Monday, February 6, 2012

Why CreateSpace?

After completing NaNoWriMo, participants are often given a free proof copy of their novel, provided by CreateSpace. Once you've done all the work required to get your book into the proper formatting and ready to be printed, staying with CreateSpace for the rest of your publishing journey seems an easy choice.


Of course we all know that easy isn't always best, so before signing my book away, I did some research. First, I knew I would self-publish. If there's interest, I can get into my reasons for that in another post.


So I weighed my options in the self-publishing world. Most sites require you to purchase several copies of your book, which, unless you are highly determined, often leaves you with a large debt and boxes of books. There are two notable exceptions to this: CreateSpace and Lulu.


Both sites offer a print-on-demand service, which means that until you sell your books, you owe nothing. For what I was looking for, that was a plus.


You can design and publish a perfect bound paperback from both sites, and both offer many different sizes. Lulu additionally offers a hard cover option: dust jacket or casewrap. That was tempting.


I wanted the ability to offer the book as cost-effectively as I could. For the same size and length of book, with the same royalties, CreateSpace is $12.99, while Lulu is more than double: $28.80.


Since CreateSpace is connected to Amazon, books published through them can automatically be added to www.amazon.com. Purchasing large quantities of your book is always an option for you. Additionally, you retain all rights to your book. If you decide to go through a traditional publisher after publishing on CreateSpace, you can do so. In fact, with their Breakthrough Novel Award (the grand prize being a publishing contract with Penguin), they almost encourage it.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Beauty in Books

There is beauty in words. In their arrangement on the page, in the way they sound when spoken, and in the way they look when written. Shealynn, from Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe, is willing to go a step beyond that: Book art.

I'm not a clock or watch person, but I wouldn't mind telling time by this!


An assurance from Shaelynn's blog:


"Don't worry. Unwanted books are not perfectly good books. The books I'm talking about are either 1) waterlogged or otherwise ruined volumes, or 2) those books whose content is worth next to nothing.

I do not desecrate good books. 

I just bring bad ones to life."

My favorite of her creations.

See more of her Destroyable Books series, and check out the rest of her creative pieces (including jewelry you could own), by following the links to her blog. She is an extremely talented young woman!

Now, as an author I have to insist that there is no replacement for the printed word. However, these eReader jackets from Out of Print Clothing tempt me to buy an eReader, just for an excuse to use them:



Out of Print Clothing offers t-shirts, bags, notebooks, coasters, and more; and their selection of books is continually increasing. 

Who wouldn't be inspired while writing in a journal like this?

Are you a fan of book art? What are some of your favorite artistic ways to see words? Please share!
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