A new partnership between Draft2Digital and Bookshop.org

There is now a real alternative to Amazon when it comes to reaching new customers with your ebook.

Draft2Digital have signed a partnership with Bookshop.org, giving thousands of independent bookstores across the US and UK financial incentives when they give their customers access to self-published ebooks on Bookshop.org’s platform.

To find out more about how Draft2Digital works, click on the image.

To make your ebook visible, you will need to upload your manuscript onto the Draft2Digital platform and opt in via your dashboard to activate ‘bookstore distribution’.

The biggest benefit to this new partnership is that it creates more opportunities outside of Amazon to be discovered, and allows authors to market their ebooks within local communities and to regular bookshop visitors beyond the Kindle platform.

Visit the Bookshop.org website by clicking the image below.

As marvellous as this all sounds, there are some things you should know before you sign up.

The biggest issue is regarding Kindle Unlimited. If you are enrolled with KDP Select, then you are tied in exclusively to Amazon, and cannot sell your ebook elsewhere. The good news is that each term of KDP Select only lasts for 90 days and you will be reminded when these 90 days are up. You could therefore choose to remove yourself from the exclusivity for a short while and try Draft2Digital instead to compare results.

It is probably best not to reject publishing with Amazon altogether, however, because as well as being the biggest book retailer in the world, publishing on KDP gives you access to Amazon Ads, which can be hugely beneficial. Being part of the Amazon platform also makes you discoverable in the Amazon Algorithm, which can push your title higher up the best seller and recommended reading lists, the more people interact with it.

If you don’t want to be part of Kindle Unlimited, there is nothing to stop you from publishing the same ebook on both platforms. Print books are never exclusive, so you can distribute them anywhere.

Ways to improve your visibility

If you do decide to opt into the Bookshop.org distribution via Draft2Digital, you should pay close attention to your metadata and ensure that the description and categories you list appeal to customers who are typically those who visit physical book shops.

You could also approach your favourite independent bookstore and ask if you can partner with them in your own virtual marketing campaign. Or if they are super friendly, you could ask if they will feature you in their store.

On a cautionary note, as Bookshop.org is much smaller than Amazon, a lot of the initial marketing to get your ebook noticed on Bookshop.org will be down to you. And because no ebook enrolment is automatic, you must remember to opt in on the Draft2Digital platform.

If you have a spare 16 minutes and are intrigued to know more, there is a discussion about this very topic on YouTube on ‘The Self-Publishing with Dale Podcast’ that you can watch here: