CreateSpace eStore: Pros, Cons and Why You May Not Want One
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CreateSpace eStore: Pros, Cons and Why You May Not Want One

Last Updated on June 25, 2021 by Carter Wogahn

Amazon CreateSpace estore-Successful eBook Publishing
This simple design took about 10 minutes to create.

A potentially nice benefit of using CreateSpace is that you can create a branded online CreateSpace eStore to sell your book. It’s fast and easy to setup, and it’s free. But I say potentially because there are a few things to know before you decide to funnel your shoppers to your eStore instead of the regular Amazon store. This is important because the process of buying a book is a little more involved for the regular Amazon shopper and you might end up losing sales at the expense of improving margins.

CreateSpace eStore Pros and Cons

Pros
  1. Receive higher royalties. You'll make about 20% more on books sold through eStore vs. the Amazon.com store. Click the royalties tab on this page to calculate the exact amount for your book.
  2. Ability to offer discounts. Dollars off or a percentage off.
  3. Ability to control the shopping experience. Your shoppers are not distracted by competing book offers. To this last point, you don’t even have to sell your book on Amazon.com. Simply de-select Amazon.com from the list of distribution options.
  4. Password protection for your store. This comes in handy if you offer your book at a discount in the eStore relative to the main Amazon.com store.
Cons
  1. Purchasers must register in order to buy. This is no different than any other online store but regular Amazon shoppers may find it inconvenient. Further, to the extent they are a member of Amazon Prime they won’t receive free shipping which makes the purchase more expensive.
  2. You do not get the contact information for the person buying your book. Granted, you don’t get this information from any other bookstore but if you were thinking of using eStore instead of setting up your own online store it’s something to be aware of.
  3. You cannot offer quantity discounts. i.e. you cannot define a package—say 10 books—and offer them for a flat price.

Another thing to point out is that if you publish several books you’ll need an eStore for each title. Again, it isn’t hard to setup and there is no charge. But unlike hosting your own online bookstore, cross-promoting your titles will take some planning. Fortunately CreateSpace eases this by allowing you to include a link in each eStore that can take the shopper to another website. In this case you would program the URL of your other eStore. That way if they buy another book, it is added to the cart and they can save on shipping.

How to Setup an eStore

If you don’t care about creating a custom header, or modifying the colors of the text in the store, setup takes all of about 10 minutes. Here are the steps I took to create a store for my book, Successful eBook Publishing:

  1. Login to your Dashboard and click the title of your book.
  2. Under Distribute, click Channels.
  3. Click eStore Setup under CreateSpace eStore.
  4. Your eStore address is at the top of this page, it's called the Title URL. The number at the end of the URL is the CreateSpace ID for your book. In my case the number is 4020098 and it is placed at the end like this: https://www.createspace.com/4020098
  5. The rest of the page is where you can define several aspects of your store including adding a banner image, which regions can sell your book, the continue shopping information and a password if you want to protect your store.

Use this link to reach their help page if you get stuck.

Conclusions

I think the tough decision here is not how to create an eStore, it’s why. How will you promote it? What kinds of buyers are you trying to reach?

I would definitely use it if I had the ability to market the books myself. This is a key reason why they are giving you a higher royalty—because you are doing the marketing instead of Amazon.com. An arrangement like this is ideal for consultants and speakers. On the other hand publishers selling quantities of book are probably better off selling direct because they can only discount on an individual book basis. (It might also be good if you are marketing to libraries and bookstores however buyers like this may already be approved for CreateSpace Direct or have established accounts with Ingram and Baker & Taylor.)

But should my website link to my eStore instead of Amazon? I’m not convinced it makes sense. Maybe as an option, but as a regular Amazon customer I prefer to use my standard account. Asking me to register on yet another website is a hurdle I'm reluctant to jump, hence, a potential lost sale.

Bonus

CreateSpace estore search box on CreatespaceWant to look up a few CreateSpace eStore examples? Go to Createspace.com and in the top right, click the drop down box and select Store. Now search for different words and you'll see scores of books whose title matches your word.

22 thoughts on “CreateSpace eStore: Pros, Cons and Why You May Not Want One”

  1. Hello, David,

    Very informative and helpful; thank you. The problem with using expanded distribution, Createspace Direct, plus Bookstores and Online Retailers is that it changes the initial price that I had set on Amazon. In our case, a small imprint launching 3 debut thrillers this November, I want to keep the paperback price to $9.99, so if I use the above 2 listed options, the price jump to a minimum of $10.10 This puts our single unit price above the $10 mark and although it’s only a matter of 11¢, the psychological impact on a potential buyer is something that I must consider.

    I don’t know if the benefit of the expanded distribution outways my pricing concern, or if I’m making a mistake not taking advantage of letting books stores, et al, be able to order in quantity, should we be so fortunate.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Max Myers.

  2. Max, I’m assuming 10.11 the minimum price that the CreateSpace calculator tells you the price must be. That should have nothing to do with the other channels because it is a factor of the manufacturing cost and Amazon’s retail margin. Or tell me if I misunderstood how the price was set.

    Another option–assuming the book becomes successful and stores wish to order it–is to setup distribution through IngramSpark. (You need your own ISBN if you didn’t buy your own in the first place.) You have more options to serve the traditional channels through Ingram. In my experience you can also buy books in quantity at a lower price.

  3. Thanks for the tips. I was really considering spending a lot of time to get my eStore setup and make it look perfect and everything, but i think the cons out-weigh the pros. Shopping on Amazon is a much better experience and people are familiar with it (2 very important factors). I think i’m not going to use my eStore. Thanks for saving me time/hassle

  4. Great article; very informative. I’m waiting on the print proof of my first book published through CreateSpace and was wondering about the difference in royalties between Amazon and the CreateSpace store. I couldn’t even figure out how to make a CreateSpace estore – just didn’t see that little link on the Distribution Channels page. Your pros and cons were very helpful. Thanks. Peace, Linda

  5. Createspace assigned ISBNs to my six submissions. Can I still BUY my own?

    As afar as royalties go weighed against the hassle a buyer might endure when buying from eStore, I’d opt to favor eStore. My paperbacks are priced at $9.95. Amazon pays me a $0.35 royalty. The same Kindle format eBook selling at $3.99 on Amazon pays me $1.40.

    Also, I’d bypass the expanded distribution option. (For the same reason quoted here previously.) I want to keep my price below that $10.00 figure.

    I appreciate your web site, additionally the comments. Thank you.

  6. You can still buy your own ISBNs but the CS assigned ISBNs will never go away. You would remove them from sale from CS, then re-publish using the new ISBN. The reviews won’t transfer over. Also, anyone that bought the CS ISBN book can still sell it as a used book on Amazon.

  7. The registration process is kinda onerous. I don’t know why Amazon doesn’t let people, partic with prime membership, just use that login at CreateSpace. I have a client (I’m a marketer/graphic/web/book designer) who wants to offer a discount below Amazon retail for his print book on a limited time basis and boy what a hassle!

  8. I agree Kim. I guess they want to discourage one book sales. It’s seems geared more for wholesale ordering.

  9. Super article, David. My 8.50″ x 11″, 90 page color book will be available on Amazon this weekend. Very exciting! I’ve been dealing with the same issues as everyone else when it comes to the eStore vs Amazon. You helped to put a clearer focus on my options. I belong to a craft guild and typically when a member publishes a book, they offer it at a discount to all the members. I plan to do the same. I initially thought sending members to Createspace where I could offer them a discount was a good idea. But I need to rethink that. I’m wondering now if I should order the books from Amazon at the author’s price and distribute them at the next guild meeting. Another option includes ordering from my website. I am an Amazon affiliate and post their ads on my pages. If one guild member ordered books for everyone by clicking on my book ad from my web page, I would receive commissions and could offer the commission as a discount. I’m torn. There are a lot of things to consider. If you have any thoughts I’m open to hearing them. But if you don’t, I just want to say thank you for a helpful post.

  10. Thank you and glad the information was helpful. What you describe is a business decision. Best of luck.

  11. Thank you. I found this site because I was looking for a way to offer my 4th book at a discount to teachers. Until now I had no idea there was an e-store webpage so I didn’t set one up for my other books. My goal with Our Children Live in a War Zone: Use the Power of Resilience to Improve Their Lives: Applied Positive Psychology 2.1 is to change the world and until the public outcry that we aren’t using what we know will help vulnerable children is loud enough, teachers are one avenue for getting this (literally) life-saving and life-changing information into hands where it can help children today.

    I used the password protect and a discount code so I can give teachers the information and help them help others.

    Thank you for this site because until I found this I had no idea how to discount the books without buying them myself and then taking the time to ship them.

  12. Hi, the difference in the royalty payment is quite steep though. For my book who’s royalty is going to a charity I would not like Amazon to pocket the hefty profit.

  13. It that case you’d be better off printing with traditional print run which is cheaper, and selling them direct to readers. Otherwise you are paying for the convenience of printing one at at time (CreateSpace) and giving Amazon a sales commission for sell to their customers. Good luck Ally.

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