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Draft2Digital Saved the Day – Free Formatting for eBooks and Print Books

October 1, 2013 By guestpost 10 Comments Click here for a FREE book marketing training

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Draft2Digital Helps Authors Share Their Work with the World

Guest Post by Heather Sutherlin

Draft2Digital saved the day.  How? Well, I’m going to tell you in this post.

The number one question I’m asked by aspiring indie authors is “How’d you do it?” It makes me laugh because those four words are really asking an enormous question. And in the end, what they really want to know is “Where do I start?”

Well, assuming you’ve already got your book finished and professionally edited, the next thing you’ll want is a cover. And once you’ve got the cover, you’re ready to publish. That can seem a daunting task, I know it did for me! How do I format it to fit Kindle and iTunes and Nook? How do I create a professional looking paperback? I know nothing about formatting and I didn’t have another dime to invest in one more “author service.” One glance at Smashwords’ formatting guide was enough to send me into hysterics and don’t even get me started on iTunes!

That’s When Draft2Digital Saved the Day

Draft2Digital (D2D) is a godsend for the independent author who is braving these waters alone. Created by a set of computer programmers and a best-selling independent author, this company knows what it takes to get your book from messy manuscript to polished ebook in the hands of readers across the globe.

Their formatting is top-notch and completely FREE.

No confusing style guides or previous formatting knowledge is needed. Just upload your document and let the genius’s do the rest. You won’t believe how fast your finished document will be ready for previewing. Just click a few boxes and answer a few simple questions to finalize the process and you’re done.

How to Use Draft2Digital to Format Your eBook and Print Book for FREE

Once you have a finished document you’re proud of, you choose where you want D2D to list your book.  Currently they are able to list books with Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo, but many more are in the works. There is also an option to list your book with Createspace, making your book available in print on Amazon. Simply choose your venues and your price. Then, hit the publish button and you’re in business! It really is that simple. I have friends that have waited months to see their books go live on Amazon and iTunes through Smashwords, but with D2D my books are listed within 48 hours. I can’t imagine doing business without them.

  • Please Note: You can upload your document and have it converted into all the appropriate forms for absolutely free. Those files belong to you even if you never list them with Draft2Digital’s distribution service. D2D will charge you a percentage of the royalties to distribute your books through them. For this price you get phenomenal reporting and an easy to use interface that blows all others out of the water.  See pricing details here https://draft2digital.com/pricing/.

If you have a question or a problem along the way, don’t worry. Their customer service is incredible. I appreciated their quick and kind responses to my insane questions when I was first starting out. They want to make the process as simple and painless as possible, so if you have a concern, please let them know. Not only will they help you resolve the issue, they’ll most likely use your experience to make it easier for the next person who comes along.

They Are Growing and Changing

That’s what I love most about this company. They are growing and changing – all with the indie author in mind. How can they make this process easier, faster, and farther reaching? Just last week they notified us of a new upgrade to their reporting system. In a short email, CEO Kris Austin explained how our sales reports will be even better than before. Already we were able to track real-time sales information across platforms, but now we can easily compare sales by book, by sales channel, or by royalty totals. Better yet, they’re completely customizable.

According to Austin, “You can customize your own chart to show the time frame you want, grouped the way you want, shown in either estimated royalties or unit sales. You can also narrow down any chart using the filters available on the Chart Contents tab, so it will only show reports for paid sales or only show books by a selected pen name or in a selected series.”

That’s not all. They’ve recently added the ability to create pre-orders in Kobo and iTunes and expanded the types of source documents they accept to include OpenOffice and LibreOffice. And, according to Austin, there’s more to come in the near future.

“We’re still hard at work on coupon code support, actively pursuing new Sales Channels to expand your reach, and constantly searching for other ways to improve the service.”

Whether you’re a first-time author searching for the best way to break into the market, or a seasoned professional looking for a better, more affordable alternative to the system you’ve been using, Draft2Digital is the answer.

Update:

3/10/14

We just received the following e-mail from Draft 2 Digital:

We’re excited to announce that, starting this week, we’ll be providing free ISBNs for all books published through Draft2Digital!

You’ll still be able to use your own ISBNs if you already have them, but if you don’t, we’ll supply them free of charge. This not only allows us to distribute your books to more channels, it also makes those books more discoverable for readers by linking up the metadata across multiple services, so we’re happy to provide them.

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Filed Under: Product Reviews, Publishing Tips Tagged With: authors, tools for authors

Comments

  1. Mario Zeleny says

    October 1, 2013 at 10:33 am

    Thank you so much for the resource! The amount of responsibility on for a self published author is tremendous. After I get done loving my baby, I am so tired that formatting is drudgery! And, I usually love to format!

    I cannot wait to go check them out!

    Mario Zeleny

    Reply
    • Heather says

      October 2, 2013 at 7:00 pm

      You’re welcome!

      Reply
  2. Don Maker says

    October 1, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    I hate the word “free”. NOTHING is free, not even clean air to breathe. It is very clear what draft2digital charges you: 15% of your net profits. This is only to format and distribute (and not to many epubs right now, it seems), not for any other service, such as editing or cover art.
    Okay, so that being said, choosing any service is a choice. If you feel you absolutely cannot format your work, do you pay an professional a fee or use them? That depends on if you think your book will sell well, in which case giving them 15% could actually get very pricey, or if only your relatives will buy it, in which case you got the service very cheaply.
    Still, it is another very interesting resource, and well worth considering.

    Reply
    • Heather Sutherlin says

      October 2, 2013 at 12:52 pm

      I can understand your sentiment. We all hate gimmicks and scams. However, my statements are true. Their formatting is completely free. You can upload your document and have it converted into all the appropriate forms for absolutely free. Those files belong to you even if you never list them with Draft2Digital’s distribution service.
      D2D will charge you a percentage of the royalties to distribute your books through them. For this price you get phenomenal reporting and an easy to use interface that blows all others out of the water.
      You are right, sir. We do have a choice. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

      Reply
  3. Deborah H. Bateman says

    October 2, 2013 at 7:11 am

    Thanks for sharing this resource. It sounds like it is an easy alternative for the self-published author.
    Blessings,
    Deborah H. Bateman

    Reply
    • Heather says

      October 2, 2013 at 7:01 pm

      You’re welcome, Deborah! We are looking forward to exploring this resource more ourselves.

      Reply
  4. M Hogarty says

    November 21, 2013 at 11:42 am

    Hi, thanks for sharing this provider. I did have some questions about what they claim though and didn’t receive any email back, perhaps you know someone that could answer these for me? They claim real time reporting but that can’t be totally true as my friend has tested their account their by buying on one of the websites and it took days for the sale to come through. She knew this as she doesn’t normally sell much unfortunately. The quality of output from their system doesn’t appear to produce more than a PDF and sometimes PDF, I have to agree with Mark Coker that the Smashwords meat grinder does a better job at epub creation. Also they state that there are no rights claims to my work but they don’t transfer the retail account if you leave their service meaning that I lose all the reviews and sales history I have strived hard to create! If you could get answers to these questions Heather I will be impressed.

    Maria H

    Reply
    • Heather says

      November 22, 2013 at 8:27 am

      Hi Maria,

      They don’t have the rights to your work, but any reviews posted on their site would belong to them or the reviewer. No stores will transfer them. It’s the same with Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks – reviews on their sites stay on their site, even if your book doesn’t.

      I can’t speak to their real-time reporting claim as I have not personally used them. Heather Sutherlin could probably answer that though.

      Reply
  5. Cleveland says

    November 29, 2013 at 12:29 am

    Particularly insightful looking ahead to coming back.

    Reply
  6. Jason Matthews says

    June 16, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    D2D no longer distributes to Amazon KDP, but I wouldn’t recommend a distributor anyway when KDP makes it so easy and has such a great Preview Mode.

    Reply

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