GLITCH

I should have seen it coming. 

As I have mentioned before, Secrets of a Summer Village is published by two publishers: Lulu and CreateSpace.  While I am slightly happier with the quality of printing provided by Lulu, the CreateSpace version is much less expensive.  That said, it's cheaper and faster for me to buy Lulu copies here in Europe, because Lulu has a printer in France, and postage is cheaper from France to Germany (where I live) than it is from the US.

When I was signing up for everything in the first place, I understood that the Lulu version could be distributed to all of the international Amazons through its "Global Distribution" package.  It wasn't clear to me that the CreateSpace version would be available outside of the United States, so I thought that I'd use both as publishers.


Apparently, I was wrong about the distribution of CreateSpace books.  They do get to all of the international Amazons, to Barnes and Noble, to the Book Depository, etc..., and they get there MUCH FASTER.  I know that now.  Unfortunately.  Because I got an e-mail from my Aunt yesterday telling me that my book suddenly costs over $20.00 (US) on Amazon, when it used to cost around $10.  After some research, I realized that the Lulu version has now somehow taken over the listing at Amazon.com.  The cheaper version is still available, if you click around a bit, but it's not obvious.  Except in my version, below, with the pink piggy bank and pink arrow.

I have contacted Lulu.com, and am trying to remove my book from their Global Distribution package.  Unfortunately, it's not so easy to do unless I completely withdraw the book from Lulu, which I don't want to do.  So I hope that people don't see this ridiculous price and get turned off by it.  It's on Lulu.com for me.  It's on CreateSpace for everyone else.

I wish I had figured this out earlier, but this whole experience is a learning process for me, and I am very thankful to my aunt for alerting me to it.  It really brings to light the fact that Lulu's pricing structure is not competitive.  If you buy from their site AND live in the US, you can take advantage of some super deals directly on their website.  They have these "money saving" deals at least once a month.  BUT they are only valid in US dollars, and only from their website, so Amazon purchases do not benefit, and nor does anyone outside of the United States.  To me, this is a HUGE disadvantage of Lulu.  Even with their "great" sales, the prices aren't much better than CreateSpace.  I think that CreateSpace has a competitive advantage here, unless Lulu changes their pricing structure.  Clearly, as it stands, they have built the discounts into the inflated prices.

Not a happy customer here. 

"accept proof"

Since both the Lulu and CreateSpace versions of my book needed changes, I made those changes and then ordered new proofs.  More waiting.  As soon as I had sent new files to CreateSpace, I called their customer service to make sure they could see the fonts the way I thought they should be.  It was a huge relief to talk to a human being - who gets to talk to human beings any more?  Might be reason enough to publish a book with CreateSpace because I called, a human answered, and she was knowledgeable and answered my questions in full, without rushing me through the process.  I paid the extra money so that the proof would get to me as quickly as possible.  They told me they would arrive on Wednesday, and boy were they accurate.  They arrived on Wednesday.  When I was not home.  And the thoughtful (NOT!) UPS driver left them with our across-the-street neighbor.  Hello!  I didn't sign anything saying for him to leave it with the neighbor!  I arrived home at around 3pm, and the neighbor wasn't there.  At all.  I listened and jumped every time I heard a car drive by or park nearby, but the neighbor never arrived.  Why did he accept the package if he knew he wasn't going to be home!?  I rarely get in terrible, very bad, no good moods, but I was in such a mood because I wanted my proof, it was across the street, and I had no idea when mr. Neighbor would be home.

The next morning, said Neighbor's car was in his driveway.  I went over to ask for my precious UPS package at about 8:30 the next morning - his car was in the driveway, so he must have been home - but there was no answer.  My husband tried again at 8:45, no answer.  I tried again at 9, no answer.  And then, finally, perhaps at 9:15, he answered the door.  I didn't tell him how furious he had made me.  I just asked for my package as calmly as I could, thanked him for returning it to me, and ran home.  I tore open the packaging.  AND the proof passed my test.  It is still not perfect. I don't know how many tries it would take for me to get it perfect, but it was definitely acceptable.  So I went to the CreateSpace website and clicked on "Accept Proof".  The distribution was set to begin - they said it would take 6 to 8 weeks for it to appear on Amazon.com and other mainstream sites.

Two days later, the new Lulu proof arrived.  The print quality was better than the first proof, and I accepted the Lulu proof, too.  In spite of CreateSpace's fabulous customer service, I do still think that the Lulu quality is better.  Too bad it is so expensive.  It's fair for Europe, and is printed here so I have to have that option, but the US Dollar is just too weak for its prices to be acceptable for US customers.


Next time I get a chance to blog, I will tell you about my announcement to my friends and family...

The proofs are here! The proofs are here :(

Lulu Proof
I received the Lulu.com proof really quickly - it was shipped from France, so I wonder if it was published there? I do know that they have European printing sources in addition to the ones in Pennsylvania. In any case, it felt great to hold a paper version of my book, with the cover I created. It's a real book, something I've been waiting for all my life. I may have been more excited if someone else had done all the work and made it perfect, but then I would have had to wait two years or so for it, or so I understand. There was some ink bleen on the interior, but the print quality was otherwise clear and professional. The problem with Lulu is that it's very expensive, otherwise I'd have gone with them exclusively because of the ease of use of their website and interface.

CreateSpace Proof
The CreateSpace (company owned by Amazon) proof finally arrived yesterday. It took about 2 weeks to get here. I somehow expected it to be perfect. Why would it be perfect on the first try? It was definitely wishful thinking. If it had been perfect, I could have approved the proof and then distribute it on Amazon. I could start my marketing campaign. I could make my book known to the world! But it was not to be, not this week. The formatting of the CreateSpace version was wrong, and after thinking about it for a while, I realized that that problem is likely that I didn't embed the fonts into the PDF. You see, Lulu had allowed me to submit a .doc, but CreateSpace requires a .pdf with embedded fonts. I submitted a .pdf, but I didn't embed the fonts (because I don't have Adobe Acrobat X). Bad idea. Now I understand why they tell you to do it. If you don't, it can default to another font, which is a slightly different size and has different spacing. This can throw off your formatting big-time. Of course, indents and so forth will be the same, but different fonts produce different wordcounts on a page. What this means is that my carefully-formatted document (I had gone through all 300-some-odd pages to make sure I didn't have pages with just one line on them, etc...) looked like a wreck. Completely unacceptable.

Copyright Page
Another thing that became clear when I reviewed the copies is that books look really silly without copyright pages. My book is automatically copyrighted without my having to sign any papers or register it anywhere, but books need copyright pages or they feel wrong. So I added one into the new versions.

Thinking impatiently, I thought I'd forfeit the copyright page on the Lulu version in order to have a copy on the market. After all, the formatting and printing of the Lulu version were excellent. I went onto the website to buy the global distribution package (which makes it available on Amazon.com, BN.com, Amazon.co.uk, etc...), and it wasn't an option. What could be wrong? Fine print, that's what. Somehow, I had neglected to ask for an ISBN number from Lulu, which is (of course) necessary to sell the book anywhere other than on the Lulu website. And once you get an ISBN number, they tell you the other requirements for market distribution - there must be certain margins, the text on the cover has to be x centimeters from the edge, and you need a copyright page.

I have my work cut out for me. It's been an excellent learning experience, but I think I'm ready to move on to the marketing step!