[Introduction] Createspace Victim

[MR B]

[INTRODUCTION]
Here comes another Createspace victim... don't get me started. I'm climbing a fairly steep learning curve--have recently opened an account with IngramSpark. A good portion of my business is with "private" sales--it will no longer be possible to do those through KDP. After familiarizing myself with IS, I may seriously consider moving all my titles there. I'm impressed with their capabilities--for example, using the POD it's possible to create a "customized" version and purchase one copy. I currently have 8 books--four are private and will be adding at least one more (private) this year.

[Seisa]

Welcome! IS can also move your CS books over behind the scenes, for free, if you ask them to.

[smk123]

If you ever need help with IngramSpark, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I've quite a few books on that site in both paperback and hardcover. They are a good company to deal with, very professional...sometimes a bit too much as their terminology threw me a few times (e.g., a dust jacket is a laminate!?!?). Once you get on to it, it's quite easy and their 'help' are actually helpful! They are trying to start a community as well but it was quite small with only a few posts last time I checked.
Good luck!

[MR B]

Thanks, the more I research IS, the more impressed I become. My biggest challenge at the moment is time, including the fact I can't afford much downtime.

I'm also wrestling a bit with pricing... everything I have is based on CS costs and IS will be more expensive, particularly when it comes to shipping! A recent order I placed with CS totaled $62.20--the exact same order with IS would be $72.04 with basic shipping which means no tracking and I assume full responsibility. A true apples-to-apples comparison would be $62.60 versus $82.64. That's a dollar difference per book--doesn't sound like much in some ways, but it probably means I have to increase prices. (I belong to ALLi so I won't pay the setup fee, but will have the additional cost of ISBN numbers.) My current release is based on CS costs... if possible, it may make sense to struggle through and move titles gradually so I can revisit pricing.

All of that said, I fully expect some problems with KDP and price increases, so at the end of the day, the difference may not be so great.