Kindle Print now available?

[Brian G Turner]

I've now got the option to print paperbacks via my KDP console. There's no label that it's a beta, and it's importing metadata direct from Createspace.

I'm presuming everyone else now has this?

As I need to update my internal file anyway, I think I'll do this through KDP rather than Createspace - unless there are any clear warnings not to.

 

[ratsy]

I have had the option for a few months, but am hesitant until I hear back from others. Payment would be much easier, since Createspace has levels i have to hit before they cut a cheque since I'm in Canada. Better visibility having them together.

Id be curious to hear your experience Brian

 

[Brian G Turner]

Oh, my bad - it's still a beta:
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Get help with self-publishing your book to Amazon's Kindle Store

Will try it anyway, though...

 

[Nick B]

I did post about this before but can't remember what thread.
I'm not touching this until absolutely sure the quality and reliability are as good as CS, who do a great job, and unlike Mr Ratsy, being UK they pay up no matter how little. We do tend to sell paperbacks regularly and I wouldn't want anyone getting an inferior product.
If you go ahead, Brian, let us know how it goes.

 

[Nick B]

Note- they have said migrating to kdp paperbacks from CS is irreversible. Not sure how they can enforce that though tbh.

 

[Glitch]

Note- they have said migrating to kdp paperbacks from CS is irreversible. Not sure how they can enforce that though tbh.

By irreversible I assume they mean there is a tool to migrate from CS to kdp paperbacks but not the other way around. Not one of enforceability, just more that you're on your own if you want to go back.

 

[Nick B]

By irreversible I assume they mean there is a tool to migrate from CS to kdp paperbacks but not the other way around. Not one of enforceability, just more that you're on your own if you want to go back.

Exactly. So it really means that if you go back to CS, you have to do everything manualy again, just like you did originaly, instead of just porting all the info across.

It makes sense to do everything in one place, and kdp reports are WAY better than CS's but if the quality is even a tiny bit lower, I won't be changing.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Well, I've moved over to Kindle Print from Createspace. It was mostly pain-free, but there were some issues where I wasn't able to edit information that imported from Createspace that was supposed to have been removed.

Additionally, the previewer was very slow - and I couldn't download a .mobi version to check on Kindle until I contacted Amazon support.

Overall, I already had problems with Createspace with information not importing right, and this carried on into the KDP backend. I'll get it cleaned up.

Not seen the reporting yet as not sold any paperbacks since it completed earlier today, but I'll let everyone know how it goes.

In short, I feel happier having everything in one place instead of two.

However, I've not been happy with Createspace's cover printing so far and I doubt this will change - the colour balance keeps changing. The first ones I ordered were very grey, but the second ones were pinkish. The cover also doesn't loo very high-resolution. As my wife is looking to publish a series of kids picture books, we'll looking at Lightning Source/IngramSpark as an alternative.

 

[HareBrain]

The cover also doesn't loo very high-resolution.

Looking at my copy, I can't imagine it being any higher. Actually, compared with previous Createspace books I've bought, I thought it much improved, especially in terms of paper feel and tone. (Used to be you got either blinding white, or beige.)

Anyway, you've moved over now, I just wanted to say I don't think any buyer would have a reason to be disappointed with the physical version.

 

[Gary Compton]

However, I've not been happy with Createspace's cover printing so far and I doubt this will change - the colour balance keeps changing. The first ones I ordered were very grey, but the second ones were pinkish. The cover also doesn't loo very high-resolution. As my wife is looking to publish a series of kids picture books, we'll looking at Lightning Source/IngramSpark as an alternative.

Did you set the PDF to CMYK rather than RGB colour?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Going to be trying to create the Kingdom Asunder paperback fairly soon with either CreateSpace or KDP (not used either for this before), so do let me know how things go.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Did you set the PDF to CMYK rather than RGB colour?

Yes, and the cover looks fine on the Amazon preview - but on the actual paperback the logo comes out brown-red rather than deep red, and the marbling at the bottom has been too grey or even pinkish.

Not enough to spoil the reception of it, but it doesn't instil me with confidence to use Createspace for a picture book.

 

[Gary Compton]

No I don't mean the preview, I mean the PDF you submitted. If you don't convert to CMYK (Commercial printing) it wont print properly.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Another problem with Kindle Print is that the reporting is all screwed up - you can see sales by book title only, so you can't tell which is the ebook and paperback selling. Also, the table beneath the graphs that normally summarised royalties to date is currently a section of headings with no values provided nor any room for them.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just to add that I've had a problem with the metadata for the US paperback edition, and Amazon will not release it until they've had a higher tech look at the issue - eta, 5 days (to be fair, that covers Christmas).

So my US paperback is currently unavailable, while running a countdown promotion on the ebook, which is somewhat annoying.

I think the lesson is - *don't* move from Createspace until Kindle Print sorts itself out.

 

[Nick B]

I think the lesson is - *don't* move from Createspace until Kindle Print sorts itself out.

That's pretty much it yeah.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Cheers for the perspective, Brian. I think I'll probably go via CreateSpace rather than KDP for the print edition.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I'm getting really annoyed by this - my US paperback is still unpublished and Amazon still refuses to publish it because:

Cover

• The title or series information listed on the cover does not match the metadata.

Interior

• The title information and series information listed in the interior does not match the metadata.

But it *does* - but there's clearly been a problem importing the metadata from Createspace to Kindle Print, but so far Amazon don't seem able to do anything about it.

Normally Amazon are very good with customer care, but their customer-facing staff don't seem equipped to deal with this issue. I did get a reply saying that there was a problem with the "edition number" in the interior content, but any value I give gets rejected - possibly because I used decimalised numbers at Createspace, whereas Kindle Print doesn't use them.

It looks as though it might simply be better to delete the paperback and just start over again.

 

[Gary Compton]

I'm not sure why you bothered. The hassle factor alone outweighs having to check 2 locations for sales data.

Once you do audio it will be 3 and foreign rights = 4 and then when you have 2 books out - lump them together and go on Itunes etc so that's = 5

Then authors cut = 6 and...