I have one thing to say about my Draft2Digital review- WOW!
Draft2Digital (D2D) has been on my to-do list for a while, but I didn’t want to share my thoughts until I used it. Now, however, with a couple of months under my belt and a few ebooks published, I can only say that Draft2Digital really looks like it knows what it is doing.
Like Smashwords, which is now part of D2D, it is an aggregator. This means that it is a self-publishing service that publishes to retailers such as Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, among others.
But for me, I am only interested in the three main book retailers I mentioned above. So, what does Draft2Digital offer, and how does it stack up?
What impressed me about Draft2Digital?
Firstly, after I registered my account, it only took ten minutes to add all the necessary details.
It really was super easy.
This included my author profile and basic account information.
Most importantly for me, as I am not a US resident, I also added my IRS tax exemption information.
All good to go after ten minutes?
Yes!
I had all the boring stuff done in next to no time.
Next, I set up my payment information. Again, it was simple.
Draft2Digital pays monthly by EFT with a $10.00 minimum or PayPal with no minimum.
For me, payment by PayPal and once a month is a real winner.
Publishing an ebook
Then, when I started loading up my first ebook, some very pleasant surprises were in store for me.
Setting up a pre-order was easy. All I had to do was set my advanced publishing date on the first publishing page.
On the same page, loading up a Word document was a breeze.
There was no need to read a long style guide or even create a table of contents, a title page, or an about the author page.
All of these are added automatically by Draft2Digital.
My Word file included all of these, so I had to go back and delete them from my manuscript file. But next time, I’ll know better.
All you need to upload is your manuscript with your chapter headings. Draft2Digital looks after the rest.
Selecting genres is simple, and adding keywords separated by commas is a nice touch.
Setting the retail price has a super option. You can set different prices for individual retailers or even countries.
It is a great option for Indie authors to be able to test pricing strategies in different markets.
Better still, there was an option to add a New Release Email Notifications Signup page at the end of the ebook. And even a teaser page for other books in a series.
When I had my ebook ready to publish, there was another great feature. I could download a preview of my ebook in an epub file.
I could also choose to download mobi and pdf formats as well. It is a terrific way to check your ebook before hitting the publish button.
Okay, all done. I published my first ebook without one single hassle.
Draft2Digital had another pleasant surprise
Not only did I get the standard confirmation of publishing email, but a little later, I started getting emails confirming that my ebook was live on Apple.
Then, I received another for Kobo, with links to my ebooks for each retailer, which I could use for promotion. I like this small gesture a lot.
Okay, it’s only been a short while of testing and trying out features. But all I can say is that Draft2Digital ticks off all my priority self-publishing boxes and much more.
The only tiny moan I have is that I would like to have information about what SEO D2D applies to its published ebooks. But this is a very minor point.
Like most self-published authors, I like to have some of my ebooks exclusive with KDP Select and others open-published.
In the past, I have used Smashwords to distribute to retailers other than Amazon.
However, I will now have to reconsider. Draft2Digital impressed me with its publishing platform, and it has all the distribution channels I want to use.
While I know about the realistic sales potential of Apple, B&N, and Kobo, I am still looking forward to seeing how my few ebooks fare after using Draft2Digital.
Update
It has been a while since I originally wrote this Draft2Digital review.
All I can say is that I am still super impressed with Draft2Digital.
Now that I have sold some books, I can say that the sales report system is easy to check.
Another small improvement is that when authors sell only a few ebooks per month, there is now no minimum payment threshold or fees for PayPal payments.
So you get paid every month for every book sale. Even if you only sell one copy.
Another tool that I am using now is D2D’s universal book link. It’s a very clever way to promote your books on all your retailers using only one link.
You can also set up a free author page.
If you are considering changing your ebook sales strategy from only Amazon to open publishing, perhaps you should consider Draft2Digital as your aggregator to help sell your books via other retailers.
You can also read my updated and extended review of Draft2Digital vs Smashwords.
Are you new to ebook publishing?
If you are getting ready to publish an ebook for the first time, Draft2Digital produced a great video to help you through the book publishing process.
When you tackle something for the first time, you need to take it step by step.
Ebook publishing is quite simple, but sometimes it is easier to see how it is done rather than reading a long how-to guide for publishing advice.
So, for those of you who prefer to watch how it works, this video will certainly help you on your way to publishing your first ebook.
Related Reading: In And Out Of Amazon KDP Select, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital
I am publishing my first book and am 77 tears old. I have edited it from a manuscript that was placed in my hands a couple of years ago. I do not expect to make any money on it as it is a labor of love for one of my dearest friends from Kenya. All proceeds from the book will go directly to him, if I can get it set up that way. (1) My question is if I do ebook can I still have printed copies for people to order without us paying for a hundred or so up front. I could just order a few hard copies as we needed them I hope and have them sent to where they needed to go.. (2) Also it is about Christian events and his personal testimony of how Christ raised him from the dead.. He is the author and I am editing it for him. I would like to self publish to keep the initial costs low (3) but should I just go with a Christian Publisher.? I am doing the final proofing now. I have several photos and a handful of illustrations. In the booklet form it is 84 pages. (4) how is the best way to design the front and back paper covers. Is there a specific software I need to use? I have adobe on my laptop. I do have a paypal account. I personally feel this is a message that needs to be shared and would hope for it to reach as many readers as possible. It is a life changing message for sure. Thank you in advance for anything you can give me good direction on….gls
Regarding your questions, Gary.
1) Yes, you can self-publish in ebook and paperback.
2) Self-publishing is free, so there is no cost apart from proof copies for printed books,
3) That’s your choice to make.
4) There are many articles on this site that show you how to create covers and back matter.
I want to publish my book asap. I have everything ready but the problem is if I convert coverpage to jpg the fonts and design change which I dont want so not able to go with other publishers for this reason.
Secondly I want my about author page to be written by me so will D2D accept these matters?
Whats the timeline of getting published?
Please advise.
I can’t help you with file conversion without knowing what file type you are trying to convert to jpeg. There is no change of fonts or design if you are converting standard files.
Yes, you always write your own author bio, etc for all self-publishing platforms.
Most self-publishing services such as D2D and KDP usually publish an ebook version in 24 hours.
I recently completed the online tax interview section of D2D application process… I provided them my information SS number and ID number for driver license. Now they are asking that I send a picture of my driver license. Is that common? I don’t feel comfortable sending in my driver license ID image. Is this a common request for the D2D IRS tax interview application process?
Tax requirements and laws differ from country to country, Nonye. The best advice I can give you is to contact D2D and ask why your ID image is a requirement.
Ive been using D2D since their beginning and am happy with their services. I have had ebooks turn out bad, but it’s always been something wrong with my Word copy. I simply go back to Word, check my doc, fix it, and try again. Sometimes it takes a while, yes, but I persist until I’m happy with the file.
My ebooks look a lot better since I invested in a couple of templates by BookDesignTemplates. Another service some people swear by and others don’t. I’m very happy so far. And I bought my templates while a sale was running so I can reuse them for all my books. Took a lot of the guesswork out of spacing and all that stuff, and they include fonts to go with them. Which is great when you’re doing your own PDFs as I am. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter as D2D uses only Garamond. I’m okay with that. Readers change the font on their devices anyway. I do.
Pictures do bounce around, but again, I’ve found my issues to be due to something going on in my Word file. In my short story A Perfect Napping Spot, I tried wrapping the text around them where I could. I’m sure it could be done better still, and I’ll keep trying with it whenever I update the story or the cover. So far it’s my most downloaded permafree story.
I’ve been invited to try out their POD option. As I do Amazon directly, I’m not sure how to approach this. Probably need to publish in both places. For my novels, I have my own numbers. For the free stuff, I go with free ISBNs.
My only wish with D2D is for more themes for other genre. They have none for kids books. But, even so, my middle grade novel looks good in the simple themes, so I’m happy. I take the resulting .Mobi files for my books and stories and upload to Amazon once all kinks are worked out.
True, support can take a couple of days. And I’ve had to explain my problem more than once if I didn’t get a satisfactory response. But it’s not enough to make me want to leave.
I am not too impressed so far – I uploaded my book at beginning of July and am still waiting for it to be published. I contacted them and they replied two days later saying I hadn’t filled in a form (It wasn’t clear I had to). Anyway I duly filled it in, now a week later I am still waiting for it to be published…
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I can only say I never had a problem with D2D. But it has been a little while since I published a new book. It would be interesting to hear if other authors are having any problems.
SO helpful! You’ve taken away a great deal of anxiety about taking the step to get my book out there!
After I read good comments about D2D I dug in for more details of their service. They are strictly digital publishers. They do not support paper on demand printing service. I was told by them that I need to look for that service on my own.
I think there has been a change since Createspace closed. From memory, D2D offered print on demand before. But that is probably not possible now due to Amazon merging Createspace into KDP print on demand publishing.
Derek, Thanks for the informative encouraging review of D2D. I have two EBooks on Smashwords and sales have not gone well even with extended coupons. I am going to try a recommended author marketing program that operates from the premise, market to one reader at a time. I like the cost factor for both D2D and Smashwords. Any thoughts on how to boost EBook sales?
Thanks for your posts and reviews.
David Russell
Does your free ISBN # list you or the author as the owner/publisher? How much dos it matter?
A free ISBN will list the author, but the issuer as the publisher. For instance, Createspace, Smashwords or Lulu. Does it matter? It’s up to each author.
This all sounds great. I have 3 books which I am trying to get printed / published by ebook and / or hardcover.Draft to Digital sounds the way to go.
How do I start?
Is there a telephone number I could talk to someone about getting started ?
Tizi Hodson
We are not a publisher, Tizi. All the advice on our site is self-help. You can start by reading our guides in the main menu to get started.
I would definitely recommend Draft2Digital, Savy. As for US tax information, you can now sometimes us a local business registration number.
I’ve been trying to decide between draft2digital and publishdrive. What information were you required to the tax exemption? Are you asked for your SSN or ITIN number?
e
Hi Savy, Zsofia from PublishDrive here, thank you so much for the mention! Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. We also do not withhold any tax and accept authors from all over the world. For tax exemption, we ask authors to fill in a very short declaration: we only ask for legal name, address and ID number / Social security number / Tax number (one of these country specifically).
Kind regards,
Zsofia
Draft2Digital was not a good experience for me. When I searched the internet for information about them, most of what I found was posted by them, lot’s and lot’s of marketing. When I uploaded my book, the conversion was very bad, the few photos I put in the book were bouncing all over the place, the end result was not something I would have been able to publish. Then I was bombarded with non-stop marketing emails from them, I was being spammed. When I asked for support to correct the automated formatting results of my book, the first email request for support was ignored, then on a second attempt, I got a reply after 3 or 4 days. The reply was useless, after all this time the support person is asking if I want him to look at my book. After requesting help several times and more than a week, the response was weak at best. I would say that Draft2Digital is not a serious business. When I got fed-up I started searching the internet and the D2D website for information on how to close my account, and I found nothing. When I emailed them to request information on how to close my account, I got an email response several days later informing me that they could not close my account because they did not have my email address. But wait, they sent me an email to tell me they didn’t have my email address. These guys are amateurs. Most of the information about them on the internet is marketing information posted by them. When uploaded the same Word document to Kindle, the conversion was very professional and ready to publish.
Good to know thanks for all the information if I want to distribute more widely. At the moment I’m just testing my debut toes in kdp select.
D2D is an amazing service and most of my sales comes thru this channel.
I see in the information of Draft2Digital that there are no UP FRONT costs. I was wondering about the ISBN. Is there a charge for that? I do like what I see but it seems almost too good to be true and you know what they say about that. Thanks for any info.
There’s no charge for an ISBN, Francine. True!
Thanks, good message, I have been combing through if I can get any reliable epub – market. And came across your blog, I am going to give a try. Amazon formatting is something else and sales are too slow too. Hey thanks
Who owns the rights to your book after they publish it? Can you have a “traditional publisher” publish it if it is selling well and one offers to do so?
I’m not sure I understand your question, David. But if you self-publish, you retain your book rights. However, if you sign with a publisher, you normally sign over your book rights.
Thanks for posting this blog. It was informative and for me, timely because I got up this morning with the goal of uploading one of my e-books to Smashwords but wanted to check one last time to make sure I could publish it on both Smashword’s and Amazon’s KDP platforms. My Google search brought up your blog on the first page.
I’ve put off publishing e-books with Smashwords because, 1) I’ve been waiting for my KDP Select period to time out, 2) Its converter is called Meat Grinder and if that doesn’t put an author off, I don’t know what would; 3) Smashwords will only accept Word Doc uploads for all its distributors, and I prefer to upload my e-books in epub format; 4) Sales at Amazon have not been very good. I have to take some responsibility for poor sales, of course, because once a potential reader finds one of my e-books, the writing had better be very good. But I also know that my e-books are just needles in a very large haystack. So it’s been difficult for me to evaluate the issue of quality versus quantity; that is, How good is my writing? versus How many people have found my e-books?
Thanks to your blog, I’m going to give Draft to Digital a try. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, Bill. All I can say is, good luck with Draft2Digital. I have only been using D2D for a few months now, and I have to say that I’m extremely pleased so far. Yes, much easier than getting through the Smashwords’ meta-grinder! I am especially pleased with my sales on Apple iBooks. I experienced the same slowdown as you on Amazon, so I hope you find the same boost in sales on other retailers.
Interesting post. I haven’t yet used an aggregator, I publish direct to Amazon & Kobo (which is very easy). Sounds like D2D might be useful for the Apple market. Thanks.