Kevin Sivils is an experienced self-publishing author. He's used both CreateSpace and other print on demand companies, so he has a basis for comparison. Primarily he uses his books to promote and support his main work as a basketball coach and trainer. There are many advantages to self-publishing for authors. The amount they make per book can be higher (and they set their own prices, so they can control this, though they also have to consider the constraint of how much the market is willing to pay).
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Publishing is much faster. It can take commercial and university book publishers years to take a manuscript from contract to published. CreateSpace pays every month, so authors don't have to wait for a royalty check every six months -- paid out of uncertain cash flows only after everybody else in the publishing company including the janitor has already cashed their paycheck).
And that's if and only if they actually receive royalties. Most books don't earn out their advances, so the author gets nothing after that first exciting check. Of course, with CreateSpace there are no advances. You give up that advance in exchange for a stream of cash flow that, you hope, will continue for years.
Plus, you have to do all the publishing details yourself, from designing the look of the interior of the book to writing the cover copy. And with CreateSpace the marketing of your book is totally up to you -- but that's also true with mainstream publishing. They do not promote books except by A level authors such as J K Rowling and Stephen King.
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