Kindle Scout’s potential landmines

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LAST UPDATED 9 September 2015 Back in October 2104, when Kindle Scout was first launched, I wrote a blog post of my opinion on the program. I also directed readers to Writer Beware’s post evaluating the program’s contract. Recently, I was approached by a journalist for my current opinion on the program, and the request made me take a look at the contract myself, a contract that was updated just recently, on 3 March 2015. In it I found two items in particular that raised a red flag for me, Read More …

LSI ending their distribution relationship with Amazon

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The POD manufacturer Lightning Source International (LSI), owned by Ingram Content Group, announced on Friday (yes, a typical release-bad-news-on-Friday-and-hope-nobody-pays-attention move) that LSI will no longer be distributing directly to Amazon, B&N, Baker & Taylor, Espresso Book Machine, and NACSCORP, and to other wholesale distributors in the U.S. Instead, all titles will now be distributed only via Ingram Book Group, who in turn will resell to all retailers and other wholesale distributors. What this means is that Ingram, who previously did not earn a fee on LSI sales to the aforementioned Read More …

Third edition of The Global Indie Author now available in Canada

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Well, after much trial and tribulation, the third edition of The Global Indie Author is out now in Canada. Readers can find it on Chapters/Indigo and Amazon.ca. By the way, that “Usually delivers in 3-5 weeks” declaration on the Amazon.ca website is nonsense; the book delivers in less than a week. The extended delivery time is just part of Amazon/CreateSpace’s strategy against competitor Lightning Source, which, incidentally, is covered in detail in the book. If you want to avoid supporting Amazon, buy from the Chapters/Indigo website, where the book is Read More …

Third Edition of The Global Indie Author is now available in U.S. and Europe

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The third edition of The Global Indie Author is out now in print on Amazon U.S., UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. All other territories coming soon! eBooks are also on the way. As mentioned in my previous post, the third edition features a new cover, new subtitle — to reflect the truly global phenomenon that self-publishing has become — and a great deal of new content (over 80 pages). The technical chapters have been completely overhauled to deal with the complexities of image handling, the increasing frustrations of font Read More …

Is Canada the next battleground between Amazon and Lightning Source?

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In The Global Indie Author I write at length about the predatory practices Amazon/CreateSpace have exercised in the area of print on demand. Watching what’s going on with the Amazon Canada catalogue, I am of the opinion that CreateSpace are positioning themselves to supply the Canadian market directly. Why do I believe this? To answer that we need to look at bit at the history between CreateSpace and its main rival, Lightning Source International, a subsidiary of the giant U.S. wholesale distributor Ingram. Amazon had long been selling titles for Read More …

CreateSpace relax rules about barcode placement

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While working on a new book cover for a client, I discovered that CreateSpace have finally relaxed the rules about the placement of the barcode on the back cover of their print books. Previously, a blank space had to be left in the lower right-hand corner (as evidenced on their templates) into which CreateSpace added the barcode during pre-production. Designers were not left with the option to place the barcode anywhere else. Now CreateSpace allow the placement of the ISBN/price barcode anywhere on the back cover, as long as the Read More …

Kindle expand into Canada – is CreateSpace next?

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Previously, Kindle customers in Canada were serviced by the U.S. site but now Amazon have opened a dedicated Kindle store on the Amazon.ca site. Indie authors whose books are available worldwide will automatically see their ebooks listed on the Canadian site at a price converted from your U.S. dollar price; if you want to set a separate Canadian dollar price, you need to visit your dashboard and update your book’s info. Those authors with a Canadian bank account can now elect to be paid for Canadian sales in Canadian dollars, Read More …

CreateSpace add European distribution, decrease payment thresholds

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Over the past few weeks CreateSpace have made two important changes: they have decreased their payment threshold from $20/£20/€20 to $10/£10/€10; and they have now added direct distribution to Amazon.co.uk (UK), Amazon.de (Germany), Amazon.fr (France), Amazon.es (Spain), and Amazon.it (Italy). I hesitated to write about this immediately as I wanted to check first what the Amazon catalogue would list as the estimated delivery time for each site. Would it be as with Amazon.com where all CreateSpace titles would be listed as “In Stock” or would it be the same as Read More …

CreateSpace accept Word docs for auto-formatting

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In a follow-up to my post on creating PDFs for upload to CreateSpace, you can entirely avoid the process of conversion to PDF by using the company’s Interior Template for Books. You can upload your Word document or Rich Text Format file, pick a trim size, and CreateSpace’s software will spit out the interior file for your book in a downloadable PDF. You can then use their Interior Reviewer to see any issues the software has picked up as in need of amendment, and you can print out the PDF Read More …

CreateSpace announce end to Pro Plan

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For authors considering publishing with Amazon’s CreateSpace there is good news to report: the company has cancelled their Pro Plan. Previously, authors had to sign up for the Pro Plan ($39, with annual fee of $5) in order to receive a discount on book manufacturing fees. The difference in fees was significant, which meant most authors elected to sign on; consequently, the Pro Plan was really just a backdoor way of charging a title setup fee while advertising that it was free to publish with CreateSpace. The cancellation of the Read More …