Createspace or Lulu?

[Arkie]

After numerous emails and a couple of telephone calls, and four proof reviews, I finally got my second book through Createspace. The first book showed up on Amazon Books within 24 hours and so did the second.

The first book also showed up on the Barnes and Noble website, evidently a mistake, because after 5 days, it was removed.

Also of interest, the first book on Amazon has a "look in" feature, but the second book doesn't.

[frisco]

I'll just offer that I love CreateSpace. They did an exceptional job in my book, making it look very professional. I also feel they are very affordible, cheap enough to allow me to make a profit on book sales.

[Keyan]

How much flexibility do CreateSpace have on sizes? I'm considering printing a report that would be 8 1/2 x 11 or something similar. I could reformat it for 6 x 9, but I'd like to have the report-size option.

[ResearchGuy]

Originally Posted by Keyan

How much flexibility do CreateSpace have on sizes? I'm considering printing a report that would be 8 1/2 x 11 or something similar. I could reformat it for 6 x 9, but I'd like to have the report-size option.

The place to find answer is Createspace.com: https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/

--Ken

[ResearchGuy]

I had hoped that Lulu would fix its ruined cover-creation process. No such luck. Drats. I deleted a project before I could finish it because the cover-design step is so badly broken.



--Ken

[Arkie]

I finally got my second book through the Createspace/Amazon process and into Kindle. I made it more difficult than it should have been because I thought Createspace shepherded the book all the way into Kindle; however, Amazon takes over at a certain point. Had I known that (and it's probably in the small print somewhere and I missed it), it would have been easier, but the folks at both Createspace and Amazon answered emails promptly and courteously. So one more to go, if I can figure out the cover business.

An interesting aside: I payed $69.00 per book to process them into Amazon Kindle and in the process Barnes and Noble picked up one, but not the other. It's unclear how that happened.

[ambermg]

I know nothing about Lulu, but I've been very happy with my experience with Createspace. My first book I published with them came out on January 20, and I'm releasing the second in March. The price was good and I used them for the formatting and such. With the second book I am formatting it myself and it will be free, except for the fee I'm paying for the kindle version - so I really like that.

[Keyan]

Originally Posted by ResearchGuy

The place to find answer is Createspace.com: https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/

--Ken

Thanks! For some reason, I couldn't find it on my own.

[DrD]

Originally Posted by Rebekkah

Also, Kindle and epubs are two different formats, right? Is it hard to do?

Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.

I am definitely not a computer wiz, and I was able to upload my novel as a Kindle ebook fairly easily. You will make mistakes, but you have the opportunity to preview your book before the upload and you'll be able to fix whatever errors you see. Just make sure that you carefully read the directions and save the book as an html before uploading, and you'll be fine.

[mpclemens]

I've used CreateSpace twice now, both for proof copies of the same work. The first time I used their cover creator, and the second I used my own PDF. Both times I uploaded a "print-ready" PDF generated from LibreOffice (OpenOffice's successor.) Couldn't be happier with either copy: they look professional, the binding is holding up well so far, and except for the giant word "PROOF" on the very last page, you'd think it was a Real Book. Well, except for the scads of typos that I'm now finding. Sigh.

No experience with Lulu, though the service looks practically identical to me. The generous coupons that CS snagged me as a customer, and being tied to the Amazon muscle sealed the deal. If I can clean up this proof, I'm looking forward to ordering my five free copies.

[eternalised]

If you don't just want some proof copies of your work, but you want to sell it to potential costumers, I recommend CreateSpace. The costs per book are a lot lower using CreateSpace than they are with Lulu. While a 300-page printed book will cost you around $3 on CreateSpace, give or take a few, it will cost $7 or more on Lulu. For CreateSpace, you can thus set the price of your book a lot lower and still get more profit than if you use Lulu to print your book.

[K. L. Anderson]

Hi Folks,
As you can see, I'm new here. Used CreateSpace last year for my first book. Thankfully, a friend helped. Anyway, it cost me only the ProPlan which was about $40 and is no longer available.

I found them to be prompt in responding to email questions. I used one of their covers with one of my photos. Nice selection of covers, by the way.

Once I became a little familiar with the process it was fairly easy. They get out proof copies promptly. Getting ready to try Kindle. They seem to have a new system that looks fairly simple.

I can't comment on their publishing services as I didn't use them.
Absolutely no complaints about my experience with them. BTW, my book showed up on B&N and Books-a-Million. I know that I sold two at the reduced commission rate, which of course means they were sold through someone other than Amazon.

Oh, and yes the book looks great. A terrific printing job.
Good luck to you...
Regards,
KL

[Ergo]

From all I've read, CreateSpace is a respectable place to go. I game them a try today but got stuck while trying to upload my novel. After an hour the progress bar read 0% complete. I killed the effort and tried the help link from one of the emails they sent me. "This page is no longer available."

Sakes...

Tried running the upload again this afternoon for two hours. Again 0% progress.

Tomorrow I'll try Lulu.

[mpclemens]

Originally Posted by Ergo

From all I've read, CreateSpace is a respectable place to go. I game them a try today but got stuck while trying to upload my novel. After an hour the progress bar read 0% complete. I killed the effort and tried the help link from one of the emails they sent me. "This page is no longer available."

Try a different browser, if you can. I regularly have trouble with Firefox on the upload page on my Mac, but when I run Safari it uploads just fine (and no problem on different computers.) This is the only aggravation I have with CS so far.

[merrihiatt]

Originally Posted by Ergo

From all I've read, CreateSpace is a respectable place to go. I game them a try today but got stuck while trying to upload my novel. After an hour the progress bar read 0% complete. I killed the effort and tried the help link from one of the emails they sent me. "This page is no longer available."

Sakes...

Tried running the upload again this afternoon for two hours. Again 0% progress.

Tomorrow I'll try Lulu.

It shouldn't take more than four to five minutes (if even that long). I think you were having some kind of connectivity issue.

[Ergo]

Thank you for your suggestions. I emailed CreateSpace and to their credit they replied within a couple of hours with additional suggestions.

I'll give 'em another shot tomorrow.

Respectfully,

Ergo

[Carmy]

I've published three books through Create Space and I've been very happy with their services. I paid for their ProPlan a while ago but it doesn't change anything - (EDC Expanded Distrbution Channels) because my books will still appear on Amazon in other countries, as paperbacks and Kindles, and they are listed in several other outlets. Edited copies of proofs will also cost me nothing but postage.

The only drawback that I have found is that certain retail outlets will not stock CS books. Not because there is anything wrong with them but because CS has no return policy in place. This is something an author can see to it there are book stores nearby.

The new fee is $25 and I believe it offers the same distribution if you request ii.

On the CS site, there have been several complaints lately about smudged interiors and exteriors. I have never experienced any problems.

[Al Stevens]

with lulu, you can do hard cover books. But they are expensive. Lightning Source is a more reasonable way to go for that. LS requires you to set yourself up as a small publisher, however. Not a big deal, but a lot of steps to take.

[Al Stevens]

I find it interesting that you had the frozen upload problem with Createspace. I had it, too. I called them--you click a link and they call you right away--and they said no one else was having that problem. I was making an audio CD, however, when this happened. There were problems with the file I was uploading, but instead of telling me about them, the upload procedure just hung up the way you describe. They said not to use IE and recommended Mozilla Firefox instead. The site does work better with Firefox. The tech person was able to look at my upload and see what had gone wrong. Once I got the problems fixed in the file, everything went smoothly.

[Ergo]

Such a simple fix... I accessed CS through google Chrome instead of AOL. The upload took maybe 30 seconds and then another 2 minutes for processing.

I'm still frozen though, but this time in my heart. Flipping through the virtual pages of the book was just a little too 'real.' I'm now unnerved that the characters and locations are more than just based on real life experiences, they ARE real life experiences with changed names. And then there are the brief song snippets. Do I really want Ted Nugent or Pink Floyd showing up at my doorstep.

It's strange how the warm glow of completing a novel can ice over to cold feet.

[mpclemens]

Originally Posted by Ergo

Such a simple fix... I accessed CS through google Chrome instead of AOL. The upload took maybe 30 seconds and then another 2 minutes for processing.

Yup, that's it exactly. It's some sort of bad browser voodoo at CS. The upload itself should go pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by Ergo

It's strange how the warm glow of completing a novel can ice over to cold feet.

I hear that. I was feeling pretty cocksure until I approved the draft and got the email that the book was ACTUALLY FOR SALE TO OTHER PEOPLE.

Gulp.

[PeterHill]

Does anyone know if its any good or not or had experiance with them?

[Old Hack]

I'm going to move this to the Self Publishing room, as it's not the best fit for e-publishing.

And Peter, there are lots of threads here about working with Lulu: it's worth searching for them.

[anoopbal]

I am trying to get my book published. it is non-fiction and I do have a website which has some followers and traffic.

I am just confused on which of the publishers I have to pick. Is there any major difference? Or they are all the same and there is only some minor differences in cost and customer service and marketing.

I am hearing a lot about Lulu and Createspace, but haven't heard much about vervante.

Thank you so much for all the help!

[ResearchGuy]

Originally Posted by anoopbal

. . .I am hearing a lot about Lulu and Createspace, but haven't heard much about vervante. . . .

Lulu and Createspace can be useful to self-publishers. But there is a learning curve and a lot of potential pitfalls. You'll have a lot of homwork to do.

I've never heard of Vervante. Apparently it is one of many of its type. It would likewise have potential pitfalls and a learning curve.

(I am guessing that your post might have been a sly way to promote Vervante, though.)

--Ken

P.S. Wording at the Vervante site suggests that it is a deceptive operation, trying to foist itself off as a legitimate publisher, not as a vanity/subsidy press.