The CreateSpace & KDP Merge: Pros and Cons

Self-Publishing, , , , , 6 Comments

Good afternoon, Arrowheads! If you’re an indie author who has self-published books via Amazon’s CreateSpace in the past, chances are you’ve heard about CreateSpace merging with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to consolidate ebook and paperback publishing. With the release of Speak Your Mind, I’ve recently had my first experience dealing with publishing a paperback through KDP. Though I only used CreateSpace for a year and a half before the merge, I had enough experience to make a good comparison between the two publishers. Here are the pros and cons I’ve noticed so far about the differences between CreateSpace and KDP’s services.

KDP

Pros

KDP’s Website

CreateSpace’s website always seemed a bit amateurish to me as far as the appearance and ease of access were concerned. KDP’s website is a lot more user friendly, though I wish their sales reports were a bit more thorough.

KDP’s How-To Videos

Unlike CreateSpace, KDP offers numerous how-to videos that range from how to select categories for your books to how to create a cover. The videos are both short and informative, and offer a better alternative than CreateSpace’s old school question forums.

KDP Consolidates Kindle and Paperback Sales

It was always a pain in the butt to have to log in to CreateSpace to check my paperback sales, and then log in to KDP to access the Kindle sales. Now, I just have to make one stop to check how my books are doing.

Ordering Author Copies Through Your Amazon Cart

KDP allows authors to purchase their copies through their Amazon cart. I like this a lot better than ordering through CreateSpace, as CreateSpace’s website wasn’t as user-friendly, especially when it came to ordering copies. Ordering paperbacks through Amazon will be a lot more welcoming for authors who are already familiar with how to buy items on Amazon.

Cons

Slower Publishing Speed

KDP’s paperback publishing process is much slower compared to CreateSpace’s. It took exactly 22 hours after I hit “Publish” on Speak Your Mind‘s paperback edition for it to become live on Amazon. When I published my first novel on CreateSpace, it was available for purchase on Amazon within an hour.

Differences in Cover Color

There is a noticeable color variation between the Kindle cover and the paperback cover for Speak Your Mind, despite it being the same color in both files. However, the quality of the paperback’s cover is not affected by the difference in color as far as I can tell.

Increased Price of Author Copies

The price of the author copies seems to be about a dollar higher than CreateSpace’s were. This is a common occurrence I’ve noticed in numerous KDP comment threads since the switch.

No Prime Shipping for Author Copies

This just ticks me off, to be honest, even though we didn’t have the option with CreateSpace either. 😡 We pay $120 a year to be loyal Prime members, and we don’t even get an option for two-day shipping (without it costing us, like, $50. And no, I’m not exaggerating!) I honestly think authors with a Prime membership should be able to receive the Prime shipping option by default when ordering author copies, no matter how many.

So, as you can see, I’m 50/50 on the KDP and CreateSpace merge at the moment. I’m sure it’ll get better with time, though.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Are you an indie author? What are your thoughts on the KDP and CreateSpace merge? Let me know in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀

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As an author and blogger, my goal is to teach writers that there is a way to write realistic, thought-provoking, redemptive Christian fiction that honors God while not sugarcoating the realities of the world. 

6 thoughts on “The CreateSpace & KDP Merge: Pros and Cons”

  2. Allyson, the fact that I had to almost completely re-format my three-books-in-one The Prodigal Band Trilogy e-book was one reason (of several) that I went with LULU publishing. Even if I had to pay for it–Create Space to KDP was too much of a hassle for me. It’ll be published by Lulu, not OmegaBooks, but that’s okay–Lulu will get this book to as many online distributors as possible. Amazon was driving me nuts! And they will distribute on Kindle anyway, in Kindle format (all the various e-book distribution services have different formats. If you can afford it, Allyson, I’d recommend Lulu Publishing next time.), as well as Nook and Kobo, etc.

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    1. Oh gosh, I’m sorry that happened! I’ve heard a few people say on the KDP threads that they’ve experienced similar issues with the switch. I’m glad you were able to switch to Lulu! 🙂

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  3. That stinks about the slow publishing time and the Prime shipping! I got out of the gate too slow on my ebook—I started it on Createspace and never finished the book back, so I guess it’s KDP for the paperback. At least for the first go round of paperback. One question, is Createspace completely shut down now?

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Gene! As far as I know, CreateSpace is down now. I logged in after manually switching over to KDP when they first announced the merge, and messages on CreateSpace’s site kept telling me to check my books on KDP instead. I haven’t checked CreateSpace in a few months though.

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