Something amazing happened last week in the print on demand universe.
Createspace, Amazon’s print on demand company, announced that it will now distribute books in European countries.
(!!!)
Also, they’re doing it for free.
(!!!)
This isn’t Expanded Distribution. This is simply following Amazon’s Kindle practises, and printing Createspace books in Europe, with European prices and delivery, to be available on the international Amazon sites.
(Proof copies and member orders will continue to come from the US.)
I imagine, if I still lived in England, it would be quite momentous.
Alas, I am indeed living in Australian now, and we don’t even have our own Amazon site *sob*.
There is absolutely no hassle involved in making your American-market book available for Europe. It’s apparently as easy as clicking a button.
I will have a think about whether or not I want to click that button, because my paperback sales aren’t as high as my ebook sales. I am concentrating on writing this year, rather than publishing (and marketing). I wasn’t planning on making paperbacks out of any more books, but I might in the future when everything’s settled down.
(Here I was thinking paperbacks are just as important as ebooks but it turns out everyone else takes ages to put their paperbacks together…)
What’s your opinion on this? Is it amazing forwardness on Createspace’s part? Should they have offered paperbacks in all Amazon countries from the beginning? Comment away!
Lissa Bilyk 