Author Topic: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP  (Read 4557 times)

Tom Wood

Here's a link to the announcement that Amazon will migrate ALL CS accounts to KDP, starting 11/27/18:

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Update-on-the-move-from-CreateSpace-to-KDP?language=en_US
 

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2018, 12:00:06 AM »
Seems like they've migrated my books as I no longer have any books in my CreateSpace account and see this message

CreateSpace has moved to Kindle Direct Publishing
Your books are now on Kindle Direct Publishing!


I have a huge $2.84 owing to me  :icon_rolleyes:. I assume I will see this in my KDP dashboard, but I'm not seeing any print books showing at the moment, in the old or beta versions, probably because I haven't sold any. :icon_sad:

I guess I'll now have to read all the FAQs

ETA So I've linked my books and checked on a couple of the Look Inside features and they seem to be ok. Now I'm waiting to see them on the KDP report.

ETA I can now see my one paperback sale showing for December  :banana:
« Last Edit: December 10, 2018, 12:59:00 AM by Jan Hurst-Nicholson »

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cecilia_writer

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2018, 12:24:46 AM »
I was also sort of hoping my CreateSpace payments would automatically appear in KDP but they haven't yet done so. I now see a message saying I can manage my Create Space books via KDP (I had already transferred them over).
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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2018, 05:04:36 AM »
I was also sort of hoping my CreateSpace payments would automatically appear in KDP but they haven't yet done so. I now see a message saying I can manage my Create Space books via KDP (I had already transferred them over).

I'd like to be able to see an actual print copy without having to pay an exorbitant price. The shipping to SA is very expensive. 

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Marigold

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2018, 07:33:27 AM »
Here's a link to the announcement that Amazon will migrate ALL CS accounts to KDP, starting 11/27/18:

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Update-on-the-move-from-CreateSpace-to-KDP?language=en_US

Bump.
 

M R M

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2019, 08:33:35 AM »
just migrated finally, and my royalty ballance is gone! Bastards!
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Bill Hiatt

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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2019, 02:22:47 AM »
just migrated finally, and my royalty ballance is gone! Bastards!
If I recall correctly, other people have posted that the owed royalties do eventually get straightened. It can take a little communication with KDP to get them to do it properly, which is unfortunate, but not as bad as losing the money outright.


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Joe Vasicek

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2019, 05:39:44 PM »
When you do get migrated, be sure to order proofs / author copies to check on the quality. I ordered $95 worth of proofs and found this:



Identical printing error in every copy. The front cover bleeds onto the spine, and the spine bleeds onto the back cover.

The scary thing is that this includes books that I approved in CreateSpace and migrated to KDP Paperback. The proofs and author copies that I ordered from CreateSpace never had this error. I actually moved the front cover image slightly over on the template, to be absolutely sure that it wouldn't bleed over into the spine.

KPD Paperback produces a much inferior product, compared to CreateSpace. In addition, their customer service is lousy. It took them more than 72 hours to respond to my email about this issue—more than 24 hours after I'd sent the second email. Their promise to contact you within 24 hours of receiving your complaint is a flat-out lie.

This is unacceptable. I have pulled all of my books from KDP Paperback and will go with another print-on-demand service instead. Absolutely unacceptable.
 

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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2019, 06:15:16 PM »
This is worrying  :icon_sad:. There is no way that I can afford to buy proof copies. They are
a) likely to get lost in the post (CreateSpace were good about sending replacement copies, but I doubt if KDP would)
b) I'll probably have to pay customs duty.
If there is a problem with the proof copy how many times can you afford to ask for another proof until they get it right?  :icon_rolleyes:

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Bill Hiatt

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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2019, 01:12:05 AM »
When you do get migrated, be sure to order proofs / author copies to check on the quality. I ordered $95 worth of proofs and found this:



Identical printing error in every copy. The front cover bleeds onto the spine, and the spine bleeds onto the back cover.

The scary thing is that this includes books that I approved in CreateSpace and migrated to KDP Paperback. The proofs and author copies that I ordered from CreateSpace never had this error. I actually moved the front cover image slightly over on the template, to be absolutely sure that it wouldn't bleed over into the spine.

KPD Paperback produces a much inferior product, compared to CreateSpace. In addition, their customer service is lousy. It took them more than 72 hours to respond to my email about this issue—more than 24 hours after I'd sent the second email. Their promise to contact you within 24 hours of receiving your complaint is a flat-out lie.

This is unacceptable. I have pulled all of my books from KDP Paperback and will go with another print-on-demand service instead. Absolutely unacceptable.
Their customer service should definitely be better, but the bleed problem you're identifying is not universal. I haven't ordered a proof of every single book, but the ones I have ordered have all been fine, and they matched copies I ordered later as a regular customer.

That said, even if the problem you're identifying doesn't happen all the time, it's worrying that it happens at all. it would be nice to know what's causing the issue.


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Tom Wood

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2019, 01:33:54 AM »
When you do get migrated, be sure to order proofs / author copies to check on the quality. I ordered $95 worth of proofs and found this:
...
Identical printing error in every copy. The front cover bleeds onto the spine, and the spine bleeds onto the back cover.
...

I don't mean to blame the victim, but it's not a good idea to rely on such exact placement of the front/spine/back images. IngramSpark specifically warns against this, suggesting that any hard edges on the cover images be held back from the spine by a healthy margin. You are better off letting the background wrap the spine from cover to cover, and hold any text/images on the covers away from the spine.
 
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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2019, 02:50:29 AM »
My books all have wrap-around covers. I hope this precludes a bleed problem, but it doesn't mean the wording will be properly centered.  :icon_rolleyes:

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Joe Vasicek

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2019, 09:47:57 AM »
When you do get migrated, be sure to order proofs / author copies to check on the quality. I ordered $95 worth of proofs and found this:
...
Identical printing error in every copy. The front cover bleeds onto the spine, and the spine bleeds onto the back cover.
...

I don't mean to blame the victim, but it's not a good idea to rely on such exact placement of the front/spine/back images. IngramSpark specifically warns against this, suggesting that any hard edges on the cover images be held back from the spine by a healthy margin. You are better off letting the background wrap the spine from cover to cover, and hold any text/images on the covers away from the spine.

That is exactly what I did on all of my CreateSpace books. Didn't matter.

For the books I put out through KDP Paperback, I used the KDP cover creator. If their own cover creator program is responsible for this error, that's a whole new level of clusterf*ck that I don't want to deal with.

The problem is with KDP Paperback. All of the precautions you mention, I already took with my CreateSpace books. Something went wrong in the migration, and the result was this.
 

Writer

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #13 on: January 21, 2019, 10:35:09 AM »
I've seen this for years with POD books. You can order a batch of 5 copies of the same book and get very different alignment on each cover, all printed at once, using the same cover file, and arriving in the same box together. It's random and has nothing to do with the files you upload, just the individual printing of each book. If you're already following the print template, all you can do beyond that is use a design that blends as seamlessly as possible around the spine so that if/when they don't align it properly at printing, it won't look terrible. Then you cross your fingers that you'll get good alignment more often than not. From what I understand, it's to do with the machines and the way they handle different sizes.

I'm not saying it's definitely unrelated to the migration. It's possible that they've adjusted the files in some way, adding to the problem. It's just that I've seen it on Createspace and KDP Print books equally. You can adjust the files on your end all day long, trying to compensate for the low quality of the physical printing on their end, but inconsistent printing is a known problem with POD.
 
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Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #14 on: January 22, 2019, 02:08:15 AM »
I've seen this for years with POD books. You can order a batch of 5 copies of the same book and get very different alignment on each cover, all printed at once, using the same cover file, and arriving in the same box together. It's random and has nothing to do with the files you upload, just the individual printing of each book. If you're already following the print template, all you can do beyond that is use a design that blends as seamlessly as possible around the spine so that if/when they don't align it properly at printing, it won't look terrible. Then you cross your fingers that you'll get good alignment more often than not. From what I understand, it's to do with the machines and the way they handle different sizes.

I'm not saying it's definitely unrelated to the migration. It's possible that they've adjusted the files in some way, adding to the problem. It's just that I've seen it on Createspace and KDP Print books equally. You can adjust the files on your end all day long, trying to compensate for the low quality of the physical printing on their end, but inconsistent printing is a known problem with POD.
It's true that some people used to report similar issues with Createspace books. I guess I've been lucky so far because I haven't noticed anything like that, even when I've ordered a quantity of books at the same time.

Joe may have something when he suggests a potential problem with the KDP cover creator. The same who does my ebook covers also does my paperbacks--no cover creator involved. Could that be why I'm not seeing the same problem? (Of course, that's a more expensive approach, but it would be good to know if it's an effective way of avoiding the problem. A lot of designers are now including the paperback wraparound in their basic price or making it a relatively inexpensive addon.)


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littleauthor

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #15 on: January 22, 2019, 04:24:09 AM »
Payment of royalties due from CreateSpace still haven't come. CreateSpace paid out by cheque when I reached the $100 threshold. (I'm in Canada) I see in the KDP reports, the royalties accumulated each month in 2018 are there. However, as KDP has already paid out for the ebooks for those months, when will they pay the CS royalties?

I asked and I was told amounts that fell below the threshold would be credited to KDP. Check. They have been. But when will they be paid? Royalties earned before the migration are still outstanding. Anyone in a similar situation? I've already contacted them about this and get the useless boilerplate reply. I must be using the wrong words or something.

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123mlh

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #16 on: January 22, 2019, 07:32:26 AM »
Payment of royalties due from CreateSpace still haven't come. CreateSpace paid out by cheque when I reached the $100 threshold. (I'm in Canada) I see in the KDP reports, the royalties accumulated each month in 2018 are there. However, as KDP has already paid out for the ebooks for those months, when will they pay the CS royalties?

I asked and I was told amounts that fell below the threshold would be credited to KDP. Check. They have been. But when will they be paid? Royalties earned before the migration are still outstanding. Anyone in a similar situation? I've already contacted them about this and get the useless boilerplate reply. I must be using the wrong words or something.

After I transitioned all of my CS royalties continued to be paid out from CS at the end of the next month. (I had expanded distribution sales that continued to hit CS for three months so this continued to happen for three months.) So November ED sales paid in December, for example.

But KDP pays on a two month cycle, so a month later than CS did. I would assume in your case that if those monies were credited over from CS to KDP then you're on the KDP payout schedule. Meaning give it until the end of the second month after the credit hit your KDP account for there to be a payout. In other words, if they transitioned the amount in January then expect an end of March payout on that amount.
 

littleauthor

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #17 on: January 24, 2019, 02:45:41 AM »
Thanks 123mlh. Sounds like you're in the States? In Canada, CS would pay by cheque after we hit the $100 USD threshold. If I sold more I would've hit it each month, but I didn't. So the money would accumulate until I did and then they'd mail me a cheque.

Since I was under the threshold before the move in September 2018, those unpaid CS royalty amounts are now listed in the months they were earned on my KDP reports.

Now, what I want to know (and KDP can't seem to tell me) is when will those amounts pay out? I'm told CS sales after the move will pay via direct deposit on the schedule you described. But what about sales made before the move? I hoped I'd find an answer here but no luck.



 
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ilamont

Re: You will be assimilated - All accounts being moved from CS to KDP
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2019, 06:27:29 AM »
I've seen this for years with POD books. You can order a batch of 5 copies of the same book and get very different alignment on each cover, all printed at once, using the same cover file, and arriving in the same box together. ... From what I understand, it's to do with the machines and the way they handle different sizes.

I've had POD alignment problems from both Createspace and Ingram/LSI over the years that actually forced a cover redesign. It seems things have gotten worse at Ingram when it comes to cover production, with issues including alignment, mechanical indentations, and hot wax or dye residue dripping onto the cover. However, interiors from Ingram have gotten a lot better.

I have only had one small KDP Print author order since the Createspace switchover, and everything seemed OK although it did take longer than expected to be processed.

One huge difference between Ingram and KDP is pricing. For the same ISBN, cost is $2.15-$2.20 at KDP, $2.50-$2.75 at Ingram (6x9, perfect bound glossy, b&w interior, 100 pages).
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