# Draft2Digital and Smashwords - the contrast is dazzling yet bewildering



## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

I recently took the majority of my books out of Select,having seen my sales dwindling alarmingly since the start of KU, and went wide. I decided to give D2D a go after having previously uploaded my books on Smashwords, which was the only option when I started e-publishing in 2010. 

With Smashwords I have never sold more than a handful while doing very well on Amazon. I thought this was because there weren't that many people using devices other than the Kindle for e-book reading.

BUT... only a week after uploading nine of my fifteen titles with D2D, I'm seeing sales way beyond expectation.

I also uploaded the books  on Smashwords,only to use Overdrive. After nearly four weeks I still see the good old 'will be shipped', which used to be the case with all outlets when I used Smashwords. D2D, on the other hand can get a book out with the major stores within a day, if not hours.

This has me wondering how D2D can do what Smashwords can't? And how they can answer e-mails and fix problems so quickly.

I didn't really believe all the glowing reports. But now I am convinced.


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## setherd (Jan 25, 2014)

Interesting. Does anyone else have similar experiences?


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

I uploaded my titles with D2D back in 2013 when they were in beta. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about them.

I uploaded one book to Smashwords last summerr, shortly before KU launched. I pulled it after three weeks and it still hadn't shipped!

Rue


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## Vermicious Knid (Apr 1, 2013)

setherd said:


> Interesting. Does anyone else have similar experiences?


Yep. Coker's operation is severely lacking compared to D2D. At D2D my books get listed fast and when I need them taken down that happens immediately too. Smashwords couldn't care less about how fast they distribute or take down my work. D2D payments are done right the first time. D2D document conversion never fails. D2D support is fast and courteous and best of all helpful. Smashwords support is contemptuous and rude and sloooooow. 


Susanne O'Leary said:


> This has me wondering how D2D can do what Smashwords can't? And how they can answer e-mails and fix problems so quickly.


I think it boils down to respect. D2D respects authors, and Smashwords, well, they have every appearance of holding authors in contempt.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

D2D really benefited from having Smashwords go before it. Most of the bennies the other platforms give authors are because Coker negotiated with them.

Thing is, Smashwords hasn't really _progressed_ all that much. Even with their own store, I noticed that I sold really, really well for about a day before new books buried mine and they became almost unfindable.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

True, but that doesn't mean authors should be satisfied with bad service any more than they should be satisfied with some of Amazon's antics just because they created KDP and basically the whole self-pub revolution. 

Rue


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## Vermicious Knid (Apr 1, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Thing is, Smashwords hasn't really _progressed_ all that much.


This is very true and seems to be the source of many of their issues.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Susanne O'Leary said:


> This has me wondering how D2D can do what Smashwords can't? And how they can answer e-mails and fix problems so quickly.


I agree, D2D offer a spectacular and speedy service.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

I was one of the beta testers. Never looked back. Friendly, speedy and they go the extra mile.

SW's "meatgrinder" seems to be a piece of Frankenstein software consisting of parts of OpenOffice and Calibre, kept together with scripts. You can still find dozens of threads on this board alone by people who went insane trying to use it. Coker resisted allowing uploading in epub, long after most vendors accepted it and long after Amazon converted epubs without a hitch, insisting everybody use the meatgrinder. On D2D uploading a new book to several vendors takes me around seven minutes.

I'm actually sorry to have to say all this, because I have a tremendous respect for Mark Coker for all he has done for the community. Alas, as they say, there you are...


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

ゴジラ said:


> You can respect Coker and still find his business beyond awful.
> 
> I'm a huge D2D fan. One of the happiest days of my publishing career was when they implemented B&N freebies and I could pull the last of my books off of Smashwords. Never again.


Thanks. Didn't know about freebies on B & N.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Oh, this sounds like a good alternative. What format do you use to upload into D2D?


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

D2D is fantastic and I love the support staff. One of my first emails with support consisted of "I hope I'm not talking to a robot" and the support tech shot back a funny reply asking me if I wanted to pretend we were robots to make the transition more smooth. Love it. 

Very sad they lost their partnership with the might God, Amazon.


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

Hmnnn, I've got an account with D2D but haven't yet done anything with it. Have a couple future projects pending, this is good to know. Hmnn again...


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## 鬼 (Sep 30, 2012)

D2D for the win, that is all.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

CadyVance said:


> Oh, this sounds like a good alternative. What format do you use to upload into D2D?


You just upload your Word doc and they convert it to epub, mobi, and pdf


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

ruecole said:


> True, but that doesn't mean authors should be satisfied with bad service any more than they should be satisfied with some of Amazon's antics just because they created KDP and basically the whole self-pub revolution.
> 
> Rue


...which they didn't do in any way. But your point is correct.

Smashy needs to step up their game.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

I've heard that line of reasoning used in defence of Amazon before, which is why I used it.

Rue


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

I've just moved my stuff to D2D. I still keep books on Smashwords because there are a few outlets on there that aren't on D2D (very, very small ones I've never heard of before) and hey, it doesn't really hurt to have them there. I put up a pre-order on Smashwords for a book that came out on New Year's Day. As of last week, it still hadn't gotten out of premium distribution review. That's when I pulled it and went to D2D. Up at B&N the very next day. 

I have a lot of respect for Mark Coker, but his platform leaves a lot to be desired.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

Susanne O'Leary said:


> With Smashwords I have never sold more than a handful while doing very well on Amazon.
> BUT... only a week after uploading nine of my fifteen titles with D2D, I'm seeing sales way beyond expectation.


Susanne, glad to hear about your success, but you're not suggesting the sales are a result of the distributor, are you? One thing you left out is where you're actually selling (apple? scribd?)? On the point of ease and speed of distribution, I 100% agree. Just used Smashwords for the first time yesterday and I was shocked (in a bad way).


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

I need to weigh in on this, too. I'm surprised that Smashwords is even still in business. I uploaded "Broken" to them around May of last year. One month went by, and it never posted to Nook or Apple. Period. I sent numerous emails, all with a reply of "it will be there soon, I promise," and nothing happened. 

In June, after the book wasn't posted at all for a month at Smashwords, D2D started offering the option of uploading freebies to Apple and Nook - so I went that route. About two days later, my book was up. 

So, yeah, I'm never going through SW again. The meatgrinder experience is bad enough, but the slowness in distribution is inexcusable, IMHO. I had a bad experience with the meatgrinder, too - I changed a cover of a book that had been up on SW for months. Nothing else - just the cover. Suddenly, the book didn't pass the meatgrinder. NOTHING HAD CHANGED! It took me hours trying to find out what was going on, and I finally was presented with the nuclear option of putting the document into RTF or whatever, which takes out all the bolds and all of that. Not doing it. I sent that one through D2D, and it was smooth sailing. 

That said, I now upload direct everywhere but my freebies on Nook. I'll still use D2D for all my books, though, just because I've suddenly started making money at Scribd. I think I made over $300 there this month, so that was a happy surprise!


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

I held a self publishing class today, and I recommended Draft 2 Digital over Smashwords. With the .doc conversion, speed in uploading to sites, higher sales from better placement, prompt payment and service, it's the clear winner in the battle of the aggregates.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Lisa Grace said:


> I held a self publishing class today, and I recommended Draft 2 Digital over Smashwords. With the .doc conversion, speed in uploading to sites, higher sales from better placement, prompt payment and service, it's the clear winner in the battle of the aggregates.


This for sure. I do respect Mark Coker and all he has done for Indies, but seriously dude. Update your website and fix the problems with slow uploading and price changes -- and that meat grinder! How is it that D2D can convert a doc to a Mobi, ePub and PDF in like 30 seconds and SW can't? How is it that D2D can get a price change quickly but SW can't? I love D2d's prompt payment and stats and fast personal customer service. I thought about going direct to retailers but D2D makes it so easy I figure it's worth the extra slice.


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## WillemThomas (Dec 9, 2010)

D2D's monthly payments is one of the main reasons I use them. I'm still amazed Smashwords is incapable of doing this (or even wants to).


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Domino Finn said:


> Susanne, glad to hear about your success, but you're not suggesting the sales are a result of the distributor, are you? One thing you left out is where you're actually selling (apple? scribd?)? On the point of ease and speed of distribution, I 100% agree. Just used Smashwords for the first time yesterday and I was shocked (in a bad way).


Most of my sales (so far) are in Scribd, B&N and Apple. Never sold anything through Scribd before. Is it the result of the distributor? Well, my experience tells me it's a contributing factor,if nothing else.

The only seller I have ticked in Smashwords is Overdrive as my local library gets their books from them. Still, after a month it says 'will be shipped'. Very irritating...


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

Susanne O'Leary said:


> I recently took the majority of my books out of Select,having seen my sales dwindling alarmingly since the start of KU, and went wide. I decided to give D2D a go after having previously uploaded my books on Smashwords, which was the only option when I started e-publishing in 2010.
> 
> With Smashwords I have never sold more than a handful while doing very well on Amazon. I thought this was because there weren't that many people using devices other than the Kindle for e-book reading.
> 
> ...


I have had VERY limited success with Smashwords, mainly with my first release, back when Smashwords was a new-ish thing. In the last three releases, I've sold twenty copies.... total.

I'd never even HEARD of D2D until this post. I uploaded my copies, art, info and blurb within minutes, and it is currently publishing. I **DO** love Smashwords' coupon system (I use that alot), but if this can generate a few more sales than SW, I'll delist my books and re-list them through D2D. I'll update this thread in a few weeks with sales stats.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Domino Finn said:


> Susanne, glad to hear about your success, but you're not suggesting the sales are a result of the distributor, are you?


As Susanne is comparing D2D to Smashwords then she would be correct to ascribe some benefit to the distributor, although being published a few extra years will have helped. The big difference is categories. Smashwords have their own idiosyncratic categories while D2D use BISAC. I changed the main BISAC on a book and when it went live on Kobo it was straight into #7 in Law and Media. You can set 5 categories, but not all retailers use all of them (iTunes only using the first category, which is why I changed mine). Smashwords only uses two categories which do not blend well with retailers using BISAC.


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

I'm glad my thread helped you find D2D, Jerry. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

I'd like to add that I have nothing against Mark Coker at all, he has always been very decent to authors. But why this clunky outdated service?


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Mercia McMahon said:


> As Susanne is comparing D2D to Smashwords then she would be correct to ascribe some benefit to the distributor, although being published a few extra years will have helped. The big difference is categories. Smashwords have their own idiosyncratic categories while D2D use BISAC. I changed the main BISAC on a book and when it went live on Kobo it was straight into #7 in Law and Media. You can set 5 categories, but not all retailers use all of them (iTunes only using the first category, which is why I changed mine). Smashwords only uses two categories which do not blend well with retailers using BISAC.


That explains a lot. Must make books a lot more visible.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

So... I had no idea D2D even existed until now. I put up my book in Smashwords, and apparently I should have checked a bit before I did that.
Does anyone have an idea - if I want to start using D2D instead of Smashwords, is it enough to simply mark all the distribution channels in Smashwords as "Opt out"?


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

smikeo said:


> So... I had no idea D2D even existed until now. I put up my book in Smashwords, and apparently I should have checked a bit before I did that.
> Does anyone have an idea - if I want to start using D2D instead of Smashwords, is it enough to simply mark all the distribution channels in Smashwords as "Opt out"?


You only need to opt out of the channels D2D can get you to - Kobo, Nook, Apple, Scribd, Page Foundry. Neither D2D nor Smashwords require you to be exclusive.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

Mercia McMahon said:


> You only need to opt out of the channels D2D can get you to - Kobo, Nook, Apple, Scribd, Page Foundry. Neither D2D nor Smashwords require you to be exclusive.


Thanks Mercia... Done!


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

I use D2D for everything they can do that I can't (or couldn't be bothered with). Love those guys.

I use Smash for what only they offer, though the benefits have been dwindling to practically nil. Mark Coker armed indies with tools which we could wield against exclusivity; they truly helped democratize self-publishing. But he's been resting on his laurels for the past 3-4 years. He's got some catching up to do if he wants to continue to be relevant to all but a small segment of the literary community.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Mark Coker is the only reason I have been so faithful to Smashwords for the last couple of years.

I have even emailed them asking if there was any chance of them changing to a monthly payout but got sent to the back of the queue.

I emailed them three days ago about UK pricing on ibooks. No response, not even an acknowledgement email.

I think that, sadly, every time I see one of these threads I get a bit closer to switching.

The only things holding me back now:

*- Will I have to post all my tax info to the US again? (I had to wait almost three months for it to take effect with Smashwords)

- Will I lose all my reviews if I re-upload all my books to the main retailers through a new distributor?*

Answers would be greatly appreciated


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

I believe I just had to send an email with the W8BEN form and it took effect in a few weeks.

I believe Dan Wood explained if you take down your Smashwords editions after uploading to D2D most vendors will merge the reviews.

Do a search in his posts and you should find his explanation.

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

You don't have to post anything to D2D that I recall. It's all done online.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

ruecole said:


> I believe I just had to send an email with the W8BEN form and it took effect in a few weeks.
> 
> I believe Dan Wood explained if you take down your Smashwords editions after uploading to D2D most vendors will merge the reviews.
> 
> ...


Thanks Rue
Who is Dan Wood, is he with D2D?


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Evenstar said:


> Mark Coker is the only reason I have been so faithful to Smashwords for the last couple of years.
> 
> I have even emailed them asking if there was any chance of them changing to a monthly payout but got sent to the back of the queue.
> 
> ...


a)I don't know 100% about the tax question, but I'm assuming yes. Given that everything else is processed pretty quickly there, I have to assume it won't take 3 months. 
b) When I uploaded a book direct to B&N, and then decided to have D2D take over distribution, it was listed as having 2 versions of the same book. I'm going to assume you'd pick the new version, since you're also going to be getting a new ISBN, but my ranking remained, so I have to think reviews will remain as well. (Keep in mind this is only B&N, I don't know about Apple, Kobo, and Scribd). 
When looking into going wide back in July, I saw all the threads here about the agita people were having with Smashwords and the Meatgrinder. I admit, I'm "good with computers," and the Meatgrinder intimidates me! As soon as I saw I could upload a docx to them and could set a price free for B&N, I went with D2D and never really looked back. I have been toying with the idea of using Smashwords for access to Oyster and Overdrive, but I'm not sure it's worthwhile for the amount of aggravation I may encounter.
BTW, has anyone here used Draft 2 Digital for their CreateSpace print books? I'd love to hear if it's worth using them for that!


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

I've been using D2D basically since they began, and I always felt like it was all too good to be true. I just "knew" once they got bigger it would take as long as Smashwords takes to get things live on different vendors. Well, it's been a long time now, and I'm quite sure they've grown very large, and their upload times are still very, very good, and their customer service is fast and knowledgeable. 

I can only assume that this is simply the difference between a well run business and a poorly run business.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Evenstar said:


> Thanks Rue
> Who is Dan Wood, is he with D2D?


Yes. He posts here from time to time.

Rue


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Briteka said:


> I've been using D2D basically since they began, and I always felt like it was all too good to be true. I just "knew" once they got bigger it would take as long as Smashwords takes to get things live on different vendors. Well, it's been a long time now, and I'm quite sure they've grown very large, and their upload times are still very, very good, and their customer service is fast and knowledgeable.
> 
> I can only assume that this is simply the difference between a well run business and a poorly run business.


I thought the excellent service must be because of their small size too but it seems not a year and a half in. I think they were still in beta when I joined but even now they still get back to you within an hour or two. They're great.


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## timstevens (Jul 4, 2012)

ruecole said:


> I believe I just had to send an email with the W8BEN form and it took effect in a few weeks.


Yes, I did this and D2D confirmed within a week that it had all gone through.

Agree about the excellent service. In fact, they emailed me once to say they were moving to new offices and did I mind if they used one of my book covers as a wall decoration!


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

timstevens said:


> Agree about the excellent service. In fact, they emailed me once to say they were moving to new offices and did I mind if they used one of my book covers as a wall decoration!


Jealous!

Rue


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Saul Tanpepper said:


> Mark Coker armed indies with tools which we could wield against exclusivity; they truly helped democratize self-publishing. But he's been resting on his laurels for the past 3-4 years. He's got some catching up to do if he wants to continue to be relevant to all but a small segment of the literary community.


Looking at the home page on the Smashwords Store it is true that it appeals to segments of the publishing community. It is particularly strong on romance and has some very strong sellers there and also attracts a lot of conservative Christian spirituality writers. It may also have other strengths that I cannot see thanks to the Adult Filter.

Smashwords having a store is a big plus over D2D for many publishers as it allows for selling freebies without the KDP backward somersaults, using their voucher system for reviewers and fans, and pricing at £16 and getting hit with 20% retailing fee rather than 65% at KDP. It also has the advantage for being one global store for the world that only takes PayPal. For many parts of the world (e.g., most of Africa) that makes Smashwords one of the few stores they can shop at.

I have many things that I would wish Smashwords to change, but I think their business remains strong. They have been changing some things in recent months that I have long requested, which suggests that the business is less strong than it used to be. However, Smashwords can continue to do well off the back of those publishers who either do not know of D2D or who do not want the inconvenience of transferring a large catalogue.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I'll echo much of the compliments paid D2D and the many detriments of working with SW, most notably being their meatgrinder converter.

I abandoned SW for a long time because I got tired of dealing with their nuanced and subjective publishing requirements (what do you mean this book got rejected? I didn't change anything! Oh, links are a no-no? So how did it pass without problems the previous 5 times?).

They won some points with me by allowing direct EPUB download upload, which is all I use them for now since I re-joined about a month ago. The only reason I went back is to take advantage of Oyster, since D2D doesn't yet have them in their lineup.

The biggest thing SW needs to do, IMO, is allow MOBI uploads and get rid of the meatgrinder for those of us who prepare our files ourselves.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

I'm really glad I saw this thread. I had been planning on using SW for the B&N, Kobo and iBook venues, but I hadn't been looking forward to the infamous meatgrinder conversion since I've done my ebook formatting very methodically myself.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

CadyVance said:


> I'm really glad I saw this thread. I had been planning on using SW for the B&N, Kobo and iBook venues, but I hadn't been looking forward to the infamous meatgrinder conversion since I've done my ebook formatting very methodically myself.


I have to say that I've never had any trouble with the meatgrinder. I got Mark's book on formatting for Smashwords, and I now use that format for Smashwords, Amazon and Google. It does create a perfect manuscript regardless of conversion software, for which I'm extremely grateful.

Basically you do have to read the book once, and then after that you will never have formatting issues again.... Until you decide to change everything and create proper paperbacks Arghhhh (runs screaming from the building)


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

scottmarlowe said:


> I'll echo much of the compliments paid D2D and the many detriments of working with SW, most notably being their meatgrinder converter.
> 
> I abandoned SW for a long time because I got tired of dealing with their nuanced and subjective publishing requirements (what do you mean this book got rejected? I didn't change anything! Oh, links are a no-no? So how did it pass without problems the previous 5 times?).
> 
> ...


Ugh, the Meatgrinder was a freaking nightmare. "This book got rejected. We can't tell you why it got rejected, so good luck figuring it out, mere mortal! Hahahahaha!" I was so excited when they started allowing epub uploads, but even that wasn't always seamless. One book kept getting rejected because of something with the cover. Then one day, out of frustration I uploaded the same epub with the same cover and magically it worked.

Mobi uploads would be good, but I'd say that's far from the biggest thing they need to do. Monthly payments, better categories, and faster distribution (and faster un-publishing) would all go far higher on my list.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

To be fair, I only uploaded one book to Smashwords (a D2D epub) but it passed no problem. Never actually dealt with the meatgrinder.

Rue


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Smashwords does not reprocess ePubs, so those are always safe...


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I LOVE D2D and Dan is very nice and very professional. So is anyone else I have dealt with there. When I have a question it's answered very quickly. 

I don't want to have to read a "book" on how to publish with a distributor. It should be easy and painless. And it is easy and painless with D2D. I do direct to Amazon, B&N, kobo and Createspace, but I do I-tunes with them, and my perma-free free B&N's. Also with some of the other ones. I can see someday having enough books that I don't want to go to each distributor to save time. Then I will put some of the new books in D2d and have them put them everywhere they can. It's painless. Plus I like doing business with someone who appreciates me doing so and answers my questions quickly.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Perry Constantine said:


> Mobi uploads would be good, but I'd say that's far from the biggest thing they need to do. Monthly payments, better categories, and faster distribution (and faster un-publishing) would all go far higher on my list.


Yeah, there's those things too.


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## lisamaliga (Oct 28, 2010)

D2D allows your book to go into five different categories, unlike SW with only two.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

book leaf said:


> ...when a new author comes to me for advice on how to self publish, I always send them to D2D...


I always send them here, to the KBoards Writers' Cafe.


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## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

D2D asked whether they could use one of my covers to decorate their new office. No idea if they used it, but it was sweet. They are VERY professional in my experience.


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

I've always had problems publishing on SW. I jumped on D2D as soon as I could, and I love it. I'm now trying my freebie on SW to see how it goes getting into retailers that D2D isn't on. It hasn't published there yet, but if it goes well I'll try some paid books.


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## anicolle (Dec 13, 2014)

Is there any benefit to an aggregator such as D2D, other than the time-savings? If you're willing to upload direct to the various distributors, wouldn't you make slightly more without paying a cut to the aggregator?


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

*************


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## RubyMadden (Jun 11, 2014)

setherd said:


> Interesting. Does anyone else have similar experiences?


I do. There is no question, the 10% off the top is well worth it. Saves time and headache!


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## Kenzi (Jul 28, 2014)

anicolle said:


> Is there any benefit to an aggregator such as D2D, other than the time-savings? If you're willing to upload direct to the various distributors, wouldn't you make slightly more without paying a cut to the aggregator?


If you go direct through Apple, it includes your real name along with your pen name, unless you register a DBA. DBAs can be tracked back to you. Since I've had stalker issues, it's worth the extra protection, to me, to just use D2D.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> D2D has negotiated a higher payout on BN for 99c titles than you can get going direct: 70% vs 40% - so even after they take their 10% cut, you still come out about 19 cents ahead per sale. So I upload our 99c boxes through D2D to get to BN. 19 cents may not sound like much, but since we sell a fair volume of those 99c boxes, it's meant that we've pocketed an extra $2100+ for our authors over the last 6 months. Now if we could just get those rates at Amazon!
> 
> BN also requires you to go through an aggregator if you want to price a book free or do a preorder. You can't do either of those direct through Nook Press.
> 
> Those are the reasons I use an aggregator. With everything else I go direct since most of the stores seem more amenable to featuring titles that are uploaded direct in their in-store promos and because on most titles, yes, we make more by going direct.


Kobo also offers a higher royalty on $0.99 books. Works out to $0.59 instead of $0.45. At that price, every cent counts! 

Rue


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2015)

anicolle said:


> Is there any benefit to an aggregator such as D2D, other than the time-savings? If you're willing to upload direct to the various distributors, wouldn't you make slightly more without paying a cut to the aggregator?


If you're outside the US, D2D pays monthly via PayPal which I freakin' love as it saves multiple headaches. It also gives me access to markets not available to non-US/UK self publishers like Nook.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Evenstar said:


> Mark Coker is the only reason I have been so faithful to Smashwords for the last couple of years.
> 
> I have even emailed them asking if there was any chance of them changing to a monthly payout but got sent to the back of the queue.
> 
> ...


Re your tax. You WILL need to give Google, iTunes, Kobo, etc you tax. It is online like at KDP and takes about 24 hours to go through. As you say, Mark Coker pioneered the stuff we now take for granted, but he didn't stay at the forefront. SW is now not an option for me regardless of all its channels. Having 100s of places to sell your books sounds good, until you count how many sales you get there. YMMV, but I see all my sales at the biggies that D2D cover and do a better job with. I go direct to most now.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

anicolle said:


> Is there any benefit to an aggregator such as D2D, other than the time-savings? If you're willing to upload direct to the various distributors, wouldn't you make slightly more without paying a cut to the aggregator?


For me, the big one is Barnes & Noble. Because I'm in Japan, they won't let me submit to them. Apple requires you to use iTunes Producer to submit books directly to them, which I believe is still a Mac-only program so you're SOL if you're a Windows user wanting to get on iTunes. Some venues also won't let you submit direct. Scribd will only let you submit your books for inclusion in their subscription program if you submit through an aggregator. Oyster also only allows self-published authors to get in through Smashwords.


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## Mike_Author (Oct 19, 2013)

I have to say, this is the first thread in the history of the internet which has unanimous, 100% aligned opinion on a topic (D2D v SW).

I have been waiting for the inevitable "D2D was terrible and SW is great" counter-argument, but there has been none.

Clearly SW is still as mind-bogglingly awful as when I tried them a couple of years ago.  I thought I was going to go insane just trying to get 1 book to go live during my misguided "try alternatives to KDP Select" period.  Not just run of the mill frustrating.  I thought I was going to pop a gasket after days of trying to get their system to accept my book.

Surely SW must be on the way out - they are outgunned in almost every way possible by D2D, who just do it better than they do.  I never like seeing anyone go out of business so hopefully SW pulls a rabbit out of a hat and gets back on an even playing field with D2D so that, if I ever decide to leave KDP Select again, I have more than one viable option.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I always send them here, to the KBoards Writers' Cafe.


I have learned so much here, you have no idea.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Mike_Author said:


> I have to say, this is the first thread in the history of the internet which has unanimous, 100% aligned opinion on a topic (D2D v SW).
> 
> I have been waiting for the inevitable "D2D was terrible and SW is great" counter-argument, but there has been none.
> 
> ...


I can't frame an argument against D2D, even for the sake of balance, as I too have found them to be easy to use, efficient and helpful. But that doesn't mean I don't like Smashwords too, and my experience with them has been overwhelmingly positive. And I do like the fact they have a shopfront. And I've never had any problems uploading a book with them using a standard word document.
I don't think it likely that Smashwords will go out of business, judging by the new books which appear there every day. And I certainly hope it doesn't, as I too like to have the option of using more than one aggregator.

(Apologies for first version of this post which I accidentally uploaded before I had completed it - twitchy fingers, I need my second cup of coffee. )


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Some people do very well on Smashwords' store front. I was trying to convince a friend in the same genre as me to switch over to D2D if he's still going to use an aggregator instead of going direct to as many places as he can but he says that he's sticking with Smashwords because he does well on their store.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I actually make money on Smashwords itself, and on Oyster my borrows continue to grow faster than on Scribd. Smashword coupons are extremely useful as well--and the ability of the users of said coupons to download in any format they prefer is a bonus. I also just got my first ever purchase on Overdrive and I'm continually letting people know that my books are available there.

As a reader, one thing I really appreciated about Smash before I got my hot new phone, was the ability to download books in TXT format or read online in HTML. With older devices it made reading much easier. If my kids keep using up the storage space on my phone for games and pictures of their shoes I might have to go back to reading books online in HTML.

As for customer service, I've built up relationships with the guys over there, and don't have a problem.

But ... yeah ... the meat grinder is hard. And who wouldn't enjoy monthly payments. Also, I was not aware of the category issues.

Mark Corker if you're "listening" these are the changes I'd prefer in order:

1. Add categories and BISAC
2. Meat grinder--make simpler
3. Monthly payments


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

I didn't know that about the 99c books!


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

As Suzy already knows, I'm a D2D fan boy. I started using D2D while it was in beta because I needed a way to distribute to Apple. I still go direct to KDP, NookPress, and KWL. One thing I love about D2D (that I haven't seen mentioned) is how publisher-friendly they are. I manage multiple authors and imprints with my account, and D2D make that easy.

I tried Smashwords, but hated the way the Meatgrinder made my books look. I'd consider using SW again now that Mark allows EPUB uploads and has ditched the "Smashwords Edition" requirement on the copyright page. However, the extra vendors I would get access to aren't worth the flexibility I'd lose. I want to keep the option of moving into and out of Select, but considering its primary job (and income stream) is distribution, Smashwords does a horrible job of communicating with its distro partners.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

I just made the swich. I'll leave the books on SW too for the benefits of their store front and vouchers, but untick all the sites that D2D distribute to.

I have to say - yeah, D2D have won me over instantly because of Territory Pricing. _How amazing is that?_ I can actually set the amount I want the book to be in the UK as well as the US! I have been complaining to SW about this for ages and been told it wasnt possible. Well, sorry SW, but D2D say it is completely possible, and not just at one or two sites but ALL of them! So now I can hopefully force Amazon to price match to the prices I actually set them at! Blooming marvellous


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2015)

Yeah, if you plan to go wide (and stay wide) it's worth it to put your books on Smashwords. I've seen some significant growth on Smashwords itself this month, and they distribute to a number of smaller stores that D2D doesn't yet get you into. But I'd never run a sale or price pulse on Smashwords, because that would lead to a price matching nightmare.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

CadyVance said:


> I have learned so much here, you have no idea.


I'm pretty sure I've learned at least almost as much here!


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Benefits of Smashwords:

Storefront
Oyster
Overdrive (libraries!)
Coupons


In all fairness to Smashwords, I will publish my book with them once it's out of Select, but will use a D2D epub and will only distribute to its storefront, Oyster, and Overdrive. (You could not pay me enough money to touch FlipKart.  ) I'll be using D2D for everywhere else. Except maybe Kobo. Haven't decided yet 

Hope that helps! 

Rue


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I LOVE D2D. I'm A-OK with the platforms I'm now on. 8 is enough. At least for right now as a one-woman show publishing wise. 

I uploaded a file before lunch, it's already out everywhere! 4 hours. That's like Amazon publishing speed. LOL. 

I still have two more titles to upload but will tackle that tomorrow.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Perry Constantine said:


> Apple requires you to use iTunes Producer to submit books directly to them, which I believe is still a Mac-only program so you're SOL if you're a Windows user wanting to get on iTunes.


I'm PC-based and I use macincloud to rent a virtual Mac and upload to iBooks. I've probably uploaded 60 or so titles that way. They charge around a dollar per hour -- very reasonable -- which includes full access to software such as iTunes Producer. You can also rent by the month for $20. That's plenty of time to get most inventory up. After a title is loaded up via Producer, then metadata and price changes can be made from a PC. And you can check your reports via PC. Only if you change the file itself or the cover will you need to go through Producer again to make changes. I live out in the country and have a fairly slow connection, yet I've had very few problems using macincloud. It's a great option, I think.


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

I've had a couple of problems with Smashwords and needed help from support and all I can say is its always my fault, it's never their fault, and it will take time to fix.

With D2D it's we'll take care of that and it's done.


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## cathywalker (Dec 20, 2014)

Wow. I'm reading so many complaints about Smashwords. I published 2 of my books with them so far and have had no problem. My books were converted, set to Premium status and distributed everywhere within no time. I'm surprised there are so many unhappy authors and am now wondering if I've missed something.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

I do wonder about Oyster. For people that sell well there, what percentage of your overall sales come from there? I'm seeing no growth on Scribd, and I always assumed it wouldn't be worth the annoyance of dealing with Smashwords just to get on Oyster, but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot if people are doing well there.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

cathywalker said:


> Wow. I'm reading so many complaints about Smashwords. I published 2 of my books with them so far and have had no problem. My books were converted, set to Premium status and distributed everywhere within no time. I'm surprised there are so many unhappy authors and am now wondering if I've missed something.


It's all relative. What do you mean by they were published in no time? For instance, my newest book got sent out last night before I went to bed, and it's already live on BN, iTunes, Scribd, Page Foundry and Kobo... while it's still In Review on Amazon. If my emails are to be believed, D2D had it live on iTunes about two hours after submitting it. That's some crazy turn around time. D2D isn't always that fast, but they often are, and it's to the point where they're faster than Amazon about 50 percent of the time.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Briteka said:


> It's all relative. What do you mean by they were published in no time? For instance, my newest book got sent out last night before I went to bed, and it's already live on BN, iTunes, Scribd, Page Foundry and Kobo... while it's still In Review on Amazon. If my emails are to be believed, D2D had it live on iTunes about two hours after submitting it. That's some crazy turn around time. D2D isn't always that fast, but they often are, and it's to the point where they're faster than Amazon about 50 percent of the time.


Since I started publishing, Apple has gotten much faster, and Amazon has gotten much slower! With my book 2, there was a bit of a snafu with Scribd, but other than that, I was amazed that Book 2 was live on Apple and Kobo before Amazon, and that was back when Amazon still took 12 hours for a new book to publish!
I'm still going to try to get my books onto Smashwords for Oyster and Overdrive. Might as well have them on Smashwords' store too, I suppose.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

SB James said:


> Since I started publishing, Apple has gotten much faster, and Amazon has gotten much slower! With my book 2, there was a bit of a snafu with Scribd, but other than that, I was amazed that Book 2 was live on Apple and Kobo before Amazon, and that was back when Amazon still took 12 hours for a new book to publish!
> I'm still going to try to get my books onto Smashwords for Oyster and Overdrive. Might as well have them on Smashwords' store too, I suppose.


Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with Amazon. They've been horribly slow at least since the beginning of this year. I have a feeling that Google has a system where they auto-accept books after you hit some threshold because my books have been going live immediately after publishing. I wish Amazon had some sort of process like that. I have a weird feeling that my books are getting caught up in Copyscape or whatever they use, probably because I use a lot of the same back matter between books. They should have a whitelist of authors or something.


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

> I have to say, this is the first thread in the history of the internet which has unanimous, 100% aligned opinion on a topic


Woohoo! I made Internet history!

I never thought this thread would go on and on like this.

But I have to say that D2D has truly been amazing for me. I have been with Smashwords since the start, being a kind of Indie veteran. But I never sold even a fraction of what I'm selling now on all the major platforms. So D2D must have some kind of magic formula.


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## timstevens (Jul 4, 2012)

ruecole said:


> Benefits of Smashwords:
> 
> Storefront
> Oyster
> ...


Rue, why the problem with Flipkart? It's the biggest book retailer in India, bigger than Amazon.

That said... I've had my own troubles with them, and perhaps you've had the same. When I took my books off Smashwords last year, I had to email five times before they finally got Flipkart to remove them all, and that was two months after all the other affiliates delisted them.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

timstevens said:


> Rue, why the problem with Flipkart? It's the biggest book retailer in India, bigger than Amazon.
> 
> That said... I've had my own troubles with them, and perhaps you've had the same. When I took my books off Smashwords last year, I had to email five times before they finally got Flipkart to remove them all, and that was two months after all the other affiliates delisted them.


For exactly the reason you stated! I don't want to deal with that kind of headache if I ever decide to pull my book in he future. Maybe if I was guaranteed to sell a boatload of books there, I'd take my chances, but otherwise, no thank you!

Rue


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## Scout (Jun 2, 2014)

Wow. Great thread. I learned some new stuff. Thanks!!


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

ruecole said:


> For exactly the reason you stated! I don't want to deal with that kind of headache if I ever decide to pull my book in he future. Maybe if I was guaranteed to sell a boatload of books there, I'd take my chances, but otherwise, no thank you!


I've heard that about FK so many times that I won't touch it, either.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Stacy Claflin said:


> I've heard that about FK so many times that I won't touch it, either.


Same. Flipkart is a no-go for me, too.


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## cathywalker (Dec 20, 2014)

Briteka said:


> It's all relative. What do you mean by they were published in no time? For instance, my newest book got sent out last night before I went to bed, and it's already live on BN, iTunes, Scribd, Page Foundry and Kobo... while it's still In Review on Amazon. If my emails are to be believed, D2D had it live on iTunes about two hours after submitting it. That's some crazy turn around time. D2D isn't always that fast, but they often are, and it's to the point where they're faster than Amazon about 50 percent of the time.


I suppose you're right about it all being relative. I wasn't expecting quick results and I think I published real close to the time Smash words sends books out to other channels, so mine were published and then sent out the next day. I was happy with the results. I definitely wouldn't have expected a 2 hour turn around. Heck, I'm coming back to writing after a few years away, so all this technology is something I have to catch up on.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Thanks for all the comments about FlipKart. I've just gone to my Smashwords and opted out of it. Never got a single sale through them any way.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I hear nothing but good about D2D so I'm sure they're great. But to be fair, I've used SW for years and have never had any real problems with them. There've been one or two occasions where I didn't thoroughly read through their instructions before uploading, so hit minor snags. But when I've contacted support they've always talked me through the problems quickly and politely. And now that I've gone through their process so many times, it's easy for me. If I did have one request for SW, it would be that they switch to monthly payments. Also, if they simplified their entire system, they would probably get fewer help emails to wade through. That said, I'm pretty content and don't see myself leaving unless that changes.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Okay, I decided to go with D2D. I now have one of my titles uploaded for pre-order, and it starting showing on the Kobo website last night. My question is, how do we check pre-order numbers? My sales ranking jumped up a little today (I mean, I'm still super low down, but every little bit is fun for me), which makes me think I must have gotten a pre-order, but I don't know how to check this? Sometimes I feel like such a newb.


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## Tasha Black (May 28, 2014)

I went with Smashwords, specifically to get to Oyster, since I have heard good things. 
Unfortunately, Oyster won't list my books, since something in their algorithm deems them as "not family friendly," even though there are a ton of PNR authors on there. Not to mention a bunch of straight-up erotica!

I emailed Oyster directly about it. They said, "Sorry, but we have this algorithm in place. Because families."
I pointed out the erotica. They responded, "Sorry, but we have this algorithm in place. Because families."
I asked if they could possibly tell me what it is about my books that raises the flag, so I could address it, since the other PNR authors I know had no problem getting on there. They said, "Sorry, but we have this algorithm in place. Because families."

So...

Now I am on Smashwords for no real reason, other that I don't feel like taking all my books down and resubmitting them to D2D. 
Although, to be fair, I have made almost $20 on the Smashwords store this month!   So I guess that's something.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Tasha Black said:


> I went with Smashwords, specifically to get to Oyster, since I have heard good things.
> Unfortunately, Oyster won't list my books, since something in their algorithm deems them as "not family friendly," even though there are a ton of PNR authors on there. Not to mention a bunch of straight-up erotica!
> 
> I emailed Oyster directly about it. They said, "Sorry, but we have this algorithm in place. Because families."
> ...


If you use Smashwords, you don't have to submit them to every vendor. My Smashwords books are only distributed to Oyster, Overdrive, and Library Direct. Scribd, PageFoundry, and B&N are through D2D and everything else is direct.


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## Tasha Black (May 28, 2014)

Perry Constantine said:


> If you use Smashwords, you don't have to submit them to every vendor. My Smashwords books are only distributed to Oyster, Overdrive, and Library Direct. Scribd, PageFoundry, and B&N are through D2D and everything else is direct.


I don't. 
I go direct everywhere I can. But that is not an option for Oyster, so I tried to go though SW, just to get to them. No dice. 
Hopefully, D2D will add Oyster soon, so I can try again!


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you meant that you use Smashwords for everything solely because of Oyster.


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

I do not accept VerticalScope's Terms Of Service on Kboards, and have asked for my account to be deleted, along with all of my posts.

If you are here as a result of a Google search, _*leave now*_. The owners of this site are interested only in your possible ad revenue.


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

I had to use Smashwords to put a non-3D cover on a box the other day, which led to having to put my books on Smashwords just in case. Since I've been considering Oyster, I thought what the heck.

But I ran up against the sneaky way that they still try to force authors into that "Smashwords edition". I have my own ISBN for the epub version of the book. There is ONLY one epub version of the book. I am not using their converter. But unless I want my publisher to be listed as Smashwords (I do not for many, many reasons), I have to burn another $25 ISNB because their system won't let me use my existing ISBN. 

I politely explained to Smashwords that they are a distributor, not a publisher, and I am uploading the one and only version of my epub file to multiple retailers, which doesn't require another ISBN.

------------------------------------ 

The response?

Hi, Jill.

It must be a new ISBN.  Since this is technically a different version per Bowker (the Smashwords version), it needs its own ISBN.

Best wishes, 

Angela H. 
Service Team; Marketing Team 

--------------------------------------------

Obviously, I will never be using Smashwords again. I'm thinking about asking someone else to upload the box set through their D2D account for iTunes. In fact, I am off to find someone to do that right now!

Jill


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## Michael J Elliott (Dec 18, 2014)

Andrew Ashling said:


> I was one of the beta testers. Never looked back. Friendly, speedy and they go the extra mile.
> 
> SW's "meatgrinder" seems to be a piece of Frankenstein software consisting of parts of OpenOffice and Calibre, kept together with scripts. You can still find dozens of threads on this board alone by people who went insane trying to use it. Coker resisted allowing uploading in epub, long after most vendors accepted it and long after Amazon converted epubs without a hitch, insisting everybody use the meatgrinder. On D2D uploading a new book to several vendors takes me around seven minutes.
> 
> I'm actually sorry to have to say all this, because I have a tremendous respect for Mark Coker for all he has done for the community. Alas, as they say, there you are...


Wow! Thank you so much for this. I am a new writer (I'm about to launch my first short story) and I spent so much time yesterday reading Smashwords style guide and marketing guide my ears began to bleed. I've just bought Scrivener and I get totally confused over formatting for different distributors, do this don't do that etc, that it makes me feel totally bamboozled. I was going to upload to Smashwords and KDP and perhaps Select (the story will be free it's a platform building exercise for the collection of short stories) but Mark said DON'T sign up for Select...even more confusion! From all the posts here I think I'll steer clear of Smashwords and thankfully I've already signed up with D2D. Tell me do they distribute to all the stores like Kobo B&N etc?. Now if I could only find a straightforward guide to tell me how to format my story for upload I will be a happy little author lol.


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

Jill Nojack said:


> I had to use Smashwords to put a non-3D cover on a box the other day, which led to having to put my books on Smashwords just in case. Since I've been considering Oyster, I thought what the heck.
> 
> But I ran up against the sneaky way that they still try to force authors into that "Smashwords edition". I have my own ISBN for the epub version of the book. There is ONLY one epub version of the book. I am not using their converter. But unless I want my publisher to be listed as Smashwords (I do not for many, many reasons), I have to burn another $25 ISNB because their system won't let me use my existing ISBN.
> 
> ...


And Dan of Draft2Digital just IMed me with the solution to the problem. I can apparently just up load the same book twice with a different cover. So simple.

Well, I am now an even bigger fan of D2D than I was before!


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## 80593 (Nov 1, 2014)

My Select period just expired and I started using D2D yesterday. They are delightful. So easy, so fast, and pretty much dummy proof.


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## Censored (Oct 31, 2014)

I go direct to Amazon, use D2D for all the other major platforms, and Smashwords for their storefront, the coupons, and Oyster/Scribd/Flipkart. The meatgrinder and premium review at Smashwords can be slow and annoying at times, but honestly hasn't caused me any major headaches or stress. My Word documents have only required minor formatting changes, like replacing the Word-generated table of contents with bookmark/links.

I agree that it's a little disappointing that Smashwords isn't keeping up with the competition, but they're not annoying enough for me to ignore and leave money on the table.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I don't think the problem is that SW doesn't give a crap about authors. Mark's a really nice guy, he's very pro-author and SW was instrumental to the indie movement in the early days. However, when Amazon came out with Select, SW compensated by throwing up obstacles to authors unpublishing books, and Mark expended his energy in heavily complaining about Amazon's predatory practices in blog posts instead of improving SW. That left the door open for SW's main competitor, which wasn't Amazon, but the up-and-coming D2D.

D2D has better customer service -- they let you know if a book doesn't go live and they'll intervene on your behalf if there's a problem -- they don't require books to say things like "Smashwords Edition" (which Smashwords FINALLY got away from). They're easier to use and they pay immediately. The entire year I was on SW, I made something like $10. On D2D, even though I don't use them for Amazon or B&N, I make a lot more. I don't know why that is, but there you have it. And if I want to publish or unpublish, it only takes 24 hours. Not days or weeks. And they're constantly expanding into new distributors. They have a lot of forward-moving energy. Last I looked, SW seemed to be losing a lot of their distributors. 

In the end, it's all about ease of use, proactive customer service, and financial return. Unless Mark does something to make SW more attractive to authors, I won't be surprised if it winds up going from dinosaur to graveyard and it'll be a shame. I really like Mark and I think he's been shooting himself in the foot by focusing on Amazon being the Big Bad. Although, last time I criticized SW, I wound up getting hell rained down on me by an author who only distributes via SW. And as much as I'm still in disbelief over that craziness, I have to say I've repeatedly given SW a try and it's never been worth it for me. The only use it had was to set perma-frees, but I believe you can now do the same thing through D2D. Am I wrong on that?


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

Sophrosyne said:


> The only use it had was to set perma-frees, but I believe you can now do the same thing through D2D. Am I wrong on that?


You can definitely set permafrees on D2D.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Sophrosyne said:


> I don't think the problem is that SW doesn't give a crap about authors. Mark's a really nice guy, he's very pro-author and SW was instrumental to the indie movement in the early days. However, when Amazon came out with Select, SW compensated by throwing up obstacles to authors unpublishing books, and Mark expended his energy in heavily complaining about Amazon's predatory practices in blog posts instead of improving SW. That left the door open for SW's main competitor, which wasn't Amazon, but the up-and-coming D2D.
> 
> D2D has better customer service -- they let you know if a book doesn't go live and they'll intervene on your behalf if there's a problem -- they don't require books to say things like "Smashwords Edition" (which Smashwords FINALLY got away from). They're easier to use and they pay immediately. The entire year I was on SW, I made something like $10. On D2D, even though I don't use them for Amazon or B&N, I make a lot more. I don't know why that is, but there you have it. And if I want to publish or unpublish, it only takes 24 hours. Not days or weeks. And they're constantly expanding into new distributors. They have a lot of forward-moving energy. Last I looked, SW seemed to be losing a lot of their distributors.
> 
> In the end, it's all about ease of use, proactive customer service, and financial return. Unless Mark does something to make SW more attractive to authors, I won't be surprised if it winds up going from dinosaur to graveyard and it'll be a shame. I really like Mark and I think he's been shooting himself in the foot by focusing on Amazon being the Big Bad. Although, last time I criticized SW, I wound up getting hell rained down on me by an author who only distributes via SW. And as much as I'm still in disbelief over that craziness, I have to say I've repeatedly given SW a try and it's never been worth it for me. The only use it had was to set perma-frees, but I believe you can now do the same thing through D2D. Am I wrong on that?


Though I have not used SW for distribution, I can appreciate everything you're talking about. One of the most important reasons I used D2D or any distributor was so that I would be able to set the price of my Book 0 to free without having to play games with price matching and begging. It was bad enough I had to do that with Amazon.
And yes, I also didn't like that "Smashwords Edition" stuff.
And you're also right about their pro-active service. When I updated back matter for one of my books and I accidentally had an Amazon link still left in there, Apple spat it back in their faces, and they informed me IMMEDIATELY and I was able to change the file in the same day!
I look forward to doing more business with them as they expand distribution.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2015)

Sophrosyne said:


> Although, last time I criticized SW, I wound up getting hell rained down on me by an author who only distributes via SW.


There are seriously authors out there who only distribute via Smashwords??


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Joe Vasicek said:


> There are seriously authors out there who only distribute via Smashwords??


Yes there are. I've a few friends (not anyone who attacked Sophrosyne because these are people not on KBoards) who flat-out refuse to leave Smashwords to go direct or through D2D.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

ruecole said:


> Benefits of Smashwords:
> 
> Storefront
> Oyster
> ...


Go direct with Kobo if you do go wide. They run promos on titles uploaded through their own Kobowritinglife platform


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

ゴジラ said:


> You can respect Coker and still find his business beyond awful.


This.

For me, the key difference between D2D and Smashwords is that one understands what "customer service" means, and the other apparently hasn't heard of the concept at all.


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## Censored (Oct 31, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Go direct with Kobo if you do go wide. They run promos on titles uploaded through their own Kobowritinglife platform


I think Kobo was the one with the weird direct deposit form that refused to acknowledge that my bank exists. I'm not making a separate bank account for Kobo, so...


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

FictionFugitive said:


> I think Kobo was the one with the weird direct deposit form that refused to acknowledge that my bank exists. I'm not making a separate bank account for Kobo, so...


I had no problems. I just made sure it give them all the numbers off my statement. sort, account, and IBAN (is it IBAN? Can't remember)


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

I'm sorry to report that I'm one of the few (or maybe the only one?) that didn't have a good experience with D2D. 

I signed up with the intention of distributing my newest title (coming out of Select) with D2D, and then shifting my other titles over from SW. I'd leave them all with SW, but opt out of all the retail channels that D2D carried.

I uploaded identical files to SW and D2D. SW processed this file through their "meatgrinder" with no problem. The book was approved for premium distribution the next day. However, this same file caused chapter issues with D2D, which required intervention of their customer support to resolve. I was dead in the water for over two days with no contact from their customer support. I got tired of waiting and pulled the plug on D2D, and with a few simple clicks, SW had my book distributed to the remaining (D2D) outlets by the end of the day. It couldn't have gone smoother at SW.

In all fairness, Dan at 2D2 did apologize to me and explained that they were slammed this month. He also reported that he had additional customer support resources starting next week because of all the new activity. I suppose that's a good problem to have, but it also sort of puts them in the same predicament that SW was struggling with - growing pains.

I hope that D2D will handle it get past this bump. Maybe I'll give them another try in the future, once they get things ironed out.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

Accord64 said:


> I'm sorry to report that I'm one of the few (or maybe the only one?) that didn't have a good experience with D2D.


Not quite the only one!
I tried out a couple of novels via D2D but sold absolutely nothing and I ended up putting them back in Select. They don't sell much on AZ but slightly more than nothing!
I have stuck with SW out of inertia more than anything, but I have been quite happy with them (except for once in a while when I want to throw my laptop out of the window when something gets stuck in the meat-grinder). On the one occasion when I couldn't work out what had gone wrong, their customer support people were actually very helpful indeed.


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## P. J. Alderman (Feb 9, 2014)

Hi, All--

This is a great thread! I learned several things about using D2D for discounting at B&N that I hadn't understood well. And I've gone onto Smashwords and opted out of the problematic Inktera. 

I'm wondering if some of you who have been in D2D for awhile would be willing to clarify the way the payments get made. I understand that D2D pays monthly, 15 days after the end of the month, which is a huge benefit over Smashwords already. But what I'd like to clarify is exactly what that means. For example, Nook Press pays, like Amazon, roughly 60 days after the end of the month. Does that mean that D2d would pay Nook Press sales royalties to us at 75 days, or were they able to negotiate better terms than we get through Nook Press? In other words, for the sales you are seeing reported through D2d from their vendors, do you know what the lag time is for the vendors?

Thanks!
--PJ


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

P. J. Alderman said:


> I'm wondering if some of you who have been in D2D for awhile would be willing to clarify the way the payments get made. I understand that D2D pays monthly, 15 days after the end of the month, which is a huge benefit over Smashwords already. But what I'd like to clarify is exactly what that means. For example, Nook Press pays, like Amazon, roughly 60 days after the end of the month. Does that mean that D2d would pay Nook Press sales royalties to us at 75 days, or were they able to negotiate better terms than we get through Nook Press? In other words, for the sales you are seeing reported through D2d from their vendors, do you know what the lag time is for the vendors?
> 
> Thanks!
> --PJ


On 1/6, I got paid for my November Nook, iBook, and Scribd sales. If I'd had any Kobo or Page Foundry sales in October, I would have been paid those at that time. So, the lag time appears to be a little over 60 days for some and over 90 for others. Payment has come out pretty regularly within a few day span between the 6th and the 11th of the month in the 6 months I've been using them as a distributor.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Today I finally bit the bullet and signed up for D2D (before I noticed this thread...although it wouldn't have hurt  .  Not that I had anything against them, but already being entrenched in SW's premium catalog I just didn't see a reason to as I go direct with all the big stores.

However, D2D's addition of Tolino is what pushed me over the edge.  I've done pretty well in Germany and the opportunity to try to reach a wider audience there sealed the deal for me.

So far I have to say I really like their interface...and I especially love uploading my ePubs and the end result looking exactly like what I originally uploaded (I know SW doesn't mess with ePubs, but meatgrinder has always made me a bit paranoid).  Considering it's been pretty dead on the SW premium front for me, I've already started delisting from SW and pushing D2D for the some of the stores where there's cross over to see if there's any difference between the two.

I guess we'll see how it goes.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.


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## P. J. Alderman (Feb 9, 2014)

Thanks, Jill.

So you're getting paid for sales through the end of November for the three sites, by early January? So roughly about 40 days, correct? Then the others a month behind that?

--PJ


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

P. J. Alderman said:


> Thanks, Jill.
> 
> So you're getting paid for sales through the end of November for the three sites, by early January? So roughly about 40 days, correct? Then the others a month behind that?
> 
> --PJ


Yes, what you said. That was the correct math. Glad someone has that under control


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## P. J. Alderman (Feb 9, 2014)

Jill Nojack said:


> Yes, what you said. That was the correct math. Glad someone has that under control


Hah! Rarely.  But I'm glad to hear they are paying that fast. That's an improvement over going with Nook Press for the shorter WIPS that are prices at $1.99 or lower. Nook Press is paying at 60 days, and they are leo paying a lower royalty...PJ


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## P. J. Alderman (Feb 9, 2014)

P. J. Alderman said:


> Hah! Rarely.  But I'm glad to hear they are paying that fast. That's an improvement over going with Nook Press for the shorter WIPS that are prices at $1.99 or lower. Nook Press is paying at 60 days, and they are leo paying a lower royalty...PJ


 Yeesh! Bad edits. ...I meant "priced" at $1.99 or lower, and "also" paying a lower royalty! Sorry!


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Michael J Elliott said:


> I was going to upload to Smashwords and KDP and perhaps Select


Select is a program inside KDP which requires that you do not publish anywhere else. You can publish on KDP without checking the Select box. That is the only way you can make your story free permanently on Amazon: not check the Select box, and publish elsewhere for free and hope Amazon price matches to free.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2015)

I'll just add a bit.

First, I think there should be tremendous respect for what Smashwords did.

Second, let's not forget that Amazon and Amazon's policies are an existential threat to Smashwords.

Third, Smashwords made possible a lot of things that allow D2D (and other services in future) to be excellent.

To be honest I think what has happened is

1) Smashwords used up all its resources and energy in fighting the powers to be.

2) Smashwords got too caught up in fighting Amazon's strategies.

3) That allowed D2D to focus in on efficiency and customer service and steal a huge lead in those.

Think of it as Barbarians at the Walls of Rome.

The first Barbarian Chief fought and broke down part of the outer well (first ring). But he suffered so many losses and was so scarred by that experience that he's still fighting at the outer wall.

The second Barbarian Chief (from a different tribe, mind you) said - Wait a Minute! There's a big hole in the first wall. He just took his armies inside and started attacking the inner wall.

I've been in ebooks since 2008 and since a lot of the developments that authors tend to miss or take for granted. You have to respect that the Smashwords people picked the absolute toughest battle you could fight (selling books). And they did very well at it (in terms of what they made possible). If they hadn't, there would be no D2D.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

No one is debating what Smashwords has done. It's what they're doing now, or more accurately, not doing, that matters. In business you can't rest on your laurels. Not as long as Smashwords has done.


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## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

So for those who go direct to Kobo--how quickly can you take a book down if you need to? Do they change prices as rapidly as D2D can get it done?

I took a book off of Nook several months ago and it shows as unpublished, they say it is unpublished but a Google search of the book turns up the sample page which still has the buy link activated. I've contacted them and was told my complaint was escalated to their tech department but that was 2 weeks ago and then crickets. Basically, people could be buying the book and I'm not getting credit for it and that has been going on for months now even though it is not listed for sale in the store. Not that this has anything to do with going direct on Kobo, but it was the main reason I chose D2D. I'd heard they can get a book taken down quickly and effectively. Unpublishing from Smashwords was not much better than Nook and the crickets there chirp even louder.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Taking a book down at Kobo means that it will stop appearing in the store a few hours later (as opposed to 24 hours later for an Apple take-down). It might take a little longer to disappear from Kobo's retail partners like WH Smith or Easons, depending on how often they refresh the database link. I cannot see that D2D would get that take-down to happen sooner that delisting the book on Kobo Writing Life. Note that when I briefly took a book off KWL to go to Kobo via D2D it disappeared at WH Smith (who curate what gets in from Kobo) and although I quickly returned to KWL the book has not returned to WH Smith.


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## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

Mercia McMahon said:


> Taking a book down at Kobo means that it will stop appearing in the store a few hours later (as opposed to 24 hours later for an Apple take-down). It might take a little longer to disappear from Kobo's retail partners like WH Smith or Easons, depending on how often they refresh the database link. I cannot see that D2D would get that take-down to happen sooner that delisting the book on Kobo Writing Life. Note that when I briefly took a book off KWL to go to Kobo via D2D it disappeared at WH Smith (who curate what gets in from Kobo) and although I quickly returned to KWL the book has not returned to WH Smith.


Thanks. That helps me make a decision.


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## ibizwiz (Dec 25, 2014)

To all who posted on this thread, whether to praise D2D for their performance or Mark Coker for his pioneering, a HUGE "Thank you!". I was _this_ close to uploading at SW when I thought to search KBoards first and found your excellent, clear, and IMO fair discussion. Very much appreciated!


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## JackRaven (Apr 4, 2013)

This just in.
I REGRET trying Draft2Digital. They're complete [expletive]s!

I allocated several of my titles just to test them out. And look at the DISRESPECTFUL, RUDE email I got! She's talking to me like im a criminal! I dont deserve this!
Earlier, prior to that email, I politely asked customer support why my books were made to "draft" status. No one replied and instead sent me that rude email.

They called me a Spammer!
Please note that these are the actual .docs I processed and would pass Smashwords standards. Again, I just wanted to give them a try and boy do I regret it!

That Spam refers to posting about my other books ALSO AVAILABLE IN IBOOKS and other channels by the way, but NOT THROUGH Draft2Digital. In other words it is through Smashwords and they dont like that!

What Smashwords asked me to do is just eliminate any live links, and any mention of Kindle, Kobo etc.

Further, it just means D2D autoformatting is pure hype and doesnt really work in real life!
Im not surprised by that. Thats why I asked support to clarify the problem to me. What did they do? That email below. If they explained to me in polite terms, I'd remove the references to my other books (again not live links, nor mention of competition).

In the end, im back to Smashwords and in all my years in online marketing (9 years), I literally have not been disrespected, and talked down like criminal -- and they didnt even bother explaining anything to me! Heck, if they're software is supposed to be that smart? Why can't it strip out live links or any mention of the competition! Except you wont see any, because as I've said, these titles have been processed to pass Smashwords Meatgrinder, so its really clean!

===
On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:41 AM, Draft2Digital Support <[email protected]> wrote:

We received an email from our rep's at Apple regarding the files you've uploaded through your account and submitted to the iBook Store for publication.

We noticed books with the publisher name(s) Jack N. Raven, appear to be spam. Books by this publisher do not comply with our Formatting Guidelines (see 17.2) and these books will not be available for sale on iBooks. 
If you can remove this author from your list of authors who are approved to deliver into iBooks, that would help us a great deal.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Since your account has been terminated, our Terms of Service prohibit you from establishing a new account, using a false identity, impersonating any other person, or using a username or password you are not authorized to use.
Draft2Digital expends significant time and resources in providing the ebook conversion and distribution program to our users. Please note that termination of your account may merely be an initial step. Depending on our review of the activities associated with your account and your future actions and conduct, we may pursue legal claims against you or report your activities to the appropriate authorities.
We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Regards,

Tara
Customer Service Manager
Draft2Digital


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## Dobby the House Elf (Aug 16, 2014)

Tara is wonderful. 

I recently called her from Australia and had some queries and she was polite, thorough and knowledgeable in her explanations and really easy to talk to. I've been with D2D for three years and they have always gone above and beyond in terms of their customer service. 

Draft2Digital books have to comply with the terms and conditions of each vendor they're sold through, if there's ever a problem, just ring D2D customer support and they'll totally sort it out.


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## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

I have nothing but great things to say about D2D. They've always been pleasant, courteous, and prompt about getting back to me.


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## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

Same here, have always found them terrific. Sounds like Tara was just sending on info received from Apple, and not accusing you of anything directly?


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## Ghost Flight (Aug 16, 2011)

JackRaven said:


> This just in.
> I REGRET trying Draft2Digital. They're complete [expletive]s!
> 
> I allocated several of my titles just to test them out. And look at the DISRESPECTFUL, RUDE email I got! She's talking to me like im a criminal! I dont deserve this!
> ...


Jack, did you by chance use the techniques advocated in your book, _The Art of Invisible Compliance: How To Make People Do What You Want Effortlessly_? If so, your techniques didn't work on Tara, and they aren't working on me, either. After reading your post, I don't think badly of Tara or D2D for terminating your account and sending you these messages, which is what you want me to do, isn't it? (You obviously copy/pasted from multiple messages from D2D, not just one.) In my experience, Tara and D2D have always been professional and very helpful. They go out of their way to help customers.

What reasons did Tara give you for terminating your account, besides some ebooks published by Jack N. Raven appearing to be spam (that aren't going to be distributed to Apple anyway)?


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

So much to think about now.

Do I go for D2D or stay smashwords?

New books coming out in the next bit.  I will try D2D.

I thought SW was pretty good.

I will let you know


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

Let me say this:
I am Canadian.  I do NOT want the US government to hold 30% of my earnings.  There is a tax treaty.

SW had me go do a W7 and then I will have to send a W8 to them.  That will take about 3 months.
D2D JUST GOT BACK TO ME WITHIN 2 HOURS!!!!!
Nope just send us a W8 with your Canadian SIN on it and you are good to go.

frack or feth if you prefer.

Amazon let me put my SIN down direct.  D2D looks fast.  SW needs to fix that.


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## CityOwlPress (Aug 1, 2015)

We've used D2D from beta mode and never regretted it. Running an indie press is a lot of work, but D2D makes it that much easier with their great customer service.


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

I believe the problem here is content being against guidelines, not the actual formatting in the typesetting sense.


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## PermaStudent (Apr 21, 2015)

Thanks, folks!  This thread contained a lot I didn't know about the difference between SW and D2D; the information about BISAC categories has convinced me to move major distribution to D2D.  I'll probably keep my SW storefront up because I like giving my readers free copies with the coupon system.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

tomgermann said:


> Let me say this:
> I am Canadian. I do NOT want the US government to hold 30% of my earnings. There is a tax treaty.
> 
> SW had me go do a W7 and then I will have to send a W8 to them. That will take about 3 months.
> ...


D2D also paid me back for the 30% it had taken off my royalties during 2013 and 2014 before the IRS changed their rules and allowed us to use our SINs. I thought that was pretty cool! Amazon sure didn't do that. (No idea about SW.)

Rue


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## Ross Harrison (May 5, 2012)

Am I right in presuming nothing has changed, and people still recommend D2D over Smashwords? I have all my books on Smashwords and, though my sales have been nothing compared to Amazon, I've never had any problems with them. My books have shipped to the major retailers within a day or two, support staff have always been very helpful and friendly (though admittedly a little slow to respond), and having them stop withholding the tax percentage was simple.

If, however, people are suggesting sales are better through D2D, I'd be interested in giving it a go. The only problem is that I have no books coming out any time soon and I'd rather not unpublish from Smashwords just for a test.


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## AllyWho (May 16, 2015)

JackRaven said:


> ===
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:41 AM, Draft2Digital Support <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> We received an email from our rep's at Apple regarding the files you've uploaded through your account and submitted to the iBook Store for publication.
> ...


I don't see anything in that email that is rude, disrespectful or treating you like a criminal. It politely outlines the situation and tells you how to remedy it. Makes me wonder what you did from your end that they marked you as a spammer... as Dr Phil would say "doesn't matter how flat you make a pancake, it still has two sides."


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Ross Harrison said:


> Am I right in presuming nothing has changed, and people still recommend D2D over Smashwords? I have all my books on Smashwords and, though my sales have been nothing compared to Amazon, I've never had any problems with them. My books have shipped to the major retailers within a day or two, support staff have always been very helpful and friendly (though admittedly a little slow to respond), and having them stop withholding the tax percentage was simple.
> 
> If, however, people are suggesting sales are better through D2D, I'd be interested in giving it a go. The only problem is that I have no books coming out any time soon and I'd rather not unpublish from Smashwords just for a test.


I have seen better sales through D2D than Smashwords. Pretty much all my sales through Smashwords have just been on the Smashwords site itself, I've almost never gotten any buys through the vendors. But with D2D, I've noticed an uptick in the sales I make on the other platforms. From what I understand, D2D uses the BISAC categorization whereas Smashwords doesn't, and BISAC more properly categorizes books on the other vendors.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

I've got the same books on Scribd through both Smashwords and D2D. Strangely enough, while I get regular full reads on D2D through Scribd, I _may _get a read or two every quarter through Smashwords, and even then it's always 0.1. And back when the program started and Scribd gave out free subscriptions to Smashwords authors, I had a bunch of people read my books. Yet I got paid for none.


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

Well I am not pulling anything now BUT my next real estate guide is going to D2D.  If it works the same I will slide everything over.

D2D appears (not having used it yet) to offer more than SW.  Definitely worth a trial.

It would be even better if they connected with Amazon... wait, I would lose 10%....

hmmmm


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## Hudson Owen (May 18, 2012)

I think I recall an email from D2D in which they said it was OK to list books simultaneously on D2D and Smashwords.  The context was pulling books from SW to put them into D2D.


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## No longer seen (Aug 17, 2013)

D2D should warn authors and  publishers regarding content issues.

I decided to upload the portion  of my catalog not in KU to D2D to distribute through Tolino.

I have an eclectic catalog, including some erotica (all published on Kindle). I checked through 
the D2D FAQs and Terms. I found nothing that said I could not upload erotica.

So, I began uploading both non-erotica and erotica to D2D for Tolino. Soon I noticed the first
books (nonerotica) were Published, but the erotica and later nonerotica were in Draft.

So I sent an email. It took 3 days, but D2D customer service told me I uploaded  content Tolino
didn't want. OK, I said, remove all the erotica titles. I'll just upload the nonerotica. But why
didn't you warn me? I DID look for such restrictions. If they're there,  they're buried, and 
customer service failed to direct me to a link explaining them.

They removed some of the erotica, but kept several titles. So I emailed them again, and in
3 or 4 days they removed the remaining titles.

But, 10+ days later, the nonerotica titles are still in Draft status. I can only assume Tolino
hates me, and D2D is too busy to ask them to review those titles, or any others I upload
in the future, so why bother?

I'm not gainsaying anybody else's positive experiences with D2D, and I've had problems with SW
too, but D2D should warn us about the content restrictions. After all, those erotica 
titles do pass on Kindle, not even Adult Dungeoned last time I looked. I'm not trying to
force Tolino to take stuff they don't want. Just warn me, please, so I wouldn't have
wasted my time uploading them and inadvertantly offending Tolino, where my name is now mud,
it appears, even for books obviously not erotica.

All in all, D2D has not made me feel welcome.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Richard Stooker said:


> D2D should warn authors and publishers regarding content issues.
> 
> I decided to upload the portion of my catalog not in KU to D2D to distribute through Tolino.
> 
> ...


According to D2D's Terms of Service, it's their responsibility to notify you if a book submitted through them is unacceptable. They make no warranty to tell you ahead of time. Nor does Smashwords.


> Online Bookstores - Terms of Service. Our ability to distribute your Ebooks to various online bookstores is determined by the Terms of Service of those online bookstores. If your Ebooks are not acceptable to one or more online bookstores under their Terms of Service or otherwise, we will notify you and you will have the option of modifying your Ebooks to make them acceptable for sale. We and you each agree that neither of us will take any steps that either of us know or have reason to know will violate the Terms of Service of any online bookstore through which your Ebooks are sold. We may cease selling Ebooks through any online bookstore whose Terms of Service are or become unacceptable to us for any reason.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

I see all of the good results from D2D--speed of publication and reporting impeccable, awesome-- but, having said that, I wonder why, in some titles (I have published many titles on BOTH platforms), Smashwords versions are ranked higher than D2D's. Would you take the step of unpublishing Smashwords if you have D2D? 

Two things that irritate me with D2D: It doesn't recognize the title page, so I have to ask it to ADD a title page; the epub I download from there sometimes seems to fail the Sigil epub-check. And have they fixed their Nook payment problem yet?

Also, do they now have ALL the channels that Smashwords has?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Richard Stooker said:


> D2D should warn authors and publishers regarding content issues.
> 
> I decided to upload the portion of my catalog not in KU to D2D to distribute through Tolino.
> 
> ...


I don't blame you for feeling upset, but it's Tolino who is making you unwelcome not D2D. These days erotica is hidden away on the "top digital shelf" AKA the dungeon in most places it seems.


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## No longer seen (Aug 17, 2013)

Saul Tanpepper said:


> According to D2D's Terms of Service, it's their responsibility to notify you if a book submitted through them is unacceptable. They make no warranty to tell you ahead of time. Nor does Smashwords.


So, we're just to know by osmosis? Guess? Take a risk, and if I guess wrong, which I did, too bad?

Again, I'm not trying to force Tolino or D2D to take content they don't want. But if D2D would have warned me
in advance they in general or Tolino in particular didn't want erotica or certain kinds of it, I wouldn't have wasted my time 
or theirs or Tolino's. I didn't mislabel it as romance or anything like that.


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## No longer seen (Aug 17, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I don't blame you for feeling upset, but it's Tolino who is making you unwelcome not D2D. These days erotica is hidden away on the "top digital shelf" AKA the dungeon in most places it seems.


Yes, it's Tolino that doesn't want my erotica (which is fine with me) and Tolino now failing to review my
other, nonerotica titles. But it's D2D that failed to warn me Tolino doesn't want that kind of content,
and since their customer service is so good for everybody else, I assume D2D could ask Tolino to 
review those nonerotica titles, so I could upload a lot of other (nonerotica) titles, so hopefully we would
all -- Tolina and D2D as well as myself -- make some additional money, but D2D is not doing that either.

Oh, well, life goes on.


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## AllyWho (May 16, 2015)

Richard Stooker said:


> So, we're just to know by osmosis? Guess? Take a risk, and if I guess wrong, which I did, too bad?


But you write erotica, you must be aware that retailers have guidelines about what is and isn't acceptable - like Amazon with its cover requirements and words it won't allow in titles. I don't write it and even I know its a hot topic for retailers. Surely as a writer of a genre *you know *has restrictions, it is on you to research each retailer you want to submit to. Especially when you said you specifically used D2D to access Tolino, did you research their erotica requirements beforehand?

I can't see that D2D has to warn every single user about erotica guidelines, when it only affects a smaller percentage. It makes more sense for the onus to be on the erotica author to know the guidelines of each retailer.


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## Dale Hammond (Apr 3, 2015)

D2D does do some pre-screening of erotica, as it's kicked back a title within minutes based on a keyword.  They sent a very polite note saying why, the general reason (though not the specific keyword), and the method by which I could contact them to appeal.  The title was completely blocked, and I couldn't resubmit it with different keywords.  I ended up taking it to Smashwords, where it was fine.
I've heard that the keywords don't make it to the retailers anyway, so one might be better off with just categories.

I split some titles between Smashwords and D2D to compare.  All of the titles were visible in the stores up at itunes, b&n, and kobo.  I sold about the same amount at both, but my Smashwords stuff ended up selling only on Smashwords, not the other retailers.  My numbers were sinfully low, so can't jump to too many conclusions.

The "transaction fees" at Smashwords seem to use voodoo math, as they ranged from $.03 to $.33 for a $.99 title.  Maybe if a customer downloads the file multiple times or in multiple formats, I'm sure it's in the fine print somewhere.

For me, I go with D2D just because they can handle multiple authors and multiple pen names.  Smashwords makes you open a separate account for each.


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## countwordsmith (Aug 13, 2015)

D2D has never failed to send me an email when an erotic romance title is not accepted by a particular retailer or that they want me to change the category to erotica because there was too much sex. I would check my spam folder if I didn't get a message. They are very good with communication.


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## countwordsmith (Aug 13, 2015)

Dale Hammond said:


> For me, I go with D2D just because they can handle multiple authors and multiple pen names. Smashwords makes you open a separate account for each.


This for me was a wonderful surprise. I was able to allocate different pen names to different bank accounts. I love this! I asked Smashwords a while back if they could set up their system to do this without the pens having to be under one public publisher name. They told me to open separate accounts. Who wants to do that?


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

> But you write erotica, you must be aware that retailers have guidelines about what is and isn't acceptable


Based on the information from the OP, that author name seems to be mostly "pickup artist" and psychological manipulation stuff, which won't get caught by the erotica screening.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

I love D2D. They make great epubs that validate and there are no headaches. What I like about D2D also, is I can create a separate book for each store, so if I want links in back for iTunes, I just make an iTunes edition.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

anicolle said:


> Is there any benefit to an aggregator such as D2D, other than the time-savings? If you're willing to upload direct to the various distributors, wouldn't you make slightly more without paying a cut to the aggregator?


You make more through D2D than direct to B&N if your book is 99 cents. And iTunes doesn't provide privacy for pen names; it blabs your real name as publisher, so I gladly give D2D a small cut so I don't have to deal with that.


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