CreateSpace-Amazon logos | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksLast month, I shared here the details of moving my books from CreateSpace to KDP Print in 3 easy steps. I also promised to see if there’s anything else you need to do next. Amazon has done all it can to ensure an easy move but it turns out that yes, there are still some issues and possible glitches that require your personal attention in order to ensure that the move goes as smoothly as possible.

Here is a checklist of things to check for after moving your files:

  • Create Space had fewer keywords than KDP. You can now add more keywords to your paperback.
  • KDP Print offers two categories — one more than CreateSpace. Put this extra book category to good effect!
  • Check the rights for your books. Specifically, if you are the sole editor of your book, check All territories – worldwide rights for it, as this will be turned off by default.
  • Printing costs are higher for some books. Check that your prices are still profitable in all marketplaces, especially Japan.
  • All books seem to transfer with the print options they had in CreateSpace (in my case, black and white interior on cream paper, matte cover). But it doesn’t hurt to double-check.

When making changes, remember: You cannot just edit the price. KDP makes you go through the whole editing process, i.e details, content, rights, and price. You can keep the data already transferred and just save and continue without editing. While this is going on, your book will appear on the bookshelf as “LIVE – Updates in review”. A message that your book update will be manually reviewed will appear on the screen.

Also, KDP Print is stricter than CreateSpace when it comes to manuscripts, especially those with plenty of illustrations such as children’s books. In the case of Runaway Smile, KDP refused to update the keywords and categories for the print edition, claiming there is a problem with image bleeds. As this was not an issue before, I’m still confused as to what to do about it. Thankfully, my title is still available on Amazon while I sort this out.

Finally, author Toni Pike shared this tip: about 1 in 20 paperbacks on Amazon Australia have the book description cut off after 2 lines. Check your product page on Amazon to make sure this hasn’t happened to you!