Whosoever Press // Book Publishing Companies // Createspace Is Not Free

Createspace Is Not FREE!

As the Publishing Industry has taken many turns in recent years, many writers are turning to Createspace to publish their books. In no way am I knocking Createspace, because they are a good service to have. While some people claim that Createspace is free, it is not free at all. You still have to pay them to print the books. I must admit for a self-published author, Createspace is a gold mine if you just want printed copies, but the problem comes in when you actually find someone who is interested in your book. You can’t purchase copies of your book cheap enough from create space to resale to a good distributor. No, I’m not speaking of Ingram. Have you ever tried to get your book into Wal-Mart? Good luck with that being published by Createspace! You need a real publishing company who has connections with printers to print thousands of copies all at one time to resale cheap enough to distributors. You may be thinking, well, I’ll find me a printer. The fact is, good luck finding a printer that will work with an individual author. You are a loss of income to them unless you are ready to print thousands of copies. Yes, Createspace is great for getting your book published and made available for purchase to bookstores, but did you realize that Createspace does not market to bookstores on your behalf? Why would they? Marketing a book is the author’s responsibility, not the publisher. I hear it from authors all the time who say their publisher lied to them. Chances are that may be the case with some publishers, but let the truth be known that you and you alone are responsible for your success. A publisher cannot build your platform. Only a person with intense passion and skills can build a successful public platform. You can blame your publisher all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s your fault whether you are a success or a failure.

Right now, major publishing companies are shutting down and closing their doors because they over promised and couldn’t deliver. If I said the name of the company, you would know exactly who I’m talking about. Let’s face it, writers don’t care about fans, they care about sales. You can say what you want, but at the end of the day, fans don’t pay the bills. Every author wants to see sales coming in, because that means a royalty check is on the way.

As the owner of Whosoever Press, we have fought many battles with unappreciative authors over the past five years being in business. However, for the select few that truly understand how the industry works, they are very happy with the results we have provided for them. Yes, I will admit that we will publish an author through Createspace just to get the free distribution through Ingram. What many of these authors don’t realize is that Ingram distribution isn’t free on all platforms. If we can provide it free to our authors through Createspace, we would be ignorant not too. Again, what many authors don’t realize is that if you publish your book through Createspace, it is not free. You can accept a Createspace ISBN and not pay any money, but then when your book appears in a bookstore’s distribution, they will not order it, because it is a dead giveaway that it is self-published. Bookstores rarely ever purchase self-published books. If you want to hide the fact that you published on Creatspace, up until about a month ago, you could pay a $10.00 fee to have the ISBN point to your own company as the publisher. Starting in 2017, that $10.00 charge was increased to $100.00. The truth is though that this ISBN is still owned by Createspace. If a major distribution center wanted to order 10,000 copies of your book at a 70% off the retail price, you can’t do it without buying a new ISBN. You need an ISBN issued by Bowker.com which will cost you $125.00 each plus %25.00 for a barcode. I’d be willing to bet $1000.00 right now that 99.9% of all publishing companies use Createspace and they charge their authors thousands of dollars to publish. Please understand that I’m not knocking all publishers. If they are producing results, then great! The thing about publishing with an established publishing company, whether they use Createspace or not is because you want access to their connections.

What should you do if you find out your publisher is using Amazon’s Createspace publishing platform? Should you get mad and freak out because you’ve been ripped off? First, show me the proof that you’ve been ripped off. Next, show me your royalty statements for the past year. If your publisher is a ten year old kid or a forty year old virgin, you may have a problem. The fact of the matter is, if your publisher is producing results for you, then be happy. Get out and push people to buy your books. If your publisher takes a shortcut to save you money by using Createspace’s publishing platform to save you money, then praise God that your publisher was wise enough to do that. The only thingyou need to make sure of is that your publisher doesn’t use a Createspace ISBN. Don’t even let your publisher pay the $100.00 for an ISBN. Make sure your publisher buys an ISBN directly from Bowker.com. The issue is if you get a distribution center interested in your book, your publisher is in agreement with Createspace not to publish the book with anyone else but them. That also means that your publisher is not allowed to use their issued ISBN to print books with any other printer. To print thousands of books with a cheaper printer, your ISBN must be issued through Bowker.com. If you choose to purchase professional book services from Createspace  such as editing, cover design or more, you will pay dearly for those services.

You will notice that if you search publishing companies online, there are hundreds of new companies being established every year simply because people are using Createspace. Honestly, that’s how I started my company, but soon as I realized that bookstores weren’t interested, I had to change my game plan. You must ask your publisher these types of questions from the git-go. What happens when you personally start making phone calls promoting your book, and you actually get someone who wants to order 5000 copies of your book, but request a 70% discount off of the cover price? You can’t do it, because you can’t buy books cheap enough from Creatspace to offer a 70% off discount. Well, you could always price your book at $29.99 each, but then a distributor would never be interested. Let’s face it, if you’re looking to publish a good book, you need a publisher who has connections. Here at Whosoever Press, we have excellent connections. We have so many connections that it would blow your mind if I told you who all we have in our realm of influence. However, that won’t benefit you at all if you don’t have a good book. Make sure you have your book reviewed by many different readers before you submit it to my company or any other for that matter. The publishing industry is changing and Amazon is leading the way, but small publishers can out-perform Amazon, you just need a good one! Do your research, and never publish with the first publisher who tickles your interest!


The Author Zone is provided by http://WhosoeverPress.com, and serves as a platform to train authors how to promote their books. As a Christian Book Publisher, we want to uphold the values of the scriptures in the Bible. As a Faith Based Publisher, we want to provide our authors with the best possible publishing experience available in the publishing industry. Want to publish your book with us? Call 256-706-3315 for a free publishing consultation.