There are rumors that new authors are not able to publish short story anthologies/collections because they are not known and only established names could be successful at it; so how easy is createspace? I know that several of you folks have published through createspace before. Is is costly?
It's free. You need to supply your own cover, etc., which may cost you something, but Createspace itself just takes a cut of your sales. It's not too tricky to use. Like, as a functioning, computer-literate-but-not-expert adult, I've had no problem with it. I wouldn't expect my elderly parents to do too well on it, though.
The only cost involved for me was having the cover re-sized to fit the dimensions correctly, (my cover was done by an illustrator). Everything else is done by you online. You can proof it online, but you do get the option to have a free proof copy sent to you, which I did and that was when my book finally felt real. Each time you sell a copy Createspace take the cost of printing, postage and commission from the sale proceeds and the balance goes into you royalty account, which is paid over at monthly intervals. As Bayview said, the actual process is quite straight forward for anyone with a basic level of computer skills. KDP are now doing a POD services, but at the moment they don't have all the facilities of Createspace, specifically they don't have the option of a proof copy.
What they said. I have two books currently printed through CreateSpace. (I elected to publish them myself, with my own ISBNs, to allow me the flexibility to have them printed elsewhere as well.) So far, no glitches. But as with any self-publishing situation, you are responsible for promoting and marketing the book. The actual POD sales are handled through Amazon, although you can buy multiple copies of your book and distribute them yourself.
The payment wasn't to CreateSpace, the payment was to my illustrator. My cover was a slightly different size to the one CreateSpace needed and left white edges, so I had it re-done to fit properly. I haven't had to pay anything to CreateSpace directly.
Hi, I have about a dozen novels done through CS. I wouldn't say it's easy, and there are usually glitches, especially with covers, but once I stopped using their programme called cover creator things became a whole lot easier and less annoying. Go to the CS community on CS and read the pinned posts at the top regarding cover design and internal format, and you should get most of what you need. And feel free to ask questions. Cheers, Greg.
