Need some advice

Panama

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I have a historical novel on Amazon, done through Create Space. I now want to publish it as an eBook. From comments I have read on the Amazon forum. several writers are not happy with KDP because they believe their print books are not up to par with those sold through Create Space. I can't seem to get a clear answer from them about continuing the print edition with Create Space but only do an eBook on KDP. Any thoughts? Thank so much!
Panama
 

zmethos

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You can do a print book with CS and have the ebook on KDP. Is that your question? Or are you looking for advice as to *whether* to go that way?

Not sure this is the right forum for this question, but I'm sure a moderator will transport it elsewhere if necessary.
 

CaoPaux

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Gillhoughly

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I have titles on both Createspace and KDP. The ebooks sell more copies.

My objection to Kindle Direct Publishing is they make it seem as though getting your book into the KDP Select program is "normal." Last time I had a look, you had to option OUT of Select, or be automatically included in it. That's good for Amazon, not the writer.

It's a crap choice for some writers and did not work for me when I tried it for 90 days. They claimed that with a 5 million dollar pool of money, writers could get a chunk of that change. Fine, but when 5 million writers sign up for it they get a buck each, no matter how many sales they made.

I lost sales, of course, and was not allowed to put my book on other venues like Nook, Books-a-Million, Kobo, and Smashwords. Kindle insists you have your digital book in one "store" only, Amazon. Ditto for Kindle Unlimited, which is also a bad deal for writers. I may have this wrong, but I understood Unlimited to pay writers based on pages read by the buyer. If the buyer reads a few pages, or none at all if they forget they've bought the book, the writer gets either a few pennies or zip.

Stick with KDP and you get paid 70% of the cover price and can have the book in multiple "stores."

Soon as I could, I got out of Select and my sales went up, and I made sales on the other venues.

https://justpublishingadvice.com/whats-the-difference-between-kdp-and-kdp-select/
 
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Polenth

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My guess is the confusion comes from being able to move print books from CreateSpace to the new KDP print services. That's something you can do, but you don't need to do it in order to publish an ebook. All you need to do is sign up for KDP and follow the steps to publish the ebook.
 

Panama

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Thanks for your advice.

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you for taking the time to answer me.
 

tbrosz

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I use both Createspace and KDP, and developed separate working files for each system rather than trying to "convert" one to the other. I think this gives me better quality control. As others have, I avoided Kindle Select, which then gives me the option to use other e-book formats.
 
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rwm4768

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I went with Createspace for my one book where I've done a print edition. I'm pretty happy with it overall.

The only drawback is that I have to check Createspace for my print sales. I can't see them on my Amazon sales page.
 

Al X.

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I have several of my books published through KDP Print. I am quite happy with the quality of the product. I normally write the ebook first, vet it, publish it, reformat it (with a new set of working docs) for print.

I pulled all of my books out of Select last year (long story) and decided to go wide through D2D and Smashwords. Both have quirky format requirements. D2D for example requires the insertion of an extra carriage return (three total) in order to preserve section breaks, and does not preserve first line indents in section breaks no matter what you do. Smashwords cannot parse a Word table of contents and you have to create your own with a wonky set of bookmarks and hyper links.

I cannot say enough bad things about Select. Don't touch it with a ten foot pole. It's toxic. It's a scam.
 

Old Hack

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I pulled all of my books out of Select last year (long story) and decided to go wide through D2D and Smashwords. Both have quirky format requirements. D2D for example requires the insertion of an extra carriage return (three total) in order to preserve section breaks, and does not preserve first line indents in section breaks no matter what you do.

See, I wouldn't want a first line to be indented after a section break. That would be all kinds of wrong. Well done, D2D, I say.
 

CatherineDunn

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You might as well get your book converted to ePub as well as mobi and get it delivered to other stores (like Nook, iBooks, Kobo, etc.). I know Amazon still corners the market with Kindle but you might as well cover all bases.
 

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I have a historical novel on Amazon, done through Create Space. I now want to publish it as an eBook. From comments I have read on the Amazon forum. several writers are not happy with KDP because they believe their print books are not up to par with those sold through Create Space. I can't seem to get a clear answer from them about continuing the print edition with Create Space but only do an eBook on KDP. Any thoughts? Thank so much!
Panama

With my books I choose to use CreateSpace for my paperbacks because the last I checked they had better options for writers buying hardcopies for sale at conventions. You get them for just a little more than the cost price with Create Space and when I last checked, that wasn't so if you used Amazon's paperback option.

However, your ebook published with Amazon does not need to be enrolled in their KDP Select (Kindle unlimited program where readers can read your book for free and you are paid per page read). If you choose not to, I would definitely recommend going wide with the book (offering it on multiple sales platforms). As you know or as others have told you though, enrolling in KDP Select isn't a forever thing. You could enroll, see how it does over the 90 days and then choose to take it out and go wide or stay in if you are making the money you want to make.
 
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