It’s safe to say that 2018 began with news that none of us were expecting to hear. According to The Bookseller, CreateSpace decided in January to shut down their design services division, as an Amazon spokesperson said –

“After a thorough review of our service offerings, we’ve made the decision to discontinue CreateSpace’s paid professional editing, design and marketing services.”

This doesn’t mean the end for CreateSpace. They will continue to print books for self-publishing indie authors; however the wonderful bespoke design services that were offered when publishing a book through CreateSpace are no longer available. This may be something to do with the overall shift that Amazon is undertaking – turning a managed service into more of a customer-centric, self-service system.

The only design features that CreateSpace now offers is their Cover Creator. CreateSpace offers templates for authors to use as a guide to design their own artwork, however the Custom Cover Creator is an online interactive tool built specifically for authors to be able to create their own cover design using a set of templates – As outlined on their website,

“Cover Creator is an interactive online tool that allows you to quickly and easily create a professional looking cover for your book. Choose one of our template designs as a starting point, customize it by adding a cover image and details, and in a few short minutes your cover will be ready to submit.”

CreateSpace’s Free Cover Creator Tool. Image Credit http://www.maggieoneills.com/

After doing some research and trying the Cover Creator out for ourselves, it seems to be very limited in terms of its capabilities. As mentioned by MissyBee217 on CreateSpace’s customer forum –

“I’ve tried to like the templates CreateSpace gives us to use for our covers. However, I just can’t. I started out with a Journey theme, with the path in the middle of the woods. Yes, my characters take a path, and an unusual one at that. I just can’t use it though! I’m not saying the covers suck, but it just doesn’t fit my book.”

Another downfall of using CreateSpace’s Cover Creator is that other author’s will start to recognise that your cover design is from a templated service, which may make them assume you’re an amateur and there isn’t much quality in the book itself.

It would be a shame for your carefully thought out, well-plotted next upcoming bestseller to have a cover that can be designed ‘in minutes’. What you are looking for in a book cover design is quality, and that takes time to produce. Here at BuzBooks we offer bespoke cover design from as little as $299 – and we’d love to help you with your next cover!

With the fall of CreateSpace, comes the rise of BuzBooks.