CreateSpace Self Publishing
Issues

I cannot even begin to count the number of issues I had working with the CreateSpace "support team". You can't have a running conversation with them. Every time you have a response to a problem, you have to fill out an entirely new form - a tiny little form, too - to explain to them why their response to you is unhelpful. They would accept a book on one pass - and then when you sent in a new version, just changing something minor - they would suddenly refuse it and claim you had to change entries on the title page for them to let it into their system. They would send out proof copies WITHOUT ASKING, so that they would show up when you were away on vacation or otherwise not prepared to be watching for them. They would send out double proof copies sometimes. Proof copies are marked with the word PROOF - even though you paid to get them - so they are completely unusable. No other self publisher does this.

You would think their integration with Amazon would mean it's worth dealing with the stress. However, I self published three books plus one DVD through them. The Amazon entries would randomly be missing cover images, descriptions and other important information. Since CreateSpace "owns" that entry in Amazon, you don't have any ability to update it yourself!

I ran test runs of my 3 books through several other systems in order to test out their paper quality, response speed, and much more. For one of those, I created a test entry in Amazon to see if I could get that to work, how quickly it went and how much it cost. I told CreateSpace I'd remove that test entry as soon as they were ready to create the "real entry". Their response? That I would have to BUY A NEW ISBN for their version, because it was the same book with a different publisher!! Note they didn't say that for my other two books which ALSO had been tested with different publishers. So their response was completely illogical.

Here is what I sent back to them, as I had just about had it with them by this point.

I have to tell you, working with customer support with you guys is like pulling teeth. Having to use this form to refer to previous conversations is difficult, and it feels like you are resisting at every stage.

I do NOT have to create an entirely new ISBN for this book!! The project for this past year was to test out a number of self publishing systems. These books were NOT SOLD. I tested Lulu, CafePress and several other self publishers to see what the quality of their books, their online systems and their support teams were. I run BellaOnline.com which is the 2nd largest women's website in the world, and this testing has been published to that audience of over 20 million pageviews a month. None of these books were sold. They were all test runs to document how the systems worked.

Yes, the page counts were different! That's because, while every other system offered a "real" paperback size, you were the only one to force writers to use this odd, larger size. It is a huge issue for many of my writers out there and a main reason many refuse to use you. It's a common complaint they have with your system. So it is in essence "your fault" that I had to use this large format and change the page count.

To be honest, your online system is much harder to use than any other one out there. Your book size offerings are very poor. Your customer service system is far less useful than any of the other systems. The only two areas on my comparison chart where you pulled ahead were in price and in (supposed) easy integration with Amazon. However, with the final testing I have been doing in your system, even the Amazon integration has been working poorly.

There is no way I am going to have you own my book's ISBN - this is another huge issue that writers have. A writer should always have personal ownership of the ISBNs on their own books. Especially since you have this theory that "If we own it you can't use it anywhere else" - a theory that no other self publisher seems to believe in.

There is also no way I am going to go through the reload process for the book, given how much you guys screwed up my previous loads. You caused delays so that my timeline was late, and then sent a book *WITHOUT ME ASKING* while we were on vacation, meaning it sat out in the rain. Also you are the ONLY publisher who puts the words "proof" at the back of a book, making it unusable.

*I* am the one who created that previous Lulu entry in Amazon, as part of my test. I can just as easily delete it. I could have done the same thing for my tests with CafePress and the other self publishers for my other books. I simply chose not to do that. Since you didn't have some overwhelming ISBN problem with the other books existing in the world in other systems, it seems the only real problem here is that I created an entry manually for that one specific Lulu book as part of the testing process. Logically, if I then delete that test entry, you should be able to move forward with the automated process, which judging by past tests on your system, may or may not work properly.

I'm sorry to sound frustrated, but I am very frustrated. This project was on a timetable and while the other stages with the other publishers went smoothly and easily, your site has been a struggle at every step. Ironically for the "Amazon entry" reason I had told the audience that I was going to use you as the final publisher because of the value of the Amazon entry - but it's starting to seem that it would be far easier to manually set up the Amazon entry (which gave me *far* quicker response and far better control over the information) than to keep dealing with this. Really, the only downside now of dropping you as the featured publisher of choice would be that I would have to get the other self publisher to ship to Amazon's warehouse, where you print on demand at the warehouse. But if, using you, I can't even get the books to show up properly, it may be my only choice.

Surely there is a better way for us to resolve these issues than via this contact form.

Lisa Shea
owner, BellaOnline.com

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