Shawn P. B. Robinson

So, in the first part of this blog, we looked at the pros of KDP Print. It’s a good system for getting your print books out there. Today, however, we want to see some of the limitations of KDP Print, take a look at Createspace and explore whether KDP or Createspace is a better option right now.

Cons of KDP Print over Createspace

You cannot order wholesale books through KDP

This is a biggie.

With Createspace, you can order all the books you want at a wholesale price so you can sell them personally. You can order 100 books, shipped to your house, and Createspace will print them and ship them. This is great for book signings or giveaways or more. KDP doesn’t allow this.

The way around this, of course, is to make use of Ingramspark. Ingramspark is a leader in printing/publishing and they not only do POD, but they also act as a distributor. So when you put your books up on Ingramspark, they will appear for sale all over the world (places like Kobo, Chapters, Alibris, Book Depository, Booktopia, Books-A-Million and Foyles). You can order as many books as you need through Ingramspark. Although I have found Ingram a little more expensive to print than Createspace (maybe 10% more), sometimes the shipping can be cheaper, so in the end your per book price can actually be less than Createspace (Ingram tends to have a nicer print as well).

Keep your eye out for a blog coming soon on Ingram.

KDP Print Is Agonizingly Slow to Print Compared with Createspace

I don’t know how fast they print normally, but when it comes to proof copies, there is a night and day difference between KDP and Createspace. I have ordered a proof copy from Createspace at around 11am at night, only to find I have an email saying it’s shipped by 7am the next morning. That seems fast to me. Their printing and shipping are extremely fast.

As for KDP, I have ordered proof copies and waited days and days for it to print and ship. That seems slow to me (especially compared with Createspace). I think the longest I’ve waited is about 10 days. I didn’t find their shipping to be all that fast either (I don’t understand why shipping would be slower). This is a concern for me as I wonder then if they will be that slow in printing my book for customers as well.

Distribution Limitations

KDP Print doesn’t distribute to Canada. They only distribute to the Amazon US, European and Japanese sites.
This limitation is not a well-advertised fact. They seem to be kind of quiet on this issue as though they are hoping no one will notice. 🙂 KDP Print, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to be in a rush to deal with the problem.

I found out about this problem by noticing that a book of mine was listed as “Out of Stock” and it stated that it would ship within 1-2 months. That shouldn’t be with a POD system. I contacted them about it, and that’s when I found out they simply do not sell print copies through Amazon in Canada. Instead, they just list it as out of stock.

To switch back to Createspace so you can sell to all Amazon sites leads to a new problem involving ISBNs (see below).

You can only move a book one direction

From Createspace, there is the option to move your book over to KDP Print. That’s nice.

What’s not so nice is that you can’t move it back. 🙁

If you run into issues and problems with KDP (as I did), you’re kind of stuck with them. The only way to move back is to set up your book with a completely new ISBN (that means you’ve created a new edition of your book and can be pricey).

To do this, you have to get a new ISBN (free or paid), and then you have to discontinue the old one so that all new sales are of your new book. This is just a tad bit cumbersome to work with. The fact that you can easily move from Createspace to KDP, but not back again suggests again that Createspace is the old, KDP is the new, but it should still go both ways (in my opinion).

Since I didn’t find out that KDP doesn’t distribute to Canada for weeks after putting my book up online, I had to get a new ISBN, update my book and now I’m working with two ISBNs (on Ingram). For many, not having your print book available in Canada may not seem like a problem, but I’m a Canadian author. It is a problem for me. 🙂

Print Proofs Are Marked in a Big Way

This isn’t a big deal, but KDP prints a big line across the front and back cover of proof copies. The line says, “Not for resale.” Again, that’s not a huge deal as the book really is “not for resale,” but it does limit your ability to evaluate the cover print job since you can’t see a decently large portion of the cover.

Pros of Createspace

Broad Distribution

Createspace distributes to anywhere that Amazon sells. That’s a good thing. If your business is all in the US, Europe and Japan, KDP will work well for you. If you plan on selling to Canada or countries not included in KDP’s reach, you’ll want to stick with Createspace.

Moving to KDP

When KDP finally does get everything figured out, you can easily move your book from Createspace to KDP. You can’t move it back. So… don’t be too quick to run to KDP until you know for sure that this is what you want to do.

Ordering Wholesale copies

Createspace allows you to order wholesale copies. You can order a ton of them and then sell them yourself at book signings, to family and friends and more. When you order these copies, you just pay printing and shipping costs.

You can also order wholesale copies for other people such as reviewers. If you find someone who will review your book, you can mail them a printed copy right from Createspace and again, you just pay printing/shipping.

Cons of Createspace

One Biggie

There is only one real con for Createspace that I can find (aside from an older style interface), but it can be a big one.
If you have to update your print book (upload a new cover or interior file), Createspace actually closes down sales for your book while they are updating your book. This can take upwards of a day or even a day and a half. If you do not expect to have any updates, that’s not a problem for you. If you think they’ll happen now and then, you have to weigh the pros and cons of KDP Print vs. Createspace.

Sometimes they update books really, really fast… but not always.  Recently I had to update a book and it took somewhere around 20 hours.

Conclusion

While there are a lot of pros to going with KDP Print right now, if you’re looking to sell print copies outside the US, Europe or Japan, go with Createspace. If you want wholesale copies, you should also go with Createspace.

If, however, you are only selling books in the US, Europe and Japan and you don’t want any wholesale copies, KDP is a pretty nice system to work with. If ordering wholesale copies is your only concern with KDP print, go with KDP and use Ingram for wholesale copies. If you are a Self-Publisher, you should be using Ingram anyway.

If you’re not familiar with Ingram, no worries. I hope to post about them soon. They are a HUGE help to the Self-Publisher.

As we look ahead, I do suspect that KDP is going to replace Createspace one day. In fact, when they get their bugs worked out, KDP Print is going to be awesome! Until then… weigh the pros and cons.

Shawn