With a day to spare to the deadline (which it turns out I needed) I uploaded the formatted text for my first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2007 winner to Amazon's POD publisher, CreateSpace. (Chris Baty arranges a free proof copy for the winners. In previous years he's used Lulu. For 2008 and 2007 retroactively, he cut a deal with CreateSpace.)
I'm not as fond of CreateSpace as I was of Lulu. They are geared toward marketing (they assign you your own ISBN for example), so it is not as intuitive a process to make the content available only to you. I am making a proof copy only, something to sit on my own shelf. (I did not even think if having this ISBN assigned is going to mess up future publishing rights. I wouldn't think so, but Amazon, being as big and pervasive as it is, may not favor the individual in a situation like this.)
Second, they don't have their own pdf generator, which is a little bit of a pain. But I found a suitable one online.
Third, my files are subject to "review." In the Lulu universe, once you have a text pdf and a cover (uploaded or using their generator) you are ready to roll. In CreateSpace, I need to wait for someone to look at my material and see if it follows submission guidelines. Well, what the heck does that mean? Now I am paranoid that my political content will set off algorithms in a computer program. Or entry level dweebs are laughing at my sex scenes. And if my web generated pdf is not to their printing specs, what do I do?
So I'm waiting by my mailbox for the go ahead. :(
But I did have fun making the cover with their wizard. Wow, it looks like a piece of literature!
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