#good ereader

[selfpublishingnews]

Draft2Digital is the Best Ebook Distribution Platform for Indie Authors

Draft2Digital is one of the rising superstars that indie authors should know about. They distribute ebooks to more sources than Smashwords and StreetLib.

Article by Michael Kozlowski in Good E-Reader.

Draft2Digital is one of the rising superstars that indie authors should know about. They distribute ebooks to more sources than Smashwords and StreetLib. They can even get your titles into the public library via Overdrive and have a print on demand system. I spoke with  Kevin Tumlinson Director of Marketing to give you the lowdown on what makes Draft2Digital unique and how they focus exclusively on indie authors.

So who is Draft2Digital and what are they all about? Tumlinson explains ” Our goal is to take the work out of self-publishing, making it as easy as clicking a button. The core principle that drives our development is this: The hardest part of being a writer should be the writing. We use incredible technology backed with industry-leading customer support to solve the learning curve for indie authors. The benefits we offer authors come in the form of free eBook conversion, free automated layout for print, distribution to a global marketplace, and an ever-expanding catalog of resources, such as our Universal Book Links (UBLs).

This tool allows anyone (authors, bloggers, podcasters, or anyone else) to copy the URL for a book’s product page, from any eBook retailer (such as Amazon), paste it into the tool at Books2Read.com, and generate a single link that can send readers to everywhere a book is sold online. We scan the book’s metadata, search all the known book retailers, and offer readers a selection of where the book is available. The reader can make their selection a default, so that the next time they click any UBL, they’ll be taken to their preferred storefront, and straight to the book’s product page.

Authors (or anyone else) who register for an account with D2D or Books2Read can also track the number of clicks a link gets, the stores that are visited, and other bits of useful data. They can also embed affiliate codes from various retailers, such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and even Smashwords. ”

Draft2digital is proving popular with indie authors and has seen significant growth over the past three years. In 2015 they had 57,058 ebooks from 15,419 authors and one year later they had 86,179 titles from 24,400 authors and 2017 was the biggest year ever.   There are 35,000 authors that are enrolled with Draft2Digital and they have over 120,000 titles in circulation. There are 100 new e-books uploaded everyday and distributed Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Tolino and Overdrive

Most authors are familiar with the US ebook market, but selling e-books internationally is quite different. “In European markets, particularly in the UK, Mystery/Thriller tends to rule. Beyond that, however, the relative popularity of genres in international markets is essentially the same as it is in the US. Tolino, for instance, has Romance/Erotica at the top, followed by Mystery/Thriller, followed by Fantasy.” Said Tumlinson.

In order to separate themselves from the competition, Draft2idigtal is the first self-publishing solution to give indie authors the ability to produce an audio version of their e-book. They were a launch partner of Findaway Voices and hundreds of authors are now producing digital audio and will be distributing them to Audible, iTunes, Scribd, Tunein and dozens of others.

Read the rest of this article here at Good E-Reader.

[selfpublishingnews]

WattPad Tap is a new storytelling app and it’s blowing up

Tap by Wattpad is a free app for short, chat-style stories. Article here about it by Michael Kozlowski from Good eReader.

Is this a fantastic new opportunity for self publishing authors to gain access to large audiences of readers? This story is from Good eReader, a site we recommend for news and opinion about ebooks and indie publishing.

Tap by Wattpad is a free app for short, chat-style stories. The stories unfold via chat messages, as if you’re reading someone’s text conversation. You move the story forward by simply tapping to reveal the next part. WattPad is experiencing tremendous success with this new app and over 125 million Taps recorded in the past few weeks.

One of the big reasons why Tap is so popular is primarily due to the Create feature that lets people create interactive stories in a variety of languages using a combination of text, images, and emojis. Storytellers can create custom story covers and can even help set the mood for their readers by adding images to appear behind the story’s chat bubbles. As soon as a story is created, writers can share it with others on social media, through email, and text message.

Over the course of the past few months there has been a popular movement to gravitate away from e-books and embrace addictive chat-style stories. Amazon Rapids was the first major initiative, although they do not offer any content creation for the average indie author. WattPad on the other-hand firmly embraces community based content creation. Some of the most successful Tap stories include;

Drunk & Hangry with Chrissy Teigen – a series of texts from Chrissy to her husband John Legend, begging him to make her something to eat.

Buried Alive – A man is kidnapped and buried alive. He texts his wife for help, only to discover something sinister.

Academy Awards – a text conversation between Meryl Streep and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who asks her to please stop being such a good actress.

Virtual Boyfriend – Allison downloads a Virtual Boyfriend app and begins chatting with him. Things get creepy when her ‘boyfriend’ turns out to be the ultimate stalker.

Barack and the Trump Train – a text conversation between Donald Trump and Barack Obama where Donald asks for a big presidential favor.

Access Wattpad Tap directly on the Wattpad website here, or download the app from your favorite appstore.

[selfpublishingnews]

Amazon KDP Unveils Kindle Create Word Doc Conversion Tool

Amazon has launched Kindle Create to make it easier for its self publishing authors to publish directly from a Word document. By Mercy Pilkington in Good E-Reader

Amazon continues to take advantage of its scale and position among self publishing authors to offer tools to make it easier to use their platform over and above all others, making it harder for competitors and tempting authors to remain Amazon centric.

If you’re a self-published author, writing your book is only half the battle. Some might even argue that it’s the easy part of being an author. Indies have been beaten over the head for years now about the need to hire professionals to take the manuscript and turn it into a book, with costs associated with editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting, and marketing. The suggested price tags for those services can be daunting, especially if you’re not a marketing pro who is certain he’ll see a return on the investment.

That’s why a lot of authors have to budget wisely, and go professional for the skill sets they don’t have while learning enough to get by on the ones they do. One area where a lot of authors can save some money–and put it towards something critical like editing or cover design–is in ebook formatting, and Amazon has unleashed a tool that aims to make that process a little easier.

Amazon has launched Kindle Create in beta mode, and its designed to help authors convert a Word document to a publishable ebook in easier steps. One early tester of the tool has said it was almost “push of a button”-easy, but they were admittedly starting with a very straightforward text-based file. The only complaint was that this tool does not actually generate the MOBI file, but Kindle Create’s only function is to make your Word document clean and ready for KDP’s upload process to convert it to MOBI.

Authors who work in both paperback and ebook by going through the CreateSpace platform may not need this step unless their books are rejected for formatting issues, but this will certainly help those who go straight to ebook with their off the page writing. There are options for helping create your table of contents, preview panes that let you see it as it would appear on a device, and even attractive themes for your pages.

The software is currently free to download for both PC and Mac.

[selfpublishingnews]

Yet another approach to giving authors "total control" of the publishing and selling process. Article by Mercy Pilkington at Good E-Reader

One of the most interesting digital publishing trends of the year has been the reemergence of a number of ideas that appeared well before their time. Startups have come and gone in this space, and others have renewed those models and ideas at what is hopefully a more appropriate time. Yet another “newly new” idea has emerged, one that has its roots in giving authors total sales control over their work, but perhaps this one is finally ready to take hold.

Writer and publishing expert Cory Doctorow has announced a “new” business model that stands to net authors even larger shares of their royalties without disrupting the important contributions of their publishers (assuming they have publishers). This concept lets authors sell their books directly to the reading public via their websites, meaning they can cut out that Amazon-middle-man and pocket the 30% or so that Amazon usually takes in exchange for being the retailer.

First of all, Doctorow (whom we at Goodereader actually adore) is assuming in this model that the author has a publisher. There’s also an assumption that the author is selling books on multiple retail channels, not just from the largest one. But the really important take away is that in order for this to work, the author must have a significant following of readers and a strong social media presence. Why? Think about what Amazon does for self-published authors. It’s not just about hosting a simple mechanism to upload and sell a digital file, but rather those all-too-important “algorithms” that everyone keeps touting. For self-published authors of even a moderately successful ranking, Amazon placing a book in front of consumers is huge marketing that those authors can’t get on their own.

Does Doctorow’s idea have a sound concept? Of course. It’s completely viable for those who have a strong online presence and a loyal readership. But does the typical self-published author with two ebooks on Amazon stand to benefit from selling his books through his own website, also known as the online equivalent of setting up a sales booth from the back of their car? No. The idea that an author can continue to produce well-received content on a fairly regular basis and sell it directly to fans is limited to those who’ve made a full-fledged career out of this author thing. Again, startups were promising this kind of model six or seven years ago, and as they discovered the hard way, the only authors who can be successful without Amazon are the ones who simply don’t need them.

Original piece at Good E-reader here.

[meatycatastrophe]

Ah i hope i win the giveaway this time 🥺😩

[teleread]

E-book popularity rises all over the world

E-book popularity rises all over the world

There might be a kind of hush all over the world tonight, but with apologies to Herman’s Hermits, it’s more likely because people are busy reading e-books instead of being lovers in love. It appears e-book use is on the rise in Europe, Russia, Africa, and Asia.

At Good EReader, Michael Kozlowski aggregates survey information from Germany, Poland, the UK, and Russiato note that e-book purchases…

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[foboko]

eBooks Now Account for 30% of All US Fiction | Good eReader

There is strong momentum in the USA’s world of ebooks. Sales nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011, and ebooks now account for over 30% of all Trade-Fiction! Read more http://ow.ly/cnNsE