CreateSpace's offer for 2011 NaNoWriMo winners

[An update on 12/19/11: CreateSpace would like to clarify their offer to winners briefly: 1) The password NaNoWriMo provided on the Winner Prizes page should be entered at https://nano-code.createspace.com to receive the CreateSpace promotional code. 2) The CreateSpace code is not valid for proof orders.]

[A second, older update from 11/11/11: CreateSpace wanted to clarify one point in their offer, below. Here's the scoop from them: "While you need to purchase and approve a proof, you do not have to select any distribution outlets for the book. This means that you can use the five free copy offer to obtain five copies of your book without having to release it into any sales channels."]

Dear Wrimos,

For the past few years, the wonderful folks at CreateSpace have given every NaNoWriMo winner a free proof copy of their NaNoWriMo manuscripts. This year, CreateSpace has cooked up a different offer for NaNoWriMo winners.

Here's their overview!

"CreateSpace is proud to support all NaNoWriMo participants. We invite you to explore how independent publishing can be accessible, easy, and rewarding. Take advantage of free services or choose from our everyday low priced professional service offerings. Get started here. In addition, NaNoWriMo winners can get 5 free paperback copies of their finished book; details will be posted at CreateSpace after December 1."

A few notes on how this will work:

1) Starting December 5, all NaNoWriMo winners will head to the Winner Prizes block on the NaNoWriMo homepage. There, you'll see your unique NaNoWriMo winner's password and instructions on what to do with the password to claim the five free copies of your book. The offer expires on June 30, 2012.

2) When you redeem it, it will be good for five free copies of your book. CreateSpace will cover printing costs, but you will have to cover shipping costs.

3) The offer is only good on books published through CreateSpace. This is different than in the past, when NaNoWriMo winners could order a pre-published proof copy of their book. That said, CreateSpace has a variety of different distribution channels, ranging from being available widely on Amazon.com to private options.

4) If you have any questions, please contact CreateSpace! They would love to answer your questions, but they won't be monitoring or replying to this thread. https://www.createspace.com/Contact.jsp

Thanks, everyone!

Chris

Okay so wait we actually have to PUBLISH our stories? *confused*

I think many of us are concerned about what it means to be published this way. Some people hope to land an agent in the future and self-publishing might harm their options. Others write fanfiction, which is unpublishable by default.

Essentially, this is an offer for a bound copy of what you write.

You can choose to have it available on Amazon, which would count as self-publishing. However, having a single-- or five-- copy of your book, just for you or a few friends to look at, and to bask in your accomplishment, would not. And it would not affect your chances of being published in any way.

This is an entirely optional thing, one I've never taken up on, and I've been a winner since 2005.

Does that clear things up for people?

So it's basically the same deal as last year, except with five copies? *is still confused*

I'm still confused. Sorry, but will we be allowed to publish with an agent if we do this? Someone explain please

As far as I can tell, you publish your book on Amazon, or a more private option, which we might not be told what it is until we do it. Then we get five copies of our book and pay for postage.

There are options on CreateSpace for completely private so no one can search for your book or buy it except for you. I'm not one hundred percent sure this is how it will work for NaNo winners, but it is very likely. I wouldn't think this would affect getting your book published at a later date since no one can see it except you, but I also am not completely sure on that.

In any case, before these five copies we must offer and pay for the proof copy, right?

I mean, it's not possible to publish anything without the proof copy. What I don't understand is whether proof is free (excluding shipping) + 4 books, or you must pay full price for the proof.

I've used CreateSpace to publish before and all I've ever seen beyond the proof stage is" your book is published." Considered published, assigned a searchable ISBN and will be officially published with them.
I haven't played with privacy settings, so I may be wrong on visibility, but the title and ISBN would still be searchable as a published book.
I understand why they are doing this, as I imagine how much cost they incurred with the free proofs that no one then published with them (myself included a few times) but it is still vital that people know what they are agreeing to when they click that "publish my book" button.
The book is published at that point.

Five books is a very good deal, if you want to self-publish with them, but people should know exactly what they are choosing to do.

Still, how much do they charge? Is there any information about that? I really want to finish my story this year, therefore holding a printed copy in my hands would be really awesome.
But shipping costs tend to become extraordinary high. /: I overread someone in the other creatspace thread telling about 5 English Pounds for shipping. That doesn't seem much. Are there any other information about how much shipping costs for European countries?
(There are even some german online book shops that think that it's okay to charge Austrians € 10 for shipping ... well, it's absolutely not okay, our countries are not that far apart an adslföhasdf0werhkeyboardsmash.)
Checking on the site itself gets me "Oohps! Page not found!" /: Any other experiences?

Here's what I found:

Create Space calculator

Just go to "Buying Copies", and select the trim size and number of pages. You'll get an estimate cost of your proof.

For shipping, select your country and the shipping method.

I've brought a proof but there was an option to publish without buying a proof. I really like this idea and am already planning on what to do with my five copies.

Awesome! Alas, I do not know what to do with the four extra copies.... Well, I'll figure something out!

WOW It is back again.

P.S. The link of the first post is not working.

Ok, I'm still confused. If we want to get the five copies we have to publish the books, which means we can't get it published from someone else in the future?

We really can't comment on publishing rights; I do know that you retain all rights to your work if you go through CreateSpace. If you need more details about what publishing with CreateSpace means, you'll have to ask them. :) They don't read or post here, and I don't work for them, so neither I nor other moderators can really tell you for sure what that means.

https://www.createspace.com/Contact.jsp

It would seem to me (and this is pure speculation) that if you choose a private option, no one can see the contents, and if you submit your manuscript under a different title than the one who use with CreateSpace, I don't see how other publishers could know it was your novel.

They do offer private distribution channels; what those entail will be available on their website!

Is there any kind of payment that would have to be made to get published (and then get the 5 free copies)? Or is the publishing itself a free thing also?

In the shipping calculator, putting in 5 in the quantity box, I got the $5.95 standard five day shipping rate for continental US.
I understand this to mean I have to pay six bucks and get the five free copies.
I could be mistaken, but it seems okay, but I'll look into what it means to be createspace-published. Thanks for the information!

CreateSpace really does have a great FAQ over there. Of course it does take some reading and absorbing of the information. What I remember from two years ago is that a proof is still assigned an ISBN number. That is pretty much the same as being published, as far as I can tell. When or if you chose to use another publisher that work will be issued a new ISBN number through your new publisher (ISBN dot org has a great FAQ as well, by the way).