Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital’s service offers a simple way to directly sell ebooks with (almost) every major retailer. Instead of creating separate accounts with Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, etc., you can:

• Set up a single Draft2Digital account;
• Upload your manuscript files;
• Let D2D publish your ebook to over a dozen of the biggest retailers; and
• Manage your pricing and payments through your D2D dashboard

This approach to ‘wide’ distribution can save authors hours of work every week by taking the task of monitoring and managing multiple accounts off their hands. This leaves you more time to run ads, write your next book, or do your laundry (whichever’s more important on any given day).

How much does D2D cost? In place of any upfront fees, Draft2Digital takes 15% of net royalties in exchange for managing your retailers and handling your payments. This means, for example, if you sell an ebook on Amazon for $4.99

• Amazon’s Royalty is 30% ($1.497) -- Net royalty is $3.493
• Draft2Digital takes 15% ($0.524) -- The author’s royalty is ($2.969)

Draft2Digital’s pricing model is reassuringly reliant on authors actually selling books. Unlike a few of their competitors, they’re incentivized to help you maximize your sales.

In this next section, we’ll take a look at a few of their functions to see if they can help you publish your book and reach a wider audience.

Distribution: a simple way to ‘go wide’ This is, of course, Draft2Digital’s biggest selling point. When you upload your book to their site, you can customize which retailers your book is sold through:

• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• Apple
• Tolino
• Vivlio
• Amazon

In addition, you can list your title on a number of subscription services:

• Scribd
• 24 Symbols
• Kobo Plus (available in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Canada)

And, if you’re looking to make your book available to ebook libraries, their distribution network also includes:

• OverDrive
• Bibliotheca
• Baker & Taylor
• Hoopla (still in beta)