Quote from: Akyna at RPG.netIf your only concern is getting listed on Amazon, and you have all of the tools to create print ready materials yourself, then Createspace is the better choice. Keep in mind that the ISBNs are not "true" ISBNs. They are not listed in Books in Print. As it was explained to me by a sales rep for Createspace, the company simply bought huge bulk ISBN numbers and recycles them. So if someone deactivates a product, that ISBN will be reassigned to a different project. However, since ISBNs aren't a big issue for RPGs anyway, it's only a minor concern. Also, the books are ONLY available on Amazon.com, not the other sites.

They are working on adding new sizes, but it will be some time before there are 8 1/2 x 11 size available.

The quality is not quite as good as Lulu's, however. Createspace uses Booksurge to handle it's printing. B&W art on white pages sometimes looks washed out or photocopied. The result looks much better on the creme paper (which they only added after getting several complaints, BTW). Also, the covers tend to be slightly darker. Most casual customers won't notice the difference, but some will. The darker covers can impact the look of certain colors, particularly pastels. So you need to be careful.

There were some early problems with inconsistent cutting, but those seem to have been resolved. At one point, the Createspace books were being cut too small. Again, the casual customer probably wouldn't have noticed, but when compared to LSI or Lulu copies it was obvious.

If you want greater distribution, however, Lulu is the better choice. Lulu's Publish By You program is only $50 if you are in the U.S., and that includes an ISBN in your name (which means it's portable and you can use it with multiple printers) and listing in Books in Print and on all the online retailers. If you aren't techno-savvy, Lulu also has tools to convert your files into PDFs and help you design your covers to the right size. Lulu also has more size options.