Abram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦

I received an email from Draft2Digital today that says it is no longer free to use; there will be a $20 activation fee for new accounts.

There is also an annual maintenance fee of $12 if your annual earnings (after Draft2Digital's commission) is less than $100.

This seems like a significant change that will probably push many authors back to Amazon.

I wonder what the disengagement process with Draft2Digital would be? It is entangled with at least a couple of dozen external accounts. If you close your Draft2Digital account, do they just keep all the future proceeds from your books on Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and all the rest?

#Draft2Digital #writing #WritingCommunity

Apr 15 at 4:06amWeb
Show threadDeb E. HowellApr 15

@AbramKedge I haven't received that, yet. I already publish directly to Kobo, so I'll stay there. The big thing will be the loss of discoverability via those bookstores, but I doubt I had that anyway. I guess I had been work on my marketing game and then I just just sell through Ko-Fi & Payhip like I do already.

I guess the other alternative is to get picked up by a publisher, who will have a more active account. I suspect that's the pressure they're going for.

Show threadMH ThaungApr 15
@AbramKedge I expect they'd unpublish your books from everywhere they cover, so no more sales unless you publish direct with individual stores. I like the ease and range, but realistically make no sales from smaller stores anyway.
Show threadCara BruarApr 15
@mhthaung @AbramKedge They would unpublish you everywhere if you close your account. You would also lose the associated Books to Read links so would have to redo your website and and publicity. I know this because D2D dumped my account without warning and without giving me any reason or chance to discuss.
Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦Apr 15

@CaraBruar @mhthaung sorry to hear that they treated you that way.

I suspect that their cost to do so would be quite substantial, and they're not anticipating the loss of many authors through this move.

Realistically, their "cost" for hosting an author is a few rows in a database and perhaps a second of processing time per year.

Show threadCara BruarApr 15
@AbramKedge @mhthaung
It's a rare website these days that can resist the chance to make more money
Show threadMH ThaungApr 15
@CaraBruar @AbramKedge Bah, that sucks. And good point about the Books to Read links.
Show threadEve  Apr 15

@AbramKedge Apparently, I can't CW a reply in my client. Ignore the upcoming unsolicited reply / advice if you'd prefer.

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When you pull your books from D2D, they will become unavailable on any stores that had them specifically because D2D pushed them there. I'm not sure how funds would be handled between the time you remove them and the moment they're actually no longer available on the target stores.

Some authors move their books between D2D and direct because direct gets better payouts (for the things you can feasibly publish direct in).

Because D2D has payment thresholds, the gap time may not be particularly relevant. But, on the upside, you would then be free to republish the work directly without having D2D take a cut.

If you go that route and used DOCX or ODT files to publish to D2D initially, please do reach out to #WritingCommunity if you run into any issues trying to get them reformatted for Kindle or Kobo.

Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦Apr 15

@EveHasWords your advice is very much appreciated, thank you!

I'm all for getting information into the conversation, you never know who is going to see it and be helped by it.

Show threadStuart J. WhitmoreApr 15
@AbramKedge How many people who have struggled to gain traction with wide books will give up on that and go all-in with Amazon now, even if they really want to go in the other direction? That applies to me - Amazon brings me readers, the other platforms don't, so my wide sales (direct or via D2D) have always been weak. I want to get away from Amazon - but this pushes me to go all-in there, because it's not efficient to maintain low-/zero-sales books on multiple other sites. "Thanks" D2D....
Show threadStuart J. WhitmoreApr 15

@AbramKedge

My initial reaction to this was too strong. I think I mentally registered the annual fee as a monthly fee. I can manage $12/year to support distribution outside of Amazon.

#Draft2Digital #Writing #writingcommunity

Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦Apr 15
@stuart_j_whitmore that's fair. I'm trying to cut out subscriptions that may be difficult to track down.
Show threadErotic Mythology 🌈Apr 15
@stuart_j_whitmore @AbramKedge No, it wasn't too strong. I probably won't make the $100 but more than $12 for sure. But my first year of publishing wide I made $0.50. This cuts the first rungs on the ladder for anyone considering to leave Amazon. It'll also do fuck all to actually combat AI slop. Content farms are way more likely to make $100 than human authors like me who can only really publish to Smashwords because all the other retailers on #Draft2Digital reject erotica.
Show threadAbram Kedge🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦Apr 15
@AimeeMaroux @stuart_j_whitmore Have to admit, it's painful to see everything accumulated under the payment threshold taken away for "admin", when the actual cost per author is near as damnit zero.
Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Apr 15

@AbramKedge
Ugh same.

They won't be taking the fee until 2027, so I have until then to either become a breakout fringe SF author or grudgingly budget £12 for what is effectively low-cost but low-effectiveness marketing.

I think I'll mostly keep D2D around so I can move my paperbacks off Amazon when I have the energy to re-package them and get some fresh cover art, which is a thing I have been putting off for literal years.

Show threadWalter ThinmanApr 16
@petealexharris @AbramKedge it's good to know it's not going into effect until 2027 (I'd probably have known that if I read the email more thoroughly.) I appreciate having a little time to figure out what to do and how to do it. I wonder if there will be enough backlash for them to reverse course.