I chose Createspace / Amazon / IMDb / Withoutabox (it’s all owned by the same umbrella company, but you will deal with each individually.) Create Space is the place I’m selling everything through. I picked it because Amazon is a large platform, it doesn’t cost anything up front and still has some flexibility in how I want to release.
Let me start by saying Create Space had me pulling my hair
out on more than one occasion with timely, yet vague, responses from their staff. They will not hold your hand through the
process of getting all your work into their system and it’s a pain! They give you all the information you need to
do it, but it’s not easy to follow and the information you find online from others is
probably outdated. I’m going to write
up a step by step process for 2015, for all those filmmakers out there feeling
the frustration I felt.
What I Learned about Createspace:
1. You need an unencrypted disc image file (.iso) you can burn this with toast on a mac, which is what I did. You might also be able to burn one on a PC with Windows Disc Image Burner. I can't speak to the PC way of burning this since I didn't go that route.
2. Your iso file must have 2 folders and only 2 folders on it and they must be "VIDEO_TS" and "AUDIO_TS." Nothing more. If you're like me, you might have a disc that only has the video folder. If that's the case, you must create an empty audio folder before you burn the iso. Createspace will reject your file if it isn't done exactly this way.
3. When your submission gets rejected, the Createspace staff won't tell you exactly why. They'll give you a standard rejection message basically saying something didn't meet their standards. You just have to try to figure out what specific guideline you failed to follow. They will reset your submission status fairly quickly so you can try again. I think I submitted iso files 3 times before they finally approved my last one.
4. I accidentally started a VOD only project and now there are 2 My Toxic Backyard pages on Amazon...forever. Unfortunately someone bought a copy before I had the file deleted (even though on my dashboard it was listed as still pending approval and I couldn't delete it myself, plus the purchase didn't show up in my royalties so I had no way of knowing that someone purchased it.) After many messages back and forth trying to understand what happened, Createspace informs me now that they can never get rid of this second page on Amazon. So make sure if you want to give people the option of purchasing a DVD that you are doing a DVD project when you start! You can add a VOD option all in the same project later on or at the same time.
5. Expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks for your files to be approved. You want to start this process well in advance of your release! Once approved, you will still have to enable it for sale, which will take at least an additional 30 days for VOD. You must order a test DVD (about $7) and check it before they will let you sell it. You can't skip this step. When I enabled my DVD for sale, it was available within a day. Trying to enable the VOD in the same project, has proven to be taking much longer. At the time of posting this, I'm still waiting. They won't tell you when your project is up for sale either, you just have to keep checking it. (Be sure to check on Amazon, don't trust your createspace dashboard, mine said "pending" when it was actually "available.")
6. You can set the price for your DVD sales, but you can't set the price for you VOD download and rental. You only get to suggest VOD pricing.
7. You also have the option to make a Createspace store front that you can have directly on your website and you'll make more royalties from it, but it's separate from Amazon, so anyone buying from your store will have to enter their shipping and credit card information to make the purchase and they don't have an option to get free shipping. You can offer coupon codes for your store to sweeten the deal for your customers, but the coupon codes don't work on Amazon.
8. The price you set for your DVD will be the same on Amazon and in your Createspace store front. You can't make one less than the other. So keep that in mind when setting your price.
9. Amazon takes a huge cut. They do all the order fulfillment so they are taking a lot of the burden off your hands. Just don't expect to get rich quick unless you sell lots and lots of copies.
10. The money you earn from sales (royalties) gets paid out either once a month or once every 60 days, depending on the type of media. For example for VOD if someone rented your movie in February, you would not get the royalties for that until the end of April. You also have to meet a threshold before they will give you any money. You must earn $10 or more for direct deposit and $100 or more before they will issue you a check. So if only one person rented your movie in February and you only earned $1, you still don't get paid at all. You need at least 10 rentals or some other combination of purchases that gets you up to $10, if you have direct deposit.
11. You will see royalties reported for DVD sales right away. So if your friend says, I bought a DVD from you! You can look on your Createspace dashboard and there it is. VOD sales are not reported in real time. You will see those sales 30 days after the end of the month the purchase was made. So if someone rented your movie in March, it would appear in the sales report at the end of April.
12. Closed Captioning. Remember earlier how I was doing closed captioning for broadcast, well I also needed it on Amazon. The process for submitting your closed captioning file is a little strange given the rest of the process. You don't upload it anywhere from your account. You have to email your .scc file to timedtextfiles@CreateSpace.com and you have to make sure you name the file properly so they know which project it goes to. If you have questions about it, you can also email the same address and ask them. Again, they won't tell you if captions are required or not. You have to figure that out.
Hope that helps clear a few things up! Leave a comment if you have questions or want more info.
What I Learned about Createspace:
1. You need an unencrypted disc image file (.iso) you can burn this with toast on a mac, which is what I did. You might also be able to burn one on a PC with Windows Disc Image Burner. I can't speak to the PC way of burning this since I didn't go that route.
2. Your iso file must have 2 folders and only 2 folders on it and they must be "VIDEO_TS" and "AUDIO_TS." Nothing more. If you're like me, you might have a disc that only has the video folder. If that's the case, you must create an empty audio folder before you burn the iso. Createspace will reject your file if it isn't done exactly this way.
3. When your submission gets rejected, the Createspace staff won't tell you exactly why. They'll give you a standard rejection message basically saying something didn't meet their standards. You just have to try to figure out what specific guideline you failed to follow. They will reset your submission status fairly quickly so you can try again. I think I submitted iso files 3 times before they finally approved my last one.
4. I accidentally started a VOD only project and now there are 2 My Toxic Backyard pages on Amazon...forever. Unfortunately someone bought a copy before I had the file deleted (even though on my dashboard it was listed as still pending approval and I couldn't delete it myself, plus the purchase didn't show up in my royalties so I had no way of knowing that someone purchased it.) After many messages back and forth trying to understand what happened, Createspace informs me now that they can never get rid of this second page on Amazon. So make sure if you want to give people the option of purchasing a DVD that you are doing a DVD project when you start! You can add a VOD option all in the same project later on or at the same time.
5. Expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks for your files to be approved. You want to start this process well in advance of your release! Once approved, you will still have to enable it for sale, which will take at least an additional 30 days for VOD. You must order a test DVD (about $7) and check it before they will let you sell it. You can't skip this step. When I enabled my DVD for sale, it was available within a day. Trying to enable the VOD in the same project, has proven to be taking much longer. At the time of posting this, I'm still waiting. They won't tell you when your project is up for sale either, you just have to keep checking it. (Be sure to check on Amazon, don't trust your createspace dashboard, mine said "pending" when it was actually "available.")
6. You can set the price for your DVD sales, but you can't set the price for you VOD download and rental. You only get to suggest VOD pricing.
7. You also have the option to make a Createspace store front that you can have directly on your website and you'll make more royalties from it, but it's separate from Amazon, so anyone buying from your store will have to enter their shipping and credit card information to make the purchase and they don't have an option to get free shipping. You can offer coupon codes for your store to sweeten the deal for your customers, but the coupon codes don't work on Amazon.
8. The price you set for your DVD will be the same on Amazon and in your Createspace store front. You can't make one less than the other. So keep that in mind when setting your price.
9. Amazon takes a huge cut. They do all the order fulfillment so they are taking a lot of the burden off your hands. Just don't expect to get rich quick unless you sell lots and lots of copies.
10. The money you earn from sales (royalties) gets paid out either once a month or once every 60 days, depending on the type of media. For example for VOD if someone rented your movie in February, you would not get the royalties for that until the end of April. You also have to meet a threshold before they will give you any money. You must earn $10 or more for direct deposit and $100 or more before they will issue you a check. So if only one person rented your movie in February and you only earned $1, you still don't get paid at all. You need at least 10 rentals or some other combination of purchases that gets you up to $10, if you have direct deposit.
11. You will see royalties reported for DVD sales right away. So if your friend says, I bought a DVD from you! You can look on your Createspace dashboard and there it is. VOD sales are not reported in real time. You will see those sales 30 days after the end of the month the purchase was made. So if someone rented your movie in March, it would appear in the sales report at the end of April.
12. Closed Captioning. Remember earlier how I was doing closed captioning for broadcast, well I also needed it on Amazon. The process for submitting your closed captioning file is a little strange given the rest of the process. You don't upload it anywhere from your account. You have to email your .scc file to timedtextfiles@CreateSpace.com and you have to make sure you name the file properly so they know which project it goes to. If you have questions about it, you can also email the same address and ask them. Again, they won't tell you if captions are required or not. You have to figure that out.
Hope that helps clear a few things up! Leave a comment if you have questions or want more info.
