The Future of Indie Publishing
Draft2Digital has a reputation
for continually tinkering under the hood, improving on the tools and resources
we've already built, but also making all new resources that we know authors
really need. For the past two years, we've been on a pretty intense track of
growth and development, and we'll continue that in 2019.
We're looking forward to hearing
the reactions from authors, as we roll out new features.
Here Are A Couple of Things We're Releasing Over The Next Few Months:
D2D Print—We’ve built our business around providing authors with
access to solutions that make publishing simple and easy. We wanted to create
something that would allow authors to easily get their manuscript into a
paperback format and make it available for sale as quickly as possible, with no
extra overhead.
D2D Print is our solution.
Authors who upload their manuscript to D2D get automatic, free conversion to
ebook format (EPUB and MOBI) and to print layout. Authors can download the
print-ready PDF to use with any print on demand service they like. But to make
things even easier, D2D will now offer print distribution, worldwide, through
our own POD solution.
As part of this new tool, we’re
also introducing our new Cover Converter, which will take an ebook cover and
automatically convert it to a print layout, complete with the spine and back
cover, the book description, and an optional author photo and editable author
bio.
We’ve partnered with IPG, one of
the most well-known and trusted printers in the business, to distribute print
books globally. This includes making books available to physical bookstores. If
a reader wants to purchase your book from a bookstore, all they have to do is
request it. Stores can even stock your book on their shelves if there’s a
demand!
D2D Shared Universes—When Amazon closed down its Kindle Worlds
program, a lot of authors had to scramble to figure out what to do with their
shared intellectual properties. We had tons of request from world-owners and
contributing authors alike, asking if we could pick up where Kindle Worlds left
off.
We accepted that challenge, and
we’ll soon launch D2D Shared Universes.
Authors will be able to open
their worlds to contributing authors, who can write and publish using the same
characters and settings. The property owners maintain control and can set their
rate of royalty share, determine who can and cannot write in their world, and
more.
This launch opens the way for a
new feature that has been a recurring request from our authors: Royalty
splitting. As we work out the kinks, making sure that D2D Shared Universe
authors can depend on royalty splitting and other features, we intended to open
those features up to the rest of the D2D author family.
More New Features
We’re adding quite a few new
features over the next year, some of which we can’t really talk about just yet.
But they’re sure to be popular—most are things our authors have requested for
years!
We’re also making updates to how
things work, such as improvements to our user interface, and a lot of
behind-the-scenes updates that improve the functionality of our tools. All of
this is on-going, and it’s a constant and consistent improvement.
But there were some features
introduced over the past few months that some authors may not have heard about.
We’re improving on these, too, over 2019, and they’re worth checking out.
D2D Book Tabs—Building on the power of our Universal Book Links
(UBLs), D2D Book Tabs are a single-source promotional page aimed at promoting
your books to readers. They're an attractive landing page that has sales copy,
book description, a bit about the authors, and a button with a call to action.
Your book's cover is featured large and proud, as well.
And the page contains some
customizable elements to help you promote the book, including the addition of
our new Customizable Carousels—a scrollable "shelf" displaying books
from the same series, related books, or just books you'd like to promote.
D2D Book Tabs are a perfect
landing page for things like Facebook ads and social media posts, but they’re
just a part of a larger plan.
D2D Author Pages—Also building from UBLs, and part of the
Books2Read platform we’re developing, D2D Author Pages are your “home away from
homepage.”
These customizable pages let you
display an author photo and bio, as well as links for social media and even a
link to sign up for your newsletter. You can feature a “hero” book, such as a
new release, first in series, or something currently on promotion.
The Customizable Carousels are
featured here as well, and you can build shelves of books in a series or any
other category, and arrange their order.
All books are linked to our
Universal Book Links—a single link that allows readers to find your book
everywhere it’s sold online.
We Keep Building
There are a lot of ideas on our
board, and we want to get to all of them as quickly as possible. We see 2019 as
a wide field of potential, and we believe we’re building the tools that will
help authors find more readers and make more sales. Our goal for the year is to
improve discoverability for authors, we’re introducing features that, we
believe, will do just that.
The future of the industry, in
our estimate, is a move toward even greater control and reach for independent
authors, and a movement toward more empowerment with better tools. We think a
hybridized model of publishing is close at hand, and we believe our authors are
poised to make the best advantage of it. We're building tools aimed at that
crowd. It's an incredibly exciting time to be a part of this community.
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| KEVIN TUMLINSON |
Kevin Tumlinson is the Director of Marketing for Draft2Digital, as well
as a bestselling and award-winning thriller author in his own right.
He hosts
the popular Wordslinger Podcast, aimed at helping thousands of indie authors
build and grow a successful publishing career. Reach out to him and read more
blog posts at https://draft2digital.com
