Revising a Book: CreateSpace versus Lightning Source

Books can become dated to some extent, errors can crop up or you simply want to put out a new edition of the same title. For authors who know revising their books will be an ongoing task, this should be taken into consideration when selecting a print-on-demand service to fulfill your printing needs.

I have chosen to revise several editions of my titles that I use CreateSpace for my POD service. The transition was flawless, or so it would seem. I simply uploaded the new interior file and waited for notification on my Member Dashboard that the title in question required action and approved the new proof immediately without ordering a proof copy.

The availability status on Amazon never changed.

Since I have only one title on Lightning Source, and it has not needed revision since its publication, I have not tackled the process of revising a title with LSI.

Self-publishing expert Aaron Shepard has undertaken this task and written about it on his blog. Click here to read what Aaron has to say about the process.

It seems daunting enough to make me glad I use CreateSpace for all but one of my titles. It is enough work to create the revised file. I don't need to deal with the stress of changing files of a book that sells well in order to meet LSI's requirements to do so.

I am glad Aaron is so diligent in sharing what he knows about not only revising titles at LSI but self-publishing in general.

Selecting a POD Service Revisited - CreateSpace or Lightning Source

The publishing industry seems to be changing at breathtaking speed. Just a few years ago print-on-demand was the business model combined with access to Amazon was the business model most self-publishing authors used.

Know eReaders, particularly Amazon's Kindle, have changed the industry again, giving authors who self-publish more control of their ability to market and sell their work. In addition, the Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to make a larger percentage of each sale if Amazon's guidelines pricing guidelines are followed.

Where does this leave print-on-demand? I would not neglect producing a print version of any book. Concentrating on getting the ebook version to market first seems to be the best strategy but follow-up with a POD edition as well.

Why? Research seems to indicate the market for ebook reading devices may begin to level off soon. Does this means the dramatic increase in sales of ebooks will level off soon as well? Only the God knows the answer to that question.

What I have noticed when looking at my own sales trends is while my Kindle sales have taken off and earn about 70% of my revenue now, my POD sales are also at the highest volume they have ever been. Failure to introduce paperback versions of my new books would mean a still significant portion of income and revenue would be lost due to lack of a print version.

For authors who view self-publishing as a business as well as first time authors trying to work their way through the maze of information required to learn to self-publish, selecting between CreateSpace and Lightning Source as a POD printer is still a major issue.

CreateSpace seems to be working to gain an edge over Lightning Source, at least with self-publishing authors. CreateSpace just recently dropped its requirement for the $39 Pro Plan fee and now has only a $25 fee for authors who wish to take advantage of Expanded Distribution services, meaning selling books through more book retailers and wholesalers than just Amazon.

There has also been the issue with changes in how the relationship between Amazon and LSI seems to work. Aaron Shepard has addressed this at great length and has posted what he refers to as "Plan B" on his self-publishing website. Mr. Shepard addresses questions generated by his Plan B proposal with a second informative post.

Given what can seem like a complex decision in selecting a POD provider, a side-by-side comparison is helpful. I have published a short and inexpensive Kindle book that does just that, Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing, available for just .99. Also available as a paperback is Self-Publishing With Amazon's CreateSpace.

  

CreateSpace versus Lightning Source (Ingram Spark) - Title Comparison

With the current pressure from Amazon, or at least that is what it seems like, for self-published authors and Indie publishers to switch from Lightning Source to CreateSpace for POD services, I was curious just how many titles CreateSpace prints.

An advanced search on Amazon showed there are some 85,115 paperback titles, 18 hardcover books, 1,801 Kindle books and 4 audio CDs that are "published" by CreateSpace. I am sure this number is low and includes only items which have CreateSpace provided ISBNs or a similar method of indicating CreateSpace is the publisher.

I had to talk to Customer Service today about a new title I just made available on Amazon as well as some issues with switching an title from Lightning Source to CreateSpace for distribution via Amazon. I asked if she knew how many titles CreateSpace published and she just laughed and said she had no idea where to even begin to look to find out that information. 

Is the answer to this question a closely guarded secret? Who knows. I do know the change in policy on the part of Amazon has wreaked absolute havoc on my Amazon sales for my book at Lightning Source. I sold a grand total of THREE copies this month and on a bad month this book sells over 50 copies.  

The slide in Amazon search results has started as well. The book has dropped from 3rd in its primary category to 6th. Kindle sales for the book have remained strong and July has been Game Strategy's best month so far in the Kindle store.  Hopefully the change over to CreateSpace has taken place quick enough to prevent further erosion of sales rank in the search results. The book has not been ranked this low since it was introduced in 2009.

For those who are curious as to what I am  referring to concerning Amazon and Lightning Source, you will want to read Amazon expert Aaron Shepard's most recent post (July 6, 2011 and updated July 21, 2011) about Amazon's apparent change of policy.

Why was I curious about how many titles CreateSpace is the print-on-demand service for? I just wanted to see if Amazon's change in policy is to push authors to CreateSpace. The numbers were lower than I expected but certainly do not include all the titles with ISBNs owned by the authors or the small publishers who use CreateSpace for print-on-demand.

I will continue to look into this if for no reason other than to satisfy my own curiosity. A comparison of titles printed by CreateSpace and the total number of titles printed by Lightning Source might be interesting if I can obtain the numbers.

Note: Lightning Source is now part of IngramSpark.