An overview of what I’ve found, for my self-publisher friends:
DISCLAIMER: I am not a representative of either CreateSpace or Lightning Source International, and this information only presents my personal findings!
Although I have yet to see any official information from CreateSpace on how this deal works, I did discover that it seems to be quite easy to implement the new “Expanded Distribution Channel.”
- First, your books must be on the “Pro Plan.” If you didn’t do this in the initial setup, you can do it at any time, simply by paying the $39.00 fee.
- Second, on the “Title Setup” page for each title, you will find a section headed “Sales Channel Management.” Click “Edit.”
- On the next page, find the section headed “Expanded Distribution Channel Sales,” and enable those you would like to use (I say all of them, but it’s up to you!).
That’s it! Apparently, no additional charges, fees, etc, although they do say that it can take up to six weeks for your title to begin appearing in the expanded channels.
Also, be warned: your royalties will be smaller and you might have to adjust the price of your book accordingly.
Which brings me to my next point:
Unfortunately, I will be forced to raise prices on all of my titles (except Jillian’s Gold) after the first of the year.
Order early for Christmas, and get the old prices!
Levi, you don’t need to raise your prices. Dump CreateSpace and work directly with Lightning Source. They let you set a wholesale discount as low as 20%, and your books will be available on Amazon as well.
See my book “Aiming at Amazon.”
Aaron
Actually, I have a copy of your book, and it’s been very helpful. Thank you for a great book!
I would love to work directly with Lightning Source, and in the long run, I certainly will, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it would solve the formatting issue I’m having with the way CreateSpace has to print Jillian’s Gold. However, as I understand it, in order to do that, I have to purchase my own ISBNs, which is an expenditure my current sales rate will not justify.
Baby steps, baby steps. I’ll get there.
Follow this link to find the book Mr Shepard is referring to:
http://newselfpublishing.com/
Levi,
Why do you need to raise the prices?
As I understand it (I use the expanded distribution) the “lower royalty rate” you mention is only for copies purchased through the expanded channels (booksellers, etc.) but this is exactly what happens if one goes through a distributor, anyway.
I previously used Baker And Taylor, and due to the fact that the booksellers purchase copies at at least 55% off of retail (cover price) is what makes books sold through this channel less “profitable”, in a dollars-and-cents sense. With B&T, the order would come, you would ship (paying for that, too) and then invoice for only the price of the 55% copy sold (shipping is out of pocket and if the bookseller returns the book-which they seldom do-you have to pay the distributor back and pay for shipping if you want the book back: this is the same with Ingram).
All Create Space’s new thing is doing is removing the middleman for people who do go through distributors (and eliminating the worry about having to pay out on any returns). From my point of view, it is working amazingly, as it may not get books “stocked on shelve” (because that is something that just doesn’t automatically happen, not matter what) but it widens the availability in that it can be directly ordered through any source (“special ordered” is the old fashioned term for this). The Expanded Distribution just saves the author the time of having to a BINC for one store, another number for another store, etc.
The royalty rate for purchases bought at retail (like copies through Amazon) stays the same. I bring this up because raising prices, no matter what, makes a book less accessible, certainly in the sense of getting a store to shelve it (if this is an eventual goal) and certainly to get an individual to buy it.
I would look at the expanded distribution only as an additional tool (what you already have doesn’t alter, Expanded Distribution is something altogether different). One direct positive is in not having to shell out to have copies available for events and signings. Stores will order in stock for events if it is available through their distribution channels, because they can return what doesn’t sell. It is always a struggle to get events (again, if you are interested in such things) or to get stores to do anything with your title if it is not available through mainstream distribution channels.
The lower royalty just happens, no fault of anyone, no one taking an ounce of extra profit. Just the math of it. Don’t raise your prices.
Cheers.
.-= Pablo D’Stair´s last blog ..Publisher’s Introduction =-.
Pablo,
Actually, I’ve done the math many times. I’m not pleased at all with having to raise my prices, even though I think they’re pretty low right now, comparatively speaking. However, at a list price of $16.95 (422 pages), Jillian’s Gold will net me a whopping $.87 in the Expanded Channel, which is barely five percent of the cover price.
In the long run, I will go to Lightning Source on my own, but in the meantime, I’m afraid the prices are going to have to go up.
Levi