Draft2Digital Review: How Does this Ebook Distribution Platform Work?

One of the hardest parts of making money as a self-published author is the lack of marketing that you'd otherwise get from a big publisher. And ultimately, without marketing, the books won’t sell.

It's hard for self-published writers to decide which online stores or distribution channels to use for their ebook sales or distribution. They usually end up choosing just a few of the big names like Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc. This ends up resulting in fewer book sales, as you end up losing the opportunity to gain sales from the other platforms.

So, the real question is – can Draft2Digital help you increase your book sales? 

The answer is yes. Draft2Digital makes the distribution process simpler for you.

If you upload your manuscript, Draft2Digital can submit the book on your behalf, and you can choose 17 of the biggest retailer platforms to list your book.

Draft2Digital can also assist you in distributing both printed copies and audiobooks with the help of Findaway Voices.

So, today we’ll be going over:

• what Draft2Digital is
• how it works
• how to set up your Draft2Digital account
• how much it will cost to do so
• its pros and cons
• alternatives to Draft2Digital 

What is Draft2Digital?

While they weren't the first to do it, since its introduction in 2012, Draft2Digital has emerged as an indie publisher's go-to option for "wide" distribution. Headquartered in Oklahoma, it was established with the goal of simplifying the distribution process of ebooks to different online retailers.

If you didn’t know before, Draft2Digital works as an aggregator. They handle distribution services for writers who aren’t exclusive to a single platform. You just need to publish your "wide" ebooks to Draft2Digital, and they will take care of the rest, saving you the trouble of repeatedly uploading them to every major retailer.

Over the years, they've added other tools to help writers save time and money, as well as giving them an advantage in book promotion. In 2018, they introduced their print-on-demand feature. This lets authors print their books directly through Draft2Digital instead of through other third-party options.

Just last year, they bought fellow rival Smashwords. So they provide even more opportunities now than ever before.

Aside from wide publishing, Draft2Digital also gives you tools to help with formatting, promotion, and sales tracking. We'll talk about them in detail later, but first, how does Draft2Digital work?

How Does Draft2Digital Work?

When it comes to publishing an ebook, everything becomes much easier with Draft2Digital. You can sign up in less than two minutes, and after that, you can start browsing the site without even opening your wallet – because it's free to get started, you just pay a commission on your sales.

With the help of Draft2Digital, you can sell ebooks to every major retailer with zero hassle. Rather than opening individual accounts on Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, etc, you can: 

• Sign up for a free Draft2Digital account
• Set up payment information
• Upload your manuscript files to Draft2Digital
• Choose which one of the 17 retailers you want to publish your ebook to
• Use the dashboard to track your sales and royalties from the retailers

Widely distributing like this could save hours of labor every week by handling the administration and maintenance of several accounts. This frees up more time for you to do laundry, write your next book, or run advertisements, depending on what's most essential at that moment.

Draft2Digital Publishing: A Complete Review of the Process

Now, let’s go over how you can upload your first book to Draft2Digital.

Creating an account

1. Firstly, you need to create an account. It's a pretty simple process. All you need to do is click the sign-up button at the far right corner of the screen, and you will be taken to the sign-up page.
2. After filling up the basic information like your name, pen name, and email address and choosing a password, you will have to verify the mail to access your account.
3.  Finally, before you can start uploading your books, you must complete your tax documentation.

And you’re done.

Uploading a book to Draft2Digital

1. To publish your first book, all you need to do is click the “Add New Book” button in the account. 

2. Then, you will be asked if you want to create a new ebook or a print book.
3. Before you can upload your manuscript, you will have to add some basic information, like the title of your book, the cover art, if it’s part of a series or not, the name of the publisher, the name of the author, and the target audience of your book.

Draft2Digital will be using this information in all the retail shops.

4. You also have the option to choose what tags best identify your book. Carefully choose these as these will help your book reach your target audience.

5. Finally, click the “Start Ebook” button to proceed to the next step.

Adding your ebook’s details

In the details page, you’ll have to upload your final manuscript. You’ll also have to put your ebook description here.

You can also choose a free ISBN from Draft2Digital or choose to use one of your own.

Once you’re done, click Save & Continue to proceed.

Formatting and finalizing

In the layout page, you can add additional pages for dedication, copyright information, promotional pages, etc. You can check your chapter layout from here as well.

To check how your final products will look like, you can (and should) download various versions of the ebook. After you've reviewed the finished work and are satisfied, click Save & Continue to proceed again.

Setting a price and choosing your distributors

On the final page, you can set the price of your book and select which of the many major distributors you want to choose. After you choose your price, Draft2Digital will show you the projected royalties for your ebook from each distributor.

You can also choose to put your book up on library services like OverDrive, Odilo, cloudLibrary, etc.

Draft2Digital uses US dollars by default. When launching your book in multiple countries, it will convert the prices based on the exchange rate at the time of publishing. You can click “Manage Territorial Prices” to set the prices individually as you wish. This can help you avoid odd prices like 57.85 (when 59.99 looks better).

Your book will be uploaded once you hit submit – that's all.

Draft2Digital will email you when your book is listed in the stores. How much time it takes will vary from store to store.

And just like that, you’ve uploaded your first ebook without spending a cent.

Distributors, PoD, and Sales Tracking: Draft2Digital’s Best Features

Now that you know how to upload an ebook, let's learn in detail what features you can get from Draft2Digital.

Draft2Digital’s distribution partners

Let’s start with Draft2Digital’s USP. Their current major distributing partners include:

Digital stores

• Amazon
• Apple Books
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• Smashwords
• Tolino
• Gardners
• Vivlio
• Fable

Subscription services

• Everand

Library services

• OverDrive
• cloudLibrary
• Baker & Taylor
• BorrowBox
• Hoopla
• Palace Marketplace
• Odilo

You can choose to list your book in any (or all) of these options.

Universal book links (UBLs)

When you promote your book – in a Facebook post, in a blog post on your website, in a guest blog, etc. – it's a basic practice to include a link to the book so that an interested buyer can easily find it without having to look it up. However, you don't know which buyer prefers which website, one might prefer Amazon while another buyer might like Apple Books.

Listing so many ugly links at the end of your post doesn't look nice.

That's where the magic of Draft2Digital’s Universal Book Links comes into play.

Just by clicking the “Make My Universal Link” button, Draft2Digital will give you a link that will lead to a landing page with all relevant stores. So, when a potential buyer clicks this universal link, they can easily choose their preferred distributor.

The best part is that you don't even need to be a Draft2Digital user to use it.

Sales tracking

Any good aggregator will let you easily analyze your sales data because you need to know whether your self-published book is making a profit or not.

You can easily track your sales and royalties from Draft2Digital’s dashboard.

Just clicking the “Reports” button will give you an overview of your sales and royalties. You'll get an aggregate of all the sales you've made from the different platforms – this is normal if you're publishing on so many platforms.

You'll also be shown your “Verified Royalties Due” amount. This is the amount you'll be receiving after Draft2Digital takes their 10% cut and the distributor takes their sale commission.

You can go even further into your sales data by checking your sales from individual sales channels as well.

Automated new-release notifications

Draft2Digital can also collect your readers' emails so that they will receive a notification whenever you release a new book.

Easy changes 

Draft2Digital lets you update the metadata or pricing of your book as many times as you want, and they will automatically change it in the relevant places.

However, what if you notice you made a mistake in your ebook? Draft2Digital gives you one free change every 90 days (there are paid changes available as well). You can change anything you want, including the draft, cover, or interior of the book.

Print on demand

Draft2Digital’s print-on-demand services (where books are printed only when ordered, eliminating the need for large upfront print runs) have been available since 2018. The service is still in beta, but don't let that bother you; it's fully functional, and you can use it without any issues.

Your printed books will be distributed through Amazon. You, as the author, are responsible for paying the printing costs for each book sold. These costs can vary depending on factors like book size, page count, and chosen paper type.

How Much Does Draft2Digital Cost?

Draft2Digital doesn't take any upfront monthly or yearly fees like other competitors. In exchange for this, they will instead take 10% of the list price of your book for each sale they make.

So, this means that if you sell an ebook on Amazon for $10:

• Amazon will keep 30% of it ($3) 
• Draft2Digital will keep another 10% of it ($1)
• You will keep 60% of the list price ($6)

As you can see here, their revenue model is heavily dependent on the author making a sale instead of charging an upfront fee and forgetting about it. If you don’t sell any books they can’t charge anything for the service they gave you.

They make more profit if you sell more books. So, they have every reason to help you sell more books.

Another distinction is that competitors that charge an upfront fee usually take a percentage of your royalties – so, in the Amazon example, they would have only taken 10% of $7 which is $0.7. In that case, you would have gotten a royalty of $6.3. But you would have to count the upfront fees then.

The Pros and Cons Of Draft2Digital 

Although we’ve only talked about the pros of Draft2Digital, let's have a quick rundown of the pros and cons you could face:

Pros

• Easy formatting: You can easily format your book just by uploading the manuscript and clicking some buttons.
• UBLs: UBLs are definitely a plus when you're selling on multiple storefronts.
• Print on demand: No need to break your bank to print a thousand copies before you have even received an order and just print as you receive the orders.
• A huge list of distributors: With such a big list of distributors you can be sure you won't be missing out on any major stores.
• Sales tracking tools: You can easily track every sale you make in all the different channels.
• Notifications: Send a notification email to all your fans every time you release a new book to guarantee some sales.
• Pricing: You can easily change the price from a central hub for all the stores.
• Free ISBNs: Draft2Digital will give you free ISBNs and you know these are expensive otherwise.

Cons

• Potential for more profit: Although this pricing model is good, if you’re selling a lot of books, you might want to look into other distributors who let you keep more of your royalties.
• POD fees: Their POD fees are pretty standard. But the fact you can only change your manuscript once every 90 days can be a hassle if you need to change it more than once. Amazon, on the other hand, lets you make as many changes as you want. But if you can get it right the first time, then this might not be a problem for you.
• Access to the mail list: It is always better for you to collect email addresses yourself. Because it is going to be tough trying to get your readers into your reading list and Draft2Digital’s new book list at the same time.

Draft2Digital Reviews: What are Customers Saying?

We've said enough, now let's see what other users have to say about Draft2Digital in some popular reviews:

• Simon Smith (on Trustpilot about how helpful the customer service is): “I've had a very positive experience using Draft2Digital. I got into a bit of an issue with Neilsen, the ISBN company, and Amazon. Eda, the customer support person at Draft2Digital, went the extra mile to get things sorted. As for setting up books on the platform, I found it pretty straightforward. Before believing the bad reviews on here, it might be worth bearing in mind how many people use the platform happily.”
• Hugh Delis (on Trustpilot doesn't like the payment threshold): “Avoid using Draft2Digital for your book publishing needs. They do not pay out after your book makes sales. Before reaching the payout threshold, they block your book, keeping your earnings. Choose a more reliable and honest book publishing company instead.”
• Sarah (on Trustpilot about strict regulations for certain topics): “Do not distribute through Draft2Digital if you write romance or erotica. Their content moderators are even stricter than Amazon—to the point of absurdity. If you work with this company, you run the risk of getting banned + D2D withholding your royalties. Apparently, my books are too racy for them. They're more than happy to pocket that dirty money, though. A bunch of crooks.”
• Stephan Vogel (on Trustpilot is one of the many Smashwords migrants who are not happy with Draft2Digital): “Draft2Digital acquired the company Smashwords, and as a result, I had to migrate an account to Draft2Digital from Smashwords. I’ve never had a problem with Smashwords. Draft2Digital (D2D) sends me an email informing me that their third-party tax identity specialists will be sending me an email with instructions on how I can verify my tax identity. I did that, following instructions, and Draft2Digital continues to email me saying that I have only 15 (and then 7) days left to verify my tax identity before my account is closed without any royalties unpaid. Even though I submitted all the requested documents, Draft2Digital continues to close my account with a 'permanent probation' email.”

Alternative Platforms for Your Ebook

Let's look at some other options to sell your ebooks.

Whop

Remember how we were talking about the potential for more profit? Whop can help you with that.

If you’re looking to make the most profit selling ebooks online, then Whop can be your go-to. Instead of 10% of your royalties or a subscription plan, Whop only charges 3% on every sale you make.

You heard it right – 3%. And as you can sell directly with Whop then you don't have to pay any extra royalties to Amazon or the like.

What's more – you are not limited to selling just ebooks. You can sell group memberships to a private community for your dedicated fans. You can also sell additional materials like initial drafts for your hardcore followers and more.

Amazon KDP

Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is a self-publishing platform owned by Amazon, which is owned by one of the richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos.

It’s called self-publishing because, unlike traditional publishing, you can do it for free. That’s right – you don't have to pay Amazon anything to do it for you. Just set the price and upload your book, and Amazon will do the rest for you.

So, what's the catch? How is Amazon making a profit from this?

Well, to put it simply – Amazon will take a cut of 30% from every ebook they sell on their platform. And 40% of the paperback excluding the printing cost.

There is also KDP Select, which gives Amazon exclusive rights to sell the book only on Kindle. The author won't be able to self-publish the ebook on any other store. In exchange for this, Amazon gives the author incentives like certain promotional tools, such as Kindle Unlimited, and higher royalty rates.

Gumroad

Gumroad, which was founded in 2012 by Sahil Lavingia, was the answer to every issue that arose for anyone wishing to sell digital goods on their website. It provides a very straightforward method for converting any website or blog into a secure online store.

Gumroad is very simple to use. Just sign up for an account, customize your page, and you can start selling digital products like ebooks, music, courses, or any other form of digital content. The platform handles the sale and digital delivery so that all of it is completed seamlessly.

It doesn't have any monthly fees, but it charges 10% on every sale you make.

Why Whop Is the Best Place to Sell Your Ebooks

Whop is an all-in-one marketplace for selling all sorts of digital products and services. Whop offers you the resources to bundle and sell in a simplified manner, regardless of whether you've developed a web application, downloadable software, an active Discord community, or digital files – and in this case – ebooks.

With the help of Whop, you can easily upload your ebook, create a fan community, and sell bonus digital products. You also get access to the dashboard where you can track all your customers and sales data – and the best part is, it takes only 3% of your royalties, which is lower than any other option you will find.

Join the Whop community today and start maximizing your profit from your ebooks.

FAQs

Here are some FAQs about Draft2Digital:

How do I remove a book from Draft2Digital?

If, for any reason, you want to remove one of your ebooks from Draft2Digital, the process is pretty simple.

1. Go to Draft2Digital and log in to your account.
2. Find and click the “My Books” button.
3. Find the ebook title you wish to delist and click on it.
4. At the bottom of the sales data, you will see two options: to edit the book and delist the book.
5. Click on delist and Draft2Digital will ask you if you want to delist this or not. Click yes and it's done.

Is Smashwords now Draft2Digital?

As of March 1, 2022, Smashwords is now part of Draft2Digital. Because of this acquisition, Draft2Digital now owns Smashwords. Even though the Smashwords brand still exists, its operations have been integrated into Draft2Digital. Authors who previously used Smashwords can continue to manage their books through their Draft2Digital accounts.

Before the acquisition, Smashwords had been operating for more than 15 years.

How much does Draft2Digital pay?

Draft2Digital takes 10% of the price of the book, and the distributor takes their commission.

Author earnings = Book price - 10% D2D Fees - Distributor fees.

So, as usual, you are left with around 60% royalties. But it mainly depends on the distributor's commission rate.

Draft2Digital provides detailed information about estimated royalties on their official website, so you can see how much you can expect to earn for each sale on different platforms.