How do bookstores order from createspace

A few business-minded authors made the CS opportunity their go-to outlet, while typically other authors have relied on Amazon. CS has been wide open about the terms of this closure, and what it will mean for authors who are accustomed to those higher royalties:. To help with this transition, for six months starting November 1, , you will earn an average royalty rate calculated across all sales of your title through both the CreateSpace eStore, Amazon.

Just a notice on Lightening Source. They print through Ingram Press. It takes a 15 day turn around depending on what state you are in. Most publishers print hard copies through Ingram. They are located in Tennessee. Printed on demand will be to someone close to Tennessee in 24 hours. However, someone like myself in Idaho takes a full fifteen days.

If you are going to do a Self Publishing book you have to account for that. I think Createspace from what I have heard from other authors is great if you are doing just ebooks.

However, in my opinion a hard copy needs to be with a reliable publisher. Lightening Source is one of the best. They are usually the middle man between many a POD publisher and Ingram. You hay be using them and not knowing it.

I think you have been fortunate to have gotten their services. CreateSpace does not publish eBooks, they are a hardcopy publisher only. They are a subsidiary of Amazon while LightingSource is a subsidiary of Ingram. Flying Pen Press uses Lightning Source exclusively as its printer and distributor, for a variety of reasons, most of which you state.

But our experience is a little different than yours in one or two places. It is not necessarily true that shipping time through Amazon is longer. In fact, once Amazon registers a fair amount of sales of your Lightning Source title, they will stock the book in their warehouse. It is also important to note that the main Ingram warehouse in La Vergne, Tenn. That is, Amazon often uses Ingram as its wholesaler.

A truck carries the POD books from Lightning Source to the Ingram warehouse eight times during the work day, and most all Amazon orders are out the door before the end of the day, if ordered by 5 pm.

For us, we found that with the Amazon orders and bookstore orders through Ingram, the Lightning Source POD books are in the box before the warehoused books are, as it takes longer to find the book on the shelves than it is to have the POD books arrive from down the street, which come all sorted by order.

Despite this, Amazon will declare a week delay if it dos not have the book in its warehouse. Because if the customer orders more than one book through Amazon, Amazon has to wait for the POD book to arrive at its warehouse before it can pack the books together. However, when the customer orders only the Lighting Source POD title or titles , Lightning Source drop ships the order, and it usually ships via UPS ground before the end of business the same day as ordered, if by 5 pm.

And, to boot, Lightning Source has the same relationship with BN. Often, a surge on Amazon will bleed over to BN. Lightning Source handles all this distribution without us having to even pick up the phone. It just happens. Another experience we have is that Lightning Source has printing facilities all over the world. We deliver books to the global marketplace.

And Lightning Source is likely to build or contract more facilities in yet more countries in the next few years, with the intention that no one in the world will ever be more than 24 hours delivery away from same-day POD manufacturing. The Pennsylvania plant gets books to New York City within 24 hours of order, in many cases. One of the advantages of Lightning Source is that you are automatically listed in the Ingram digital catalog. And when it comes to selling to non-book stores—a big bonanza for self-published authors and indie publishers—the Ingram card is a big one.

Ingram is a wholesaler they trust and often have commercial accounts with. Controlling your own ISBN, and by association, your own listing in Books in Print for both your title and your publishing house, is an incredibly effective marketing tool.

The final reason—and perhaps the greatest reason—we choose to use Lightning Source over CreateSpace is that Amazon is notorious for changing their rules and policies and prices, literally without warning. Lightning Source, however, has been consistent with its prices and high quality for years, to the point of monotony. Having a supplier I can plan on and rely on is critical, especially when we have a long-term global marketing plan. Amazon is just too cagy to trust. This is a guest post by Terri Giuliano Long Congratulations!!

Createspace PROS: Createspace is a quick, relatively simple, inexpensive option for authors hoping to sell high-quality hard copies of their self-published books primarily online. CONS: Createspace offers no return policy, which means corporate brick-and-mortar bookstore chains are unlikely to stock your book.

If so, hold on. What to do? According to Aaron, who's published 12 books, if you use the same ISBN number for your Lightning Source and Createspace books, you will not — as I had been told by the CS rep I spoke with — end up with two detail pages. It was accepted by a handful of book outlets and when I got a sale from these outlets, it was pennies.

I averaged around. As time has gone on, these outlets are no longer accepting my books. I have three books which have been published for nearly 9 months and the only place you can buy it is on Amazon. I called Amazon to question why my books are not listed on any other outlet, and this is what they said.

Many sites said the reason why these outlets will not accept from Amazon is that they hate them with a passion! Amazon is a monopoly on the publishing business and they will not contribute to them by accepting their books. After I read that, I no longer placed my books into expanded distribution. At least the outlets will accept their books. Yes I recommend using Amazon for Amazon sales and a traditional book distributor, like Ingram, for the book and library industry.

The only impediment is the barcode issue. This is a good discussion. Some of my paperbacks are in IS; some apparently are not. I see that Amazon UK is selling my paperback versions although I did not check expanded distribution. Where does that paperback book come from? Thank you! If your book is available through IngramSpark, depending on your setting they could be sending the title information over to Amazon. The way it works is that you can either distribute separately through Amazon and Ingram.

The way to check where your book is coming from is to look at the ISBN. Is it the one you provided to Ingram? It hurts my eyes to see authors suggesting higher discounts on IngramSpark. Book stores will not stock your books no matter the discount. They only care about best sellers, famous authors, and big publishers. You can earn 2x more money if you give up on that idea.

I see my book published and offered by a variety of bookstores immediately upon publishing. I always wondered how that happened. Is that because of expanded distribution? The book is selling at the normal price but I get 72 cents. I own my own ISBN. Sounds like I should not do expanded distribution and go with IngramSparks myself. Advice, please.