Arizona Sunset and CreateSpace

Anyone who knows me knows writing is a big part of my life. Although I don't promote my books in this blog, I do other places. You must if you want to be seen, as nobody will be doing it for you (okay, a few do). Sometimes it's been hard not to write more about what I am working on or the marketing issues. On the other hand, there is always enough going on without getting into that (I don't even want to get started on politics right now). Not to mention that I felt many Rainy Day Thought readers were not exactly romance novel fans ;).

But there is a new aspect to the books which could be informational to other writers or would-be writers. It's been interesting as well as educational as we made the decision to bring the western historical romance out as both a paperback and an eBook. Both aimed for Saturday the 31st of August.

I suspect among my readers there are more than a few who have thought of putting out their own books whether that would be fiction, art, or a memoir type. CreateSpace is where we opted to create Arizona Sunset as it's an adjunct to Amazon. There are reasons for offering paper and eBook. I went into that in Rain Trueax-- Paperback as well as eBook.

CreateSpace makes it easy to submit a book; and if the writer is not handy with tech issues, they will do the work for a range of fees from $247 for a basic book on up for those more complex. They also offer free templates to create covers if someone isn't into that (That's my department and I am into doing those).

However, with their instructions, it's not that difficult to do the paperback-- or so the more techie savvy Farm Boss assures me... Even though it took him hours and three proofs to get it all figured out (they mail you the proofs for which you pay a reasonable price for the book and shipping).

The beauty of this approach to self-publishing is you aren't stuck, as some of my self-publishing friends have been, with a garage or attic full of books that you cannot sell. CreateSpace doesn't require any outlay or purchase of your own work. Books are only created as they are sold. You set a price for the book that you agree it will be in stores or through Amazon to avoid unfair competition. Your price has to cover CreateSpace charges, Amazon's percentage or the store's if you opt to sell books on consignment-- as well as leaving you something.

You have the choice of letting CreateSpace purchase (and own) your ISBN or doing it yourself and they will use it. For someone like me with a lot of books, the logical approach was buying my own and getting the package of ten because we do plan to bring the other books out as paperbacks.

The price for me to purchase a book like mine with a jacket, two black and white images inside, was very reasonable and not outrageously high for potential readers (eBook is of course cheaper by far). It would be more for a photo book full of images, and I've heard some of those can have to sell for as much as $60. That's not really an unusually high price for a quality picture book but probably a hard sell for new writers. Still it's a thought.

Basically, other than paying for the Proof which you would want to do, they charge you nothing else. The proof is critical as even seeing it online, which you can do, it's seeing how the paper looks, whether the chapters came together, that's important before putting a book out to sell. If it doesn't look professional, only family or close friends will be buying it and even they won't be happy.

-Arizona Sunset-

 Kindle

Paperback

I just want to add on a personal note that I have so appreciated the help and encouragement from friends in all that has happened since I began bringing out my eBooks but nobody has contributed as much as my publisher, editor and partner in the whole operation. Writing might be a solitary pursuit but getting a book out, that takes teamwork; and I sure appreciate his dealing with the techie end.  He's had some frustrating days, but he's stuck with it and I value his support very much.