It’s been a long time coming, as Amazon has finally added hardcover books as an option for self-publishers using their platform.
From their email:
In addition to eBook and paperback, KDP now offers hardcover publishing! With our new case laminate hardcover option for books between 75–550 pages, you can:
Reach more readers. Feature your hardcover alongside your eBooks and paperbacks and let readers choose their preferred format.
Earn royalties. Continue to earn 60% royalties on hardcover as you do with paperback. There will be an adjusted printing cost for hardcover.
Publish your hardcover books your way. Choose from two cover finishes, three interior types, and five trim sizes. Enter your book’s trim size, page count, ink and paper selections, and our new cover calculator and template generator tool will provide you with a custom cover template, sized to your book’s specifications.
Not a surprise to many self-published authors to hear that Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (for ebooks) and CreateSpace (for paperbacks) are merging. Amazon has owned CreateSpace for many years, but all this time authors have had the ability to upload and sell their ebooks and paperbacks through each service independently.
This is the official word on the marriage:
We’re excited to announce that CreateSpace (CSP) and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) will become one service. As a reminder, KDP now offers Expanded Distribution to sell your paperbacks to physical bookstores in the US, as well as the ability to sell your paperback books on Amazon.ca (Canada) and Amazon.com.au (Australia) (Amazon.mx (Mexico) coming soon). With these features, KDP’s paperback distribution will be on par with CreateSpace’s distribution. KDP also offers features that aren’t available on CreateSpace. These include the ability to purchase ads to promote paperbacks on Amazon.com and locally printed author copies in Europe.
As a result of these enhancements to KDP and our ongoing efforts to provide a more seamless experience for managing your paperback and digital books, CreateSpace and KDP will become one service. On KDP, your paperbacks will still be printed in the same facilities, on the same printers, and by the same people as they were on CreateSpace.
In the coming weeks, we’ll start automatically moving your CreateSpace books to KDP. Your books will remain available for sale throughout the move and you’ll continue to earn royalties. Once we begin this process you’ll be unable to edit existing titles or create new titles on CreateSpace. To learn more about the move and review the latest, visit here.
If you have a release planned soon or you would like to start the move yourself, you can move your entire CreateSpace catalog to KDP in just a few steps. To get started on your move to KDP, log in to your CreateSpace Member Dashboard. During this transition, you can contact KDP customer support by email and access phone support in English.
There are a few payment and printing fee differences associated with the move. Any royalties earned while your books are on CreateSpace will be paid according the CreateSpace’s payment schedule, 30 days after the end of the month in which they were earned. After you move your books to KDP, new royalties earned will be paid on KDP’s payment schedule. KDP pays royalties on a monthly basis 60 days after the end of the month in which they were earned. As a result, you’ll be paid in October for any royalties earned in September on CreateSpace and be paid in November for any royalties earned on KDP. In addition, some low-page count books will see an increase in printing fees when they are printed in the UK and EU. We’ve already sent an email to the small number of accounts affected by this change. Learn more about KDP’s printing costs here.
We’ll be in touch with more updates in the coming weeks. It is still Day 1 for independent publishing. As Amazon’s recent shareholder letter noted, there are more than a 1,000 authors who earn more than a $100,000 a year from their work with us. We could not be more optimistic about the future of independent publishing and this change will allow us to innovate faster for you.
Best Regards, The CreateSpace and KDP Team
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Joanna Penn is an author, international speaker and entrepreneur based in London, England. She was voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.
Indie Authors #57 features Nick Winters, Australian actor and writer, discussing movie stars, murder, sex and witchcraft in his novel, Hollywood Scent.
A novel approach for an ebook business? It appears Screwpulp has one. An innovative platform may benefit new authors and readers alike.
How are they different? “By giving away the initial copies of the book for free, in exchange for a mention on social media and a star rating, we quickly get your book into the hands of readers. This builds a fanbase for the author quickly and this exchange creates buzz around your work. As demand for the book goes up so does the price in one dollar increments.”
All books begin as free downloads then go to $1 after receiving 25 downloads. Will they go to $2 at 50 or 100 downloads? We’ll see soon as they are a fledgling company with a current best-seller topping the charts at 30 downloads. However, that will change quickly. My curiosity wanders to the price ceiling, which might come into play around the $3 or $5 or dare I say $7 to $9 mark. Will be fun to watch. But even for the $1 sales–at 75% royalties to the author, that’s good money compared to major retailers.
I asked Richard Billings, CEO of Screwpulp, how it all began?
I came up with a form of the idea about 3 years ago and inadvertently did customer discovery by speaking with readers and writers for a couple of years, which helped me to define Screwpulp to what it is today. We listened very carefully to both sides in order to create a marketplace that would be beneficial to all types of readers and writers. Our company was officially formed in February 2013 and launched in beta on May 1st 2013.
Who are the founders?
I am the original founder with Will Phillips Jr., our designer, coming on in July of 2012. I found through my discovery process that design was important to both readers and writers. We brought on Richard Batt for business operations, and Kris Spencer for development in Feb 2013. More recently Joe Wikert, a 20 year publishing insider who has spent the last several years focusing on change in the industry, joined the team as a board member and mentor.
What motivates you?
I’m an amateur writer and found several problems with self-publishing model. Also, like the rest of the team, I’m an avid reader. As a reader I found that most self-publishing sites weren’t very user friendly or visually appealing. They sold books by authors I didn’t know, with no ratings to base my decision on, for higher prices that I was willing to spend on so many unknowns. Our motivation is to make the self-publishing experience better for both the reader and the writer.
What sales growth are you seeing?
We launched on May 1st with 4 books, 4 authors, and of course 0 users. Today, nearly six weeks later, we have about 50 books, 45 authors (from 3 countries), and we’re approaching 800 users. This growth has been mostly organic as we done very little marketing.
Not bad to start. That will change dramatically soon. Where do you see book prices eventually rising to?
That’s hard to say. So far there hasn’t been a mechanism that allows the market to decide what prices should be. We think our crowd-driven pricing will give real indications about what readers are willing to spend on self-published titles.
How do authors upload and in what format?
Eventually authors will be able to submit through the website. We’re in early beta and will be adding features regularly. Currently the submission process is found at this link: https://www.screwpulp.com/?publish
Have to admit, this is a brilliant idea. Good for authors and readers. Here’s a YouTube video with a bit more:
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How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks 