CreateSpace to be Phased Out

createspace logoAs many of us have feared since the introduction of KDP Print, it was finally announced that CreateSpace would be merged into the newer entity. The email, sent from CreateSpace early this morning, stated:

We’re excited to announce that CreateSpace (CSP) and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) will become one service, and in the coming days, we will give CreateSpace members the ability to move their account and titles. To ensure a quality experience, we will add links to the CreateSpace member dashboard in phases so authors may see it at different times. As a reminder, Kindle Direct Publishing (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 and Amazon.com.au (Amazon.mx 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.

I hate to say I told you so, but…

Personally, I find this to be a loss because the customer service I have experienced through CreateSpace in Costa Rica has been amazing. The customer service I have experienced through KDP, on the other hand… Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about that. I hope that Amazon will take that into consideration when moving operations over.

We’ve written in the past about some of the issues with KDP’s print division. Hopefully they’ve worked those out. I’m still feeling like you’ll need to pry CreateSpace out of my cold, dead hands, but maybe that’s just me.

The email went on to say:

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 a few 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.

If you have a release planned soon or you would like to start the move yourself, we are making updates that will allow you to move your entire catalog in just a few steps. During this transition, you can contact KDP customer support by email and access phone support in English.

There is a web page you can visit with more information on the merge between CreateSpace and KDP here which includes a list of tips, how to move your books, the differences between the two platforms, FAQs, and more.

Suddenly, it feels like a Monday, doesn’t it? Now, back to your regular programming.

UPDATE (8:34 a.m. PDT): I just received another email from CreateSpace, this one informing me there is an issue with pricing on some of my books:

We are contacting you because your CreateSpace account has one of [sic] more books that will be charged a higher manufacturing fee once they are moved to KDP to align with KDP’s global pricing standards. Paperback printing costs are higher on KDP than CreateSpace for Black & White titles under 110 pages printed in the EU, Black & White titles under 100 pages printed in the UK, and color titles under 30 pages printed in both the EU and UK. Based on this change, you may want to update the list prices of your books.  To make changes to the list prices of any of your books, please log-in here.

I can tell this is going to be a fun week.

Author: K.S. Brooks

K.S. Brooks is an award-winning novelist, photographer, and photo-journalist, author of over 30 titles, and executive director and administrator of Indies Unlimited. Brooks is currently a photo-journalist and chief copy editor for two NE Washington newspapers.  She teaches self-publishing and writing topics for the Community Colleges of Spokane, and served on the Indie Author Day advisory board. For more about K.S. Brooks, visit her website and her Amazon author page.

67 thoughts on “CreateSpace to be Phased Out”

  1. I know the day is still young, but I’ve received no email from Amazon or CreateSpace about this. That does not bode well for customer service in the future.

      1. This makes me want to start my own publishing company. Are there any “Indie publishing” companies out there? Great article, by the way.

    3. I haven’t either, Bob. I’m in Australia and waiting impatiently to be notified. I love CreateSpace so I’m pretty miffed by this change. I’ve left a message on my CreateSpace page so, hopefully, I’ll hear more soon.

  2. I agree…CS support, whether out of RSA or Costa Rica (and SC, as well) has been outstanding over the past several years.

    Frankly, from a business standpoint, I don’t understand why CS simply isn’t placed under KDP as a subsidiary imprint, with all future paperback publications steered to the senior corporation. To transition millions of paperbacks to a new platform is an invitation to a disaster.

    I have new paperbacks scheduled for release on September 5th and October 5th (the Kindle editions already are on pre-sale). Right now, they ain’t broke, so I’m not going to fix them.

    1. I agree, Ted, and that’s what I was hoping for. Not sure if you saw the update I just posted, but it doesn’t look good for pricing, already. *sigh*

  3. Warning – I began to move my books over earlier this morning and I’ve had the circle rotating on my screen like it’s doing something for hours! Perhaps late at night would be a better time, but which time zone? ?

    1. That happened to me, too, Elisabeth, so I finally just cancelled it. When I went to look a little later, everything seems to have automagically lined up the way it’s supposed to.

  4. I received these same email and am in mourning over the loss of CS. The second email about the increased printing costs adds insult to injury especially with this statement from the 1st email:

    “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.”

    Same people, printers, and facilities = higher cost???

  5. I’m okay with the change as long as 1) the print quality is the same and 2) this means we can do pre-orders for print books like we can for ebooks, instead of doing the roundabout, non-intuitive pre-order process through Amazon Marketplace

  6. Agree on the CS support. As I mentioned somewhere else, I used to enjoy joking around with them (in Spanish, though not allowed) AFTER they solved my problems or answered my questions. Am going to miss the human touch for sure. Sigh.

  7. I’ve been seeing reports of this all over the place, but I haven’t received anything yet. Makes me wonder if they’re prioritizing their better-selling authors? **sigh** They don’t have to rub it in. 😉

    Anyway, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re losing something that KDP won’t ever be able to measure up to. It might have been a different story if KDP rolled out a better POD product at the start, instead of a frustrating Beta-program that left too many underwhelmed.

    Seems like a great opportunity for IngramSpark to step up by cutting their fees, and maybe offer reduced rate ISBNs. They could really clean up. Are you listening IS? You’d have my books in a heartbeat.

  8. Got my emails about this just now, both the announcement and the caution about the print costs. I think I’m with Kat–I’ll give up CS when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. I’m going to wait until they force me to move. In the meantime, I’m going to order more of my existing books!

  9. Pingback: CreateSpace to be Phased Out | Motown Writers Network . . . Michigan Literary Network

  10. This is a great article and going to pass it on to the world. However far my reach is ?
    Thanks for always being the premier indie author advocate!

  12. There’s certainly some wailing and gnashing of teeth going on over this. I’m gonna just let the dust settle for a bit and see how it pans out. Seems I’m not making a fortune with my print sales anyway right now, so no drama either way. Though I remain slightly concerned that author copies may cost more when bought and shipped to NZ from Amazon.

    1. I’m with you. I just ordered about $200US worth of books from CreateSpace to have on-hand for a conference just in case our costs go up… Ugh.

    2. I’ve been working on getting my print books up on IngramSpark, precisely because of the shipping. They have a print facility in Melbourne [Australia]. As I live in Melbourne, I worked out that I could order up to 28 standard sized paperbacks for a total shipping cost of $4.90 AUD. I know shipping will be more to other states and NZ, but almost anything would be cheaper than Amazon to Australia/NZ.

  13. Thanks so much for posting! Shared.

    This is actually the best news to come out of this entire sequence of events:
    “In a few 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.

    “If you have a release planned soon or you would like to start the move yourself, we are making updates that will allow you to move your entire catalog in just a few steps. During this transition, you can contact KDP customer support by email and access phone support in English.”

    See? It pays to be lazy…late…cautious…clueless! Now, we don’t have to ANYTHING and it will all happen FOR us.

    Best to you all,

    Sally Ember, Ed.D. (with 3 titles on CS about to be on KDP)

  14. I have a book published in Turkish language through CreateSpace so I’ve received a separate email from them saying my existing book will still be available through KDP but I won’t be able to edit it or publish a new Turkish book because KDP doesn’t have the language support. This is a big punch to Indie authors in other languages. Thanks KDP!

  15. We (Smoking Pen Press) have the same reaction to this change, that the rest of you have. Besides some nominal compensation and a comp digital copy, we offer the authors included in our anthologies a discounted price on print copies. CreateSpace’s pricing has been such that we can offer copies to our authors at a price less than what Amazon charges (which gives them the opportunity to make a bit of change), but enough to cover our cost from CreateSpace, including shipping (which gives us the opportunity to make a bit of change).
    We are very concerned that this merger will no longer allow us to do this. Just one more way that ‘zon is trying to kill the indie author and indie publisher.

    1. I read today that KDP Print authors will need to use their regular Amazon account, and purchase their books at the full list price (no author discount). They will earn royalties on those sales but they’ll have to wait 60 days for that. In the meantime, Amazon gets to earn interest on that money. Has anyone else seen that news today?

      1. I do believe I saw that, but I haven’t had time to research it further. Just in case, I did order a bunch of books from CreateSpace now to cover a conference I’m speaking at next month.

      2. I actually moved my books over early because we all knew this was coming (I too, loved CS). Unless something has changed recently, Angela, I ordered my author copies from KDP for exactly the same price as they were on CS. Having said that, as I’m in Canada and the exchange, shipping rates are crazy, I’m now having my wholesale copies printed locally and I love them—huge difference in price! No distribution though, so I’m also wondering about going with Ingram Sparks.

  16. I’m going to miss Createspace and their great customer service. And the informative reporting that updates daily, instead of weekly. And their easier-to-use dashboard. And their prompt payments. And… well, Amazon has a bit of work to do to be half as good.

    RIP, Createspace.

  17. I’ve already moved most of my books and the process was pretty much seamless. The only issue I encountered was with some multi-author anthologies in which more than ten contributors were listed on CreateSpace. Since KDP has a limit of ten contributors, paperbacks now must adhere to that rule.
    When I contacted support to ask about it, they replied immediately and got to the root of the problem. Here’s hoping support through KDP print mirrors that which we had through CreateSpace.

  18. I’m not finding it easy to move my books to KDP. Also, I understand that Cover Creator will not transfer well, so does that mean I have to start from scratch with my book covers with KDP’s cover creator? Then also upload the manuscript there as well? I am stressed out that it isn’t a simple transition.

  20. Have 5 books pricing will change. Can’t wait to see how much. While this move makes no sense, it could make things easier for indies. One less two day wait for approval. I’ll just wait and see.

  23. I’m not happy so far with KDP Print. I started to upload a book that’s done, except I don’t have the cover yet. Just for grins, I let them choose an image, and now I can’t change that! What fresh hell is this?? In CreateSpace, I could tweak a cover as many times as I wanted and upload a new image. Grrr. Waiting for a reply to my email.

    1. Oh, that sounds so annoying, Melissa. I found CreateSpace cover creator very easy to use too. I hope they resolve this for you soon.

  27. I admit, I groaned when I saw the email come in and refused to open it until I am emotionally prepared to deal with the drama. I’m in process or relaunching one book and releasing another. With a heavy sigh I will log in and see what must be done.

  29. I got a different second email. Mine said that I would have to take a bunch of my books out of the “CreateSpace Direct” distribution channel or they’d all be in draft mode when transferred, because Amazon wasn’t going to offer that distribution channel in the future. No idea what it was, but I went in and took all my books out. Here’s hoping it all goes swimmingly from here (oh haha).

    1. I got the same… but my book isn’t anywhere else. What do you mean by you “took your books out?”

  30. I’m getting more confused – and worried – by the hour. My understanding was that THEY would do the transfers in due time. Now it looks like there are a whole lot of caveats to that. I may need some help if it comes to that.

  31. I think I have my cover questions figured out. I can change the image I upload by clicking on the cover in the layout mode. And it looks like the only way to upload the entire cover image (front, back and spine) is by uploading a pdf— not a jpg. Why the heck couldn’t they stick with CSs Cover Creator???

  35. I looked on KDP and see they have two buttons- one for ebook upload and one for print upload. OK, maybe this won’t be SO bad….And if they actually link the print and ebooks together without having to go to Author Central to do it, cool. I only have one book that will need a price change, and it’s not a big deal. Won’t have another book to publish til next year, so have time to let them work out the bugs in the system.

  36. Haven’t even heard from Amazon yet but being in New Zealand I’m using Ingram Spark for my new books. Cheaper post costs from OZ to NZ.

    I also like their books better, the print copies of my novels are much better cover colourwise and seem stronger.
    It’s bye-bye Amazon for me I think.

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