

Needless to say they have slowly improved as the last 12 mths progressed. People are happier with their service. I have just put up my first book to see what all the fuss is about and so I can give this presentation to you all.  

How it Works

 

PAPERBACK DETAILS

As you can see from the above image you need to select what you wish to do. For this presentation is it the Paperback. Click on this and you will go to the next image shown.

Following the details, you need to  pick the language, put in your book title and any subtitles it may have along with any series information.  As you scroll down you’ll see more area’s to fill in. What is the edition? Who is the Author? Are there any contributors?

Now for the description or synopsis.  These are difficult to write and need to be in about 500 words. It needs to give a brief glance into your story. Who are the main characters? What is the story about?

Next you choice your copyright and Keywords.  I will talk about the keywords below the image. They can be really tricky.

KEYWORDS  You need to use short phrases, make a list on a piece of paper about your story, narrow down the words, think of different words you can use or what readers may search for to find your book. The smaller the category the bigger your chances of being in the top 100.

Categories – I really dislike these.  They aren’t brilliant. In my opinion they’re too vague. You still need to pick two which you think are closest to your story.  If it has adult content then make sure you put in YES.  

CONTENT DETAILS

On the second page of KDP Print you get to choose a FREE ISBN or use one you already own. There’s also a publication date…However I’ve never used this either here or on Createspace.

The next part is the same as LULU – though as you can see it is at a later stage in the process. Below are the details where you can pick what you wish the interior of your book to look like. The ones you see highlighted are the ones generally used by most paperback distributors.  The costs will vary to what you pick in size and page count.

After you have chosen the interior details, you can upload your formatted manuscript.  Make sure your manuscript matches the above details – margins, paper size etc. You will want it to look professional and like any other book you may find in your local bookstore or library.

The second part of the above image is all about your cover.  Many Authors have covers made for them, 95% of the time they will be wrap book covers which fit the page count.  This means they are front, back and spine.  They will be delivered to you from your graphic artist as a PDF and you or your publisher will upload it.  

If you don’t have a print ready PDF Cover then you will need to launch the Cover Creator. Of course I forgot to get images of this process.  However it is rather simple.  You get to choose a book cover template and upload the e-book cover to it. Next you will need to type in or copy and paste the synopsis on the back cover and add any logos, profile image, bio…etc.  Next you will review the cover.

The above image shows the book cover and interior so you can check it is what you wanted. As you can see I have missed a few things on mine. Page numbers at the bottom. copyright page and author name/book title in the header.  I did this to show everyone that mistakes can be made. I will be updating this book Later.  If they pick out any errors you will need to fix them.

PRICING YOUR BOOK

Since the site is American you will need to pick a price for the book which is higher than the Min.  The List Price shows the book needs to be above $3.58 So depending on how much royalty you wish to make on your book is how you price is.  As you can see i priced at $3.99  – It is a novella in length.  After the American pricing you can then sell it on the other 6 market places. Once again you can price it what you want or base it on the American price.  You can use which marketplaces you wish.

In the next image you can see the Japanese Price List.  I’ve never sold on there, though I know a few who have. Make sure you read the terms and conditions, especially if you are a first time author.  Once done you can purchase your proof copy.  Some authors like to get the paperback in hand prior to pressing PUBLISH…which you can see on the bottom right of the image.

Of course once you hit PUBLISH you get the Congratulations notice along with being asked if you have yoru story as an ebook.

Once you go back to your BOOKSHELF you will find your book will be under REVIEW, just like in Createspace. Now is the time to wait for your email to see what you’ve missed or if you’re in the clear and it can go LIVE

Thank you for reading my presentation.

I do hope it helps with your publishing. 

Createspace – Closing their Professional Services. Is this another step to closing their business?

WE all know I don’t like Createspace anymore due to their Customer Service debacle and how they treat their customers. They are so not with it. I’m glad to get out now rather than when they close their business down for good…To me this is what it looks like and I’ll tell you why.

I have worked in several businesses which have closed down and slowly but surely they get rid of things they no longer need. If your observant enough…you notice and it makes you wonder. Are they closing? Is this why customer service is so bad? Do they really want to work with Indie Authors or are they just money hungry and we’re not bring in enough profit for them anymore?  

If I follow my instinct the first thing Amazon rolled out was print on KDP!  Why did they do this?  Createspace was excellent at the time and I loved using their website.  From authors around the world I heard scathing comments about KDP Print and how bad they were, rejecting book covers continually. One author had her cover rejected 37 times where as on Createspace it was accepted straight away.  I decided to stay away. I hated the thought of even trying to use them at that stage.

Then suddenly I was having issues with Createspace. Their customer service was all over the place, moving from one to another person, not reading emails, getting things wrong…totally incompetent. In my company they would be reprimanded and given training to upgrade their skill set.  Then it was the turn of the ordering area of Createspace.  Books disappearing, Tracking number telling authors their books were going somewhere else. They couldn’t even tell the difference between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Astounding mess. Though this one incident had a happy conclusion in the end nearly five months later. I know for a fact this author won’t order though Createspace again.  

Next it ws Copyright Permission. Their policies stated you’re only allowed to upload documents you own or have copyright permission of.  Yes there have been a hell of a lot of stolen manuscripts out there, however there are many ways this is done and most have nothing to do with Createspace.  So here they are demanding proof…Something new they’d never asked before.  If you know your business law (mine was New Zealand) then you can’t share private and confidential information with another party without permission from the person it involves.  I never have and never will share contracts, emails or anything else without permission.  Saying no to Createspace turned them into …well i’m not sure what. On top of this the book was published as an ebook and is for sale on Amazon, but they wouldn’t publish the paperback.  Guess who went to LULU.  They’ve been excellent by the way.

What else can happen?  Oh yes PERMA FREE.  Due to all the fuss I stopped uploading to KDP and started to use Pronoun – who we all know closed this month.  With Pronoun you could make a book FREE and no problems.  I wish they hadn’t closed.  Then Draft to Digital had distribution rights to send to Amazon, however, in their deal you couldn’t mark a book as FREE.  So I did the usual request and the second time they said no because it wasn’t uploaded to KDP only distributed. (They accepted the first…meaning they can’t even get this right)  They told me to contact D2D and get them to send a request. I’m sure this is more work which D2D don’t really want!  Much to my joy they did so but, I can still see a price on it on Amazon.  Though this could be me having a New Zealand Account.

Now the reason for this blog.  Createspace are no longer going to be offering professional services to authors.  They don’t wish to work one on one with you. No Book Cover Design, No Marketing and No Editing (I didn’t know they offered Editing.)  This info comes from a friend I sometimes work with. The original blog was from Book Baby who like me offer all the service to Indie Authors. They found the information in a newspaper in the USA/

ARE THEY CLOSING DOWN?  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

If you do need services for Editing, Cover Design, Formatting and some Marketing (I’m looking at taking a course in Marketing this year) Then please consider using Plaisted Publishing House. We love working one on one.

Ending my Association with Createspace

To me this is sad news. I really enjoyed working with Createspace and their great customer service folks…well until it took a downturn from daft to damn right stupid.  I’m over it totally after a phone call last night which didnt’ change anything. In fact it was  a repeat on what they put in their first email to me.

Does Henry Exist as a Customer Service Specialist or NOT

Now two days later I am wondering if this Customer Service Specialist even exists.  The person who sent the original email was called Mike.  After my reply it took two days for them to reply.  It was Henry who replied…or was it.  I’m actually starting to wonder if this guy exists at all.  Why?  Well he certainly didn’t come across as over professional. He also supposedly working in various time zones but couldn’t work out the time difference between USA and UK…He also repeated the previous email though with different wording.  I personally don’t like playing games.

So anyway I was meant to get a call at 2.30pm.  First they apparently tried to ring and didn’t get an answer…My phone showed no incoming calls and I told them so.  I also told them to take the 0 off the mphone nuber i gave…which if you worked in different time zones it would be something you knew.  I mean I knew and I work worldwide.

The call finally came through 2 days later at about 7.30pm.  Guess who it was?  MIKE  apparently HENRY had stepped out of the office.  HOW BLOODY CONVIENT IS THAT…NOT.

I didn’t think about this until later of course. Mike wouldn’t listen, Mike was unprofessional. I called Henry a coward prior to wondering if he was an actual person working with createspace. Now I am wondering if he was FAKE along with his emails. Not sure how to find out. However I sure as hell won’t be having anything more to do with CREATESPACE.

I emailed Henry thirty-six hours ago.  No reply.  I doubt they will ever reply.  How sad is this.  Please double check everything when you use them or better still use a different distributer like LULU.  One thing these big corporations shouldn’t be able to do is walk all over the people who are their clients and make money out of them, which is sadly become more of a thing with each passing year.

Meanwhile I had a lovely email from LULU who don’t need me to prove copyright permission though ask that we have some paperwork (this will be a link in the Anthology groups from now on which each author will need to agree or sign)  They did mention though that Amazon may still not publish the Anthology distributed via them.

So we’ll see how it goes and get this sorted.  Thank you LULU

Createspace Supressed My Anthology Again

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION

Perhaps the mission at Createspace is to close down so we all go to use KDP Print.  I have no real idea except they are getting bloody stupid with all the hoops we have to jump through just to publish a print book.

Ghostly Writes Anthology 2017 was suppressed when they wanted copyright proof from authors i work with.  I managed to sort this issue out…You’d think they’d know to not do it again..BUT THEY DID AND I’M PEEVED OFF.

They have now suppressed A Treasure Chest of Children’s Stories…in PRINT.  This time they won’t budge.  I’ve sent them another email saying how idiotic this is and what i am prepared to do if this continues.  In fact i gave them 24 hours to sort it.  What will I do.

Well many of you know I have pulled together 8 anthologies (including the last two) the first six didn’t need copyright proof (I wonder why?)  The last two do.  Obviously this issue isn’t sorted and will continue with each and every anthology unless we change distributer…. Meanwhile….

I will ask every author to reply in email to the one i received to say how annoyed they are and fill his inbox…petty yes..might work, probably not.  I am also prepared to contact the CEO and blast him if need be.  Createspace has gone down the tubes, which is why i am now wondering if they are annoying as many authors as possible to use KDP Print.  Sorry mate if we jump ship it wont’ be to KDP Print it will be LULU.  I could probably also print via DRAFT TO DIGITAL, who work with createspace…funny that…NOT.

I am willing to fight this for those who work with me.  It is over the top and they should be chasing those who do steal work not Publishers who help others to get their work out there.  

Where will this go…I have no idea. Keep your fingers crossed.  Why can’t they have a tick box to say you have copyright permission like D2D do….