How to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP Print
Moving all your books from Createspace to KDP Print is now as simple as following a five-minute process Amazon refers to as Verify > Link > Move.
In my earlier post announcing the news of Createspace merging with KDP Print, I mentioned that Amazon had promised us an easy way of moving all of our books at once. Well, I’m pleased to say that the company has delivered, letting me move all of my books at once in a matter of minutes!
So, here is a detailed guide of how to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP Print (luckily, I took screenshots as I was racing through the process).
1. Log Into Createspace
When I logged into Createspace, I got a prompt to move my books to KDP Print. Being the risk taker that I am (ha…
As you may remember, I’ve been experiencing computer trouble for the past week, so I’ve been using Electra’s computer. The first time I tried to log in, I was stunned to see a new login screen asking me to specify what kind of Advertising I was interested in:
This was the first I realized Amazon has retired three of its ad services and products as well. The move looks like a response to Google’s move earlier this year which saw the search engine giant dropping many of its advertising brands. Despite becoming America’s second $1 trillion company, Amazon’s marketing and advertising division still lag behind its two direct competitors: Google and Facebook Ads.
The All-new Amazon Advertising Department
In an announcement made last week, as reported by The Passive Guy, Amazon SVP Paul Kotas introduced the all-new Amazon Advertising department. Amazon will be retiring three of the company’s most popular marketing platforms: Amazon Media Group (AMG), Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), and Amazon…
Traveling and writing sounds like a great idea, especially for young writers looking for an extra income from their writing career. This is a guest post by Sam Ross with some tips on getting started. Sam runs the blog thehammockhombre.com – a travel blog focused around the digital nomad lifestyle. Over the past 3 years, he’s traveled to every continent, so writes on a broad range of countries, cities, and destinations.
How to Kickstart your Travel Writing Career
Image: Pixabay
For many aspiring writers, travel writing is the Holy Grail; the job that gives you the ultimate freedom to enjoy your work and everyday life as one. Starting a career as a travel writer can be a little daunting, as it’s very competitive – so many writers are doing it that you’ve got to put your all into this work to stand out from the crowd.
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It is time for a revising of a writing aid called Writer’s Cafe. I first reported on my experience with Writer’s Café two years ago when I began using it. I had used it daily for almost two months. I produced two books with it, then took a year off. Looking at it this week I decided to talk about it again. Writer’s Café is a text editing, story planning, writing software.
Linux has been my favorite computer operating environment for about 20 years. Linux is a base level software that competes with Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac iOS. Android, used on smartphone and tablets is related to Linux. My main computer today runs Ubuntu Linux. If I were using a Mac or Windows computer I would probably be using Scrivener. However, the full up-to-date version of Scrivener does not work on Linux. So, I searched for a similar program.
Ubuntu Screen
For years, I’ve written several books in Sigil. This program is not a sophisticated story building system, what it does is help with formatting ebooks. I eventually found Writer’s Café from Anthemion Software Ltd. Writer’s Café is a program for writing text and aiding with many aspects of the writing work. Let me quote from the authors of the program: “StoryLines is a multi-storyline planning tool that helps you weave a set of virtual index cards into a finished, formatted story.” Here are the features advertised for the program, Drag and drop cards, Formatting including custom styles, Screenplay auto-formatting, Text and screenplay import, Instant reports, Outline view, Navigator view, Tag-based searching, Multiple sheets (for different versions of the same story), User-customisable structure (Chapter, scene, etc.), File export (HTML, OpenDocument, etc.), Makes HTML Help books, Character profiles, Story locations, Spelling checker, Pockets (store unused scenes for later placement), and Keyboard shortcuts.
The first useful feature I found for my writing was the ability to easily see the scene and story overview and jump to any scene at any time. For me, this is a huge advantage over a flat word-processor, like Word. I also am glad for the character and location files. I can instantly look up a location or character I have entered, to check spelling and details. Now after using the program for some time, I am still most impressed with the setup that allows me to see at a glance which character is featured in each scene. I write stories with more than one POV character. It is important for me to get a sense of how often and how recently a character has been covered. I get this in one glance from the program.
Writer’s Cafe has preference screens where settings can be adjusted for how I want to write. I can adjust the font and locations of different screens. Another important feature of the program is the ability to record characters and locations. It’s important to remember the names and spellings you use over a book and series, and it helps to have a quickly accessible reference.
Finally, after I’ve produced some work, I need to get it out of the program. When printing the document out I can choose which information I want. Do I just want the raw content, to import into a word processor, or ebook creator? I can do that. Or I can choose to get other information.
Now, let’s mention some negatives, since no software is perfect. I suspect the software was probably originally written for helping a screenwriter to write a screenplay. There are extensive tools to aid with formatting screenplays. Of course, whether you find this a negative depends on your writing audience. Another daily annoyance has been an issue of cutting and pasting. When I cut to and from LibreOffice, the font transfers, but have been losing the style on emphasized words. Another minor annoyance that I now find a positive, is the forced scene structure. The program defaults to a scene structure, instead of chapter structure. This annoyed me, at first. Now, though, I would probably not go back. It makes sense to think about a scene as a unit that I work on.
All-in-all I have been very happy with the program, and plan to keep using it in the future.
So, there you have it. A quick overview of the Writer’s Café program. It is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The purchase price is $40 US, or $30 for students. I tried the free download first. The free version is mostly full featured, except you are limited to the number of scenes you can enter.
If you don’t have a writing program, or want to try something new, I recommend Writer’s Café.
People refer to it as young adults market, segment, or genre. Whatever you call it, there is something definitely going on with it. According to Valerie Peterson, the number of Young Adult (YA) titles published more than doubled in the decade between 2002 and 2012 (this doesn’t even include Indie titles). This growth in sales for YA far exceeds the percentage of growth in the adult e-book sales, indicating a dramatic overall increase.
We do not have the 2018 numbers yet, but judging by the number of new titles in Amazon, the trend is strong and thriving—at least from the publishing point of view.
But who is reading all these books? Are we looking at a wave of young readers?
Who’s Reading All These Books?
Looking for sales numbers is a harder task. According to 2012…
Prague is my favorite city in the world. When we visited with Electra, I had taken a whole bunch of photos but didn’t really know what to do with them. So, this guest post by Jeff Townes about the history of Prague gives me the perfect opportunity to do so!
Jeff has been obsessed with the beauty and the wonder of this wide world since before he could walk or even talk. He was always exploring as a toddler – much to his parents’ dismay – and things haven’t changed since. As soon as he finished school, he was off and around the world. He has spent the last 3 1/2 years (and counting) writing his way around every corner of this incredible globe and doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.
A History of Prague
The history of Prague is a long one. Clues found suggest humans hunting large animals roamed this…
We are in a sharing economy. Sharing economies, collaborative economies can create new opportunities in business and networking. Some entrepreneurs are building marketplaces where people can sell and exchange goods or services.
Sharetribe is a software platform developed by Finnish university friends, Juho Makkonen and Antti Virolainen. They began with the idea to help students sell old textbooks, find a tutor, or get help moving. But after years of development, Sharetribe offers useful features for a sales or marketing online platform. Sharetribe includes support for products, services, payments, categories and works on mobile devices.
A peer to peer marketplace is a different model than publishing a book or product on Amazon or one of the big online markets. When you publish on Amazon you give up control and the company sits between you and the customer. With a marketplace like Sharetribe, you the author have complete control over your setup and reports and fulfillment. You immediately see the Paypal or Stripe processing for each purchase. You are the vendor, customer service, shipping clerk. So there are advantages and disadvantages!
Over the last few months, I have wanted to move away from a total dependence on Amazon for my book selling. I am dissatisfied with aspects of the company’s relationship with authors, especially low selling independents, as well as negative feelings to what I hear about the company’s treatment of employees. In addition, I don’t feel the platform does anything to help the sales of my books. Yes, they have a massive number of customers, but those customers never see my books. I am lost in the sea of millions of books carried by Amazon.
All these concerns motivated me to search for alternatives to Amazon and the other big marketplaces. I found Sharetribe and setup a store on the supported website. The program starts with a 1 month free trial. I may switch to the opensource version if the project has the potential for success.
CoopBooks is a marketplace I have set up to market my books and invite other authors to place their books there also. Authors are responsible for setting up Paypal or Stripe to process payments and make delivery afterwards. I am only doing my ebooks at the present time, but physical books could also be sold. If you are a reader or an author check it out here: https://coop-books.sharetribe.com/
The day we’ve all been waiting for (or, in some cases, dreading) is here! CreateSpace has officially announced that CreateSpace (CSP) and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) will become one service. All titles it hosts will now move to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). As I had guessed, CS will, in effect, become one of Amazon’s production and distribution centers, printing the titles on behalf of KDP.
Here is the official announcement in CreateSpace’s own words (text in bold emphasized by me):
“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…
You may remember Elaine Bennett, a marketing specialist-turned blogger, currently writing for Bizzmark Blog. She recently shared with us 4 Simple Marketing Strategies for Promoting your Book. Today, she’s dealing with another hot topic, that of the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence.
