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CreateSpace Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Merger


Mel Hopkins

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CreateSpace and KDP to Become One Service

CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) are becoming one service--making KDP the single place to publish and manage your print and digital books. To learn more about the move, see the topics below.

 

Lulu.com has their own take how this merger may impact the independent publishing world and it doesn't look too favorable.
 

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Yeah this process will jack up a lot of indie authors. The video (below) makes the transition it look simple, but even a simple process that is unfamiliar will cause a lot of frustration for the less than super tech savvy.  Of course there will be no shortage of professionals to help authors make the transition.  

 

I already see that CreateSpace Cover Creator designs aren't compatible with Cover Creator on KDP. 

 

What is MOST amazing is the "Amazon Royalty."  Here is where Amazon gets you and their own price calculator make the very plain.  I will write more about this when i get a second.

 

But here is the gist:  For a 240 page book if you print with me (AALBC Prints Books) the unit cost is $3.87 per book (assuming a 200 book print run, less for larger print runs).  If you sell the book you will make $11.13 (ignoring shipping). 

 

Now if you print and sell the books via Amazon, the pricing cost is $3.73/book, but Amazon wants an astonishing $5.27 or $7.54 (with expanded distribution) that is 2/3's of the profit of the book!

 

@Mel Hopkins I gather KDP requires that authors give Amazon the exclusive right to sell their books --  unless the author pays for expanded distribution.  Is that right?

 

Amazon can get away with this because they monopolize the online sale of books.  For Black books, they essential monopolize the sale of ALL book bt electronic and physical ebooks.

 

amzon-calculator.jpg

 

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@Troy   I just saw this on Ingramspark distribution page  -
 

 


"Entering into exclusive deals with Amazon and beyond limits your distribution and your book’s potential reach. While Amazon is a very large part of overall book sales, it is not the whole marketplace and we recommend not wagering your book’s future by ignoring every other retail option. Doing so could be turning your back on potential sales."

😄

 

Seriously, I'm so glad that aalbc is in the printing business too - because amazon is on some crazy ish!

16 minutes ago, Troy said:

I gather KDP requires that authors give Amazon the exclusive right to sell their books --  unless the author pays for expanded distribution.  Is that right?

 

@Troy when I had a kindle book through amazon, I didn't enter any agreements that required them to have exclusive rights. For example, if an author agreed to the rent a book type program, I think it's called "Amazon prime reading" then you had to give amazon exclusive rights to your digital book.  There was another program they promoted too but I can't remember the name. Needless to say I said "no".   I don't give away my rights to anyone.   ( I barely like writing "work for hire" lol).  Anyway, I removed my books in 2014 or 2016, I think, because I didn't like the path Amazon was heading down.

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  • 3 months later...

Wow....Brotha Troy, I see that you are 100% committed to the mission of exposing Amazon. Continue to teach. I remember clearly when you first informed me personally of Amazon's penchant for dealing from the proverbial bottom of the deck. That was many years ago before I stepped away from writing and all related activities.  It was you who told me how authors leave money on the table when dealing via Amazon, and that got my attention because as a hustler, I never enjoyed the thought of someone taking something from me. Being that I considered your advice valuable, I even managed to open my own online bookstore for a while.

 

I, currently, am embroiled with the company in question over certain of their practices. For a fact, the transition from CreateSpace to KDP was by no means seamless. During the conversion process, the interior of some of the books were disfigured. In some places, there were blank spaces between sentences, In other places, entire sentences were squeezed together as if a single word. One book that was previously printed is now blocked.

 

Herein lies the problem. Writers, such as myself, who are not tech-savvy are eager to turn over the reins to someone else, especially when the major publishing houses are seemingly out of reach, and writers, such as myself, viewed Amazon as the McDonald's of the self-publishing world so the lure is practically irresistible. To a rookie in the game, such as myself, finding a One Stop Shop for all my publishing dreams was better than getting "fries with my milkshake. Man, this was Wal-Mart!

 

I don't care what the industry may be, but any time a single business entity can make you believe, whether by clever advertising or by brute force, that they are the future, then total control is there for them to seize. In any event, writers, such as myself, are mortified  at the notion of having to do more work after finishing the book, and Voila, there is Amazon, the "too-good-to-be-true" babysitter for your book. Yes, brotha Troy, you need to teach! Writers must be educated to know that success in writing a book must be accompanied by the success of getting the book into the hands of readers.

 

 

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@Gibran Amazon has already won man.  It is over.  Even the amount of money I make as an Amazon affiliate has dropped substantially over the years.  I could see it coming years ago -- I just could not do anything about it.

 

Amazon is the greatest hustler there ever was.  Rather than being locked up, they are rewarded.  They have even convinced us "marks" to believe they are good.  Again, authors, the ones with the most to gain, were the harshest critics against boycotting Amazon.

 

No, the KDP consolidation was far from seamless there are countless articles by writers complaining about this, but again there was nothing any of us could do about it.  Amazon is a monopoly for online sales of books and they are a monopoly in eBook production and sales -- they are even a monopoly in the eBook reader hardware and software sales and manufacturing.

 

Collectively Black people are not sophisticated enough to see the problem.  We are not dumb, but it is something we don't know enough about to have an opinion.  See everybody feels they can have an opinion about, say, the game last night, but once you start talking about monopolies people eyes glaze over.

 

It is not only Black people who are being effected, but we suffer more than other group as a result of Amazon's dominance.

 

The other problem we have is that we do not have have the platforms (websites, newspapers, TV, Radio) with the resources, ability, or consciousness to teach enough people why Amazon's dominance matters.  Sure, they can cover the antics of Cardi B or Kanye West, but when it comes to stuff that really matters which requires a bit of explaining -- forget about it.

 

 

 

 

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Wow, brotha Troy, I 'm absolutely convinced that if anyone understands the problem of Amazon's dominance, it is you.  I imagine that Amazon's business model was conceived from the same type of greed and selfishness that propelled the "robber barons" from decades ago who put the squeeze on the oil and steel industries. Man, I wished there would have been more like you trying to wake up those like me who had no idea what was coming.

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11 hours ago, Gibran said:

...Amazon's business model was conceived from the same type of greed and selfishness that propelled the "robber barons" from decades ago who put the squeeze on the oil and steel industries

 

This is precisely what is happening. The only difference is the government was willing to break up Standard Oil. Amazon is a monopoly in multiple industries without any indication they will be constrained by the government at all.

 

Their are plenty of people who have a better understanding of Amazon'd dominance than I.  I can speak to the Black book ecosystem, but Amazon's dominance extends way beyond this...

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