The news has probably already made it from one end of the book world to the other already, but in case you weren't previously made aware, CreateSpace is shutting down. Undoubtedly the most popular self-publishing platform out there, it was owned by Amazon and it printed two of my books. So what's gonna happen?
Nobody needs to be stressed out, though we can all be sad. All CreateSpace books will be moving to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) which has been printing paperbacks for a while now. I suppose that it was inevitable that it would eventually phase out CreateSpace but I'd be lying to you if I said that I wasn't kind of sad. It was so easy to set up a book (compared to my experience with Ingram anyway, I've never tried a KDP paperback) and the customer service was absolutely legendary!
So, what happens to my books? Nothing. They've already migrated from one platform to another and there have been absolutely no changes, disruptions or anything else whatsoever. Everything is business as usual over here. I've also added the expanded edition of Don't Let Me Go to the 'store' tab so readers can now buy autographed copies straight from me. For the moment this is the only place you can get them, but I'm thinking of creating listings elsewhere in the future if I set up a bigger online store.
Did you know? I was a shop owner from October 2012 to January 2015 in which I sold a wide array of handmade goods, vintage items and craft supplies. I closed everything up to pursue both writing and my education (both of which are still ongoing) but I do miss the side income it provided and I'm thinking of starting something up again. More on that later, for now let's mourn my favorite publishing platform...