P.n. EIrod -Advice About CreateSpace ~

Wondering About Create Space?

P.n. Elrod- Published Author,and winner of  the Pioneer Achievement Award in Vampire Fiction from RT Book Reviews, recently posted this caveat about using CreateSpace:

P.n.Elrod Pioneer Achievement Award

CreateSpace is a self-publishing Print On Demand service, not a vanity operation that takes money, not a commercial publisher that pays money. You don't have to buy your own books, but neither will your work be in any stores. If you want to be pro published, then go into a store, find books similar to what you write, see who published them, and follow the publisher's submission guidelines. Make sure you send them a damn good book!

Drawbacks of Print On Demand Self-Publishing

Most self-pub books don't sell more than 25 copies to family and friends. I'm only doing it because I've 20 years' worth of a fanbase built up and perhaps .05% of them might buy a copy. If I have 10,000 hardcore fans then I can hope 500 might buy. It's usually more like 250! New writers won't have even that small of a fan base. Despite rumors to the contrary I'm not at all famous.

CreateSpace Conclusions

This advice from Pat opened my eyes to quite a few things. I had been lumping Print on Demand Publishers in with vanity press publishers,now I see there is a distinct difference. Also the stats on the possibilities of selling your book when publishing with a print on demand service.If you have a large following established that is waiting for your next book, using a self-publishing print on demand service like Create Space may be for you,at any rate it definitely sounds much better than having to buy the books yourself,and being out of pocket,as I was contemplating when I first started my queries into the ins and outs of publishing. While P.n. Elrod may not see herself as famous, she definitely must be crazy busy with that many fans,so I am more than grateful for the time she takes to help guide others through the morass of scams and scammers out there waiting to prey on new authors. Perhaps if we blog enough of her advice, she will become famous even in her eyes.
You can find out more about P.n.Elrod on her official website http://www.vampwriter.com/ or her blog http://vampirephiles.blogspot.com/
Have a large following waiting for your book? Here is the link to CreateSpace
~Suzanne