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Pros and Cons of using CreateSpace.com to Get on Amazon.com

My husband and I have self-published a 60 page booklet, The Evolution and Destruction of the Original Electoral College. We are anxious of course to market it. Are there compelling reasons not to publish it through CreateSpace.com so that it can be on Amazon.com and have immediate exposure?

Even though it is only a booklet, we believe that the content is important to the American electorate and is of such a significant intellectual quality that our goal is to have it available in libraries, high schools, and college level political science and American government classes.

We are writing a squeal pamphlet, The Evolution and Destruction of Constitutional Federalism. These are both pieces of a full size book on the U.S. Constitution and Freedom we are writing. The book is taking longer than anticipated because of our dedication to accuracy and research. We decided to publish these two pieces first to help generate capital for publishing the book.

If we self-publish it through CreateSpace.com they say that we keep the rights and can still market it on our own.

Thank you for your imput.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Emily Hill on December 2, 2010 at 8:56am

Hi Carol,

First of All - Congratulations! Completing any writing project, that is heading toward publication is an achievement. Advice: even if you're sick of looking at the project - little gremlins are lurking, so proof it one more time.

I have published two works on CreateSpace - one, a guide such as you describe which was a test case for a novel that was published this week.

I'm sorry, for sooo many reasons, to report that my own experience with the 'tracking sales' element of Amazon's business is not good at all. CreateSpace has only tallied EIGHT sales of my books in the past two months, my attorney, Priya Cloutier is helping me cross-audit the transactions. I advertise on Facebook, googleAds, and Youtube with over 163,000 impressions [really, 163,000 flashes], you'd imagine ONE person would have purchased either of my books. The sales they do register came in the first day of each release, my husband, myself, our niece and one friend. After first day sales - nada! weird.

My post-experience modis will be to pull my eBooks [click unpublish] so that I'm not giving eBooks away for free; and then purchasing my CreateSpace pod books through the author's discount - focusing sales on indie booksellers, and book signings. If my perspective changes, I'll weigh in again.

Permalink Reply by Carolyn Alder on December 2, 2010 at 9:52am

Thank you so much for the information. I am sorry, but glad that I asked.

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