Here we are again – another week, another blog post. Wednesdays seem to come around so fast!
Today, I want to tell you about the next stage of my publishing journey. As I've mentioned, I'm taking my books off Kindle Unlimited to pursue other avenues and "go wide." This is the story of how that's going so far.
Step 1: Leaving Kindle Unlimited (The Why) 🚶♂️
First, a quick recap. I initially used a small, cost-effective publishing company that did a great job producing a professional-looking book for Amazon. If you are starting out and want a hand with everything, I would recommend Yanina and her team at Kindle Book Publishing.
We signed up straight away with Kindle Unlimited (KU). Think of it like Netflix, but for books. Readers pay a monthly fee and can read as many books as they want from the KU catalogue. For an author to be included, their e-book has to be exclusive to Amazon for 90-day periods. How do we make money? We get paid for how many pages are read – in essence, it's not a lot, maybe 1p for every 4 pages or so. You hope people read the whole book and leave a good review.
In principle, it's a great idea, especially if you're an author like Daniel Hurst who has had over half a billion page reads! For me, with just over 1,100 page reads in 90 days (the equivalent of about three full reads), I decided it was time to diversify.
Step 2: The ISBN Speedbump (The First Hurdle) 🚧
On Monday, August 18th, my book was no longer contracted to Amazon. I had already bought some ISBN numbers, thinking, "Tonight, I will start populating my book on other sites."
How wrong was I.
Once you buy your ISBNs, you then have to register them with another website, the Nielsen Title Editor. This is where you officially assign your titles to your ISBNs. However, once you register with this site, you have to wait another 5 to 10 days for your account to be set up. Another newbie error on my part!
The days passed, and thankfully, just four days later, I received an email saying my account was open. Hooray! I logged in and assigned ISBNs to my books – you need one for the e-book, one for the paperback, and one for the hardback. I bought a block of 10, so I have enough for the next two books as well.
Step 3: Uploading to Draft2Digital (The How) 📤
With my ISBNs ready, I went on to a site called Draft2Digital (D2D). They are "aggregators" – you upload your book to them, fill out all the relevant fields, and once approved, they distribute your book to all the online stores you want to be in. Being greedy, I chose all of them apart from Amazon. They then publish your e-book to all of these sites, including Google Books, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc. You earn your royalties, and they take a small percentage from your sales.
As of Friday, I am waiting for my book to be published on all these sites. I'm not sure yet how long that will take, but they hadn't been published at the time of writing this.
Step 4: The Print Book Problem (The Frustration) 🤯
While waiting for the e-book, I thought I might as well try to upload my physical copy to D2D as well. I filled out all the sections, uploaded the PDF of my book, and... an error.
The error was that I need to have the ISBN number printed on the copyright page inside my book. My book was produced for Amazon, which didn't require that, and I don't have the original files to edit, just the final PDF the publishers sent me. I had a play around but couldn't get anywhere, so I thought, "Okay, I will delete the book and start again." Another rookie mistake.
After doing this all again, it came up with another error message, this time reading: "This ISBN number has already been used on a deleted book."
At this point, I was ready to pull my hair out. I have since sent a message to their help desk and am waiting for a reply.
Helpful Resources I Found 💡
As an indie author, you have to do everything, including getting a barcode for the back of your print book. I found this fantastic website which is totally free: Kindlepreneur's Free ISBN Barcode Generator. Their site will tell you everything you need to know.
For a great explanation of Draft2Digital, I recommend the blog post by Steampunk Fantasy Author Dana Fraedrich titled: Using Draft 2 Digital (and Why I Went "Wide").
My Next Dilemma 🤔
I do wonder if I should just use D2D for my e-book sales and then work out a different way to do my Print-On-Demand (POD) books. Maybe I should even consider redesigning them to sell on other sites at the UK traditional book size, instead of the 9x6 size my publishers originally made? The learning continues...
It is now Tuesday and D2D still haven't uploaded my e-books to all the sites that I have asked it too, so the waiting goes on I will update everybody on my socials etc when they are live, so if you don't like using Amazon or have a different make e-reader then 'An Irish Mystery' will be out soon for you to read.
🙏Thank You for Reading!
I've been looking at my blog's numbers, and I'm honestly blown away. My site is hitting viewership levels I hadn't expected yet, and I hope this is because the algorithms are finally picking things up, and more importantly, because you are actually enjoying these posts.
If you are enjoying the content, here are a couple of ways you can help support this author journey:
1. Follow the Blog
I've noticed that while I get hundreds of views each month, very few readers have hit the "Follow" button. If you're a regular reader, it's the best way to get notified of new posts, and it helps me know you're out there!
2. Support the Next Step (and Buy Me a Coffee!)
For those who really want to support this journey more directly, I've just set up a Ko-fi. Over the coming months and years, I hope to develop it into a big community hub.
A £3 donation is probably cheaper than a coffee from Starbucks or Costa these days! In all honesty, any support received will go directly back into my writing. Right now, I'm saving up for a new laptop and for a program called Atticus, which is another huge step toward going fully indie and saving on publishing costs that I just don't have.
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