UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-n...

Found a thread on kboards.

https://www.kboards.com/index.php?top...

my books are printed by Lightning Source which is part of Ingram

When supping with Amazon, use a long spoon, they aim for monopoly. We're lucky they shut down the Amazon forums rather than Goodreads

"Authors who’ve published through CS have probably noticed that they had two sets of royalties for their books. One was the amount they would earn for sales on Amazon, while the significantly higher amount was what they would earn for books sold through CreateSpace’s original bookstore."

Nope. Never seen that. (edited to say - I misunderstood and have seen it!)

If I've understood it correctly, Createspace aren't going to cease trading, but one way of buying books from them will no longer be availble?

I believe they are simply closing the Createspace bookstore. Books published through them were available for purchase there and also on Amazon. They will still be available on Amazon. Now whether this is the first sign that Createspace is going to close up now that Amazon has a print set-up available through KDP, I don't know.

Have you ever tried the paperback version of kdp? I haven't. but a couple of friends did and gave up. There seems to be less control of how the finished book will look.

I noticed the higher royalty rate but didn't necessarily want to direct customers there because everyone knows Amazon but no one has heard of CS. I hope this doesn't affect authors ordering their own copies at a reduced price.

Patsy wrote: "Have you ever tried the paperback version of kdp? I haven't. but a couple of friends did and gave up. There seems to be less control of how the finished book will look."

Yes. I have several books of mine published via CS and I tried one that wasn't via KDP, it was hopeless. For a start the file size wasn't converted meaning the page count was too low. They asked me to send the file but I didn't bother and continued with CS.

But every time I upload a new version of a Kindle book they ask me if I want to start a paperback via KDP direct (even for books where I already have one). I did email them and ask them about the future of CS at the time but got the usual enigmatic reply :/

Kate, your experience is pretty much what I've heard from others.

Hi Patsy

I think it's still in beta. Maybe they are perfecting it behind the scenes - you never know!

Patsy wrote: "Have you ever tried the paperback version of kdp? I haven't. but a couple of friends did and gave up. There seems to be less control of how the finished book will look."

Yes, I noticed about 6 months ago that Create Space was on its last legs when KDP was doing the same job but under the Amazon brand. Therefore I chose to publish with KDP and did the work myself in WORD and then exported a PDF file. I had to use an Amazon Kindle creation tool that I downloaded to format the Kindle version of the book with all its links and format requirements. The print version was much simpler and just a simple PDF upload. However, I still have the WORD templates that Create Space provides for another book that I have been writing for years, so as long as you can work with formatting your book text into a book template, then you can format yourself and publish to KDP just the same as you would with Create Space. I think Create Space also has added value of actual human editors to help you publish and/or format if you need it.

Here is link to the book in case any of you are interested:

Sadie the German Shepherd Dog Puppy: How to House-Train your GSD without a Crate
amazon.com/dp/1521270333

YohaiReuben.com
SadieTheGSD.com
SadieTheGermanShepherdDog.com





Yohai Reuben

FWIW, I have about half a dozen books for sale via Createspace, and another half a dozen on KDP paper, and I find the KDP paper sells much better on Amazon (4-5 times as much), and is also quicker to set up.

How much do you make per paperback? What I mean is that I've been told that it's impossible to sell these books through shops because the cost is too high and it doesn't allow a shop margin.

Jim wrote: "How much do you make per paperback? What I mean is that I've been told that it's impossible to sell these books through shops because the cost is too high and it doesn't allow a shop margin."

Being relatively new to this field, I've only used KDP to publish a paperback, but as the author cannot obtain them at cost price - which is far from cheap - the author is compelled to sell only via Amazon. As to how much you make per book, it depends on your pricing, but it's less than I anticipated from the enticing Amazon blurb about the author netting 60% after printing costs. Far from it.

That's what was worrying me.
For me, a paperback I can only sell via Amazon is useless. I want something I can carry round shows and suchlike.

Jim wrote: "I want something I can carry round shows and suchlike."

You can do that. You'll only make the same as if someone bought it from Amazon (as that's what you'll have to do) but if you're in front of interested people, having the book available is likely to result in more sales than if you just tell them it's available online.

The problem is getting it into bookshops. They'll want to make something on the deal - which is perfectly understandable, but even if they'll agree to less than the usual 30% of cover price it's not going to leave you with much.

And now, KDP are offering author discounts and proof copies and what seems like better shipping than CS.

Is THIS now the end for CS?

As a CS update, i just looked at ordering some stock and found that the shipping costs effectively doubled the price.

I've chopped the price of the paperbacks on Amazon, and I'm going to order multiple copies then put the price back up...

Clever.

Numbers: For mid price delivery, 10 books from CS would cost me $ 55 for delivery in 3 weeks.

Amazon UK: under £ 30 and delivery next week.

It's to do with where the books are printed.

If you do it directly through CS, they're printed in the US and sent over the Atlantic.

If you do it through the Amazon site, they're printed in the UK.

Exaclty, Michael. yet as Amazon own CS, you'd think that the options would be available? Does any one know how KDP for print is working?

And it is official. CS and KDP are to merge shortly.

Will wrote: "And it is official. CS and KDP are to merge shortly."

it was on the cards, CS was doomed and it would merge or be swallowed

They've probably been planning it for a while; let's see whether they can handle it seamlessly.

Oh damn! Still haven't got my ebook versions out let alone the printed ones and did want to use CS!

Well, from what I've read so far, although some authors haven't had any problems, others have found KDP isn't exactly covering themselves with glory so far. I haven't dared risk moving my books over although I know I must eventually.

I find it annoying that authors in the US can phone and get some of their problems sorted out that way but UK authors, even if we phone the US, cannot be dealt with except online or email.

I'm still bummed by this; as an author, I had publishing on CS down to a science. It was quick, easy...beautiful!

To be honest, though, doing print on KDP isn't THAT different, but it's nuanced enough that I have to pay closer attention to what I'm doing.

I still don't understand why some costs changed, though. If everything is the same behind scenes - so that it's the same systems, equipment, etc. doing the print stuff at KDP as it was at CS - then why did costs go up?