This is Part 2 of the CreateSpace post since there was just too much information to jam into one. In this post, I’ll walk you through the final stages of the CreateSpace Trade Paperback exercise which involves uploading the interior of your book, as well as the cover. This is where the book itself gets stitched together electronically, along with the book’s summary/description and final pricing for CreateSpace and Amazon.

Prerequisites:

• CreateSpace account already set up with your book project up until this post.
• Your final, compiled draft.
• The cover art (front cover, back cover, and spine design) completed. They do not need to be in final dimensions. We will format the cover in this post, provided you have access to the final PSD or layered file.

I know it may seem backwards to first create a paperback version of a book you intend to sell digitally, but hear me out on this one. This exercise all boils down to completing two very important items:

1. Finalizing the cover for your book, and
2. Finalizing the interior of your book.

Both of these items carry forward into the creation of the eBook and make compiling the final product easier. Still with me? Good! Now here we go!

Uploading the Interior

1. Get back into your CreateSpace project and go to the Interior.
2. Below where you make selections for text and paper colour is an Upload area. Click the Browse button and find your file.
   

   Uploading the Interior

3. Click the Save button when finished.
4. CreateSpace will check your book for errors which could impede the publishing process. This takes anywhere from two to ten minutes, depending on the size of your book.
   

   The Print Check

5. You can choose to wait if you want, but take the site’s advice; let’s move on to the cover!

Cover and Spine

For this step, count on needing to go through two or three iterations of your cover dimensions until they fit with the thickness of your final printed copy. The spine can be exceptionally tricky. You will need access to your finalized cover files, or have a method for getting the dimensions to your cover designer to create the digital version.

Don’t stress too much on getting the dimensions of the spine just right. Once you upload the cover, you can use CreateSpace’s Digital Proofer to see how the dimensions of the cover and spine will turn out in final printing.

To start the process,

1. If the front cover and back cover are not already in the ratio you’ve chosen for the interior (5” x 8” in my case), edit the files until they conform to the proper dimensions.
   

   My cover in PhotoShop

2. For the spine, CreateSpace has a calculation to help you determine the width of your spine. You should already know how many pages are in your book (because we just uploaded the interior!), so use the references in CreateSpace to determine the spine size.
   

   Spine thickness calculation

   For my spine size using cream-coloured paper, I calculated my spine thickness to be:

   338 pages x 0.0025 paper thickness = 0.845 inches

3. Now that you know how thick your spine should be, adjust the dimensions of your cover.
4. Save your cover as a print-ready PDF.
   

   Save to PDF

   The PDF must be below 40K before it can be uploaded into CreateSpace, which can be tricky for large vector or Photoshop files. In order to get your file down to 40 MB, start implementing this list one by one:

   • Flatten all layers and discard any hidden layers.
     

     Flatten Image

   • Reduce the width of your file to less than 4000 pixels wide.
   • Optimize for Fast Web Preview.
   • Change the Image Quality from ‘Maximum’ to ‘High’.
5. Now, we’re ready to upload! Head back to your CreateSpace account and click the Cover item in your project.
   

   Cover

6. Choose the cover finish (Matte or Glossy), and upload your cover!
   

   Upload Cover

Completing Your Book

Once your interior and your cover are uploaded, you’ll need to set up the final tidbits of info to get the book ready to publish. CreateSpace will walk you through the process. Your next steps are:

1. Description – Create the description for your book – that blurb that appears next to your book on most eBook retail sites.
   

   Create the book description

2. Pricing – I’m hoping this should need no explanation. CreateSpace will manufacture and sell the trade paperback of your novel at a price you set. Pricing must meet CreateSpace minimums, meaning they will not sell the Trade Paperback if it’s below a certain price point.
   

   Set price points for your book

3. CreateSpace review – CreateSpace must review your interior and cover design to ensure it adheres to their standards and viability for publishing. Within 24 hours, they’ll review and approve or reject your files, so hold tight. You can’t move on to the next phase (almost at publishing!) until this is complete.
   

   The Review Process takes up to 24 hours

Final Proofing

Once CreateSpace has approved your files and your book for publishing, you can proof your book using CreateSpace’s Digital Proofer. By this point, you should have already gone through the interior to address any issues there. If not, use the Digital Proofer to review the interior and to address any concerns.

Review the cover and interior

The main things you want to do here are proof the cover and address any concerns with the interior as pointed out by CreateSpace. The Digital Proofer will give a pretty reasonable approximation of where the spine of the cover falls within the cover and the thickness of your novel. If the cover isn’t laying the way you want, make adjustments in your cover file and re-upload. You will need to go through the review process again, but within 24 hours your files will be ready for you again.

Ensure the cover setup is correct

If the digital proof looks good, now we move on to what I think is the coolest part of this whole process: ordering the physical proof.

Order a proof of your book!

Regardless of the price you’ve set for your book, CreateSpace will allow you to purchase a proof at cost, usually between $3 and $5 dollars. This allows you to see the final printed product, including interior and how the cover lays out. I firmly believe in going through this process. Not only is it an amazing feeling to hold your own book in your hands, but it will also allow you to see what will be going into your readers hands if they choose to purchase a physical copy.

My book, guinea pig approved

And just like that, we’ve got a book!

In the Next Post . . .

The great thing about getting to this point is that now it’s feeling real; now you’re starting to feel like an author. You can hold your book in your hands; it’s an amazing feeling of accomplishment to make it this far! Fist-pump!

In the next post, we’ll convert our interior file into an eBook using Calibre. This is the final step before you send your book into the world to grow and prosper!