The D2D Team is back! Jim, Nick, and Tara answered author questions about publishing and using Draft2Digital.
The D2D Team is back again, answering author questions! Jim, Nick, and Tara talk about publishing and the questions your fellow authors have about Draft2Digital.
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Make sure you bookmark https://D2DLive.com for links to live events, and to catch back episodes of the Self Publishing Insiders Podcast.
Kevin Tumlinson [00:00:02]:
You just tuned into the hippest way to start and grow your indie author career. Learn the ins, the outs and all the all arounds of self publishing with the team from D2D and their industry influencing guests. You're listening to Self publishing insiders with Draft2Digital.
Jim Azevedo [00:00:27]:
Hello everybody. Welcome to Self Publishing Insiders. I feel like it's been a long time since we've all been together, but it's only been a week. But today I'm excited because it's an ask us anything. Ask us anythings are pretty fun usually, but they're also kind of scary because we never know what's going to be thrown at us. So we got to be on top of our game. And so to be on top of our game, I've enlisted some star power here. So I've got Tara from Customer Support, the smartest person in the room whenever we're all in a room, always.
Tara [00:00:59]:
Thank you.
Jim Azevedo [00:01:01]:
And we've got Nick Thacker from bookcovers.com is here to join us as well. Nick, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Nick Thacker [00:01:07]:
Glad to have you back, dude. It's been, I've had to try to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders for a couple weeks in a row there without you around and they still allow us to have this podcast after those two weeks.
Jim Azevedo [00:01:22]:
Yeah, two weeks away from Draft2Digital feels like about three months. It's just, it's freaky. It's just like, wow, it's. I feel like it's been a really long time. So, you know, thank you for, for recovering from me while I was gone. I really appreciate it.
Nick Thacker [00:01:36]:
Hopefully you haven't lost your edge in, in your time off. Hopefully practicing in the off season.
Jim Azevedo [00:01:41]:
What edge is that? That we're talking. If we're talking about rusty edges, maybe. So I thought we would kind of kick this off by, you know, I'll break the ice. And I want to invite our, our audience out there that like, seriously, if you guys have any questions about Draft2Digital ebook publishing, print on demand publishing, book covers, the Smashboard store promotions, any, any of it, we will do our best to answer you. I thought I would break the ice though and talk about the latest Smashwords sale. So the Smashwords just completed its July summer winter sales event. So this is the sale that the Smashboard store has been doing, going all the way back to, I believe it was 2009 or 2010. Now I want to bring it up out there because there are still a lot of Draft2Digital authors.
Jim Azevedo [00:02:36]:
Maybe not a lot, but there are still some Draft2Digital authors who haven't yet distributed their books into the Smashwords Store. So I want to encourage you to do that because the Smashwords Store keeps not only meeting expectations, but it's beating like our own expectations. It keeps surprising us on how quickly it's growing. The store is on track to complete its ninth consecutive year of sales growth. That's. Yeah, that's, that is, that's worth mentioning because overall, industry wide, when it comes to ebook sales, ebook sales year over year across the industry are relatively kind of flat. They're kind of like this. So the fact that we've been able to grow year over year for nine consecutive years is huge.
Jim Azevedo [00:03:22]:
It's exciting. But check this out. So with the month long sale over the course of July, we not only beat the previous year's sales, but sales grew in the July summer winter sale by 35% year over year. That's wow. But the part that's got me even more excited than that is this. First time buyers. So people who come to the Smashwords Store for the very first time and made their very first purchase at the Smashwords Store, this sale attracted 60% more first time buyers than last year's sales. And of those new buyers, they spent three times as much than first time buyers in last year's sale as well.
Jim Azevedo [00:04:08]:
So these aren't just first time visitors, these are people who actually are coming to the website and they're making purchases for their first time.
Tara [00:04:15]:
So that's amazing.
Jim Azevedo [00:04:17]:
It's amazing. I'm so excited about it. But it also tells us that something pretty interesting is happening out there in the indie community. Now granted, we've added a lot of authors to the Smashboard store and to draft a digital who are distributing their books into the Smashwords Store. Of course those authors are placing their books in the Smashwords Store. But I think what's happening is out there, like when you go to the Smashwords Store today, just the quality of the homepage, all those book covers on the home page, like, whoa, I feel like we're all grown up now.
Nick Thacker [00:04:52]:
You know, Jim, it feels to me like so I'm an author, right? And I've been an author for over 15 years. And so kind of right about when Kindle launched, when Amazon launched the Kindle program. And of course KDP Draft2Digital and Smashwords were around then. And so I sort of remember the beginning being like indie. You know, we used to call it self publishing and that was like almost a taboo word. Was like trying to latch on to traditional or now what's called old School publishing. Right. Or the old way of doing things, which isn't a bad way of doing things.
Nick Thacker [00:05:26]:
It's just a different way of doing things. The point is, I feel like Indy was always trying to be like, hey, also us. Look at us. Us too. And so we were trying to sell our books in the places the traditional publishing world had built and existed and operated in. And now like Smashwords as a store has always been an independent bookstore. And so now it's like we have our own space, we have our own bookstores, we have our own industry, basically. And, and that doesn't mean we preclude, you know, trad authors from hanging out with us at the Cool Kids.
Nick Thacker [00:05:59]:
It's just we're building our own thing. And Smashwords Store is, it seems to be indicative of that and that that trend of readers also wanting independent and readers also wanting, you know, their, their, their own version of, of the book industry. And it's not just authors trying to say, hey, we look, I can write a book and sell it. It's readers going, no, I like independent all the way up, all the way to the store selling me the book. That's probably a roundabout way of saying it. You guys can probably make that sound a lot more eloquent, but that's what it feels like to me, you know, looking at it from an insider as well.
Tara [00:06:30]:
And it's worth noting that authors are making more money at the Smashwords Store than any other Amazon, Apple, Kobo. You make more money per sale because you, you're, you're receiving more in royalties back. So it's also worth noting not only are the cells up, not only are first time buyers up, but you're making more money per sale when you sell at the Smashwords Store.
Nick Thacker [00:06:55]:
Right?
Jim Azevedo [00:06:56]:
Yeah.
Nick Thacker [00:06:56]:
Yeah, that's huge.
Jim Azevedo [00:06:57]:
And I think you both nailed it. Nick, your comment about what's happening in the indie community out there, the whole traditional way of, of publicizing books and marketing, especially new books, is, is changing out there. And you know, the influencers, the book talks and Bookstagrams of the world are really keying in on emerging trends and what's making those trends emerge. It's not the publishers, it's not the editors, it's not the publishing houses, it's the authors and the readers. It's not like publishers say, hey, let's create this new trend around romantasy. We're gonna, we're gonna call it romantasy and we're gonna market the heck out of it. No, it's the, it's the authors writing what they love. And it's the readers, those voracious readers losing their minds and telling all their friends out there and having these things really, really take off.
Jim Azevedo [00:07:50]:
And I think what's happening now is that a lot of the readers out there, the indie readers, as Nick was describing, you know, they. They're looking for the diamond in the rough, because what's exciting to them is finding that next breakout author and being part of that excitement of having. Helping them just break out and become bestsellers, you know, to the world. That's understandable.
Nick Thacker [00:08:12]:
And that's why everyone should read Nick Thacker books. Because I'm never heard of. No, I'm just kidding.
Tara [00:08:18]:
I, as a. I've been a reader my whole life. And what I notice about our, our indie author group is they are so open and, well, welcoming to their fans. They're online, they're talking to us, their fans, they're communicating. They're. They do, like, giveaways, and they do lots different things where, hey, name the next character. You know, you feel like you're actually a part of it and you feel like you're helping to build something. Whereas, you know, those old traditional writers, they're great too.
Tara [00:08:52]:
But I've never had anyone respond to me on Facebook that, you know, is a New York Times bestseller trade writer. But I get, I get responses from my indie writers that I am fans of and part of their fan club all the time. And I think that kind of connects the readers more to the storyline. They're more invested. They cannot wait for the next book to come out. But I think it's also a part is just marketing how you market and how you. How you work with your fan base, how you include them. You know, I think that really builds up a different type of clientele.
Nick Thacker [00:09:32]:
Absolutely. I remember one time I. Oh, sorry, Jim. I remember one time I, I did a. Like a content or competition on what to call it, but basically in my email list, I'm talking fiction right. To digital stuff. And I said, listen, you get to tell me any name and I'll write it into the book, but I get to kill you however I want.
Tara [00:09:53]:
That's awesome.
Nick Thacker [00:09:56]:
I didn't say just in the book.
Jim Azevedo [00:09:57]:
So I, I. Nick's not a children's author, by the way. He writes thrillers. Just want to make sure.
Nick Thacker [00:10:03]:
Caveat into her. Yeah, yeah, I write thrillers. Right. And people do die in my books. And so, you know, but I always joke with my readership that I, you know, I forgot to. Forgot to ask my lawyer how to do It. And so the fine print does not say only in the book.
Tara [00:10:18]:
Yeah.
Nick Thacker [00:10:19]:
Get to kill you in real life. However I want, apparently.
Jim Azevedo [00:10:21]:
You agreed you're gonna get a knock on the door at 4am, right.
Nick Thacker [00:10:26]:
So be careful. If you email me.
Jim Azevedo [00:10:29]:
Terry, I was gonna ask you, how does it make you feel when one of those authors response?
Tara [00:10:33]:
You have no idea. It's. You know, it's. It's a. It's like a celebrity sighting. It's for me. You know, I read. I read these books and I read our books that are being published.
Tara [00:10:46]:
I buy them, the best ones. I got them on my shelf. I have to have a physical copy because I. I need to be near them. So to get a response on Facebook, on Twitter, on. On any of those, it's exciting to me as a reader and as a fan. It's like a celebrity sighting, you know, I don't know if Nick thinks of himself as a celebrity, but I definitely do.
Nick Thacker [00:11:11]:
I know. No, we're all just normal people. That's the best part, you know, but for.
Tara [00:11:17]:
For the readers and the fans, it really does feel like you are communicating with a celebrity.
Nick Thacker [00:11:23]:
You know, I get that.
Tara [00:11:24]:
I know I'm talking to Nick, but I could be talking to Gary Busey right now.
Nick Thacker [00:11:28]:
Well, I mean, there you go. Actually, my dad looks a lot like Gary Busey. It's kind of funny. Yeah. I do feel it's kind of funny because I'll reach out to one of my friends who I literally know in person that happens to write in the same genre as me, and it feels to me like I'm talking.
Jim Azevedo [00:11:42]:
Yes.
Tara [00:11:43]:
Yeah.
Nick Thacker [00:11:43]:
Just. That's just Kevin or that's just James.
Tara [00:11:46]:
You know, it's very exciting.
Nick Thacker [00:11:48]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:11:48]:
Yeah. It's a superpower for you guys. For any authors, being able to connect with their readers like that, that's like the holy grail of the. Of the industry, really. Just having that close connection. Relationship with your readers, your fans.
Nick Thacker [00:12:01]:
Yeah, I. I don't want to take too long and harp on it, but I do want to say this because it's good. It's kind of a good segue. A lot of the questions that I get at conferences are always around marketing, how do I market my book, how do I. They want to make more money with their book, and that's a fair question. The reason it keeps getting asked is there's no one simple silver bullet answer. So I decided to create a one simple silver bullet answer. And that answer is authors.
Nick Thacker [00:12:23]:
If you want to sell more books, you have to do things that don't scale. And this, what Jim just said, is exactly what I did from day one. I decided I was going to respond to every single email that I got from every reader ever, no matter what. I probably get 300 emails a week now from readers. And now, to be fair, I'm not. These aren't long responses, but I would try to respond to every single one of them. If it comes into my inbox, they get a response. Because I decided a long time ago that in order to scale up, I have to do things that.
Nick Thacker [00:12:53]:
That don't scale. So that's. Yeah, it's a lot, but that's kind of my marketing answer for authors is do the things that sound like you can't scale them up. And that's going to be. Because what you're doing is you're literally building a relationship with human beings that want to know who you are behind the author, behind the mask. Right. And if you can maintain that, if you can do that, even when it feels like you can't scale it up, suddenly you'll look down and say, wow, I'm actually doing pretty well at this thing.
Jim Azevedo [00:13:22]:
That's great advice. And it's cost effective. It's going to cost you some time, obviously, when you're not writing. But that, I think those, Those close relationships with your fans, it's priceless. And just based on your sincerity, Tara, I can almost. I can almost feel like you're moving from just being a, you know, a reader to becoming a fan and even a super fan. Like, you want to talk about those authors?
Tara [00:13:48]:
Oh, yeah. Share. Oh, yeah, definitely. And. And it's the kind of thing that, you know, you read the book and then you're thinking in your mind, who else can I send this book to? You know, I need to get a copy for my mom. I need to get a copy for my aunt, my brother and I. I'm. I love the book so much that I've got to share it so that I.
Tara [00:14:09]:
I suppose that's what a super fan is, but that definitely, that's. That's how it affects me. I get very excited.
Jim Azevedo [00:14:17]:
Nice. Yeah, the super fans are the evangelists out there. They're like your personal marketing teams. I'm gonna do my best to kind of tap dance between, you know, providing our viewers with some updates on what we're doing in the company, but also answering their questions. And since this is an ask us anything, I want to make sure I get to that early because I'm known to kind of into it too late. And then we're out of time, so I'm going to circle back up here. I believe the first question is from. I'm going to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Jim Azevedo [00:14:48]:
Live broadcast. You gotta love how polished this all is. Okay, I'm gonna bring on this one up here from Rolly and Nell and I'm apologies if I. If I mispronounce your name. Rolling. But Rolian says hi. What are you doing for teen authors who do not have tax info or et cetera? Can you take that one, Tara?
Tara [00:15:07]:
Yep. That is a great question. If you check our terms of service, we do ask that anyone using our site is over 18. Now that doesn't exclude you. What you would do is you would work with a trusted adult, a parent, a guardian, someone to help set up that account. And it is a super simple thing to transfer over to you once you turn 18, once you have tax ID number, whatever. We're just making sure we're being doing our due diligence and we know who we're working with. We don't want any parent out there to have, you know, a problem with us working with their teenager.
Tara [00:15:48]:
So we do ask for adults. But your, your adult, your parent, your guardian can set up the account for you. And once you turn 18, we'll get that in your name. You don't have to delist your books, nothing. It's super simple to do. So that's what I would recommend.
Jim Azevedo [00:16:06]:
Great question. I'm glad that was asked. That's something I don't typically think about. Next question from Lita. Hi, Lita. Lita says I tried to upload my print book for the book cover. It says front cover artwork only, not full print wraparound. Does that mean I need to have a separate front cover and back cover?
Tara [00:16:29]:
That's another great question, Lita, that. Don't let that confuse you. Where it says front cover only, we're looking for the marketing front cover. So if you go to Amazon, you go to Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and you look at a paperback book, you are looking at a little thumbnail image of the front cover. Cover. That's where you're uploading that thumbnail image of the front cover. A few steps further past where you are at right now, you will be asked to upload your full wraparound jacket cover. And what we're looking at there is one file with the front cover on the right, spine in the middle, back cover on the left.
Tara [00:17:11]:
So it's a full complete cover. If you don't have anything but your front Marketing piece. Go ahead and upload that on the COVID image file and we'll show you an option that, that it looks professional. It looks wonderful. We can build it out to give you the spine in the back cover. So either way works. But where you're at right now, we're actually looking for that front cover image only. The marketing thumbnail image.
Jim Azevedo [00:17:40]:
Perfect.
Nick Thacker [00:17:40]:
Can I, can I jump onto that real quick, Tara? So one more thing.
Jim Azevedo [00:17:44]:
If you don't have.
Nick Thacker [00:17:46]:
No, this is, that's great. I'm literally doing all this right now because as Tara knows, I'm, I'm doing all my translate translated titles and uploading them ebook and print. And this usually happens at night when I'm sitting on the couch and watching a show. And so she keeps emailing me like, hey, you did this wrong. You did this wrong. You did this wrong. You did this wrong. I'm like, I'm sorry.
Nick Thacker [00:18:03]:
I know, I'm sorry. I just, I didn't read it anyway, so I'm intimately familiar with the process as well. What I wanted to add though, and this might be helpful for anyone who's looking at doing a print book in the future is. We'll talk about this a little bit more later. But bookcovers.com which is sort of my purview at Draft2Digital, we just purchased that company and relaunched it has an option for, it's not free, but we have an option for a very professional high res print, you know, full wrap, what we call it, a back cover and a spine that I will design. Right now it's literally me designing these things to perfectly match the artwork on your front cover. So we will actually use background textures that match your front cover background texture. The option that's free with Draft 2 digital is great.
Nick Thacker [00:18:47]:
It looks awesome, but it is a simple. Just here's the background, you know, is just, I think like a gradient, you know, solid color a lot of times and then the text on it. With this one, I think it's $149 and, and it's, I'm literally going to design it for you. Use the same fonts and make it look. So if you just want that extra little step, if you just want a little bit higher, you know, quality as far in terms of design. Check that out. I can put a link in there somewhere too, but it's just, it's@bookcovers.com and you don't have to have a bookcovers.com book cover so you can have a cover that you've already had designed and send that to me, pay for a back cover, full wrap and then I will give that to you. It's probably less than a week turnaround time right now.
Tara [00:19:31]:
And for those that, that aren't aware, we include the link to bookcovers.com on your covers page. So if you're struggling to figure out or you don't like what, what you have, you would like to see something new. We actually include the link to Nick's site right there so it's easy to find. You won't miss it. It's on the covers page.
Nick Thacker [00:19:54]:
Yeah. Thank you.
Jim Azevedo [00:19:54]:
I love these ask us anything episodes because I learned so much from my own teammates that I don't have get a chance to ask during normal work hours. Quick follow up question from Lita. Lita asks, will my print and ebook be distributed to Amazon even if I don't have an Amazon account?
Tara [00:20:13]:
Okay, that's a common, common point of confusion. You aren't setting up direct accounts with Amazon, Apple, Barnes, we have the account. We've got everything set up. So yes, the answer is yes. You however, do select which vendors you would like your books to go to. For print, it's, it's all in. We send to all of our print vendors. But for ebooks you can pick and choose.
Tara [00:20:39]:
And what we do is we have the account set up at Apple, at Barnes and Noble, at Kobo, at Scribd, at Overdrive, all of the different vendors. You don't have to go and make an account on each of those websites. That would be so time consuming that, that's part of our appeal is we've done all of this for you. You simply use our site, select the vendors you'd like your book to go to and we'll get it out there wide to everyone, every player in the market, just about Amazon included.
Jim Azevedo [00:21:10]:
Thanks for that.
Nick Thacker [00:21:11]:
Do you actually recommend to authors to go to use Draft Digital for Amazon?
Tara [00:21:15]:
Tara, that, that's a really good question.
Nick Thacker [00:21:19]:
On the spot with that. I just, I.
Tara [00:21:23]:
For ebooks, I, I love the ebook side. We have no issue with the ebook side for paperback. The only reason, the only pause I have is that I often see KDP print give preference to KDBP print listings. Yeah, so not always, not always. I think the last number that was shown to me was 97% of our print books are up and live and actively for sale at Amazon. So it's, it's only a small percentage. But I've had other authors say, well, Amazon prefers KDB printed books. They, they don't mind Other vendors, they don't mind Ingram books, they don't mind drafted digital books, but they do give preferential treatment to their own authors.
Tara [00:22:18]:
So, you know, that's the only kind of pause I have with ebook. There's no difference. They don't do anything different with our books than if you were to go direct. So, yes, you can simplify your Life by using Draft2Digital and just getting your book out there. And then if you have to make an update or change anything, you. It's one and done. We're going to fix it everywhere versus you having to go into all these various accounts and make updates and remember, which one did you fix? Which one do you still need to fix?
Jim Azevedo [00:22:52]:
Not to mention, how long does it take for those updates to proliferate to all of our different platforms?
Tara [00:22:59]:
Very, very fast. Smashwords, which you know, we are smash words. You're going to see your updates within a matter of hours. The main vendors, 24 to 48 hours. Little bit slower is our library services. Remember, they're. They're a totally different market. It can take up to two weeks to get through to the library services.
Tara [00:23:20]:
But you're not going to notice because unless you go to a library system where your book exists and you go to check it out, you would never even know. But it does take a little. It's a little bit slower on the libraries, everyone else, 24 to 48 hours at most.
Jim Azevedo [00:23:36]:
And that's internationally as well.
Tara [00:23:38]:
Internationally, absolutely. Our books are international and we have authors all over the world using us everywhere.
Jim Azevedo [00:23:47]:
Okay, thank you for that. Let's see, next question. Just moving down the list here. Keep those questions coming, you guys. I love this. Dr. Asks. Hi.
Jim Azevedo [00:23:59]:
When will the large print editions be available? Also, will D2D Print look into doing special edition books in the future with sprayed edges? Oh, that would be pretty sweet.
Tara [00:24:08]:
That would be pretty sweet. We get that question quite a bit. So I think authors really do like those sprayed edges. I didn't realize that was.
Jim Azevedo [00:24:17]:
Yeah, that's a hot trend right now. And those artisan books are just. They're taking off now.
Tara [00:24:23]:
You're in luck. We just had a meeting yesterday and Large print came up. We're hoping to have that out by the end of this year. It is currently in beta testing. We are getting close. The good thing about it is it, it doesn't take anything new. It's just another addition. So we should be.
Tara [00:24:47]:
We, we're hoping to have it by the end of the year. The sprayed edges, though, not sure that we'll be offering that it's, it's a, it's a cost benefit sort of situation. Those do increase the cost of the books by quite a bit. And for a lot of your first time authors, you know, that are just trying to, you know, make ends meet, they don't want to price their book out of the market. Now I could totally see offering something like that for your super fans and maybe that's where we need to look at that option is like just for those who, you know, want very, very small printings. But again, we've looked into it. It's a pretty big cost difference. I'm not sure that that's coming soon, but you're not the first person to ask for that.
Tara [00:25:39]:
So I know Draft2Digital tries really hard to, to make it happen for our authors. I won't say never, but maybe.
Jim Azevedo [00:25:48]:
Yeah. Okay, that's good. Yeah. And as the marketing guy, I'm always cautious about, well, we're not really sure. So I think that was a perfect answer, Tara, because what we've learned over the years is that, you know, sometimes little issues come up that we didn't anticipate. So we're like, oh, we shouldn't have promised it for this day.
Tara [00:26:05]:
Yes, that's for sure.
Jim Azevedo [00:26:08]:
Just, just saying. Okay, let's see. To do. Going through the list. Going through lists. Oh, here's another good question. This is another question that we tend to get quite a bit, I would bet. Ingrid asks, what about adding other stores like Google Play books to your list?
Tara [00:26:28]:
I don't know. You probably know, Jim. What, what? All we're allowed to share, but we do know that we've got something big coming very soon. We are constantly looking at new stores. Now let me just kind of outline the issue we've had with Google Play. They are allowed to update your list price at their own discretion. So. And what they're doing, they're not not doing anything wrong.
Tara [00:26:53]:
What they're doing is they're trying to find the sweet spot where they think this book is going to sell best. But what happens is they go in and without telling you, without warning you, they update your list price. You then notice that Amazon has price matched to a different price. And you're suddenly, you may even be running a promotion on this book right now and suddenly you're kicked out of the promotion because your price has been adjusted. That has always caused us to pause on Google Play books. We would love to work with them. We have worked with them in the past. We just really need them to commit to not updating the list.
Tara [00:27:31]:
Price without the author's appropriate approval. Once we can get past that, we are all on board. But until then, we're. We're trying to be cautious and do what's best for our authors. However, more bookstores are coming soon. We have a team in place that works with the various vendors. We get requests from vendors constantly. Yes.
Tara [00:27:56]:
Every day of the week I'm getting an email saying, hey, hey, we'd love to work with you. So new vendors coming soon. Definitely.
Jim Azevedo [00:28:05]:
Yep. Yeah, we'll leave it at that. Okay, next question. This one was already answered, I believe. Oh, this is a good one from Barbara. Hi Barbara. Barbara asks for adding new books to D2D today. What is the best format to use?
Tara [00:28:30]:
That depends on you, Barbara. That depends on what you're comfortable with, and that depends on what your final product should look like. For most of our authors, the majority of our authors are fiction writers and they don't have a ton of experience in formatting. So they upload a Word Doc which they are very comfortable using. And our free conversion tools creates a beautiful ebook for them. Perfect. You even, you can even go in and set some different designs, chapter headings, scene breaks, some flourishes to kind of make your book look a little more unique, all with a Word document. But you also have some of our power users who have a very specific look in mind.
Tara [00:29:26]:
I get this a lot with like non fiction, with textbooks where, where images are, you know, being described as part of the text and we really need everything to stay together and tight. If that is what you are producing. If you have a very specific look in mind, then use. You would want to upload an EPUB file format. You upload an epub, we're not going to make any changes to the file and it's going to look exactly the way you created it or a Word Doc and use our conversion tools and create something that looks wonderful to you. So it kind of depends on what your end look is and your skill level, but we can take either.
Jim Azevedo [00:30:12]:
Perfect. Thanks, Tara. I think we already answered this next question, but I'm going to bring it up just in case. Okay. From Nautilus, Helion, Helium. Nautilus Helium. This. I probably butchered that name as well.
Jim Azevedo [00:30:28]:
Who asks, what is the turnaround time for ebook sites to load new books or pre orders onto their site? And also for print, how long is the process from the time the author says to publish? Published. So maybe we tackle ebooks first.
Tara [00:30:41]:
It's a very quick process. You want, you want to remember that with a pre order it's not going to show up on every website immediately because not every website takes and displays a pre order, but your main ones do. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple. Your main ones will list it as a pre order and it will say those words, pre order. Buyers can pre order the book, but they will not receive the file until your release date. 24 to 48 hours after you hit the publish button, your pre order or your ebook is out there and available on those store sites. For print, it's usually three to five business days there about it's a little bit slower because we do open and review and kind of comb through and make sure your formatting is solid, your page numbers are in there, your table of contents is correct. You know, we're doing some, just some quick checks to make sure you have created a professional book.
Tara [00:31:46]:
And the reason we do that is ebook changes are always free. So at any point in time, if you need to make a correction, go for it. Print books, once our print vendor actually receives that file, we get charged every time we have to replace that file. So we're doing what we can to save you money. We don't want something to go out there and you go, oh, crud, I can't believe I, I didn't notice that. Maybe we'll notice as we flip through and so we'll, we'll let you know, hey, was this on purpose? Or hey, this could be a problem. Or hey, your table of contents, the page numbers don't actually match what's in the book. Let's get this corrected.
Tara [00:32:30]:
That way it can still be corrected for free, but it does kind of slow it down a little bit. Three to five business days is pretty accurate for print, 24 to 48 hours for ebooks, even your pre orders. But again, not every site is going to list it as a pre order.
Jim Azevedo [00:32:48]:
Excellent. Tara, I'm so glad that you joined because you have such a way of describing how this all works point by point by point. I also want to make sure that if there are any new authors out there who maybe they're assuming that when it comes to print books that we're distributing their books, they're like an actual physical copy of their book and it's going to land on the store shelves at Barnes and Noble and, you know, Kobo and just, you know, other brick and mortar bookstores out there, and we're not distributing the physical book. What we're doing is distributing the print on demand files that when a customer goes into one of these stores, whether it's a Barnes and Noble or in an independent bookstore in your hometown, they could go up to the counter and say, hey, I would like to order this book. And then the, the person behind the counter can order the book for them. Does that make sense?
Tara [00:33:33]:
Exactly right. That's a really good point to make because that does kind of. That, that is kind of confusing.
Jim Azevedo [00:33:40]:
Yeah, it could be. Let's see. I want to make sure I get to other questions. Oh my gosh, there's more. Okay, but Nick. So I want to give, Nick, I want to give you an opportunity to talk about like any updates to bookcovers.com before we get too far.
Nick Thacker [00:34:01]:
Yeah, I mean, no thanks. I, I don't think there's a whole lot I need to say because there are so many good questions I do want to get to for sure and I want to make sure we're answering the questions people are asking, but. Shameless. Sales plug. Thanks Jim. I'll get your 20 bucks after the call. Call. Book covers.com is a thing and it is live and it's working.
Nick Thacker [00:34:19]:
It's great. It's not perfect. You know, I'm working very, very hard to, to make it perfect. But we, we just launched it in May. I did do one of these live sort of draft the digital SBI live things on book covers earlier this summer. That's why I don't want to spend too much time talking about it now. But if you don't know what I'm talking about, just go to bookcovers.com and you will be, well, hopefully amazed. We've got 140,000 plus pre made book covers that you can actually customize.
Nick Thacker [00:34:51]:
You put the text on using our drag and drop tool and then purchase and you own it. It's unique. No one else will ever own that cover, that design. What's really cool though is it's also a marketplace. So artists are uploading these covers, they're designing covers, they're uploading covers and they're selling covers. They're making money from, from, from authors buying covers. So really, really excited about this. There are so many things that I'm working on right now that I don't want to get into because it'll take forever.
Nick Thacker [00:35:19]:
But just go to bookcovers.com and check it out. I mentioned earlier, like we also will do the full wrap print cover. We'll do an audiobook cover. If you see a cover that's almost perfect, but the gal's hair is red, you need it to be blonde. We can do modifications of a cover that's true for all of the covers you'll see on the website. But as I mentioned, it's also true for any cover that you already have. So if you're like, hey, I got this cover that was so perfect almost three years ago when I finished the book, but I need her hair to be black now, you know, whatever, then send that over. We can fix it.
Nick Thacker [00:35:48]:
50 bucks. We can do whatever. For the most part, within reason modification you need. Yeah. So. Thanks, Sasha. Book covers are a big headache. Here's the deal with book covers.
Nick Thacker [00:36:00]:
Just to say it as succinctly as possible. You know, people do judge book by their cover. We all do. That's how we, that's how we make part of our purchasing process. And so I like to say the only thing a book cover will do. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's instantaneous. And I like to say that the only thing a book cover is going to do is potentially lose the sale for you.
Tara [00:36:19]:
Yes.
Nick Thacker [00:36:19]:
No one's gonna buy the. Buy the book because of the COVID I mean, unless your name is Stephen King, but then they're buying it because your name's Stephen King, not because of the COVID You know, no one's gonna go, that's such a beautiful cover. I'm gonna buy it. I don't even care what it's about. All they're doing is using that cover to go. This, I think, matches the expectation of what I want to read next. Let me click through, read the description, check out the price, all that other part of the book package. The only thing the book cover can do is potentially lose the sale.
Nick Thacker [00:36:43]:
So it is a big headache because we have to get that part right. And we have 140,000 covers. And I'll help you find the perfect one. So go check it out and, and see. I mean, we've got some very affordable, I think the cheapest ones on there are $35.
Tara [00:36:56]:
As an avid reader, the book cover makes all the difference. Second to that is your book description. So put the time, the effort, even the money into book covers and book descriptions. It is worth it.
Nick Thacker [00:37:10]:
Yes. Thank you.
Jim Azevedo [00:37:13]:
100%. Gonna bring up the next question here. 4963. Andy Pop says I'm having trouble getting my paperback cover to show up on the various online sites such as Amazon. My ebook looks fine. What are possible reasons that might cause this? D2D is working on this now. That's a good question.
Tara [00:37:36]:
It is unlikely that it's anything that you've done anything wrong. With your cover, it is more likely that it's just the metadata not getting to the right team member over at Amazon. So if you've got Draft2Digital working on this, that, that's, that's your best bet. We'll. We work like a dog with a bone. We don't give up. We keep asking, we keep asking, but it can take a while sometimes to get mistakes corrected. The way Amazon has described it to me is they tend to batch updates.
Tara [00:38:15]:
And so even though they received the COVID if it didn't get ingested properly the first time, it may take them a week before they get around to replacing that cover or two weeks or whatever. So I often have to ask multiple times, but I will, I will stay on them until I get that cover updated. So if, if you've got us working on it, we'll get it fixed for you. It's nothing you did. There's nothing wrong with the COVID We. One way you could know for sure is go to your other sites like Barnes and Noble and look at your print book. If the cover's there, we sent the COVID we gave it to them. At least some of the vendors got it.
Tara [00:38:58]:
And it's just an Amazon delay. So we'll work to get that fixed for you.
Jim Azevedo [00:39:02]:
Cool. Thanks, Tara. Another question from Melissa Livingstone. Lissa asks or says, thank you for this help. You're very welcome. Thank you for being here. She says my keywords don't seem to be working to bring up my book for people searching. Any advice? Maybe, Nick, maybe this is a good one for you.
Nick Thacker [00:39:21]:
No, thank you. Yeah, definitely. I'm nodding my head like, yeah, that's. Here's the deal. If, if keywords worked, everyone. I don't know how to say this the right way. Keywords don't really do anything. It's not that they don't do anything.
Nick Thacker [00:39:35]:
I mean, they're doing something, but you're dealing with something like 100,000 books published every quarter second or some. You know, it's just a huge number, right? There's just a lot of stuff out there and keywords are just one flag for all these algorithms. So let's use Amazon as an example. It's a search engine. It's an algorithmic based search engine that's now using large language models and neural nets and all that. So it's using a bunch of variables to show the search engine result page, which is type something in the box, and then whatever shows up next is that page. Keywords are just one of many flags for that algorithm to use. And so if you're putting a word in like sweet, cat loving, mystery, romance, well, there's probably 1.3 quadrillion books that have that as a descriptor.
Nick Thacker [00:40:21]:
Right. Or that the algorithm might think is a descriptor. And so it needs to use other, other flags like how, how many books has it been selling? Is it super popular? How well is it rated? What's the, I mean, all these things go into showing where it shows up on the page. So my point is you're probably right that your keywords don't seem to be working. Unfortunately, there's really nothing anyone can do about that. I think the answer is to make sure your keywords are good enough and then focus on other marketing activities, focusing on doing advertisements or book, you know, reader swaps, newsletter swaps, I should say promos. Like Megan puts together a bunch of promos for our draft of digital authors. These are the kind of things that actually will move the needle for you.
Nick Thacker [00:41:01]:
What's really weird is as your book starts to sell more, those keywords will start to work better, you know, because like I said, it becomes part of the whole algorithmic black box that is bookstores online these days.
Tara [00:41:13]:
You are so right. And I just want to add one thing. I see authors come up with hundreds of keywords. The most any one vendor we submit to, to 17, 20 different vendors. The most any one of them will take is seven. So don't, don't waste your time entering a hundred keywords. We take the first seven you typed and that's it. So just.
Tara [00:41:47]:
You would have no way of knowing that. I know that because I'm on the back end. The most they will take is seven. So make sure that you know you've come up with the absolute best seven that describes your book, that that really, really brings in eyes. And then don't stress the rest of it.
Nick Thacker [00:42:06]:
Yeah, don't worry about it. Let it be.
Jim Azevedo [00:42:08]:
Great answers. You know, thanks for the segue there, Nick, about promos, because I want to talk about promos for a second because, you know, for all of us who go to conferences, we're always asked, does draft two digital do anything on the marketing side? Are you guys only a distributor? And we do do things on the back end to help you promote your books. We have a team. You mentioned Megan Spann out there. We have a full time employee who's dedicated, her full time job is dedicated to helping our authors get more visibility in front of the merchandising managers as at our retail partners and library platforms. You know, Globally, the merchandising managers, you know, they're the ones who are setting up the front of store displays and brick and mortar bookstores. They're the ones who are choosing web promotions banners to go on the front page of their websites and that sort of thing. The same thing holds true for library apps like Libby.
Jim Azevedo [00:43:02]:
Whenever you see those promotions, when you open up your app, those are done by merchandising managers. So I wanted to give a quick update because so far this year there have been 30 publicized promotions from our global retail and library platform partners out there who have, you know, come to us and said, hey, we're doing a promotion on this genre or on this theme or for this holiday. And so what Megan does is she, she gets all of these and she communicates that to our authors via the draft of Digital promotions form. And I'll put a link up to it right now. So for anybody, for any current drafted digital author, go to this form and fill it out. Because whenever one of these promotions opportunity comes up and if it pertains to your particular genre, you will hear from Megan about it and you will have the opportunity to submit your title or maybe multiple titles for any particular promotion. And it works. So so far this year, Megan's received 15,946 title submissions from Draft2Digital Authors.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:18]:
And of that 15,946 title submissions, she was able to successfully place 9,034 books. And wow, that's like almost 60% return rate.
Nick Thacker [00:44:30]:
60%. That's awesome.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:31]:
Yeah, that's, that's amazing. But that doesn't. Those are only the publicized promotions. That doesn't include all the one off requests that she's getting from librarians, direct requests from Apple and Kobo and Overdrive and the others who are coming to Megan because Draft2Digital is a known trusted resource or these merchandising managers, and they'll come to Megan, they'll say, hey, can you help us maybe with a couple more authors or with a couple more titles on this particular promotion or that particular promotion that we haven't publicized, but that we're doing, you know, kind of in the background. And that happens all the time. And those figures that I shared, those also don't include everything that Megan's doing in the background for the Smashwordsstore. So since Draft2Digital owns and operates the Smashwords store, we can do whatever we want, whatever we want on that front page. You know, she can come up with any kind of a featured promotional shelf to sit right there on the front page.
Jim Azevedo [00:45:30]:
And if you sign up for that promotions form, we want you to tell us proactively what you have coming up. So if it's a major new release, let's say that you've got a series book coming out soon for one of your series that's performing really well and maybe you've got that book up on pre order and it's accumulating orders like stuff like that. Tell us. And Megan says, you know, err on the side of giving us too much detail versus too little detail because the more information she's got, the easier it is for her to convince merchandising managers at the retailers that, hey, maybe you want to pay a little bit more to this title that's coming out pretty soon. So I can't stress enough about that promotions form. It's free. You guys, like, you're not going to have to pay any advertising budget out of this promotions form. We're just doing it in the back end to help out our authors.
Tara [00:46:28]:
And I, I used to do a lot of that promotional work prior to Megan and I know for sure it's not based on sales. I know that she tries really hard to give equal billing. So don't, don't, don't count yourself out just because you maybe haven't had a sale in a while. This is the perfect time to get onto the promo form because she really wants to advertise new content. She really wants to promote those unseen gems. So don't count yourself out. Definitely get your books on there. She's really interested in new authors and new content to promote.
Jim Azevedo [00:47:12]:
Great comment. Yeah. She's all about rising up. Those are.
Tara [00:47:15]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:47:16]:
Okay, can you all hang out for a little bit longer? I want to see if I can.
Nick Thacker [00:47:20]:
Get through some of these. Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:47:21]:
All right. We're going into overtime here. Debbie asks. I have some other events at Barnes and Noble, but the shop wants to have paperback through another marketing partner. Does D2D work with Barnes Noble?
Tara [00:47:35]:
Yes, we do. I assume that you. Yeah, you're saying paperback. One thing you want to be aware of is that the paperback option through drafted digital is non returnable. Not many authors know this, but how a book works in print is a site like, let's say Barnes and Noble might buy 50 copies and then for the next year they've got those books out there and available to purchase and maybe only 10 copies sell. What happens to those other 40 is they send those back and they ask for a refund and you get the bill. The author gets the bill in the mail. Now that creates a huge financial liability.
Tara [00:48:19]:
For authors who are not expecting to suddenly get a bill for all of their returned books. Of course we hope that every book sells, but we've got to be realistic. So right now our books are not refundable, non returnable, because we don't want you to suddenly get hit with a bill that you were not expecting and. And did not even know about. You may not even be aware that Barnes and Noble bought 50 copies and now you're stuck having to pay for 40 of them. What you can always do, though, is buy your books, author copies through draft of digital, take them over to Barnes and Noble, take and ask them to set up a table, help you sell them, whatever. And then, you know, any book that doesn't sell, you own. You could take to your marketing events, your book signing, you've got a purpose for those and you're not stuck with some huge bill at the end of the year.
Jim Azevedo [00:49:15]:
Yeah.
Nick Thacker [00:49:15]:
The way it works here in Colorado Springs, we have two Barnes and Noble and it all comes down to the manager. There's one manager at one Barnes & Noble who does not work with indie authors because they're a big old jerk. I'm just kidding. They just don't like it. I don't know. And the other one loves indie authors. And so it's really weird. But for both, for any Barnes and Noble that has a manager who's willing to work with you, they want to make sure that your book is available in the catalog they use, which is Baker and Taylor, I think is right.
Nick Thacker [00:49:42]:
And so that's what Tara's talking about, having it available there, whether it's returnable, all that stuff. That's what she, that's what she means. But then whenever we do this, like I work with a bunch of authors here in town that are doing this kind of thing, they'll do exactly what you said, they'll buy author copies. So they can have as many or as few as they want on that table at the front of the store. Barnes and Noble just wants to make sure that they're going to get a cut if somebody buys a book directly from. From them.
Tara [00:50:07]:
Yes, exactly. Any bookstore, Barnes and Noble included, that works with Ingram can go into the site and purchase copies of your book. Any bookstore can do that. But if you ever encounter one that says, well, yours is non refundable, say, oh, let me buy off the copies and bring them in here for you. And we've had a ton of authors say, that works brilliantly.
Nick Thacker [00:50:29]:
Yep.
Jim Azevedo [00:50:30]:
Okay, perfect. Thanks you guys. Here's a good question from Sasha, should one expect to sell any books at all with reasonable book and cover and price without any marketing whatsoever? Thanks. You seem like lovely guys, by the way.
Nick Thacker [00:50:46]:
And I'm sure Sasha means just the guys, not you, Tara. She doesn't think you're lovely at all. Just us guys.
Jim Azevedo [00:50:50]:
Thanks, Joshua.
Nick Thacker [00:50:51]:
I'm just kidding. Tara's way more lovely than us.
Tara [00:50:54]:
This isn't a question I can answer. This one's for Jim and Nick.
Nick Thacker [00:50:59]:
Yes, I think it is reasonable to expect your book to sell a copy or two. This is an old business, I guess. Principle Chris Anderson wrote a book called the Long Tail and it was in reference to music and online streaming services. And in a nutshell, if you imagine the Taylor Swifts and the Beyonce's of the world and all those guys way at the top of the curve and then the curve goes down like the people selling a lot, I should say selling a lot of versions or copies or, you know, songs, that curve goes down to here and it kind of flattens out, but it doesn't hit zero. It never gets to zero. So that's just a really kind of, I guess, proof way of saying that maybe your book will sell one or two copies a year for the rest of your life. It's probably going to sell something. But I think what you're really asking is can you actually make any money doing this without any marketing whatsoever? And I would say no.
Nick Thacker [00:51:49]:
But I would say that when you say we need to define the word marketing, right, And I don't want to get too far into it, I'm going to let Jim answer because he's our marketing guy here at Draft2Digital. Me as an author personally, when I talked about writing and responding to emails that readers send me, that that's marketing, that that's an activity that I do that is trying to build my brand presence in the eyes of the consumer, the reader. That's just the business way of saying marketing, right? So yeah, you don't have to do advertising, you don't have to do, you know, have this elaborate website with the Shopify store and all that stuff, you can probably do really well doing local events and, and, and really building your brand slowly over a long period of time and finding readers one by one. That's all marketing and you can actually make a living doing that. But I'm going to stop because I love talking about marketing and we could, we could do a whole hour just on marketing. So Jim, what do you have to say about all that stuff? Is that am I kind of off base with any of that?
Jim Azevedo [00:52:40]:
No, I think you're, you're spot on. But I would also add Sasha, you know, going back to my early days at Smashwords, now I just crossed my 14 year anniversary here in the, in the, in the indie publishing space. I want to underscore what separates the amateurs from the pros comes down to best practices. Like there are so many books out there that I think authors, especially newer authors, kind of rush into market. So best practices includes professional editing, professional cover design, making sure that you're offering your books out there for a reasonable price. Like all of these things that seem like no brainers to some people aren't no brainers to everyone. So for example, when you do your book cover image, get the draft of your cover image and put it on a screen at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Apple to see how the thumbnail size of your book's cover image compares to the best selling cover images and the books in your genre. And just, you know, make sure that it's on par with those books.
Jim Azevedo [00:53:47]:
You want to give that professional look and that professional quality that readers expect. And if you can do that, I think even with a minimum amount of marketing, your books will start to kind of trickle up. But to the next point, with that long tail as you kind of click over, you know, and up that scale at all, seriously, what I've seen over the years is that it comes down to best practices. So in other words, save your pennies. Once you start earning money from your book sales, then you can take some of that profit and put it into some of those larger ticket marketing tasks like advertising and so on.
Nick Thacker [00:54:24]:
Yeah, it's great. Thanks, Jim. Write a lot of books. Don't forget that. I mean, I didn't mention that at all. My, my bestselling book right now, I think it made $80. It's the first year that the first 12 months it was out and it was the third, the third book that I had. And so now it's, it's chugging along because I've got 50 of these things out there.
Jim Azevedo [00:54:44]:
Yep. Another quick question from Dennis. Dennis asked, who approves books on ddd. Is it AI or is it a human?
Nick Thacker [00:54:54]:
Well, Tara, but she's an AI.
Tara [00:54:56]:
There's no AI. That is a common misconception. We get that a lot in customer support. We're all human beings. We're all real people, every last one of us. We don't use AI. We're not doing anything with AI. We're not.
Tara [00:55:12]:
It's humans. It's a human Review. We have a very, very smart system that. That only shows us what we need to see. If your book is awesome and perfect, it flies right through. But if. If your book needs a little extra help, a human being will be the one looking at it, not an AI.
Jim Azevedo [00:55:36]:
Thanks for that, Tara. Okay, I'm gonna maybe pop up just a couple more questions because I have to actually run out soon. So. From Prince Japathi, who asks, what is the problem on Hoopla Book Publishing? Because my books are pending for three months and have not been published yet. They have been published on all other channels. So what is their problem? Is there a specific. Is there something going on over at Hoopla? Does anybody know?
Tara [00:56:04]:
You'll. You'll notice when you go to list your book that we have actually popped up a warning saying long processing times. When we started with Hoopla, we told them we have millions of books to offer. And they were like, this is fantastic. That's what we want. And then when we turned on Ingestion, they said, holy moly, there's a million books in here. And we said, yes. And they said, we thought you were exaggerating.
Tara [00:56:31]:
And we said, no. So long processing times. There is a lot of human review on the Hoopla system. I apologize for those delays. I know that they are working diligently to staff up and expand and do some different things to try and speed up that processing time. And it's working because she said three months. Not long ago, it was six months. It is working.
Tara [00:57:01]:
They are getting faster. I do apologize. That's why we kind of have that warning on there, just so it doesn't surprise you. But yeah, we. We just gave them so much at a time that they are working through it all.
Jim Azevedo [00:57:14]:
Yeah, thanks for that, Tara. It's always surprises, our new. Our new.
Tara [00:57:18]:
Our new vendors.
Jim Azevedo [00:57:20]:
Yeah, because we told. We tell them ahead of time, there's going to be a lot of books coming at you. And they're like, yeah, we can handle it. We've got a greater perspective, infrastructure. And every single time, every time they're.
Tara [00:57:30]:
Shocked at the quantity and we're talking.
Jim Azevedo [00:57:32]:
About, like, some of the biggest retailers in the world, they're always like, what? Yeah. Yes, I get it. Okay, so we are. We're overtime now. So I want to thank Tara and Nick, you guys, I really appreciate you kind of carving out some time in your day to help us here. So thank you for that. For our viewers out there, if you can do us a favor and subscribe to our YouTube channel, comment and share this episode, we really Appreciate it because in the future it helps us attract new guests out there who can share their advice and expertise to help you sell more books. If you go to dddlive.com and bookmark that page, you'll be able to go back to the page and you will see what our next topic and who our next guest is going to be in subsequent weeks.
Jim Azevedo [00:58:22]:
Although there might not be anybody there today because I'm a little behind in the pipeline, I'm trying to fill it up as fast as I can. And finally, if you are new to self publishing or if you're investigating self publishing now maybe for the very first time, you can go to Draft2Digital.com and sign up for a free account. We would love to help you get your books out into the world. Tara, Nick, thanks again you guys. Much much appreciated all of our viewers out there. We so appreciate you joining us week in and week out and again this week, I've noticed some new names out there. So if you're new to the drafted digital community or to the indie community, welcome. We hope we to see your books out there into the world and we would love to help you everybody.
Jim Azevedo [00:59:10]:
Thanks again. We'll see you here next week. Until then, signing off.
Tara [00:59:14]:
Bye guys.
Jim Azevedo [00:59:15]:
Bye.
Kevin Tumlinson [00:59:17]:
Ebooks are great, but there's just something about having your words in print. Something you can hold in your hands, put on a shelf, sign for a reader. That's why we created D2D Print, a print on demand service that was built for you. We have free beautiful templates to give your book a pro look and we can even convert your ebook cover into a full wrap around cover for print. So many options for you and your books and you can get started right now at draft2digital.com that's it for this week's Self Publishing Insiders with Draft2Digital. Be sure to subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts and share the show with your will be author friends and start building grow your own self publishing career right now at draft2digital.com.