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How to Upload a Book to CreateSpace

Uploading a book to CreateSpace can seem overwhelming the first time you try.  Many authors give up and just release a Kindle version.  If you follow these simple steps, you will successfully launch your book onto CreateSpace with ease.

PHASE ONE – Format Your Book

We need to get the text of your book into the proper format so that it looks amazing when printed.  The easiest way to format your book is to use one of the templates provided by CreateSpace.

Step 1. Download your interior template

GET YOUR TEMPLATE HERE ->> https://servenomaster.com/createspaceinteriortemplates

createspacechooseinteriortemplate

You choose your book size.  Most paperbacks are six by nine inches.  Download the template marked about.  The formatted template comes prefilled with ten chapters to make the next step very easy.

Step 2. Format Your Book

The template is a Word document filled with repeating sentences.

createspaceformattedtemplate

Simply copy and paste each chapter from your book into the CreateSpace template using Word.  Make sure that you select “Paste and Match Formatting.”

This will ensure that your book has the correct font and sizing.

Copy and paste each section of your book, add any front and end matter, and then save your document.

PHASE TWO – Get an ISBN

During this phase ,we will start a CreateSpace project and generate the ISBN that we will later add to your book.

Step 1. Log into CreateSpace

Head over to CreateSpace and log in.  Create an account and fill out your tax information if this is your first visit.

createspacelogin

Step 2 – Create a New Project

Once you have completed filling in your tax information, you will be taking to Member Dashboard.

Click on the big blue button that says Add New Title.

createspaceaddnewproject

Step 3 – Name Your Project

The name of your project is the title of the book.  Don't worry, we can add the subtitle later.

Your project type is Paperback.

Choose guided setup.

startyourcreatespaceproject

Step 4 – Primary Information

Fill in the rest of the information that will be on the cover of your book.  You can add additional authors, editors, and contributors as well.

Your publication date cannot be in the future.  Even if you don't plan on releasing the book for days or weeks, you must chose today or a dat in the past to get past this screen.

When you are finished, click Save & Continue.

createspaceprojecttitlefilledin

Step 5 – Get your Free ISBN

This is the page where you can assign your ISBN.  There are hundreds of sources that sell overpriced ISBNs.  There is no value to paying for that which Amazon will give you freely.

Choose the first option “Free CreateSpace-Assigned ISBN.”

Do not pay $99 for no reason.

Then click on the blue button that says Assign Free ISBN.

createspaceisbn

Step 6 – Copy Your ISBN

Leave this webpage open while we go through the next phase, you will want to continue the CreateSpace process where we left of.

For now, copy BOTH ISBNs and move on to the next phase.
createspacegrabisbn

PHASE THREE – Finalize Your Interior

Step 1 – Add ISBN to your Book

Go back to the Word document.  At the very beginning of the template you will find the Copyright page.  You should update the year and the name of the copyright holder.

Feel free to insert a longer copyright if you want.

Then add both ISBNs to the very bottom of the page.

createspaceisbntobook

Step 2 – Save the Final Version of Your Book

Now that your book has the correct ISBN information inside of it, we want to save our final version.

Save your document in PDF format.

CreateSpace will accept an upload in a Word format, but your book will often look strange if you try that.

PDF locks the look of the book and will ensure that you are pleased with the final product.

createspacesaveaspdf

Step 3 – Select Interior Look

Back inside of CreateSpace, the next page is the Interior submission page.

If you are creating a cookbook or something else that requires color, select Full Color as your interior type; for all normal books and novels select Black & White.

Choosing color here when you have a black and white book will cost you around 80% of your profits, so don't do it.

I always choose White paper, but you can go for Cream if you want.

When you are done with your selections, click on Upload Your Book File.

createspaceselectinterior

Step 4 – Upload Interior File

If you have a problem with how your book looks after you upload, the bleed is the most common culprit.

With a PDF upload, you want to sellect “ends gefore the edge of the page.”

I sometimes get a warning when I upload a book like this, but it always looks amazing.

createspaceuploadinteriorwaiting

Step 4  – Waiting

This process can take a while depending on your Internet connection and the CreateSpace servers.

It's a great time to go to the bathroom or get a snack.

createspacecoverwaiting

Step 5 – Launch Interior Reviewer

After you book has uploaded, launch the interior reviewer.

Go through the book manually and check every page.

This is where you will catch problems with left and right pages.

A common mistake is to find your title page on the left or your table of contents too close to the first page of your book.

These little spacing issues are only noticeable when your book looks like a book, instead of a Word document.

When you finish using the interior reviewer, click Save & Continue.

createspaceinteriorreviewer

PHASE FOUR – Create a Cover

It's now time to create the final cover for your book.  Any attempt to create your cover before now will be incorrect.

The spine of your book is determined by your trim size and the final page length that CreateSpace assigns you.

If your spine is the wrong size when you submit to CreateSpace, you will have your project rejected and have to redo the cover.

You have two choices now, you can create the back cover and spine yourself or your can hire someone on Fiverr to do the job for you.

There are plenty of designers who will create the CreateSpace version of your cover for just five bucks.

No matter how you want to create your cover, you will need to know the page length.

Step 1. Page Length

Once you have accepted your upload and completed the interiror review, CreateSpace will show you the infromation you need to create your cover.

In this case, my book was 6×9 inches and 172 pages.

createspacebooksize

Step 2. Create Cover Template

Open a new tab on your browser and go to the CreateSpace exterior template page.

GET YOUR TEMPLATE HERE ->> https://servenomaster.com/createspacecovertemplate

Fill in the information from step 1.

As you can see, my data matches between the two images.

Click on Build Template.

createspacecovertemplateconfigure

Step 3. Download Cover Template

On this page, you will download the template that perfectly matches your book.

Click on the blue sentence “Click here to begin Download.”

createspacecovertemplatedownload

Step 4. Open Your Cover Template File

Your download is a .zip file.  Double click on it and your computer will open it.

You will get a folder with two files inside of it.

CreateSpace covers are created in sizes of twenty pages.

If your book is 161 pages or 178 pages, you will get teh 180 page template.

This means you can add a few pages to your book later without having to change the cover.

createspacecovertemplatefiles

Step 5. Open Your Template

The cover template can be opened in any photo editing software.

In this example, I am using Photoshop.

You can use Affinity Photo on Mac or Paint Shop Pro on PC if you don't have Photoshop.

Each of these programs costs a lot less and will do the job just nicely.

You can see the templaet has white and peach sections and clearly defines the sections of this layoute.

You need to fill the cover to the dotted line.  No text should cover the peach section or your cover will be rejected.

This can be a little confusing, so just keep 1/4 of an inch of solid ccolor around the borders of your cover to ensure that no text gets cut off during printing.

createspacecovertemplatephotoshop

 

Step 6.  Create Your Cover

You can now see my final cover in Photoshop.

The light blue lines mark those peach borders.

As you can see, none of the text is in the “bleed area.”

If something slips during the printing process, my cover won't be ruined.

The bottom of my name on the cover IS high enough that CreateSpace approved this cover.

createspacefinalcoverphotoshop

Step 7 – Save as PDF

CreateSpace demands an extremely high-resolution image for your cover.

In this case, we must save the cover as a PDF.

The file might be 20mb or more, but that's fine.

When you have finished designing your cover, or waiting for your designer to send it to you, move on to the next phase.

createspacesavecoveraspdf

PHASE FIVE – Upload Cover to CreateSpace

If you push the text on your cover to the borders, this phase can be very painful.

CreateSpace will keep rejecting your covers for that reason until you fix it.

If you have followed the steps from the previous phase, this part will take five minutes or less.

Step 1 – Choose Your Cover Type

On the next page inside of CreateSpace, you can upload your cover.

Do you want a matte or glossy cover?

Once you have chosen scroll down the page to the bottom.

createspacecoverselect

Step 2. Upload Cover

Click on the little button next to “Upload a Print-Ready PDF Cover.”

Select your cover file and click open.

createspacecoverupload

Step 3 – Wait for Cover Upload

Your cover file should be much larger than your interior file was.

Uploading can take as little as one minute or as long as an hour.

Great time for another bathroom break!

createspacecoverwaiting

PHASE SIX – Submit for Review

Once you have uploaded your interior and exterior files, the hard part is over.

CreateSpace has a human check every single submission before your book goes out for printing.

This process is so long to avoid returns.

If they print out books filled with technical errors, the customers will return them and CreateSpace will lose money.

They don't want that to happen.

Step One – Send to the Humans

If you are happy with your work so far and ready for the human review process, click on Submit Files for Review.

createspacesubmitforreview

Step 2. Distribution

On this page, choose where you want to sell your books.

In order to use all of the channels, you need a BISAC.

This is a code that tells the world what category your book belongs in.

Click on the word “here” at the end of “Select a BISAC code here.”

createspacedistribution

Step 3. Choose Your Code

Work your way through this box to find the perfect code.

Then click on Choose this Category.

createspacebisac

Step 4. Author Information

On this page you can also add your biography and other relevant information.

Basic HTML is permitted.

Kindle allows you to target 7 keywords, but CreateSpace only lets you choose 5.

Pick your five best keywords and click save.

createspaceadditionalinformation

Step 5. Pricing

Before you can set up your distribution channels, you much select a price.

The price is controlled by your printing costs.

CreateSpace will not let you sell a book at a price that loses them money.

You can see the exact profit you make from selling your book on each platform.

You can send customers to the ugly CreateSpace store and make $2 more for each book you sell.

Set your pricing and then click Save & Continue.

createspacepricingtemplate

You're done!

Jonathan Green
 

Living the dream on a tropical island, Jonathan is the author of Serve No Master and the host of the Serve No Master Podcast.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 3 comments
NORMA MARTIN - February 9, 2018

GOING TO TRY TO FOLLOW YOUR VERY CLEAER INSTRUCTIONS AND CREATE A BOOK!!! thanks—

Reply
Nita - March 24, 2018

I have Word 13. The only way to copy/paste is by using the option ‘merge formatting’ because in all other option the text goes right to the margin. Even then it gets pasted ‘centered’ and I have to select it and align it ‘left.’ And after this all the spaces between lines go. I can select the whole text and make it single spacing, with the first line hanging. Is that the way to go?

Reply
    Jonathan Green - April 25, 2018

    I have trouble perfectly formatting direclty in Word. Using the CS templates still takes me a few hours. If Word is looking weird, you can try other writing programs and exporting to PDF. I use Vellum now, and I know a LOT of people use Scrivner to export their ebooks lately.

    Reply

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