Createspace List Price

Amazon lists the list price you choose. Then, they may choose to slash that or not. Either way you'll get the royalty for the list price. I've noticed that the last two times I ordered a batch of books from CreateSpace directly, Amazon lowered the book drastically on their site. The reduction lasted a week or two. I'm ordering more books next week, and will be curious to see if they follow suit again, or if those were coincidences. Currently they're offering it for .50 off, which is practically nothing.

Not sure about the adult content. I think it refers to the content of the book. You might want to call them about that. They have ridiculously good customer service. If you click "call me now" on the page, your phone will ring immediately.

Here's my experience:

When I first listed my paperback, I put it at 9.99. Amazon left it alone. About three weeks ago, I wanted more "distance" between my top listed price and my Kindle price, so I increased my paperback to 14.99. Amazon immediately dropped it to 9.66. The nice thing is that my Kindle version shows "When purchased, you save..." based on the $14.99 price. It feels like a win all the way around.

I believe you will always get the royalty based on your list price, no matter what Amazon chooses to price it at.

When you order direct from Createspace, you get copies for the base price. No royalty back on those sales.

DDark said:

If you mean me as the author, wouldn't it be better to order my own copies through Createspace vs Amazon? I may not get royalties but the base price is a lot cheaper than the list.

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On the other hand, the shipping is outrageous when you buy from CS. My rule of thumb is if I only need one or two books, I buy them from AZ. No shipping and I'll get the royalty back anyway. If I need more than that, I get them through CS.

Your earlier question about the copies being marked proof; once you've approved the proof on-line, you get regular copies. I just checked my last order and there was no proof mark on the back.

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:

On the other hand, the shipping is outrageous when you buy from CS. My rule of thumb is if I only need one or two books, I buy them from AZ. No shipping and I'll get the royalty back anyway. If I need more than that, I get them through CS.

Your earlier question about the copies being marked proof; once you've approved the proof on-line, you get regular copies. I just checked my last order and there was no proof mark on the back.

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Copies ordered through CS at the author price also don't count toward your ranking.

DDark said:

Thanks for the info. I was concerned if they slash my price if I still get that royalty. I want to list my first book at $9.99 which doesn't leave me with much.

Something else I noticed is whenever I click "add to cart" through Createspace, it's only charging me the base rate (not the list price). Is that because I'm the author, and will the copy have "Proof" on the back page? This is totally throwing me. I want to order copies for myself as promotional to sign, but I don't want any with that proof page (nor do I want to pay full price). I hate to order a copy just to find out, so thought I'd ask the pros here.

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Right, the royalty is on your list price, and you get the base rate for author's orders.

Am not quite sure why they sometimes slash and sometimes do not; I think it has to do with volume.

DDark said:

Maybe, but I'm seriously trying to save a buck when I'm ordering in bulk. Paying $40 vs $90 for the same quantity makes all the difference in my world.

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I do a lot of bulk orders because of signings or direct sales to ballet retailers. For example, Just Ballet (a UK dancer wear online retailer) stocks my books now. In order for her to make any profit, I couldn't sell them to her at list price, obviously. So it just makes sense for me to put in a bulk order from CS and have them drop shipped to her. I charge her above my author price, but below list price.

Sure, those copies could have gone towards my Amazon ranking had I bought them from Amazon but I never would have gotten the sale in the first place.

DDark said:

Maybe, but I'm seriously trying to save a buck when I'm ordering in bulk. Paying $40 vs $90 for the same quantity makes all the difference in my world.

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Agreed. Just throwing it out there for low quantity orders.

Yeah, for low quantity orders, it's definitely an option.

I panicked when a book I had extended distribution with was marked down by B&N from $14.99 to $9.99 and so I cancelled the extended distribution thinking I wouldn't get any royalty If Amazon price matched. I still haven't asked the question of what would have happened with my royalty in that instance (price match). Anyone know?

Decon said:

I panicked when a book I had extended distribution with was marked down by B&N from $14.99 to $9.99 and so I cancelled the extended distribution thinking I wouldn't get any royalty If Amazon price matched. I still haven't asked the question of what would have happened with my royalty in that instance (price match). Anyone know?

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You're going to get the same royalty as if the price was $14.99.

The amount of royalty varies by distributor. It's highest if purchased from your CreateSpace page, lower if purchased from Amazon.com, and lowest if purchased through the extended distribution.

For example, I make almost $3, I believe if someone buys it at my CreateSpace page, and only six cents if someone orders it through a brick and mortar store (or B&N.com, I think).

Your book setup page, where you set the retail price, shows the different levels.