PublishDrive Sign Up Information

Hello Luke,

 

Welcome to PublishDrive! I am so happy that we can support your indie success with different tools within PublishDrive. 

I co-founded PublishDrive in 2015 with a single vision: to make publishing easier for everyone. Now PublishDrive is a self-publishing platform beyond distribution providing all the tools indies need to achieve success on their own terms. 

As your partner in publishing, we’ll help you write more and worry less, whether you’re a newbie author or publishing pro.  

PublishDrive can help you:

1. Maximize your income by keeping 100% of your royalties

2. Reach global markets like Google Play and Chinese stores with over 1bn potential readers

3. Boost your sales with book promotion tools 

If you are not a tech-savvy person, you will love how easy it is to:

• Convert your manuscript for free

• Split royalties with co-authors

• Improve metadata with artificial intelligence

Along with thousands of authors and publishers like you, PublishDrive is rewriting the rules of publishing to help indies achieve success, and we’re so excited that you’ve decided to join us.

Dear Luke,

 

Happy Friday! How was your November?

Did you achieve your NaNoWriMo goals? We’d love to hear about it! Be sure to share your goals and works in progress in our Facebook group. 

See what’s new and coming up in this month’s newsletter:

• 20Books Las Vegas recap

• PublishDrive author Claire Culliford’s self-publishing success story

• PD news: improvements to Abacus, easier upgrade process, and more!

• Promotion opportunities to boost sales

• Holiday publishing deadlines

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20Books Las Vegas Is a Wrap!

Dear Luke,

 

As the holidays approach, the PublishDrive team has an early Christmas gift that we’re thrilled to announce…

We’ve added two new sales channels to our distribution network: Dreame and Hoopla!

The addition of Dreame and Hoopla will allow indie authors and publishers to reach more readers, discover untapped markets, and earn great royalty rates. Learn more below!

Why Distribute to Dreame and Hoopla?

Hoopla serves well over 2,000 library system providers and boasts 5,000,000 registered users. You can reach millions of new readers in the library market while earning through a Cost Per Checkout (CPC) model. Learn more in our blog post here!

Dreame is an exciting new reading app that caters to female readers under the age of 40 in the English-speaking South Asian market. It features a lucrative episodic model that is performing well for genres such as Romance, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy. Readers pay to unlock each episode, giving you great royalty rates! Learn more in our blog post here!

How to Get Started

To distribute your ebooks to Dreame and Hoopla, sign up for a PublishDrive account today!*

SIGN UP! 

*Hoopla is included in all distribution plans, while Dreame is only available for the Standard plans and higher. Please read the blog posts linked above for more information.

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Dear Luke!

 

2019 was an awesome year for indie publishing. Thanks for the ride with PublishDrive!

I hope your 2019 was also full of developments as we could face it on the self-publishing market. As I can see, this is just the beginning! Read my article about what happened on the market this year.

With the PublishDrive team, we developed new features and opened new services to provide you the best tools in indie publishing. You cannot find any other service with so many Promotion options and a royalty splitting tool. 

PublishDrive authors and publishers rock!

2019 was a successful year for many PublishDrive authors. We are proud to help over 100 titles to be featured in the last few weeks on the front page of the stores or in newsletters. Also, I was happy to see that we helped our publishers earn 2x royalties in 2019 compared to last year. I’ve also shared some of the market data in PublishDrive's 2019 review, so you can see what was trending this year.

On the personal note, I am super thankful to get to get to know many of you in person at conferences, or in calls. I love to hear your stories, your personal journeys and of course, know more about your books! Let me share my personal review with you for this year in my Linkedin post. 
 

Look forward to writing and publishing together in 2020. 

Happy Holidays,

Kinga & the PublishDrive Team

 

Dear Luke,

Is it just us, or has this year flown by?

As 2019 quickly comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for being part of our community. 

The PublishDrive team - as well as our authors and publishers - come from different countries around the world, but we’re all united by our love for self-publishing. Thanks for letting us be part of your journey for another year!

We hope you achieved your publishing goals in 2019, and are planning on treating yourself to some rest and relaxation over the upcoming holidays. :)

Join us for a quick look back at PublishDrive’s highlights for 2019: 

Tiered Subscription-Based Ebook Aggregation

Earlier this year, we announced tiered subscription-based ebook aggregation - a first for the industry.  In place of the traditional royalty share model, subscription-based ebook aggregation allows authors to keep 100% of their royalties for a flat monthly fee. 

With tiered subscription plans, authors of every level can maximize their royalties and save time by distributing ebooks to 400+ stores in one dashboard. See how authors have already increased their take-home earnings!

Royalty Splitting Solutions for Co-Authors

Collaboration is common in the self-publishing industry, as it’s a great way to boost your publishing speed and combine marketing efforts. But the industry has always lacked a convenient way to split earnings. 

PublishDrive was thrilled to introduce two solutions in 2019: Team Royalties and Abacus. Co-authors and indie publishers like LMBPN have been saving hours of time with these new services. 

Built-In Amazon Advertising Tool

In 2019, PublishDrive became the first self-publishing aggregator to integrate Amazon Advertising. The addition of PublishDrive’s built-in Amazon Advertising tool has allowed authors to save time by managing their Sponsored Products ads and global ebook distribution in one dashboard. The tool is also enhanced with Savant, PublishDrive’s artificial intelligence, to improve campaign performance.

Traveling to Conferences

Traveling around the world to meet authors like you is always one of the best parts of the year. At conferences like 20Books Las Vegas and Frankfurt Book Fair, we had the pleasure of chatting with PublishDrive authors who are elevating the industry as a whole. We hope to see more of you next year!

New Sales Channels: Hoopla and Dreame!

In case you missed it, we recently announced two new sales channels to our growing distribution network: Hoopla and Dreame! Hoopla serves over 2,000 library system partners, so it’s a great option for expanding your library distribution to reach new readers. 

We were particularly excited to introduce Dreame, which is a new reading app where readers pay to unlock “episodes” of your content. If you distribute through PublishDrive, be sure to enable both of these stores in your settings! If you haven’t signed up yet, you can get started here for free.

Happy Holidays!

This year has been pretty fantastic, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of authors and publishers like you. On behalf of everyone at PublishDrive, we hope you have a lovely holiday and a prosperous new year! ????

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A Quick Reminder Regarding Holiday Hours

• Between December 20th and January 3rd, our team will be out of the office to enjoy a quick holiday break.

• Only our basic support services will be operating during this time, but we’ll be open on December 30 to handle any last-minute requests you might have. 

• We’ll do our best to send out the financial report for November by December 23 (it’ll depend on our partner stores, but we’ll send it no later than January 6).

• Read our help center article for more information regarding holiday hours.

Dear Luke!

 

Are you ready to run special offers for Valentine’s day or do you plan a Bookbub deal with a discounted price? Now you can schedule your price promotions ahead with the new Price Promotion feature available in your favorite PublishDrive dashboard. So you can make sure your discount price will go through in stores as you planned!

Why is the new Price Promotion feature beneficial for you? 

1. Schedule your promotions automatically with PublishDrive for a specific time period, so you’ll never forget to discount your book in time.

2. Organize your promotions under campaigns, so you can easily manage them in a group.

3. Add optional information about your promotions, so PublishDrive can give you more information on return on investment of your campaign and how to maximize the effect of your price promotion.

Read more about the importance of book price promotions and how to schedule a price promo in your PublishDrive dashboard.

 

 

Hi indies!

PublishDrive had an amazing 2019 and we’re excited for even more in 2020. We’ve already had quite a busy January with several achievements to be proud of. To mention a few, we made Google’s distribution process easier for users and improved our royalty splitting tool Abacus, integrating IngramSpark reports. Expect more from us soon, and in the meantime, keep up the good work and happy publishing!

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features 
 

Take advantage of running price promos!

Promotional pricing is one of the most powerful sales strategies out there. You can now run your own price promotions through PublishDrive. All you have to do is go to your Promotions page and choose which titles you’d like to promote for the stores listed. For help along the way, see our guide (it’s super easy to do).

New distribution plan for up to 20 books 

We recently released a new distribution plan for indies publishing up to 20 books. If this sounds like a plan for you, check it out by logging in to your account.

Import IngramSpark POD reports to Abacus

If you publish print on demand books through IngramSpark, you can now easily add your IngramSpark royalty reports to Abacus for convenient royalty splitting. Learn more about how to get started here.

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Important updates to know
 

Distributing to Google Play is easier than ever

To meet Google’s policies and make distribution hassle-free for our users, we’ve made some significant improvements. You no longer have to wait for Google’s invitation to distribute your books; all that’s needed is a simple registration. See our video for a step-by-step guide on how to publish on Google Play.

Playster no longer available for distribution

And by the way, we have removed the subscription service Playster from our distribution network. 

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Let’s connect

Meet us at the London Book Fair

The London Book Fair gathers over 25,000 publishing professionals annually. This year will be its 49th anniversary, happening on March 10-12. If you’re planning on being there, let us know so we can meet up and chat! Check out the details of the event here.

London Book Fair 2019?????

Have you tuned into Dalma’s podcast?

Our very own self-publishing expert Dalma Szentpály has been co-hosting #AskAlli’s podcast called the Self-Publishing Poetry Salon with Alli's director and resident poet Orna Ross. If poetry is your jam, you don’t want to miss their 2019 review or February’s episode on how to write and sell love poetry.

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In case you missed it

Dear Luke!

 

I know you're getting a lot of these emails regarding COVID-19, and I don't want to add more to the pile. But for publishers managing their businesses, right now is an important time. I thought I'd share what PublishDrive is up to, and how we're here to help you. 

We believe the power of reading can help people escape during these hard times. At a time of social distancing, readers online are looking for content more than ever. Before I share more about that, know that PublishDrive is running smoothly and we're committed to keeping your distribution up and running.

Digital book sales for our publishers have gone up

We've seen a 10-15% growth in last week's ebook sales data. Also last week, we introduced print-on-demand and audiobook for PublishDrive distribution. We encourage you to go ahead and share more stories with more readers. 

Amid growing uncertainties, you can rely on us for your publishing needs (we are not going anywhere!) We'll be launching more stores and marketing features soon. In the meantime, see what kind of promotional tools you can use right now, here. 

We're fortunate to be an online service

Like many indie publishers, we have digital capabilities to work from home. With PublishDrive, you can continue to upload, distribute, promote, and sell books as you always do. There shouldn't be any delay in our support or promotional services either. 

We're busy innovating with publishers 

Over the last few weeks, we've been helping more indies than usual in managing their publishing business (as we all adjust to the new normal). Like I mentioned, POD and audio formats have been added. We also got new promotion options for increasing sales this month.

Once again, I want to let you know that we are here for you along with our 400+ online stores and 120K digital libraries. If you need support of any kind or have a new idea, reach out at any time. 

Let's stay connected

During this time, I believe it's important to stay engaged with the communities closest to you. If you haven't yet, consider joining our Facebook Group made up of the PD team, PD authors and publishers, and many others like us. 

You can read more about how we're handling the coronavirus pandemic in my recent blog post.

Dear friends,

Your books are valuable (especially now!)

Given the current circumstances, I hope you're hanging in there okay. As you know, we've been communicating a lot about the recent up-sides to digital publishing. That's because (amid COVID-19) we're seeing major growth in online book sales across countries and stores. On PublishDrive, sales increased by more than 20% from February to March. 

 

To give you the full picture, I put together a report of our recent data and trends on bestselling genres, countries, and consumer behavior: bookmark it! We'll be publishing a new article every month, so keep an eye on our blog for more updates.

 

We're ramping up our services to better support the indie community for a time such as now. I hope you find our resources like the market report and our product updates shared below (full blog post) invaluable to your work. Don't stop publishing, books are in demand. ??

????
 

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

Faster sales data, earlier payments

On your PublishDrive dashboard, you can now access faster sales data and earlier payments for more stores with cool charts and other analytics functions. As money management quickly became a pain point for many authors and publishers, we're working with retailers for seamless communication and updates.

 

P.s. Other ways we help with indie finances ?
Did you know that we waive over $3K thresholds? We also pay out higher royalties for books below $2.99. For more questions about these, shoot us a message.

 

Print and audiobook distribution in China
 

Earlier this year we did a big thing by introducing print-on-demand and audiobook distribution to the platform. Now, we've expanded its capabilities to reach the Chinese market. Quick benefits about the new formats: 1) reach more than 160 million print readers and 2) engage listeners wherever they go with audio while earning more royalties.?????
 

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??????

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Important updates to know
 

Storytel, JD, and more stores (around the globe)

Storytel is a leading audiobook/ebook subscription service for Northern Europe offering 400K+ books to over 1.1M customers across 20 markets. JD is China's largest retailer. Germany and Hungary want your English-language books! To check out all of the newest additions, go to 'Stores' on your dashboard.

 

Out of office on June 1st

FYI, the whole team will be out of office on June 1st for the Pentecost holiday. We'll be offline that entire day and will get back to any emails the next day. You can leave a message for us here.

 

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Let's connect

Join our Facebook Group

Solidarity matters more than ever these days. Join PublishDrive's Facebook Group, our own digital hub for indie publishers. Let's chat industry news, important updates, personal experiences, and anything else. We'd love to have you!

 

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In case you missed it

 

Luke, as a publisher I know business has been affected by COVID-19. Although prints are suffering a drop in sales, digital books are booming as we've seen in our recent report about April book sales. 

Good news for authors and publishers: the digital book market is growing during COVID-19. That's because more people are seeking at-home entertainment, prioritizing digital means to get them.

On PublishDrive, online book sales increase by more than 23% just from March to April.

I pulled PublishDrive's data to properly share the immense growth we''re seeing from genres and markets worldwide. 

Check out my recent article for more about best selling genres, countries, and consumer behavior. 

Please share the article with your community as we believe sharing information and transparency is more important than ever. 

One particular finding is that we're seeing this boom across markets and store types, in retail, in subscription and regional stores particularly:

 

We intend to update the report again in mid-June, so make sure to bookmark the page and come back for the newest developments. During this unprecedented time, we hope our indie publishing community can see just how valuable books are (especially now). 

 

 

Stay safe and let me know if you have any questions.

 

Dear Luke,

 

Here are your new free price promotion options for Apple Books and Kobo! You can participate if you distribute to Apple and Kobo through PublishDrive.

 

To take advantage of these promotions, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:
 

Fill out the form

We are now accepting price promotion requests until December 1st in the following categories:

 

Holiday Daily Deals - Apple store

• Date: December 24 - January 4
• Conditions: every fiction genre
• Pricing: $4.99 & less

 

Bingeable Reads - Apple store

• Date: December 22 - January 5
• Conditions: every fiction genre
• Pricing: $4.99 & less

 

New Year, New You - Apple store

• Date: January 4 - January 12
• Conditions: relevant non-fiction titles
• Pricing: $3.99 & less

 

Holiday/Boxing Week Sale - Kobo US and CA stores

• Date: December 23 - January 4
• Conditions: all genres (fiction, mystery, romance, nonfiction, sci-fi & fantasy, kids & YA)
• Pricing: $4.99 & less

 

* Please read the conditions of the promotions carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity.

 

If you have any questions, please let us know here. 

 

Digital book sales continue to rise ??

Hi, indies. I've been encouraging you all to take advantage of this period as online books surge in demand. Since March, we've been reporting publicly on our blog the numbers and trends we're seeing within PublishDrive (and they're looking really good).

 

From Feb to March this year, indies distributing digital books on PublishDrive saw growth by over 20% across global markets. In our most recent report, we saw an additional 23% growth from March to April across markets and stores. Compared to last year's sales data, that's a 43% increase in sales. (SO PROUD OF US!) Here's a quick insight on what's selling lately:

Be sure to check out our report for more in-depth insights and stay tuned. People want your books more than before -- and selling digitally is lucrative right now. As the way of life drastically shifts, I think in digital publishing, we'll make it out okay. As always, stay safe and take care.

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

 

Upload .mobi samples!

New users can now upload .mobi samples on PublishDrive to preview (recommended 10% content) on Amazon. Find the option when uploading a book title from your dashboard:

 

 ??????

Faster sales data, earlier payments

In case you missed this, know that users can now access faster sales data and earlier payments for more stores with analytics functions like visual charts to help you make the best decisions in your business. Also, we waive payments over $3K thresholds and payout higher royalties for books below $2.99.

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Important updates to know
 

Out of office on June 1st

All PublishDrive staff will be out of office on June 1st for the Pentecost holiday. We'll get back to any emails the next day. If you need anything, leave a message for us here.

 

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Let's connect

Join our Facebook Group

Solidarity matters more than ever these days. Join PublishDrive's Facebook Group, our own digital hub for indie publishers. Let's chat industry news, important updates, personal experiences, and anything else. We'd love to have you!

 

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In case you missed it

Dear Luke!

As you might know, PublishDrive's royalty splitting service Abacus has been saving hours of time for those who work with co-authors or publishing teams. 

And thanks to feedback from authors like you, Abacus has been expanded to accept more royalty formats:

We're excited to announce that Kobo Writing Life (KWL) and D2D royalties are now compatible with Abacus!

Why is this great for authors? In addition to Amazon sales reports, you can easily import your KWL and D2D sales reports for convenient royalty splitting!  

Just drag-and-drop your reports into Abacus, assign royalty percentages and complete the import process, and you're good to go! You can then calculate co-author royalties, track costs and author advances, and manage other team finances. Learn more about the updates in our blog post here!

Want to try it out for yourself? Start importing your reports into Abacus today! And don't forget: royalty splitting for your first book is free forever. :)

 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our Support Team here. 

Ready for December book sales?

For those in the states, I hope y'all had a restful Thanksgiving. Lately, I've been sharing a lot on book marketing. That's because Christmas is approaching, the #1 holiday for book sales. With digital content in demand, you gotta promote your best.

A few weeks ago, I talked about online promotions with reps from Written Word Media: watch the recording or read the highlights. It was reassuring to hear similar stories about higher engagement in digital publishing:

Also, a few highlights from our recent book market report: 1) international markets were responsible for 77% of sales in 2020, and 2) library sales more than tripled by 275%. Read the full report.

Lastly, I miss everyone! I couldn't help but think of my favorite indie conference, 20Books in Las Vegas:

This year has been challenging, but thank goodness for digital. The rest of this newsletter shares write-ups about how to promote during the pandemic and more. I wish you a strong finish to 2020. (Fingers crossed to in-person activities in 2021!)

In this together,
Kinga Jentetics
CEO, Co-Founder

P.S. If you have any feedback on how to improve the PublishDrive platform, schedule a 1 on 1 call with us here.

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Welcoming Audible

In November we launched our newest partnership with Audible where listeners subscribe on a monthly basis to browse over 200K audio content.

• If you're distributing audio with us (subscription plan, not revshare), your title(s) should've been sent out.
• If you're not distributing audio, it's super easy to do: read all about it.

Why audio? It's the fastest growing online segment in publishing. In one month, Google Play Audio experienced the 2nd largest growth spurt by nearly 130%.

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Holiday operations

?To sell in stores by Christmas, upload your title(s) to PublishDrive by Dec. 7th!

• From Dec. 22nd to Jan. 3rd, the team will be out of the office. Our basic support services will be operating during this time.
• We''ll be open on Dec. 30th to handle any urgent matters like last-minute price changes. If you need us then, message us with the subject line: "December 30 - Urgent Requests".

For more info about our holiday operations, see here.

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Marketing tips & tricks

Has August treated you well?

For PublishDrive, digital books are in full swing. From June to July, indies made 20% more in sales. Compared to last year, that's a 41% increase. Read the full report and grab our free country report for more insights. If you're thinking about what book to write or publish next, how about these bestselling genres? ??
 

As digital publishing grows, my team is working hard. We got accepted into Google's Immersion: Women Founders Program. It's a global initiative with networking and funding opportunities. We're excited to use this support to build better solutions for our authors and publishers.

I also want to give a special congrats to Rhett C. Bruno, founder of Aethon Books, who recently decided to go global with us. His book "The Luna Missile Crisis" got awarded for Best Sci-Fi novel by Global eBook Awards. I look forward to the success of Aethon's entire catalog.

And congrats to all of you continuing to write and run your publishing business. Enjoy the rest of this month's newsletter. Keep it up!

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

Edit ebooks in bulk

We expanded our Bulk Import feature. Not only can you upload ebooks in bulk, but now make changes to existing titles by uploading a single Excel file on PublishDrive. Download the new Excel template with more options for metadata. We've made tons of additional improvements which you can read here.

Correct your manuscript by pros

Within two business days, our newest book correction service ensures your ebook, print, or audiobook is free of errors before distribution. We guarantee top industry standards by our best experts (who helped publish over 100,000 ebooks so far). For more details, read here.

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Important updates to know

Upcoming promo opportunities

Don't forget about September's OverDrive's Read an eBook Day and Odilo's Library Card Sign-Up Month. For free, sign up from your dashboard to get a chance to be featured in marketing newsletters and reach thousands of readers. Watch our video to see all free (and paid) marketing options with PublishDrive.

Don't miss out on important emails

Similar to this monthly newsletter, we communicate about newly added stores, marketing opportunities, industry news, and more. We send notifications as soon as we have the info. To receive what's important to you, specify your preferences with this link: https://go.publishdrive.com/emailPreference/epc/583913/nwrVLSBtmxv-l-to-O2MoZNfGAU3A6Z1738oRu5fhG4/155ca1f9ccf9b9335dcd986b36c1a433258330b55280ff2ea48b17b7efeb0cb6/377813690

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Tips & tricks

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Hi Luke,

 

Just a quick reminder about our Live Interactive Q&A on December 16th.

We''re answering ALL your questions on: How to Increase Book Sales in 2021.

*Cue confused music* 

Yes we know, unfortunately we got the date wrong in our initial invitation.

Apologies for that!

Once more, here are our hosts: 
 

                
                                   
         
                        Kinga Jentetics                                 Abhishek Seghal
                      CEO@PublishDrive                 Publisher Relationship Manager
         

   
              ???             

                                                    Naveed Tariq
                                                  Growth Marketer           

                                       
                                           Reserve Your Spot

 

All you need to do:

 

1. Prepare 3 of your top questions to ask us!
2. Bring a friend along (if you can).

 

If book sales have been a struggle in 2020, they shouldn''t be in 2021!

See you then Luke,

Abhishek Sehgal
Publisher Relationship Manager

Dear Luke!

Our book market report for May 2020 is out! Read it here.

Here's one of the main takeaways we'd like you to know: book sales in May 2020 have increased by 60% on PublishDrive compared to May of last year. Just take a look at the growth by stores:

 

Happy March!

How was Valentine's Day for you last month? If you didn't get to run a special marketing strategy for V-Day, you can still run your own campaign with our newest feature: Price Promotion! Schedule price discounts to boost sales straight from the PublishDrive dashboard. We share more about it below so be sure to check it out. Happy publishing.

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features 
 

???Run price promotions for your books

Know the 4Ps of book marketing? You should. Kinga goes over the framework in her article here. Long story short, promotions is one of four elements to have. And book discounts are an effective way to promote. With our newest feature, you can now set up your own price promotions. See our guide.

Say hi to more exciting promo options

Yes, there's more! We've partnered up with Written Word Media, bringing you four new promo options for your books which you can easily access from your dashboard. Reach up to 600K readers. It takes only three steps.

New distribution plan for up to 20 books 

Don't forget that we have a new distribution plan for indies publishing up to 20 books. Just log in to your account to get the details.

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Important updates to know
 

Added D2D and Kobo Writing Life to PD Abacus

You know about our royalty-splitting and collaboration tool, right? (If not, see our case study on how PD Abacus saves indies hours of work.) Recently we've added D2D and Kobo Writing Life as extra revenue streams. Read all about it here.

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Let's connect

Be our beta user!

The team is committed to developing the best solutions and tools for indie publishing. That's why our beta users are very important to us. If you'd like to be one of the firsts to test our newest platform features, let us know here.

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Tips & tricks

Autumn greetings . . ?? .

Entering this Fall season, we recorded a 69% increase in digital book sales by PublishDrive indies. That's our highest growth rate to date. And 70% of those sales came from international markets. See the numbers for yourself here, and get insights like top-performing stores:

Digital publishing is breaking records month after month; we don't see it slowing down for the rest of the year. As we get closer to Christmas, the #1 holiday for selling books, I'm telling you: globally distribute and promote even more.

To prepare for the busy season, I have two things for you. First, 50% off any PublishDrive plan for two months if you upgrade or newly enroll in October. Second, a free webinar on October 7th to talk best practices for increasing royalties: sign up for a spot. We'll hold a Q&A, so bring your questions. I hope you can join!

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

Better communication about your book

We've added new notices within the platform to better inform you about your book. After successfully uploading a book for distribution, we'll display these types of info which you can check at any time:

• Tasks to complete (like activating Google Play for distribution)
• Expected publishing times for enabled stores
• Disabled stores (we suggest you turn on!)
• Stores you can't reach with reasons

PublishDrive's API is now available

For ebook publishing, that means you no longer need to upload a manuscript or update metadata manually. In PublishDrive's publisher plans, API makes it easier to automate your distribution processes (in bulk, for example).

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Updates to know

For Print-On-Demand, ISBN is required

Usually, PublishDrive does not need ISBNs to publish digital books. But at the moment, we cannot distribute POD books without ISBNs. To get one, please contact your local ISBN agency. Check this site to find an agency.

Don't miss out on important emails

We communicate about newly added stores, marketing opportunities, industry trends, and more via email as soon as we have the news. To receive what's important to you, specify your email preferences with this URL: https://go.publishdrive.com/emailPreference/epc/583913/gGcptZTNgqWrey9OoziADBGRXduPB-tsZStxIJ5_aOM/155ca1f9ccf9b9335dcd986b36c1a433258330b55280ff2ea48b17b7efeb0cb6/394389145

If the link directs you to a blank page, first activate your promotion emails here. Give it a few minutes, then try loading the page again.

Out of office on October 23rd

FYI, we won't be available on October 23rd for Hungary's Revolution of 1956 holiday (affecting our core team). If you need anything, send us a message here and we'll get to it first thing on the following Monday.

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Tips & tricks

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Wishing you a warm Halloween, ??

I hope you're spending a warm and safe weekend with the people dearest to you. I know the world can feel shaky right now, so I bring you a bit of positive news when it comes to digital publishing -

September hit 59% more sales in a one-year period. We saw cool numbers like a 900% increase in the psychology genre and 10x more growth with price promotions. Get the deets. In the report, you'll notice my free white paper on global book trends in 2020. Here's a sneak peek of top-performing channels:

With digital on a roll, get ready for December, the best month for book sales. Mark your calendar: PublishDrive's deadline to deliver books for Christmas releases is Dec 8th! More info here. Also, today is the last day to take 50% off any PublishDrive plan: upgrade or newly enroll.

To meet book lovers online, I can't stress how important it is to promote online. Continue reading the rest of this newsletter for marketing tips and resources (upcoming webinar below).

In this together,
Kinga Jentetics
CEO, Co-Founder

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Let's talk book marketing

The team was delighted to see so many of you join our Zoom call earlier this month. If you missed it, here's the recap. We're holding another free webinar on Nov 19th, this time with book marketing veterans from Written Word Media:

 

  Sign up for a spot

 

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Updates to know

New features in Q3

Do you know about our latest developments? With the rising demand for online books, we're working hard to make sure you meet them. Here are our top 8 releases from last quarter:

Sign up with your social account

FYI, you can now create a PublishDrive account tied to any one of your social media accounts.

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Tips & tricks

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Dear Luke, digital publishing continues to balloon. ??

In one year, August 2020 reports a 69% increase in online book sales via PublishDrive. That's our highest number to date! Read the report here.

We go over trends like bestselling genres. To highlight a few, subgenres like Time Travel under Romance and Military under Thriller performed best. Google Play saw a crazy 600% boost in Technology books. And all digital store types from libraries to subscription services are doing awesome.

International markets are ballooning the most, capturing 70% of PublishDrive's sales. There's growth across seas (special shout out to the Philippines!):

Enjoy August's book market report - digital publishing is not slowing down. To go deeper country by country, grab our free country report here.


Up we go!
Kinga Jentetics
CEO PublishDrive

Hey Luke,

In July 2020, PublishDrive indies increased their book sales by 20% compared to the previous month. And compared to July 2019, that's 41% in sales growth. Read the latest report here.

In our report, we saw some impressive numbers like 500% boosts in African American genres via Google Play Books and Fairy Tale genres via Amazon. Look at our fun image below for PublishDrive's bestselling genres in one year:

Growth is everywhere. In one year, income from digital libraries grew by 179% and subscription services by 117%. As reading behavior drastically shifts, digital publishing proves to be very hot this year. ??

Enjoy our monthly book market report. If you'd like a more in-depth analysis from country to country, grab our free country market report here.

Proud of us!
Kinga Jentetics
CEO PublishDrive

Dear Luke!

 

Here are your new free price promotion options for Apple Books! You can participate if you distribute to Apple Books' U.S. store through PublishDrive.

 

To take advantage of these promotions, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:
 

Fill out the form

We are now accepting price promotion requests until September 9th  in the following categories:

 

Mystery subcategories sal

• Date: September 22-29
• Conditions: psychological thriller, military thriller, detective, cozy mystery
• Pricing: $3.99 & less

 

Eye-Opening American History sale

• Date: October 12-20
• Conditions: American history related books
• Pricing: $4.99 & less

 

Fall Sneak Peeks

• Date: featuring will go live on Books Main on 10/20
• Conditions: titles should not release until after 10/26 since this is for pre-orders only
• Pricing: $16.99 & less

 

*Please read the conditions of the promotions carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity.

 

If you have any questions, please let us know here. 

 

Happy publishing,

Csilla

Dear Luke!
 

Here is your new free price promotion option for Kobo stores! You can participate if you distribute to Kobo through PublishDrive.

To take advantage of this promotion, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:

Fill out the form

We are now accepting price promotion requests until November 3rd in the following category:
 

Kobo US & CA - Black Friday & Cyber Monday Weekend Sale 

If you''d like to submit to both territories, be sure to fill out separate forms - one with USD pricing and one with CAD pricing.
 

• Date: November 27-30
• Genres: Across all genres (fiction, mystery, romance, nonfiction, kids & YA)
• Pricing: $4.99 & under
   

*Please read the conditions of the promotion carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity. 
 

If you have any questions, please let us know here. 
 

Happy publishing,

Csilla

Live Q&A on Increasing Book Sales in 2021

 

Hi Luke,

We''re having a special Live Interactive Q&A on December 15th (12 PM EST / 6 PM CET).

We''ll be answering ALL your questions on: How you can increase book sales in 2021!

Here''s all you need to do:
 

• Prepare 3 of your top questions to ask us!
• Bring a friend along (if you can).??????

Book sales soar by 60% compared to last year

 

A lot has happened in the first half of this year. Wherever you are, I hope you're staying safe. And, I hope you're taking advantage of this period where digital books are in high demand. Take a look at PublishDrive's bestselling genres and their growth rates recently:

 

 

If you haven't seen our latest book market report, read it here for a comprehensive review of consumer behavior and more. Just a few days ago, I talked about these numbers and trends in a podcast with Keystroke Medium: take a listen. The growth in digital publishing is huge - keep it up, everyone!

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

 

New Starter Plan: 2 titles for $9.99

If you're not on PublishDrive, we encourage you to start selling globally. For $9.99 a month, distribute and promote two titles (ebook, audio, or print formats) to major retailers like Amazon and other lucrative channels around the globe. Be sure to check out the pricing page for more details when it goes live in July.

 

Manuscript correcting by pros

Before publishing, it's crucial to format your manuscript correctly for smooth conversion (see our formatting guide). If you're needing additional help, you can now have your file checked and corrected by one of our pros (for a small fee). If interested, send us a message here.

 ??????

 

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Important updates to know
 

We made Google distribution easier

The process to start selling on Google Play Books may seem intimidating. That's why we made it as simple as possible straight from your dashboard: log in. Don't miss out on this key distribution channel. Check out the process or reach out for help.

 

New channels added: Gardners Audio & DiBook

Gardners is a leading international wholesaler and an existing partner of ours for ebooks. With audio added, you can now reach listeners in Sweden, Poland, Denmark, and the UK. DiBook provides digital books to the Hungarian market wanting more English-language content. As our network continues to grow, stay tuned!
 

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Tips & tricks

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Let's connect

Join our Facebook Group

Solidarity matters more than ever these days. Join PublishDrive's Facebook Group, our own digital hub for indie publishers. Let's chat industry news, important updates, personal experiences, and anything else. We'd love to have you!

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Dear Luke!

 

Here are your new free price promotion options for Apple Books! You can participate if you distribute to Apple Books' U.S. store through PublishDrive.

 

To take advantage of these promotions, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:
 

We are now accepting price promotion requests until August 4th  in the following categories:

 

Labor Day sale

• Date: September 1-8
• Conditions: fiction titles
• Pricing: $3.99 & less

 

Historical Romance

• Date: September 15-29
• Conditions: only historical romance fiction titles
• Pricing: $2.99 & less

 

*Please read the conditions of the promotions carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity.

 

If you have any questions, please let us know here. 

 

Happy publishing,

Csilla

Dear Luke, digital publishing continues to deliver. ?

See PublishDrive's book market report for September. We analyzed 800 online book promotions and saw that on average, there were 10x more sales (especially when discounting books originally priced around $9.99).

Also, we put together a free white paper showcasing the global book market's performance from Q1 to Q3 in 2020: click to download. You'll find stats on bestselling countries, genres, and top recommendations for increasing your royalties.

With the demand for online books going up and up, we're working hard to make sure you meet them. In Q3 we improved PublishDrive's features, added new stores, and more: check what's new.

I hope you stay optimistic about the future of digital publishing. Based on the trends, you're in a good space. ?? Lastly, I'd like to remind you that our 50% off deal on upgrading your account ends Oct. 31st: use this link.


Stay safe & don't stop publishing,
Kinga Jentetics
CEO PublishDrive

Dear Luke,

Here are your new free price promotion options for Apple Books! You can participate if you distribute to Apple Books' U.S. store through PublishDrive.

To take advantage of these promotions, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:
 

Fill out the form

 

We are now accepting price promotion requests until November 24th  in the following categories:
 

Holiday Romance

• Date: December 08-15
• Conditions: holiday romance fiction titles
• Pricing: $2.99 & less
   

Cozy Reads

• Date: December 15-22
• Conditions: fiction, romance, cozy mystery, YA/kids, and light nonfiction
• Pricing: $3.99 & less
   

Bingeable Reads (week 1)

• Date: December 22-29
• Conditions: all fiction titles
• Pricing: $4.99 & less
   

*Please read the conditions of the promotions carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity.
 

If you have any questions, please let us know here. 
 

Happy publishing,

Csilla

Luke, are you promoting the best you can?

Know this about your PublishDrive account: you get FREE and paid promotion opportunities easily accessible from your dashboard. Log in and view them now or watch our video to see how you can utilize our sales-boosting features:

FOR FREE this September, get the chance to be featured in marketing emails for OverDrive's Read an eBook Day and Odilo's Library Card Sign-Up Month from your dashboard. Read more about getting featured with stores like Amazon, Apple, or Kobo and savvy tools in our Help Center article (or watch our video ?).

PublishDrive indies have seen a 66% sales increase from June 2019 to June 2020. It's a lucrative time for online books, so I hope you do the most with your marketing.

If you have any questions, reach out to my support team here.

Hi Luke,

 

Last call for our Live Interactive Q&A on December 16th.

We''re answering ALL your questions on: How to Increase Book Sales in 2021.
 

  All You Have To Do:

 

1. Prepare 3 of your top questions to ask us!
2. Bring a friend along (if you can).

We want you to start off 2021, confident and prepared!

                                      
???Reserve Your Spot

 

 

Look forward to answering your questions!

Abhishek Sehgal
Publisher Relationship Manager

Dear Luke!

Here is your new free price promotion option for Kobo Canada store! You can participate if you distribute to Kobo through PublishDrive.

To take advantage of this promotion, fill out this form for each English language book* and we will take care of everything:

Fill out the form

We are now accepting price promotion requests until September 17th in the following category:
 

Thanksgiving Price Promo

• Date: October 8-12
• Conditions: every genre
• Pricing: $4.99 and under

*Please read the conditions of the promotion carefully. If you submit books that do not meet the mentioned requirements then unfortunately you will not receive a prominent promotion opportunity.
 

If you have any questions, please let us know here.

Luke,

 

I'm excited to share a new channel we've added to PublishDrive's distribution: say hello to Audible!

Audible consists of the world's largest selection of digital audiobooks, where listeners subscribe on a monthly basis to browse over 200,000 audio content.

If you're already distributing audio on PublishDrive, just stay put and we'll send your title(s) to Audible's network by November 27th. To opt-out, head under 'Stores and Imprint' on your dashboard.

If you're not distributing audio, it's super easy to do: read all about it.  

For more help, reach out to my support team here.
 

Happy Publishing!
Csilla Csurgai-Kalm?r
Head of Operations

P.S. ?

Dear Luke!

 

During these hard times, books are an escape for readers: publishing wide on all channels is more important than ever. Scribd is a great channel for publishing, especially as we've seen PublishDrive's ebook sales go up by 10-15% within the last few weeks. Since we now offer audio distribution, this is double the impact. Also, exclusive PublishDrive promotions are available for Scribd. 

I want to tell you why Scribd. It's a beloved subscription service for enjoying audio and ebooks, with more than 1 million dedicated users. In this time of social distancing, more people are looking for online content. So share your stories!

Why now? Since March 17th, anyone worldwide can read ebooks or listen to audiobooks on Scribd FREE for 30 days. No credit card required. So you'll reach a huge audience, and publishers receive FULL standard payouts from Scribd even during this promotion. So for readers, Scribd is free, and for publishers, it means more royalties. This is Scribd's way of supporting readers and publishers at the same time. 

Also, once you sell to Scribd with PublishDrive, we can recommend your books to get featured in editorial newsletters. To get your books featured in Scribd newsletters check out our Featuring tool on the PublishDrive platform Promotions tab. They are looking for new releases, and also, books for their 'Read more. Explore more.' Campaign. 

It's quick to get started. Just log in to your PublishDrive account and select Scribd in your store selection.

Let me know here, if you have any questions.

Dear Luke!

 

I have great news for you. We've added more outlets from Tolino's network to PublishDrive!

 

What about it? Tolino is a cooperation of various bookselling platforms with its own unified ebook reader, browser-based web reader, and mobile apps. And it's the 2nd-largest sales channel for ebooks in Germany.

 

We made it super easy for you to manage these fresh outlets and sell more books. All you have to do is log in and find 'Tolino and German network' under your 'Stores and Imprints'.

 

Your new German network with Tolino includes current Tolino websites like beam, Ceebo, divibibib libraries (approx. 3,000 public libraries), EBSCO, Legimi, mojoreads, Readfy, skoobe, and 40 more various platforms. Stay tuned because we're working to add more!



If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us via this online form. Also, please bear in mind that we'll answer your questions on April 14th. Thank you for your patience. 

Dear indies, we''re doing so well.

??????I would be lying to say I wasn't alarmed at the beginning of this year. But as we've made it to Q3 of 2020, I see just how far our community has come. So, I congratulate you all! From June 2019 to June 2020, PublishDrive indies increased book sales by 66%. If you missed it, read our latest market report and check out growth rates like this:
 

 

Personally, I've been busy talking about the rise of indie publishing as online books take over the scene. Learn about what's happening in my recent podcast chat with reps from Amazon, IPG, and Kobo: YouTube, Apple, or Stitcher. I hope you enjoy it. And, enjoy the rest of this newsletter (we have lots of updates!)

Kinga Jentetics CEO, Co-Founder

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Fresh new features

Save more time with PD Abacus

The royalty-splitting tool for co-authors has been expanded. Manage royalties and other costs by simply uploading sales reports for not just KDP/KU, but six additional channels: IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Kobo, Google, Apple Books, and PublishDrive. Also, fix currency conversion rates automatically for accurate reporting. Read more.

New distribution channels: Kobo Plus Canada & Nextory

If you're publishing in 'Kobo Plus' or 'Tolion & German network' via PublishDrive, we'll automatically send your book(s) out to the newly added stores. That means reaching more readers in Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland. If you want to switch on these channels (or opt-out), log in here.

Manuscript correcting by pros

Before publishing, it's crucial to format your manuscript correctly for smooth conversion (see our formatting guide). If you're needing additional help, send us a message to have your file corrected by one of our pros (for a small fee)

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Important updates to know

FREE book promotion opportunities

Mark your calendar to get the chance to be featured in marketing emails for OverDrive's Read an eBook Day and Odilo's Library Card Sign-Up Month in September. There's a bunch of other free (and paid) options to choose straight from your dashboard. Log in to view them or watch our tutorial video.

Faster sales data for Amazon Print-On-Demand

For those distributing print books on Amazon, you can now access real-time sales from your dashboard, data updated in just a few hours. See here.

Out of office August 20th-23rd

All PublishDrive staff will be out of office starting on August 20th for St. Stephen's Day holiday. We'll get back to checking emails on the 24th. If you need anything, leave a message for us here.

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Tips & tricks

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Dear Luke!

 

I hope you're safe wherever you are in the world right now. Just to let you know, we added 2 NEW channels to our distribution. Here's what to know:

 

1. Distribute audiobooks to Gardners, a leading international wholesaler of books, music, and film working with multi-channel retailers for both physical and digital products (and an existing partner of ours for ebooks). With audio, reach listeners in Sweden, Poland, Denmark, and the UK. It's simple to get started, all you need is an MP3 file.
   
   

2. Distribute ebooks to DiBook, a store providing digital books to Hungarian readers. Especially in a time where English language content is in demand, sell globally in untapped channels like Dibook.
   
   

 

If you'd like to sell your audio and ebooks on these platforms, just stay put! Books will be sent out by June 22nd at the latest. The option to opt-out is under 'Stores and imprints' on your PD dashboard.

 

If you have any questions, reach out to my support team here.

Dear Luke, happy holidays! ???

This year has been quite the ride. How are you feeling? After writing PublishDrive's annual year in review, I was left with a deep sense of gratitude for our indie community. ?

As many industries were impacted by the pandemic, I've seen publishing folks respond with flexibility and resilience. Digital was the tool to harness.

 

Here are just a handful of our achievements in 2020:

• We hit our highest increase in digital sales of 69% (that's all y'all, indies!)
• 77% of sales came from international markets.
• Indies made 10x more sales with price promotions.
• We launched Audio and POD distribution.

In 2021, do look forward to more tech tools, support, and marketing opportunities for your publishing gig.

Lastly, my social-distancing team wishes you a safe and warm holiday season ??:
 

As always, happy publishing.
Kinga Jentetics
CEO PublishDrive

P.S. If you've been keeping up with our monthly book reports, will you take a few minutes to give us your feedback? GIVE FEEDBACK