Createspace Glitch

CREATESPACE and PUBLISHING DATE

For independent writers working with createspace, you may not realize that the publication date for your book is recorded with the first manuscript that is uploaded to the website, even if you don’t approve the proof or complete the submission. If the title remains the same and you submit subsequent manuscripts to make changes or update the copy for what becomes your published book, the publication date will hark back to the initial submission.

I changed my mind about the cover graphic of What Missing Means and had Stanard Design Partners insert a different illustration. Though my book will be available weeks after July 7, that date, when I submitted the first copy, is recorded as the publication date. In other words, if you upload a manuscript you revise for several weeks or months before getting a proof you can approve, you’ll be stuck with an earlier, inaccurate publication date.

My previous novel, Dust On the Bible, has a publication date in November 2015 though it wasn’t actually published until December. When I received the hard copy proof of the initial submission, the font appeared larger than it did on my computer screen. We made changes to the format and resubmitted it. Though I only approved the proof weeks later, I’m stuck with the date of the first submission as the publication date.

JANUARY IS BETTER THAN DECEMBER

About publication dates, it is better to publish your book early in the year, January, February, or March. Many competitions for awards restrict entries to books published within a certain calendar year, and if yours is published in December, you don’t have time to research and make submissions. As soon as Dust on the Bible was published in 2015 (December), it was perceived in the industry as a year old only a month later, in January 2016.