While one ebook distributor two ebook distributors (Pronoun and Type & Tell) shut their doors in the space of a week, another has just flung open the doors to the biggest ebook retailer as Draft2digital is now offering distribution to Amazon Kindle stores.
D2D says it is now the one-stop shop for reaching all the biggest and most popular ebook retailers, covering Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, among others
Authors and self-publishers can add Kindle to their distribution options by ticking the Amazon Kindle box under the Publish to Digital Stores section in the Draft2digital publishing process.
Make sure your books are not already listed in KDP as books that are double-listed will be rejected by Amazon.
However, why would you want to distribute to Kindle through D2D when you can make more per sale by going direct and self-publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing?
D2D takes a slice of the royalty so if you distribute to Kindle through them you would end up with 60% of the list price rather than the 70% you’d get from Amazon on a book priced between $2.99-9.99.
There are a few reasons why you might consider using D2D for Kindle distribution.
For one, the D2D interface for uploading ebooks is much slicker and faster than Amazon, so it would take less time and it consolidates all your sales reporting in one place.
Going through D2D wouldn’t make sense unless you’re selling ‘wide’ as you can’t opt for being in KDP Select. But if you are going wide, then KDP Select won’t be concerning you and you could streamline the whole publishing process by using D2D.
But there are some drawbacks to consider, such as:
- You can’t use HTML in your book description on Draft2digital while you can use a reasonable range of HTML with KDP.
- D2D uses BISAC Subjects when it comes to picking categories for books while KDP has its own category system which delves deeper.
- The reporting system for sales is more sophisticated at KDP.
In the end, it’s going to depend on individual circumstances and preferences on whether you should use D2D to sell through Kindle but it’s great to see Draft2digital expanding its options and offering more choice to indie writers and publishers.