So it’s been about three months since I migrated my books from CreateSpace to KDP at Amazon’s insistence.
A few thoughts.
First, if you still haven’t done so, just do it. It’s literally a button push and you’ll make sure that the books end up connected to the right account assuming you follow the pretty simple directions.
Second, if you have migrated and haven’t noticed this yet, you may want to check in with your CreateSpace account for a few months after the migration. I’m still getting expanded distribution sales reported through my CreateSpace account. (And then paid separately as a CreateSpace payment.)
Third, because CreateSpace didn’t have as many keyword slots and only allowed one category, when your books move over they move over with just those five keywords and one category. You can go in and update the book to add more keywords and categories, but you have to go through all three screens to do so. I hesitated to do that because I was worried something wonky would happen with my files (and some people had reported having that be an issue), but I think you’re okay as long as you don’t try to upload new files and just save through the second screen. I updated all of my books this last week and they went through without any issues. Only issue I had was an old title I renamed and the cover didn’t meet their specs when I changed just the title text and uploaded it again.
Fourth, the territories for books that migrate over are not worldwide. I think the boxes that are checked are the ones that Amazon/CreateSpace actually distribute to, but you can, while you’re in there, change it to worldwide availability. (Canada is one that isn’t be default checked, for example.)
Fifth, I will say that for some reason I lost all Euro sales after the move. I was making about 150 Euros per month in paperback sales and have had maybe 10 Euros in sales in the three months since. No idea why. Maybe that worldwide checkbox. We’ll see, but so far I’m not seeing any difference.
Sixth, I’ve uploaded new titles and it’s been pretty simple. A too-wide spine text and that one that didn’t meet their dimensions but in both cases the error message was very clear on what the issue was down to them telling me the exact inch dimensions that one cover needed to be.
And that’s about it. I took a few days’ hit when I first moved over because KDP Print reports when a book ships and I think CreateSpace reported when it was ordered, but now that I’m three months in that’s not an issue anymore. But do be aware that the print sales you see on your KDP dashboard on any given day may have been ordered up to 10 days before that date. (Generate the Excel file and look at the Order Date column to see when the books were actually ordered.)
That delay makes AMS tracking a nightmare for me. I suspect most people won’t have that same issue since most fiction titles sell far better in ebook than print.
Anyway. Yet another change. Wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Had some annoyances of missing books the first week or so, but that’s all sorted as this point. Onward and upward.
M.L. Humphrey 