SPoaB Guide: A Free Self-Publishing on a Budget Guide

KDP Print vs. Createspace Part I

NOTE: Amazon just announced that KDP and Createspace are finally joining together to make KDP (as of sometime in August/September-ish, 2018).  As a result, some of the information here may be out of date, however, this will help you to understand KDP Print.

Amazon Print Copies

One of the issues a Self-Publisher has to wrestle through is the matter of how to get their printed books up and online with Amazon. This shouldn't be a difficult issue, but Amazon complicates the matter by having two different Print on Demand (POD) options. You can use either Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for Print or Createspace.

So, which one should you use?

Createspace has been the print option for a long time and KDP the ebook option, but recently KDP added in a print feature. This suggests to me that Amazon is phasing out Createspace and replacing it with the snazzier interface found with KDP. I can't find any actual statement to that effect, but in my humble opinion, it's likely only a matter of time.

Createspace is a Print On Demand (POD) system for your books. That means you do not have to order 5000 copies of your book, you can get one copy printed or a thousand copies printed–on demand. Since they are integrated with Amazon, you can set up your book with Createspace, and every time someone buys your book, Createspace prints a copy for that customer and Amazon mails it out. It's a great system.

When KDP added in the print feature, it offered something similar, but it doesn't cover as much ground as Createspace (literally or figuratively).

Apparently, when KDP was only ebooks, the problem Amazon faced was that many people were only publishing their books in an ebook format. Amazon then decided to put the ebook and print systems together under KDP, so it's easier for you to set up a book.

So, now we have two Print On Demand systems (KDP and Createspace), and both of them are Amazon entities on one level or another.

Here's what we're going to do. Because of the length of this topic, we'll take a look at the pros of using KDP in this blog, and then in the next one, we will look at the cons of KDP as well as a comparison with KDP and Createspace.

So, KDP Print or Createspace... which one do you use?

Here's the short answer: KDP has some limitations right now. If the limitations do not bother you, go with KDP. If you'd rather wait till KDP gets their act together before using them, go with Createspace.

Here's the long answer:

KDP is a work in progress. Because of that, they are still working out bugs and more. Here are some of the pros and cons of KDP and Createspace.

Pros of KDP Print over CreatespaceCool Interface

KDP is incredibly simple to use. The user interface is crisp, clean and looks great. Createspace, on the other hand, is kind of dated looking.

KDP has a cool sales graph that shows your sales and distinguishes your ebook and print sales by color. Although some may prefer a simple "month total," I like the graph.

Simple System for Adding in a Paperback

On top of this, it is so easy to set up a print version of your ebook. Once you set up your ebook, just click "Create Paperback" and away you go. A lot of the information you have set up for the ebook simply transfers over. That's pretty cool.

Quick Updating

KDP is very fast to update your book in the Amazon store. If you upload a new version of your book, that new version can go up for sale within hours (maybe even minutes).

Continued Sales While Updating

What's also helpful is that when you update your book files, Amazon will continue to sell your old book while they are processing the new one. That's great because (as you'll see below), Createspace takes the book down while they are processing. Since Createspace can sometimes take a day or so to process, that can be a problem.

Integrated with AMS

KDP (with both ebook and Print) is integrated with AMS which is Amazon's ads program. That means you can easily advertise your books and sell them through AMS, and AMS will give you a report on that.

Alright, so those are a bunch of the pros of KDP Print. In our next blog, KDP Print vs. Createspace Part II, we'll look at the cons of KDP Print as well as a look at Createspace and take a look at which one is best to use!

Shawn