I know it hurts when you are turned down when you want to sell your book. This should not dampen your spirits if you are a good writer. You can always try self-publishing to get your books out there. The good thing about this method is the print way also works, so it’is up to you to decide. When you want to market your books, decide what you want first (ebooks or print). This is because many of these companies only cater to one. Think of what you want before you pick PublishDrive as your service.
If you are in the content industry, you need a robust solution to help you distribute. PublishDrive is a reliable service that works with big brands like Amazon, GooglePlay, and Apple Books. This is a promising service that will cater to your needs.
What is PublishDrive?
This is a popular self-publishing network that offers unique services like tiered subscription plans. It distributes eBooks for individuals and brands all over the world. With a small monthly fee, you can keep 100% of your royalties. This network offers several services that are aimed to help authors distribute their work.
The service used the latest tech, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to boost sales. It increases sales for up to 30% every month by reaching out to effective markets.
The network spreads reach a lot of people in the US, Europe, China, Latin-America, and Asia. Since this platform distributes eBooks globally, it has marketing teams in four countries to speed up the process.
Authors can distribute books to over 400 stores in over 70 countries with the help of this network. Users can access these books in 60+ languages and 240,000 libraries. Major retailers include Google Books, iBooks, Amazon, Noble, and local stores. Others include schools, universities, and public libraries.
The PublishDrive team
PublishDrive was founded in 2015 by Kinga Jentetics and McKinsey. Jentetics was named as one of the top 100 Female Founders by Forbes. She is also known for uplifting women and young girls to venture into the tech world.
She gets help from two tech gurus: Adam Renders and Robert Csizmar, who are also co-founders. They manage a five-strong team of developers who are based in Germany. They are sponsored by Startup Wise Guys, who are investors from Estonia. This company got its tech experience from Google Launchpad, which mentored it for six months. Google directly supports Launchpad, which offers incubation services to incoming talents.
PublishDrive Features
- Authors and writers working with this service get complete control of their work.
- All Indie authors can access Free and Accessible Ebook Conversion.
- Allows authors to use one central point to reach all significant eBook selling platform
- Users are allowed to upload one or hundreds of titles in minutes.
- Invoices and sales are managed in one place It’ss a powerful and straightforward network that helps to distribute books on a global scale
- The network provides financial reports, marketing, and automated billing, making it a complete package.
- You don’t need to pay upfront to access their services.
- Allows users to see real-time analytics
- Provides Metadata Management
- Ebook Marketing Features
Services Provided By PublishDrive
We had to sign up for this platform to witness first-hand what this network is all about. This is to help our readers know exactly what they are getting into before signing up. To understand this network better, we have broken down their services into five main parts:
- Book Formatting and Uploading
- Marketing Services
- Distribution
- Payment and Sales Reports
- Free eBook Converter
- PublishDrive Abacus
Before we dive on and explore their services, let’s first look at a few things about these four aspects.
BOOK FORMATTING AND UPLOADING
One of the best features of this platform is allowing authors to upload their work. If you want to upload a paperback, you will need to pay extra. Paperbacks and audiobooks are also allowed in this network. In the book formatting and uploading area, you need to know a few things which include:
- They only allow you to upload either Docx or epub formats.
- Since converting using PDF is gives out a bad outcome, this platform doesn’t allow this. You can still use paid conversions if you want to.
- As stated by the International Digital Book Forum, eBooks must pass the validation process.
MARKETING SERVICES
PublishDrive focuses so much on marketing to get the right results. So, what do they do to ensure that your books are fully marketed?
- Amazon Advertising – We all know how powerful Amazon is when it comes to advertising. With the network, when you subscribe, you get to experiment with some Amazon Advertising credits. If you go with other distribution networks, you won’t be allowed to access Amazon ads.
- Price Promotions – With this platform, you are allowed to set price promotions for the stores that do that.
- Review Copies – The service allows you to quickly create product reviews copies to shed light on your eBook.
- Social Media Promotions – We all know the power of social media when it comes to advertising and marketing. Users are allowed to promote their eBooks by sharing on Facebook and Twitter.
They are planning to further expand their in-service marketing, therefore, watch out what comes up next.
DISTRIBUTION
The simplicity that comes from using this service is what makes it popular among other distributors. They will easily have your work distributed in no time, thanks to their sound channels. Sales data is accessed at any time by the user, and you can track your revenue from any device. This is done through:
- International distribution – If you are planning to market books globally, this is the best platform for the job. The network allows you to also cross over to different territories. You can also adjust your policies and price according to different regions.
- Wide – With this service, you can find destitute your books to a vast number of bookstores. You can also access a full list of bookstores plus royalty rates from their website.
PAYMENT AND SALES REPORTS
The last piece of this puzzle is payment. Everyone wants to know about payment before venturing to any online service. Many of the services that distribute books don’t give clear records on sales info. This is quite frustrating to many authors who want to reap from their labor. This is where PublishDrive outshines others, by offering intuitive and clear interface in their reports. You will see this later on in this article.
For many authors, it is straining to keep accurate and meaningful records of their sales information.
Key factors that impact payment on PublishDrive include:
- Payment methods – PublishDrive offers diverse ways to process payment, including PayPal, Check, Payoneer, and Intercash.
- The minimum threshold for payouts is $5, but you can also set your point.
- Below is an image of how one gets paid in PublishDrive
FREE EBOOK CONVERTER
Getting started with PublishDrive is easy, just sign up for Signing up for a free account. You can do this by entering your name, email address, and password. Once done, you will be taken to your author dashboard for a free eBook converter. It will change the fort from .docx to .epub and .mobi. They will also provide you with your distribution service, the PD author community access.
The free ebook converter allows you to convert your manuscript from DOCX to EPUB and MOBI.
PUBLISHDRIVE ABACUS
PD Abacus is one of the best features offered by PublishDrive, which other services don’t. It allows a team of writers to track payments, share data, and calculate royalties. In your first title, you will access this feature for free. As you continue working together, you will pay a monthly fee of $2.99 per title.
- Automatic Royalty Calculating
With this feature, you will be able to calculate coauthor royalties for Amazon KDP books. You can also add other income streams so that you don’t disagree once you receive payments.
- Unlimited Contributors
This feature also lets you add as many coauthors as you want per title. The only person who can access the full sales data and royalty percentages is the book owner. This is for security measures.
- Customized Royalty Reports
You also get to create customized royalty reports for your team. As the book owner, you control finances while those who contribute only to see their royalties.
PublishDrive Pricing Plans
Here are the four service levels:
Tryout Plan
This is a perfect choice if you have just begun, and you want to try writing. The plan gives you a chance to distribute a single title at no cost. You can do this forever, and you will still get 100% royalties.
Standard Plan
This plan allows you to distribute five titles for $19.99/month using their network. You will also get access to built-in tools.
Pro Plan
This plan costs $99.99/month, and allows you to distribute up to 50 titles. As the author, you will receive multi-user account features, the bulk import option, and imprint.
Publisher Plan
With this service level, you will be required to contact them to get a pricing quote. You will distribute more than 50 titles and get access to””dedicated VIP support””.
The Tryout plan has limited distribution options, and you will only distribute it to a few outlets. Other plans will get you access to the entire distribution network. This includes Google Play and the other 16 channels.
How To Get Started With PublishDrive
Reading about these services and getting handy with them are two different things. This is especially when you’ve read reviews that are not detailed. Since we’ve already subscribed to this service and used it, we know about it well. Let’s take a look at how to get started.
[button link=”https://www.namanmodi.com/get-a-quote/” type=”big”] Get A Free Quote Now![/button]
Signing Up To PublishDrive Is Simple
With your registered account, you can easily sign up for this service. You can also sign up through any of the main social networks. You will be taken to a welcome screen as seen in this screenshot:
Setting a goal is the first thing you will need to use this service. They also want to know your level of writing in this industry. Once you are done with your goal, the next thing that is needed is your Publisher info. You will also need to state the language used to publish your work.
The legal information of your about your publishing venture is also required.
That is everything needed for you to get started with this service. Now that you have your account let’s walk you through the experience of using this service.
How It Looks On The Inside
This is the screen you will see on the PublishDrive user environment:
Switching between tabs is very easy, and you can access sales summary by day, as you have seen on the above screenshot. The image below shows your live statistics.
These are fantastic reports as they give detailed info about your book’s performance in different stores. You can quickly view trends for each. The last tab is all about sales by title, as shown below:
Besides the three tabs found on the main screen, you will also see this:
- Books
- Marketing
- Finance
- Sales
To upload books to this platform, you will see a range of titles in that option. Since I don’t have any books published, you can’t see any on this screenshot.
The’‘ Marketing’’ section looks like this:
From the above image, there are four options; three are free. What I like about the marketing section its clear and intuitive interface. However, the service could use a few upgrades to include more avenues and channels. They say that they are looking to expand this area in the future.
In the image below, which is the sales section, you are provided with a clear and precise report in each area – gross sales, volume, and earnings.
For those of us who are not good with figures, we don’t need to do any calculations to get total earnings. Everything is done for you, and you can quickly access the information you need.
You can also quickly view the following info, besides the main three pieces of data offered above:
- Best performing categories
- Best performing countries
- Earnings by store and country
As you can see below, we also an option to’‘ add a book’’ as another great feature of PublishDrive.
There are seven steps if you want to add a book in PublishDrive and here they are:
- The first step is to upload an ePub or Docx file, which also includes a cover image, with jpeg the preferred format
- The second step is to set the creators of the book, and if there are coauthors you can include their rights
- After that, you need to add metadata for your book
- The fourth step is to view and select categories for your book
- After setting types, you have to set your pricing option
- Next, confirm the title rights
- The last step is to choose the distribution channels
As I mentioned, PublishDrive has a clear and intuitive interface, which allows you to stop in the middle and continue later on. This is an excellent option for those who may have pressing issues to attend to.
About Royalties Earned
Apple is a trusted partner of this service. Therefore, its solutions are featured on apple’s site. This makes it easy for publishers to manage all parts of the ebook, which include production, metadata management, real-time BI analytics, ebook distribution, sales reports, and billing.
The beauty of using this service is that they don’t have hidden fees. They only get 10% when the eBook is sold the digital list price. The service does not offer subscription services and pays royalties every month. PublishDrive compiles sales reports, prepare your invoice, and pays every month. They are working on creating marketing automation, which will use machine learning and AI.
Pros And Cons
PROS
- No Upfront Cost
- The commission is paid through subscription and Royalties
- Premium Strategy Consultations available
- PublishDrive Abacus for coauthors
- Huge Distribution Network
- Easy to Use
CONS
- eBooks Only
- ISBN Not Given
- You need to provide you own formatting
Like any service, PublishDrive has pros and cons. However, the strengths seem to be more than setbacks. This shows that this is a reputable company that caters to its client’s needs. For those looking to publish their content with Hard Cover or Paperbacks, this service isn’t for you. This is an excellent choice for those who want to publish eBooks, and since they don’t ask for upfront payment, anyone can use it.
Checkout the quick video review on PublishDrive
Source:- Self-Publishing with Dale
Conclusion
PublishDrive is a powerful network offering intuitive and awesome features to distribute eBooks via different marketing channels. However, it doesn’t give you total control of your books compared to marketing directly to sites like Amazon. Having complete control over your books means your books will also look good. When you publish your books right to sites Amazon, B&N Press, iTunes, and Kobo, they will account for 99% of your sales. On the other hand, distributors only account for 1% of total sales, which is not impressive.
If you are going to use distribution services, I suggest you ask them to market your books in other markets so that at the end of the day, everyone wins. Companies that offer the same services usually take 5%of the total sales, while PublishDrive takes 10%. While they are PublishDrive and are simple and intuitive, it’ss not good for everyone in the writing industry. Therefore, identify your need first before settling for a platform like PublishDrive.
Here are a few more topics that you shouldn’t miss:
10 Reasons why People Blog
How to Start a Blog – Easy & Simple Tutorial
Like this post? Don’t forget to share
