CreateSpace to Close its Web Store
Amazon’s POD service Createspace is going to shut down its eStore at the end of the month, and in the future will be directing all sales queries to Amazon.
Amazon should be sending an email to affected authors, and you can read the official notice on the Createspace website.
While this is certainly less hassle for Amazon, Chris McMullen notes authors are going to take a hit in the pocketbook. Createspace now pays an 80% royalty on copies sold through its site, but only 60% for copies sold through Amazon.com.
This means that any author with active direct print sales will make less per sale. On the other hand, Chris also noted how authors might benefit:
- Some customers who would have visited your eStore, but who would not made a purchase through CreateSpace (because they didn’t qualify for free shipping, had to setup a new account with CreateSpace, or didn’t trust CreateSpace like they trust Amazon), might now make a purchase from Amazon. The redirection might help a little with a higher percentage of sales.
- Some customers who would have purchased one book from your eStore might buy a few of your books on Amazon (because your Amazon page features your author page, or because your other books show up on your customers-also-bought list).
- When a customer buys your book from Amazon.com after being redirected from your eStore, your Amazon.com sales rank will improve, whereas eStore sales had no effect on sales rank.
- When a customer buys your book from Amazon.com after being redirected from your eStore, the customer’s review will be a Verified Purchase (except for the rare customer who chooses not to let this designation show), whereas reviews from eStore sales were unverified.
Amazon is also going to soften the blow by offering better selling authors an "adjusted" royalty rate. Starting on 1 November, for the next six months Amazon will pay authors a royalty rate based on the ratio of past POD sales an author made through the Createspace eStore versus POD sales made on Amazon.com.
More sales in the eStore means a higher royalty – for the next 6 months. After that it is catch as catch can.
Comments
Mark Williams – The New Publishing Standard October 14, 2017 um 5:09 am
These remarkable royalties of 60% and 80% have no place in reality.
The production costs (a fixed rate and a per page rate) of each book printed are deducted on top of Amazon’s 40% so the royalty actually received is significantly below 30% for sales made on Amazon and can drop towards 5% for sales elsewhere through the CreateSpace expanded distribution option..
Mackay Bell October 14, 2017 um 2:53 pm
I never used the CreateSpace e-store option for any of my books, but fewer choices are always a bad thing for indy writers. Amazon’s royalties are too high and outdated. They are opening themselves up for someone to come in and disrupt the market.
SteveH October 18, 2017 um 12:01 pm
The so called 'eStore' feature is really just a landing page you can customize for your print book to allow customers to buy without going to Amazon. I’d guess that they are very under utilized in terms of purchases vs. people just using Amazon where a) they probably already have an account, and b) get free shipping with larger orders or Prime shipping anyways. Closing them is a win for Amazon as it now gets those sales and no longer has to maintain the Createspace customer purchases system.
C. Martinelli October 21, 2017 um 6:24 am
I used the eStore to sell a book at cost for club members. That will no longer be possible. You have to sell with a markup via Amazon. It sucks.
Renee' L. October 21, 2017 um 9:16 pm
So, will we have to pay more to buy our own books with Amazon, or can I still buy 50 at the same price I have bought them before?
Also, what about the coupon codes I sent out to folks? Will they be honored? I gave a "good until" date when I printed my bookmarks BEFORE this was publicized. (I still haven’t received an email about this.)
Cómo publicar un libro de tapa blanda en KDP de Amazon • @MarianaEguaras June 19, 2019 um 7:08 am
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