# Pronoun.com?



## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

Hi folks. Has anyone tried Pronoun.com? Pros and cons? Thanks.


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## crow.bar.beer (Oct 20, 2014)

I looked at the website and lol'd.


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## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

crow.bar.beer said:


> I looked at the website and lol'd.


Why?


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## crow.bar.beer (Oct 20, 2014)

Wired said:


> Why?


Because they haven't communicated anything about what they actually do.


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## ShadowcatEdits (Aug 11, 2015)

I haven't seen Pronoun from the author side, but the editors, cover designers, etc. are vetted so you know they didn't just randomly hang out of shingle yesterday. Most of us offer some level of discount to Pronoun clients, and unlike some other services Pronoun doesn't take a cut of those fees. You can then publish through them or not - your choice. 

Hopefully someone who has seen the site from the author side can offer more insight!


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## Beth_Hammond (Oct 30, 2015)

I just pushed one book out through them. I published to Amazon separately but still use pronoun to publish on other platforms, and track the rank etc. on Amazon. It's a nice sleek platform. I like it so far.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

I looked and there are some free tools i signed up to, but the publishing platform doesn't appear to offer much an author can't do themselves. 

I use:
- the weekly email telling my rank movement for books
- the weekly email telling me if I had any reviews since last week
- category suggestions for my books, which looks at similar books in my genre and tells me what niche categories I might rank highest in.

I feel a little bad just using the free stuff but I can't see what their paid services will do for me.


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## John Hamilton (May 6, 2010)

I found this Q&A with their head of marketing:

https://janefriedman.com/pronoun-distribution/


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## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

_"We are increasing author royalties to 70% for all books priced $9.99 or less and sold in the US and Canada."_

I'm confused. Amazon pays 35% on 99 cent books. So how can these folks pay 70%? ETA: The FAQ suggests they have a special deal with Amazon. Am I reading this correctly?


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## Desert Rose (Jun 2, 2015)

Wired said:


> _"We are increasing author royalties to 70% for all books priced $9.99 or less and sold in the US and Canada."_
> 
> I'm confused. Amazon pays 35% on 99 cent books. So how can these folks pay 70%? ETA: The FAQ suggests they have a special deal with Amazon. Am I reading this correctly?


Macmillan is the parent company, so they might well have a special deal with Amazon.


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## Harald (Mar 23, 2015)

Wired said:


> _"We are increasing author royalties to 70% for all books priced $9.99 or less and sold in the US and Canada."_
> I'm confused. Amazon pays 35% on 99 cent books. So how can these folks pay 70%? ETA: The FAQ suggests they have a special deal with Amazon. Am I reading this correctly?


Apparently. I'm finding it a bit hard to believe myself, but there it is in that Jane Friedman interview. And read the comments:
https://janefriedman.com/pronoun-distribution/#comments


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Beth_Hammond said:


> I just pushed one book out through them. I published to Amazon separately but still use pronoun to publish on other platforms, and track the rank etc. on Amazon. It's a nice sleek platform. I like it so far.


The last time I looked at Pronoun's terms, I was sure it said that when you published with them you could only use it for all platforms at the same time, rather than pick and choose platforms like at Smash and D2D. Did this just change recently? Because if it did, it would be a really great way for people to publish with Google Play.


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2017)

ShayneRutherford said:


> The last time I looked at Pronoun's terms, I was sure it said that when you published with them you could only use it for all platforms at the same time, rather than pick and choose platforms like at Smash and D2D. Did this just change recently? Because if it did, it would be a really great way for people to publish with Google Play.


That's what I remembered too, but they seem to have changed it. Their front page now says: "You can also choose your retailer outlets. Publish to all or a select few of our supported retailers, depending on your publishing goals."



Wired said:


> _"We are increasing author royalties to 70% for all books priced $9.99 or less and sold in the US and Canada."_
> 
> I'm confused. Amazon pays 35% on 99 cent books. So how can these folks pay 70%? ETA: The FAQ suggests they have a special deal with Amazon. Am I reading this correctly?


They either have some special deals with all the retailers, or they are eating the difference to get more authors to use them, going by their royalty page: http://support.pronoun.com/knowledge_base/topics/what-are-the-retailers-distribution-fees

Amazon is the only one doing 70% now, the rest do 60-65% or so, if I remember right. But going through Pronoun, it looks like any book published with them starting this year gets 70% across the board?!


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## BlouBryant (Jun 18, 2016)

ShayneRutherford said:


> The last time I looked at Pronoun's terms, I was sure it said that when you published with them you could only use it for all platforms at the same time, rather than pick and choose platforms like at Smash and D2D. Did this just change recently? Because if it did, it would be a really great way for people to publish with Google Play.


It changed today.


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## Beth_Hammond (Oct 30, 2015)

ShayneRutherford said:


> The last time I looked at Pronoun's terms, I was sure it said that when you published with them you could only use it for all platforms at the same time, rather than pick and choose platforms like at Smash and D2D. Did this just change recently? Because if it did, it would be a really great way for people to publish with Google Play.


Yep, it changed. You're correct though. It was an all or nothing deal when they first began.


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## dianapersaud (Sep 26, 2013)

So if they [Pronoun] aren't charging Indies anything- how are they going to stay in business? There has to be a catch.

It simply isn't possible to run a business long term "for free".


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## John Hamilton (May 6, 2010)

They're owned by Macmillan, so deep pockets. As they build the business, I think they'll begin to offer "value added" services to boost revenue. In the interview with their marketing director, I thought this statement was key: "Our core pursuit as a business is to help authors succeed at publishing. As we grow along with our authors, new business opportunities will emerge that add value to what authors need." Maybe they have something else up their sleeve, too.


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## Harald (Mar 23, 2015)

John Hamilton said:


> They're owned by Macmillan, so deep pockets. As they build the business, I think they'll begin to offer "value added" services to boost revenue. In the interview with their marketing director, I thought this statement was key: "Our core pursuit as a business is to help authors succeed at publishing. As we grow along with our authors, new business opportunities will emerge that add value to what authors need." Maybe they have something else up their sleeve, too.


Yep. Classic loss leader with value adds coming.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Anma Natsu said:


> Amazon is the only one doing 70% now, the rest do 60-65% or so, if I remember right. But going through Pronoun, it looks like any book published with them starting this year gets 70% across the board?!


Um ... this seems big ...


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Looks correct. This page explains that books published prior to January 4, 2017, will make 35% on Amazon in the .99 to 2.98 range, but books published after that date will make 70% on Amazon, period, between .99 and 9.99.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Interesting, thanks for sharing!


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

I'm already on the major players either direct or through D2D / Smashwords. But not GooglePlay. 

I wonder if it's worth putting all my books on Google Play now. I never bothered as I had so many issues with them it wasn't worth it. Is there any money in that? Worth the effort?


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

... and that 70% royalty for 0.99 books might just be a game changer for them.


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## AsianInspiration (Oct 12, 2016)

If you can pick the retailers, can you pick Amazon exclusively (KU)? So you get 70% on 0.99 books in KU? 

Either way, this almost sounds too good to be true... the other distributors like D2D or Smashwords all take a cut after the 70%...


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

AsianInspiration said:


> If you can pick the retailers, can you pick Amazon exclusively (KU)? So you get 70% on 0.99 books in KU?


I doubt it - I would think you still have to publish direct through KDP to enroll in KU. But we'll find out, seems like they're promising the moon, so maybe they can do this, too...


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## TellNotShow (Sep 15, 2014)

Anma Natsu said:


> Amazon is the only one doing 70% now, the rest do 60-65% or so, if I remember right.


Actually, Amazon have never paid 70% through KDP -- not for one single sale ever made. Because, unlike all other retailers, they charge a delivery fee.

It's Apple who pay 70% for everything.

Kobo pay 70% for books $2.99 and up.
Google Play have a weird and stupid way of working stuff out, where they pay 52% but discount everything, so when you adjust your GP pricing to end up at the right price, you end up with about 68% on most books (which is slightly better than you mostly end up with from Amazon), although on GP, you can score upwards of 80% on box sets of $9.99 or more. Which is awesome.
And B&N do mostly 65%, I believe. If you're a US citizen. And nothing if you're not -- forcing us foreigners to go through an aggregator. Because wall, I guess.

IT does seem like a game-changer, 70% for the cheapies. Might maybe even, almost, possibly, make me reconsider my strategy. 
*Except NOT -- because only available to US and Canadian citizens, while screwing over EVERYONE ELSE. (Because wall, I guess.)
*



ADDavies said:


> I'm already on the major players either direct or through D2D / Smashwords. But not GooglePlay.
> 
> I wonder if it's worth putting all my books on Google Play now. I never bothered as I had so many issues with them it wasn't worth it. Is there any money in that? Worth the effort?


I like Google Play, ADDavies, and think it's worth the effort. 
Sales are VERY consistent there, a slow build over time. Not massive, but a nice bonus every month. And if you're direct, you can get better than 80% on high value box sets. (Of course, through Pronoun you won't get that 80% +)


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## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

Considering I'm getting very close to being ready to publish some 99-cent books, this is of timely interest to me. I'm hesitant, though. I'm not a big early adopter and usually prefer to wait until enough other people can verify that something's a good idea before committing, and I'm not sure I entirely trust a company owned by one of the big publishers. I'm eager to get more solid info on this as it's available.

I keep hearing that Google Play randomly changes the price of books without the author's consent, and that's enough for me to avoid them even if the access to get books on there is easy.


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## 39416 (Mar 18, 2011)

Anyone know if they do Paperback distribution, a la Createspace? Or are they just digital?


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Wow. This could be huge. 

I wonder how Amazon feels about this? Obviously they're allowing it - but it goes directly against their usual mode of operation (squash competition, hoard authors on their own platform).

When ebook publishing first became a thing, Amazon only offered 35% royalties no matter the book's price. But when Apple offered 70%, 'Zon upped their rates to match. 

I wonder if the same thing could happen again? If enough authors start jumping ship, will Amazon increase its royalty on 0.99-2.98 books?


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## mdrake (Jul 14, 2016)

So if I wanted to move my catalog from KDP to Pronoun are there any serious obstacles to this? Do authors risk losing their reviews? 

In my case I own my ISBNs. 

Just trying to wrap my head around this, since it seems way too good to be true, but if it's legit, I'm on board.


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

TellNotShow said:


> IT does seem like a game-changer, 70% for the cheapies. Might maybe even, almost, possibly, make me reconsider my strategy.
> *Except NOT -- because only available to US and Canadian citizens, while screwing over EVERYONE ELSE. (Because wall, I guess.)
> *


I read it differently - it seems we get 70% on books sold in the US and Canada. If people in other countries purchase our books we get a lower rate. It doesn't seem to make a difference which country the author/publisher lives in.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Can I set a book to free for permafree? Or must I do that the same old way?


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

So, they won't pay higher rates on my books that are already published, and I don't get KU page read revenue (65% of my current earnings). I'm not excited.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

As Amazon sent over $1,000. of my royalty money to the wrong bank, their fault, (they said my bank name was too long so they removed the ending) and it took me nine months to get it, I changed to Pronoun with half my books when they first started. I put the last of my books with them early December. I'm very happy at this stage. I got most of my reviews back when I unpublished from Amazon and republished through Pronoun. I love getting the reports from Pronoun. No more looking things up, they inform me of all activity on my books and make suggestions. Some suggestions are funny and irrelevant to my books; sometimes they are useful and I'll change a keyword. I get intelligent answers to my queries every time I ask a question. They do take longer holidays over Christmas than Amazon.


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## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

brkingsolver said:


> I don't get KU page read revenue ...


So they don't allow KU enrollment? Are you sure?


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## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

I'm looking at their author agreement, and there are a couple things I don't personally like:

You get your payment through PayPal. While I have not had any problems with PayPal myself, a lot of people have. One author I follow (who has enough fans to have a market for self-produced merchandise) apparently had such a horrible experience with PayPal that he says he won't ever use it again (which makes the payment process for some of those merchandise items he does less convenient, but apparently he hates PayPal enough that it's worth it to him).

Also, it says Pronoun gives you ISBNs, which means that Pronoun shows up as your publisher for your ebooks. I don't plan on getting ISBNs for my ebooks, but if I publish them myself directly, there is no ISBN and so no publisher of record (since Amazon--and from what I've heard, other outlets--don't require ISBNs). Some people don't care about this, but it's a sticking point for me. (It says you can use your own ISBN, but there's no option to just not use one at all.)


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

I decided to put two of my serials on there in order to get the first free book without price matching along with better royalty for 99¢, Amazon only (all my others are direct and not changing that)...here's what I've noticed so far:

My books were up on Amazon in less than 4 hours from publishing them on Pronoun. Sometimes this happens through KDP but usually not.
The prices for free books says $0.00 and beneath it by the purchase button is, "Sold by Macmillan" with Pronoun listed as the Publisher.
My $2.99 part is currently listed as "Lending: NOT enabled" and I am waiting to see if that changes or not.


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## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

Violet Haze said:


> I decided to put two of my serials on there...


Do they give the option to enroll in KU?


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

I've been taking huge PayPal payments for more than a decade for my art gallery business. I've found them to be secure. I've never lost a payment. There is less fraud when dealing with art clients than there is with other goods, but as Draft2Digital and all my writing commissioning clients pay me by PayPal I can't see why there would be a problem in having Pronoun paying by PayPal. I first heard about Pronoun from ALLi, and that gave me the confidence to go ahead and publish through them. 
I too realize that there will need to be a commercializing of the site eventually, I'm actually looking forward to seeing what that entails. I'm not recommending it to others, just saying that I use it and I'm a satisfied customer.  

No, Wired, they don't do KU, that's an exclusive to Amazon.
It really does not worry me if Pronoun is listed as my publisher.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

No, not option to enroll in KU, sorry. Looks like anyone who wants to be in KDP Select will need to use KDP directly.



Wired said:


> Do they give the option to enroll in KU?


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## John Van Stry (May 25, 2011)

Wired said:


> So they don't allow KU enrollment? Are you sure?


The agreement specifically says you have to publish exclusively with Amazon.
Going through pronoun is not publishing with Amazon. So no.


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## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

Ryn Shell said:


> I've been taking huge PayPal payments for more than a decade for my art gallery business. I've found them to be secure. I've never lost a payment. There is less fraud when dealing with art clients than there is with other goods, but as Draft2Digital and all my writing commissioning clients pay me by PayPal I can't see why there would be a problem in having Pronoun paying by PayPal.


From what I've heard (in the above example and from other people on the net), it's more about PayPal refusing to give you the money because they've decided you're the fraud they need to protect people from and making you go through months of hoop-jumping to get it. (In the author's case, they didn't refund the money to the people who'd paid, which you think they'd do if they legitimately thought fraud was involved. They just kept it themselves until it was apparently resolved in some fashion like 9 months later.) Also cases where they refunded the buyer without giving the seller any chance to refute whatever the buyer's claim was (taking the money from the seller, giving it back to the buyer, with whatever the item was still staying in the buyer's hands).

For me, it's along the same lines of why I decided not to go exclusive to Amazon. These companies are all out there to make money, and as some have found out, when they're so big that they do things without even giving you a chance to argue your case (guilty until proven innocent, except a lot of times they don't even give you a chance to prove you're innocent), it just shows that it's best not to put all your eggs in one basket, especially if your livelihood depends on it.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Violet Haze said:


> I decided to put two of my serials on there in order to get the first free book without price matching along with better royalty for 99¢, Amazon only (all my others are direct and not changing that)...here's what I've noticed so far:
> 
> My books were up on Amazon in less than 4 hours from publishing them on Pronoun. Sometimes this happens through KDP but usually not.
> The prices for free books says $0.00 and beneath it by the purchase button is, "Sold by Macmillan" with Pronoun listed as the Publisher.
> My $2.99 part is currently listed as "Lending: NOT enabled" and I am waiting to see if that changes or not.


So ... $0.00 on Amazon without depending on the occasionally fickle price-matching process ...

Is Jeff Bezos going to be sending one of those famous "?" emails to whatever Amazon person negotiated this deal? It seems to be undercutting one of the company's longstanding priorities (concentrating ebook prices between $2.99 and $9.99).


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## The Bass Bagwhan (Mar 9, 2014)

Kate. said:


> I read it differently - it seems we get 70% on books sold in the US and Canada. If people in other countries purchase our books we get a lower rate. It doesn't seem to make a difference which country the author/publisher lives in.


Alternatively - and this is why I'm interested - it could be because Macmillan has its own digital distribution in certain countries. In Australia it's Momentum Publishers, and I have a half-dozen titles with them. But it has been downsized in the last few years and now I'm wondering if Momentum will migrate somehow over to the Pronoun platform.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

That is an excellent question...  But yep, free without jumping through hoops. It's odd, honestly. 



Becca Mills said:


> So ... $0.00 on Amazon without depending on the occasionally fickle price-matching process ...
> 
> Is Jeff Bezos going to be sending one of those famous "?" emails to whatever Amazon person negotiated this deal? It seems to be undercutting one of the company's longstanding priorities (concentrating ebook prices between $2.99 and $9.99).


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Interesting that to have your books on Pronoun you have to have them available on Amazon either direct or through Pronoun.  (Or, if it were available, I guess, some other source.)  Perhaps Amazon sees benefit in this from shifting self-publishers away from the KDP platform?  Less customer service hassle makes it worth the cost?  I wonder if D2D or Smashwords will get a deal like this soon, too?  Or is this aimed to take their customers away?

And there's something in the Privacy Policy about sharing your information with related companies which I assume means Macmillan.  Get a large enough user base and it seems to me that gives some pretty amazing market intelligence about what sells and at what price, etc. and lets them know who to pursue for possible print deals.  (Just conjecture there...)

Also, not concerned about the ISBN issue.  As I recall, D2D assigns ISBNs to books published to the other outlets through them.  Could be wrong.

And, Paypal fee is passed on to the author but I don't think that's enough to make it a bad decision to use.

Also, I assume no access to AMS if you go to Amazon through Pronoun?


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## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

Can you publish on Pronoun just to sell on Google Play? I've been trying to get on that platform but it's been saying that they are not accepting any new clients.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Obviously the most intriguing aspects are the permafree option on Amazon, and the possibility of charging less than $2.99 and making more than 35%. I will probably give it a shot with one of my 99 cent short stories that I'd prefer to be free. Last time I tried to get one price matched on Amazon I gave up after six months.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

This bit looks interesting.



> Get category optimization, sales rank trends, & review notifications.
> 
> If changing your book's categorization could land it on a Top 100 list, wouldn't you want to know? We can tell you. Pronoun tracks 6 million books daily and sends authors custom recommendations and performance updates about their books.
> 
> When your book might gain more visibility in a different category, we'll let you know. When you get a new review, we'll tell you. And we'll also email you weekly sales rank summaries.


You don't even have to be published through them to use the service. Just create an account and give them the book's ASIN to have them start tracking it.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Imogen Rose said:


> Can you publish on Pronoun just to sell on Google Play? I've been trying to get on that platform but it's been saying that they are not accepting any new clients.


Sounds like you can! From their FAQ:



> You can use Pronoun to publish your ebook on any retailers where it isn't already live. For example, if your ebook is currently available on Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble, you can use Pronoun for Kobo and/or Google.
> 
> We can't distribute your ebook to a retailer where you are already distributing. (Duplicate listings cause copyright issues.) For example, if you currently sell your ebook on Kobo, you would need to remove that version from sale before distributing that ebook to Kobo through Pronoun.


I take this to mean that you can pick and choose the places you want Pronoun to distribute to, even if it's just one place. And Google's on the list.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

Hmm I'm gonna be starting to publish in a few weeks. Maybe I'll have a go at this as a guinea pig. I was tossing up between going wide or not, but the page reads KU issue has spooked me off. Would hate to build up a platform exclusively on Amazon then have it cave in because of glitches...


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Wonder if they let you upload the Vellum formatted epubs and mobi's? I read their FAQ and they talk about their in-house formatting looking clean and professional, but what if you WANT the Vellum look?


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

I uploaded my Vellum generated ePub and Mobi file and everything is just fine. 



Silly Writer said:


> Wonder if they let you upload the Vellum formatted epubs and mobi's? I read their FAQ and they talk about their in-house formatting looking clean and professional, but what if you WANT the Vellum look?


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Violet Haze said:


> I uploaded my Vellum generated ePub and Mobi file and everything is just fine.


Thanks, Violet!


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## Drake Green (Jul 25, 2015)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Hmm I'm gonna be starting to publish in a few weeks. Maybe I'll have a go at this as a guinea pig. I was tossing up between going wide or not, but the page reads KU issue has spooked me off. Would hate to build up a platform exclusively on Amazon then have it cave in because of glitches...


I was about to post exactly this, except being a guinea pig is scary, so maybe I will wait a little while more.

I am curious to know how the interface is with Pronoun and if the percentage lost on PayPal transfers would be offset by the increased royalty made in some cases and the security of not getting KU nuked.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

For me, I think it is. I also found this just now when searching on the site for the payments to authors. It looks like there is a limit to the fee?

"We pay authors via PayPal on a monthly schedule. To make sure you receive your earnings, please add the email address associated with your PayPal account to your Pronoun account settings. Then, we'll automatically deposit your funds into your PayPal account sixty days after each calendar month. (For example, you'll receive your January 1 - January 31 earnings in early April.)

Please note, there's a PayPal processing fee of 3% per payment, up to a maximum of $2 for U.S. bank accounts (or $20 for international bank accounts)."



Drake Green said:


> if the percentage lost on PayPal transfers would be offset by the increased royalty made in some cases.


You're welcome!!! 


Silly Writer said:


> Thanks, Violet!


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I've been using Pronoun for my short stories that I didn't care to publish to KDP and used an all in one. They're very good and support is fast. Haven't had an issue with them yet, and I've been using them since October.



Kate. said:


> Wow. This could be huge.
> 
> I wonder how Amazon feels about this? Obviously they're allowing it - but it goes directly against their usual mode of operation (squash competition, hoard authors on their own platform).
> 
> ...


Pronoun is owned by MacMilan. Pronoun's been doing this for many years and had deals with Amazon already in place.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Silly Writer said:


> Wonder if they let you upload the Vellum formatted epubs and mobi's? I read their FAQ and they talk about their in-house formatting looking clean and professional, but what if you WANT the Vellum look?


Yes, my files are Vellum.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

Ryn, what format do you upload in? And it keeps all the neat formatting Vellum does and doesn't result in a standard EPUB file which removes 90% of formatting and text styles?


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Abalone said:


> Pronoun is owned by MacMilan. Pronoun's been doing this for many years and had deals with Amazon already in place.


This is the first time indie authors have had access to 70% royalty on books under $2.99, though. It's a huge incentive to leave KDP unless Amazon does something to compete.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Shawna Canon said:


> I keep hearing that Google Play randomly changes the price of books without the author's consent, and that's enough for me to avoid them even if the access to get books on there is easy.


That's why I've avoided them. When I went with GP and everyone else, I once did a 0.99 promo on a 3.99 book. When I put it back up everywhere else, GP refused to raise the price back up because they checked it out on Amazon first. But Amazon price matched it to GP, so THEY wouldn't budge. When I emailed, GP said they had to wait for Amazon to change. Basically, stuck in a loop. The only way I could break it was unpublish on GP, then go back to tell Amazon what I'd done so they put it back up again.

That was over a year ago. I wonder if they'll go through that with Pronoun if there's some bigger deal going on in the background.


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## Jacob Stanley (May 25, 2015)

I'm definitely keeping an eye on this. 

KU has been pretty good for me in some ways at times, but it's been noticeably worse recently. Last time I tried going wide it was a mess, but last time I didn't have access to Google Play, and I only went in with one book. I was hoping to mix permafree on my series starter with KU on the sequels, which didn't work out at all. The loss of also-boughts for my starter, combined with the loss of rank boosts from borrows was a big problem.  

My catalogue is bigger now, and it'll be getting much bigger over the course of this year, with lots of books at 1.99, so it might make sense for me, but I would have to spend more than a month with my main series partially in and partially out of KU to make the switch. 

Very tempting though.  I'm not exactly keeping the charts hot or anything in KU. Far from it. So maybe I should try it. 

The main thing that makes me hesitate is that a lot of my current readers are KU subscribers that are probably expecting to be able to read the next in series through KU. I guess I could launch it at 99 cents as a way to make up for the switch.


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

I've signed up for a Pronoun account. I'm going to keep my existing books where they are, but the new ones will be published via Pronoun. I like the interface, and the keywords section and price guide is really helpful.

I'm not sure what we do about pen names, if we have to open a new account or not. My pen names aren't secret so I've put them all under my actual name. One thing that is disappointing is that when I add my existing books to track them, some of the old covers appear instead of the new ones.

Other than that, it seems okay so far.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Abalone said:


> Ryn, what format do you upload in? And it keeps all the neat formatting Vellum does and doesn't result in a standard EPUB file which removes 90% of formatting and text styles?


Initially, they only took the ePub Vellum format, and I had difficulty getting my 100 colour photo travel diaries to show correctly in the previews on Amazon and Google Play when using some browsers. They have advised me that they will now upload the Kindle-ready file as well and I can re-upublish using a couple of different Vellum formats. I will, sometime. I just haven't had the time. I currently have all of my permafrost books hosted with Draft2digital and Amazon and see no purpose in changing something that is working. I'm working on a new release and that higher royalty for 99cents for a launch looks attractive.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Nanny Ogg said:


> I've signed up for a Pronoun account. I'm going to keep my existing books where they are, but the new ones will be published via Pronoun. I like the interface, and the keywords section and price guide is really helpful.
> 
> I'm not sure what we do about pen names, if we have to open a new account or not. My pen names aren't secret so I've put them all under my actual name. One thing that is disappointing is that when I add my existing books to track them, some of the old covers appear instead of the new ones.
> 
> Other than that, it seems okay so far.


Pen names are no problem on Pronoun. I'm published there under five names for five different genres, all under the one account which is in my business name.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

For authors who do 99 cent or $1.99 serials wide, this could be a dream come true. You can permafree your first-in-series without having to beg Amazon to price match, and you make double your royalty per installment. That can potentially be a huge difference in income. Then if you keep your bundles direct on Amazon you can still run AMS ads on those.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

Ryn Shell said:


> Initially, they only took the ePub Vellum format, and I had difficulty getting my 100 colour photo travel diaries to show correctly in the previews on Amazon and Google Play when using some browsers. They have advised me that they will now upload the Kindle-ready file as well and I can re-uplead using a couple of different Vellum formats. I will, sometime. I just haven't had the time. I currently have all of my permafrost books hosted with Draft2digital and Amazon and see no purpose in changing something that is working. I'm working on a new release and that higher royalty for 99cents for a launch looks attractive.


Thank you for the info, Ryn. Yep, the under 2.99 70% royalty rate is fantastic. Though I still feel it would be useful to launch a book through KU for 90 days and then go wide with it. The rate change benefits short story authors, too.


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## BlouBryant (Jun 18, 2016)

TwistedTales said:


> It looks to us like they assign a new ASIN to the books when they're loaded. Do you know if that means we lose the reviews? My books are printed so the reviews are attached to CS. If you link the CS print version to the published version then the reviews link with it. I'm wondering if this is what they'll do. We're planning to ask them how they'll handle that, but does anyone know?
> 
> Their announcement is timely as we've just been setting up to go wide. If a trial with them works then we will consider unpublishing from Amazon and running the whole catalogue through them.


In the support (Q&A) area, they say the reviews are transferred (for Amazon... each retailer is different). "On Amazon, your ebook's reviews will automatically carry over to the Pronoun-published listing after a few days. Its Amazon rank will be reset, and its URL and ASIN will change. You may need to re-add your ebook to your Amazon Author Page once it's live."


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Looked through the thread and don't see the answers to these questions (forgive me if I missed them). Listing them all together here to keep track, and awaiting response from ProNoun or any current users:

1) Can we still have our Series Pages?
2) Can we still use BookReport to track sales?
3) Do we have access to AMS ads?
4) If we get new ASIN's, does that mean our previous buyers won't get the '_you purchased this book on such and such date_' message (could result in angry reviews from readers buying same book if they don't get the message).
5) Do we start over with our Also Boughts?
6) If we get new ASIN's/Publisher, then will we still get the Amazon email send to previous purchases upon new release? (this could still be possible, since we'll keep the same Amazon Author profile, but then again, if the email is tickled by the _previous_ ASIN's we_ were_ using, then possibly not...) -- Also, I'm not talking about "Followers," which is a different email. 
7) I assume we don't still have access to the KDP Page (since we won't have any books published through that page) so how long does it take to update categories, keywords, new covers, etc...


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## 88149 (Dec 13, 2015)

Deleted


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2017)

Silly Writer said:


> 1) Can we still have our Series Pages?


Presumably yes, since these are typically set up through Author Central rather than KDP anyway.



Silly Writer said:


> 2) Can we still use BookReport to track sales?


I would presume no, since BookReport is a browser-based plug in design specifically to read the KDP dashboard. Since your sales wouldn't show there, it wouldn't see the data and you'd need to use a different tracking tool (unless the developer updates it to work with Pronouns).



Silly Writer said:


> 3) Do we have access to AMS ads?


No, since it has to be a book in your KDP account (just tested going to https://ams.amazon.com and can't pick products other than my own books)



Silly Writer said:


> 4) If we get new ASIN's, does that mean our previous buyers won't get the '_you purchased this book on such and such date_' message (could result in angry reviews from readers buying same book if they don't get the message).


Correct. The books keep the same title and author info, but if the buyer isn't paying attention, they could end up double buying.



Silly Writer said:


> 5) Do we start over with our Also Boughts?


Yes, and ranking per Pronoun (which makes sense, a new ASIN would be a new book, so you'd also restart on the HNR list).



Silly Writer said:


> 6) If we get new ASIN's/Publisher, then will we still get the Amazon email send to previous purchases upon new release? (this could still be possible, since we'll keep the same Amazon Author profile, but then again, if the email is tickled by the _previous_ ASIN's we_ were_ using, then possibly not...) -- Also, I'm not talking about "Followers," which is a different email.


It _should_, since its presumably tied to the author name (I get them for authors I follow who are hybrid even though different publishers for each book).



Silly Writer said:


> 7) I assume we don't still have access to the KDP Page (since we won't have any books published through that page) so how long does it take to update categories, keywords, new covers, etc...


According to Pronoun's FAQ, updates will take:

* 1-3 business days for Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, and Kobo
* 1-5 business days for Google Play
* 1-10 business days for Barnes & Noble


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Dan Phalen said:


> Might add to that the probability that Pronoun/Macmillan will do as Amazon and create their own imprint/press, and like Amazon, promote and present and advertise those books ahead of indies, because whoa, looka the revenue there.


They already have. There are two imprints listed on the website. What was confusing to me was whether if you list with Pronoun your book might be placed under one of them and marketed that way.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2017)

TwistedTales said:


> - Pronoun excludes the KU authors


No, Amazon doesn't allow Pronoun or anyone else to put authors in Select. It makes sense to me. The benefits of Select go beyond just being in KU. Going through a third-party would negate those benefits, or add excessive complexity to the back end APIs to allow 3rd parties to set up Countdown deals and free days while ensuring they enforce the KDP Select policies.



TwistedTales said:


> - KU is probably losing money


KU has always been losing money. Amazon has never seen that as a reason to jettison anything. It's how they built their business. It is a company well versed in playing the long game.



TwistedTales said:


> - Amazon are not as committed to KU anymore (no AMS, hostile, losing subscribers, losing books in KU, introducing Prime payment model)
> - Amazon don't want to manage authors and books (don't respond properly anymore, becoming more inaccessible)


Actually, I suspect Amazon is planning to role KU into Prime, similar to some of the stuff they are doing with their videos and "channels". And I don't think it has anything to do with the book pool size. They are really wanting subscribers, monthly payments, easy to forget that people just do without thinking.

We have no way of knowing if Amazon is losing subscribers or even how many they ever had, they don't release those numbers. I suspect, however, it was never as many as we like to think. Despite Prime being seen as "huge", industry estimates show that as of last year, half of Amazon's shoppers had Prime, though that seems like an overestimate. Current estimates show about 64 million have prime, while Amazon is reported to have some 244 million active users.

And I would I suspect KU adoption is far behind that of Prime.



TwistedTales said:


> Amazon could be dumping the book business by farming out the management to a self funding third party called Pronoun.
> 
> *A possible future*
> - Amazon will be a platform only.
> ...


Seriously doubtful. If Amazon wanted to get out of the self-publishing business, 1 - they would not be wasting money and valuable resources on the new KDP Print, and 2 - they would just get out and open the publishing platform to all vetted aggregators, not just one. I think the analysis is really conflating the important of Pronoun or Amazon's use for it.

If we go on the idea that Pronoun doing 70% is some harbinger of doom for Amazon allowing direct publishing, then wouldn't it be the same for all five retailers, since they all are letting Pronoun pay above their own current royalties. So are they all going to become platform only? I doubt it.

All this deal is really showing is that Pronoun managed to do what the other aggregators couldn't: come up with some favorable terms that got Amazon to let them direct publish with them. They aren't the first with the option. IngramSpark and BookBaby did too. The big difference is Pronoun was able to negotiate better royalties across all their vendors, not just Amazon.



TwistedTales said:


> - Amazon don't want to dominate the market anymore (Pronoun pay higher royalties, publish to all platforms)
> - Amazon might have cooperated in this Pronoun set up. Even if Amazon didn't cooperate the potential impact remains the same.


There is no _might_ to it. Amazon would have to have allowed this. There is a reason D2D and Smashwords can't publish to Amazon and that's because Amazon said "nope". This isn't something Pronoun could have just set up without heavy negotiation with Amazon. In fact, looking at the author agreement, Amazon most definitely got some perks out of this (and still very much likes dominating the book market):



> *All books published on Pronoun must be sold on Amazon*, however they do not need to be distributed to Amazon through Pronoun. If you have already distributed your book to Amazon through other means, you can opt-out of Amazon distribution through Pronoun. However, if your book is later removed from Amazon, you must either redistribute the book yourself to Amazon, authorize Pronoun to start selling on Amazon, or remove your book entirely from Pronoun. This restriction is unique to Amazon; you can opt-out of distribution to Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play at will.


Emphasis mine. Whether through Pronoun or direct, if you use Pronoun you must have your book on Amazon, period.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AsianInspiration said:


> If you can pick the retailers, can you pick Amazon exclusively (KU)? So you get 70% on 0.99 books in KU?
> 
> Either way, this almost sounds too good to be true... the other distributors like D2D or Smashwords all take a cut after the 70%...


The cynical side of me thinks maybe they get authors all set up and then change the terms at some point down the road. I wonder if the agreement guarantees those royalty terms in perpetuity.

The less cynical side thinks maybe they expect enough authors will use their value added services to make it worthwhile. They surely expect to make money somehow. If they don't take a royalty cut and they don't take a cut of author services like editing and cover design, they have to have a plan to make money somehow.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Though we haven't been talking about it much, the 65% royalty on books price >$9.99 could enable some interesting innovation. For instance, how about setting the first book in a long series at $0.00 and then collecting the next nine books and pricing the omnibus at $19.99?


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## ziertz (May 16, 2014)

This looks great apart from one issue.
Pronoun does not accept fixed layout epub3 ebooks. 

Okay, no time to move from draft2digital just yet.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Silly Writer said:


> Looked through the thread and don't see the answers to these questions (forgive me if I missed them). Listing them all together here to keep track, and awaiting response from ProNoun or any current users:
> 
> 1) Can we still have our Series Pages?
> 2) Can we still use BookReport to track sales?
> ...


I still have my series pages.

No, I don't track books in Amazon. 
The other questions aren't things that I checked out because my marketing for my all my pen names is website, newsletter, and Meet Edgar social media manager based. I never relied on Amazon, and it has only been my main source of income for books during two months out of three years. I've never needed Amazon. Hence, it was never a risk for me to move to Pronoun before many other authors here became interested, as I wasn't experimenting with my primary writing income money.


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

The permafree thing was enough to sell me until I just tried it and found out I'm not allowed to put links in the back of my book. I'll stick with the old fashioned way.  Someone a while back said you could permafree on zon through streetlib. I use them for Google play, so I sent them an email about setting them on Amazon since I've never tried it there. It would be nice not to have to fight for the price match, but if I can't include links, Pronoun is pretty much useless to me.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

katrina46 said:


> The permafree thing was enough to sell me until I just tried it and found out I'm not allowed to put links in the back of my book. I'll stick with the old fashioned way. Someone a while back said you could permafree on zon through streetlib. I use them for Google play, so I sent them an email about setting them on Amazon since I've never tried it there. It would be nice not to have to fight for the price match, but if I can't include links, Pronoun is pretty much useless to me.


Is it that you can't have links, period? Or that you can't have links that go to stores other than Amazon?


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

I have links in the back of my books through Pronoun on Amazon, that lead the reader to my other books on Amazon. I uploaded a mobi file, generated for Kindle through Vellum, and it was accepted no problem. Every store I've used allows links in the book as long as they don't lead the customer to another retailers site.



katrina46 said:


> The permafree thing was enough to sell me until I just tried it and found out I'm not allowed to put links in the back of my book. I'll stick with the old fashioned way. Someone a while back said you could permafree on zon through streetlib. I use them for Google play, so I sent them an email about setting them on Amazon since I've never tried it there. It would be nice not to have to fight for the price match, but if I can't include links, Pronoun is pretty much useless to me.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Is it that you can't have links, period? Or that you can't have links that go to stores other than Amazon?


I have links in the back of my books that are published through Pronoun. You cannot put a link to a different distributor in the book, for example, links to Amazon are quickly rejected on books that are sent to iBooks.


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Is it that you can't have links, period? Or that you can't have links that go to stores other than Amazon?


You can't have them period, so that's a deal breaker for me.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

katrina46 said:


> You can't have them period, so that's a deal breaker for me.


You can have links. 
The only disallowed links are those to competitors. For example: No Apple links to Amazon, no Amazon links to Apple, or links to websites that link to a competitor's store. That applies everywhere that you distribute wide. You cannot have a link to a website that then links to a competitor, that's the same no links to a competitor rule. Just link to your mailing list landing page with no external sales pages linking off it and it is accepted. It is all in the wording that you are not selling through a competitor.


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## Jacob Stanley (May 25, 2015)

They sure are picky about what files they'll accept. I have one short story that isn't in KU, and I thought i could use it as a test-drive of their system, but I can't seem to get them to take any epub, including files that pass the epub validator they link to without a hitch.

I had to figure out how to convert to a docx and format it according to their guidelines, and it still doesn't look right in my reader.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

SummerNights said:


> According to a McMillan rep, the service is free now but might not be free forever. They don't know at this point, but the main reason they're doing this is to collect data.


And this is why I have no interest in anything this company/service says or does. I haven't since the first thread about them, way back when. Nothing is free in the long run. Nothing. Sooner or later, all that 70% on .99 books is going to be paid, and it will be by the authors.

They changed their terms and conditions because they couldn't get people to sign up, is my guess. Right now, they have access to Amazon. D2D did, once. Smashwords has been trying since before I started self-publishing, but haven't gotten anywhere. Other places that can get books into Amazon may or may not have that access in the future. Then what?

I publish myself to avoid being tied into the BPHs and that entire trad pub world. I don't want them having access to my sales data, or how my books are categorized, or anything else. I don't want them trolling me with a contract offer. I don't want their name on my books any where for any reason.

Good luck to everyone who goes with them, though. You gotta do what you think is right, but it's not for me.


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## crow.bar.beer (Oct 20, 2014)

she-la-ti-da said:


> And this is why I have no interest in anything this company/service says or does. I haven't since the first thread about them, way back when. Nothing is free in the long run. Nothing. Sooner or later, all that 70% on .99 books is going to be paid, and it will be by the authors.


It seems most likely they're paying for the extra 35% from their investors' money as an initial push to get more authors on board, as opposed to having cut a deal with Amazon to give more money away.  It probably won't last long. Even if authors jump ship afterwards, some won't, and they'll have collected more of their data in the meantime.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

I'm still on the fence about this, but I'd like to point out that really, Draft2Digital still has the upper hand here if I was going to go with a distributor.

*What does Pronoun have that D2D doesn't:*

1) They have the Amazon account and can give us the ability to set our books to free, OR price however we want FOR NOW with full royalty. And that's a big FOR NOW because as we all know, at one time D2D also had the Amazon acct. And then POOF, the Zon said nevermind, get out... and we had to do the crazyshuffle to open accts and format ebooks and prints and get them up under our own name when Ammy pulled our books down. So...that could happen to Pronoun too. Amazon does what Amazon wants to. Maybe if Pronoun could show us a contract where that isn't going to happen with them in the next 5 years, I'd have more faith. But I went through the D2D/Amazon shuffle myself and I don't wish to repeat it with Pronoun/Amazon.

2) No fees. We take home all of our royalties and that royalty may even be a bit higher in other countries.

3) Hmmm. Not sure there is a #3. Feel free to jump in here and tell us something else Pronoun has that D2D doesn't have. (Edited to add they have a really cool reporting interface that can be used for research/planning/and telling us what we've sold.)

ETA: 4) They have GooglePlay (D2D doesn't), BUT GP is risky with their price manipulation.

*Now, what does D2D have that Pronoun doesn't:*

1) They have our trust. They've earned it. That's a big one right there. We know how they make their money. We know how they pay us and when. We've been working with D2D a few years and have never had a reason to suspect them of anything other than fair practices.

2) Customer Service. I can email or CALL them and get an answer back either immediately, or within a few hours. I've done this dozens of times. Pronoun, on the other hand, doesn't have a phone number to call for Customer Service. If they do, I can't find it, and I've looked and looked. So yesterday, I emailed them my questions and indicated I was interested. It's been nearly 24 hours and still no answer.

3) They pay us via direct deposit (not PayPal). I've had issues with PayPal in the past and while I still use them when I have to, I don't want to rely on them for my paycheck.

4) They actually know what's going on in the Indie side. They're in 'the know' with all of it and stay in the know on anything they have their fingers in. If you look at Pronoun's website and look under their 'how to start an email group' (or whatever it's called) they clearly don't have a clue. They encourage you to cold-call and randomly add the name/email of all your family, friends and coworkers and spam them with, "Hey I'm writing a book and thought you might want to be my cheerleader." Really, it says that. Look for yourself. This tells me they aren't tuned in to what's going on. If a newbie gets on that website and follows those instructions, there could be dire consequences.

5) D2D has a pretty cool reporting interface too. Maybe not as good as Pronoun in some aspects, but what they don't show us, we can get from BookReport. Yeah, BookReport...the guy who gave us his software for FREE for so long (until we grossed 1k a month) when we were begging him to take our money. And even after he finally takes it (<1k a month) still only charges us $10. If you go with Pronoun, you lose BookReport, too--or more specifically, he gets dumped .

*ETA: 6) D2D also will format your manuscript into a PRINT BOOK. I don't think there is any cost (there wasn't when they did mine long ago)... and the printed book came out beautiful. Pronoun doesn't do that for their customers and this is a BIGGIE.*

At this point, I'm leaning toward Draft2Digital (& BookReport), where I know what I'm going to be charged, I know where their money comes from, and I know they are competent and qualified and honest. ( although this position may change if presented with further info re: Pronoun  )


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

I emailed a well-known blogger/podcaster and they replied with suspicions about MacMillan's motives. Apparantly MacMillan have been punting themselves around for interviews about this, so it looks like they really are pushing this. 

I'm actually going to try going through them for Google Play with one series - with a permafree book 1 - and see what happens. They are saying it's a 70% royalty when I upload it but that's not in their FAQs. Their FAQs state it's under 52% but hey, we'll see. I've tried many times going direct to GP and cannot get on with their idiotic price changes, which then affects Amazon, which of course affects income. Let's hope they have an agreement with Pronoun/MacMillan that they won't do that. 

Even it it's only 50% royalty to me, it's more than I was getting a week ago.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Silly Writer said:


> 4) They actually know what's going on in the Indie side. They're in 'the know' with all of it and stay in the know on anything they have their fingers in. If you look at Pronoun's website and look under their 'how to start an email group' (or whatever it's called) they clearly don't have a clue. They encourage you to cold-call and randomly add the name/email of all your family, friends and coworkers and spam them with, "Hey I'm writing a book and thought you might want to be my cheerleader." Really, it says that. Look for yourself. This tells me they aren't tuned in to what's going on. If a newbie gets on that website and follows those instructions, there could be dire consequences.


This and the TRUST side is a big reason for me to stay in with D2D. There are any number of reasons MacMillan might be doing this - IF it's a loss leader. Someone speculated it could be Amazon farming out the Indie side of books, or more likely it's a massive data farming exercise. Look at the most successful indie tactics and apply it to their own authors?

Close second I would posit they are perhaps waiting to see which indies are making a shedload of sales and trying to pick them up on trad contracts. Of course, the top indies probablyl won't want that, but maybe a few mid-listers . . . ?


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

ADDavies said:


> Close second I would posit they are perhaps waiting to see which indies are making a shedload of sales and trying to pick them up on trad contracts. Of course, the top indies probablyl won't want that, but maybe a few mid-listers . . . ?


But this is an expensive endeavor to take upon themselves when they can see that from rankings/lists, right?


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## Chrissy (Mar 31, 2014)

ADDavies said:


> This and the TRUST side is a big reason for me to stay in with D2D. There are any number of reasons MacMillan might be doing this - IF it's a loss leader. Someone speculated it could be Amazon farming out the Indie side of books, or more likely it's a massive data farming exercise. Look at the most successful indie tactics and apply it to their own authors?
> 
> Close second I would posit they are perhaps waiting to see which indies are making a shedload of sales and trying to pick them up on trad contracts. Of course, the top indies probablyl won't want that, but maybe a few mid-listers . . . ?


In the music industry, record companies sometimes sign up and coming acts/groups that threaten their big stars. That way the record company can:

1) control when/if the up and coming group peaks 
2) collect/maximize the profits from the old group AND
3) receive any profits the new group gets as well

Could Pronoun/Macmillan possibly have this in mind too?

I don't know but it's a thought.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

I started using it this week for my other pen names (Not EB) and so far I am VERY impressed. It has all the bells and whistles I want, it's super easy to work with, and I love that I can use the same .docx version for Kindle and don't need to create a completely different file with different formatting. 

I really, really like being paid monthly as well. So far, I'm loving it. Of course, time will tell.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Yup. They want our data, which might explain why they're offering All Good Things. I don't see anything wrong with that (yet). /shrug










And the CEO said this: "According to John Sargent, the CEO of Macmillan, every publishing decision can be *improved using data* - from supply chain and workflows to the editorial acquisitions process and marketing campaigns."


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## K&#039;Sennia Visitor (Jan 14, 2014)

I am sticking with KDP and D2D and Book Report, as well. I can't use Paypal and I have no desire to ever be on Google Play. 

  Plus, when (IF) it all goes south, later, they I won't have to go through all the work of putting everything back to where it was. 

  This pleases my inner lazian, muchly. (The not having extra work part, not the program going south part, cos that wouldn't be good for my fellow authors and I don't wish bad things to happen to anyone, except those that deserve it!)


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## eroticatorium (May 6, 2016)

Silly Writer said:


> Yup. They want our data, which might explain why they're offering All Good Things. I don't see anything wrong with that (yet). /shrug
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's exactly why you shouldn't sign up, they want to find out what makes your books sell so they can transfer that momentum to their own books. As soon as they get the data they need, they'll kick out indies or make them pay one way or another. They want your data so they can compete against you.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

ebbrown said:


> I started using it this week for my other pen names (Not EB) and so far I am VERY impressed. It has all the bells and whistles I want, it's super easy to work with, and I love that I can use the same .docx version for Kindle and don't need to create a completely different file with different formatting.
> 
> I really, really like being paid monthly as well. So far, I'm loving it. Of course, time will tell.


Glad to see you post your support. You've garnered a lot of respect 'round these parts.

But what about AMS ads? Supposedly, you cannot run them on anything published through Pronoun. Doesn't that worry you with the other marketing approaches seeming to spiral (promotional emails possibly bringing on bot attacks, BB and FB ads losing some of their effectiveness).


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

I decided I'd use them for my 99 cent short stories just for distributing to Amazon since people insist on buying each of the stories at 99 cents when it would be cheaper and pay me more if they bought the collections.  I figure it's not much to lose.  I can always republish those titles on Amazon if they start to charge or shut me down or I'm not happy with them.  And, nice thing I've noticed is I can select a category that I've had to email Amazon to get into in the past.

What's funny is that their formatting is almost too nice for what I want on a short story.  Also, I have yet to hit the actual publish button because in preview right now it looks like it wants to publish to Apple as well as Amazon even though I specifically unchecked the Apple box.  Need to go back to that now and see if it's still doing it and, if so, will need to contact support before I hit publish.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Cassie Leigh said:


> I decided I'd use them for my 99 cent short stories just for distributing to Amazon since people insist on buying each of the stories at 99 cents when it would be cheaper and pay me more if they bought the collections. I figure it's not much to lose. I can always republish those titles on Amazon if they start to charge or shut me down or I'm not happy with them. And, nice thing I've noticed is I can select a category that I've had to email Amazon to get into in the past.
> 
> What's funny is that their formatting is almost too nice for what I want on a short story. Also, I have yet to hit the actual publish button because in preview right now it looks like it wants to publish to Apple as well as Amazon even though I specifically unchecked the Apple box. Need to go back to that now and see if it's still doing it and, if so, will need to contact support before I hit publish.


Why wouldn't you want them to publish to Apple and everywhere else, too?


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Having just spent the past two years converting myself from an indie-published author to a self-published author, and after having seen all the also-boughts and links and historical data (other than reviews) disappear when the book editions switched, I just don't see any reason to move the titles yet again. 

The only benefit I can see is in a bookbub promo: schedule the discount once; collect 70% of the $0.99 sale price instead of 35-45%. That's not a good enough reason to move.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

GeneDoucette said:


> The only benefit I can see is in a bookbub promo: schedule the discount once; collect 70% of the $0.99 sale price instead of 35-45%. That's not a good enough reason to move.


It's especially not a good reason to move from KU. Assuming the BB is in the bag, 99c at 35% + KU borrows (for a book above 300 KENPC) is as good or better than 99c at 70%--even ignoring the "two ponds with one promo" factor (retail readers and KU readers).

Of course, there may be other reasons to move from KU, or reasons Pronoun might be better for the individual indie.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Silly Writer said:


> Why wouldn't you want them to publish to Apple and everywhere else, too?


Because I'm perfectly happy being direct with Google and Kobo and using D2D for the other platforms. The benefit I see to using Pronoun is the 70% I can get on 99 cent titles published through Amazon. I don't think I get 70% with D2D but I get enough more than 35% that it isn't worth messing with that right now and giving up promos through Kobo, for example. (Although I don't promo my 99 cent titles, I promo the more expensive collections.) And having just run two short titles through their process, Pronoun still has a few kinks to work out.

Also, to clarify something someone mentioned upthread. In the terms for Pronoun they pay on the same timeframe as Amazon, meaning monthly but two months after the sales happen. D2D pays faster than that.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

David VanDyke said:


> It's especially not a good reason to move from KU. Assuming the BB is in the bag, 99c at 35% + KU borrows (for a book above 300 KENPC) is as good or better than 99c at 70%--even ignoring the "two ponds with one promo" factor (retail readers and KU readers).


If you're wide, you'd double your U.S. Amazon income if you had the books listed through Pronoun instead of Amazon when you run a Bookbub.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

It's especially not a good reason to move from KU. Assuming the BB is in the bag, 99c at 35% + KU borrows (for a book above 300 KENPC) is as good or better than 99c at 70%--even ignoring the "two ponds with one promo" factor (retail readers and KU readers).



Cassie Leigh said:


> If you're wide, you'd double your U.S. Amazon income if you had the books listed through Pronoun instead of Amazon when you run a Bookbub.


Granted.

But, your statement is a non-sequitur. I talked about "moving from KU." Then you say "If you're wide..."

It's as if I said "Since I have a blue car..." and you say, "Your car is yellow, so..."

Non-sequitur.


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## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

she-la-ti-da said:


> And this is why I have no interest in anything this company/service says or does. I haven't since the first thread about them, way back when. Nothing is free in the long run. Nothing. Sooner or later, all that 70% on .99 books is going to be paid, and it will be by the authors.


That's one thing that's on my mind about this as well. It's like free social media sites: if you're not the customer, you're the product. If you're not paying for their product/service in some way, it's because either they're getting money off of you some other way (such as monetizing your data) or they are trying to reel you in so that you're hooked when they do try to get you to pay them directly. (Such as getting you dependent on the service and then starting to charge for it, changing their TOS to make a rights grab, or who knows what else.) Yeah, maybe I'm cynical about this, but I also like to call it realistic. Companies aren't doing these kinds of businesses as a nonprofit charity to indie writers. They've got some way in mind to monetize this, and since it's coming from a big publishing house, I'm highly skeptical that it's anything that'll be good for indie writers.


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## Chrissy (Mar 31, 2014)

Shawna Canon said:


> That's one thing that's on my mind about this as well. It's like free social media sites: *if you're not the customer, you're the product.* If you're not paying for their product/service in some way, it's because either they're getting money off of you some other way (such as *monetizing your data*) or they are trying to reel you in so that you're hooked when they do try to get you to pay them directly. (Such as *getting you dependent on the service and then starting to charge for it, changing their TOS to make a rights grab*, or who knows what else.) Yeah, maybe I'm cynical about this, but I also like to call it realistic. *Companies aren't doing these kinds of businesses as a nonprofit charity to indie writers.* They've got some way in mind to monetize this, and *since it's coming from a big publishing house, I'm highly skeptical that it's anything that'll be good for indie writers.*


+1000!


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

When I did mine, it showed the same thing. The books are only up on Amazon, not on Apple, because Amazon is the only one I checked. I think it's just the preview no matter what, even if you aren't publishing there.



Cassie Leigh said:


> Also, I have yet to hit the actual publish button because in preview right now it looks like it wants to publish to Apple as well as Amazon even though I specifically unchecked the Apple box. Need to go back to that now and see if it's still doing it and, if so, will need to contact support before I hit publish.


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## TellNotShow (Sep 15, 2014)

crow.bar.beer said:


> It seems most likely they're paying for the extra 35% from their investors' money as an initial push to get more authors on board, as opposed to having cut a deal with Amazon to give more money away.  It probably won't last long. Even if authors jump ship afterwards, some won't, and they'll have collected more of their data in the meantime.


A lot of people are talking like this is a loss leader. Isn't it much more likely that Pronoun, through MacMillan, receive MORE than 70% from Amazon anyway? Seems like most people assume Amazon only give the Big Five the same sort of deal they give us -- which is definitely NOT the case. 
It MAY only be 70% across the board,in which case Pronoun only make money on non-US/Canadian sales. 
But they MAY receive more than 70% in their deal with Amazon. 80% would not seem unlikely, as Amazon is only a retailer, after all.

I don't think Pronoun are losing money doing this, I think they're making money under these terms.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Violet Haze said:


> When I did mine, it showed the same thing. The books are only up on Amazon, not on Apple, because Amazon is the only one I checked. I think it's just the preview no matter what, even if you aren't publishing there.


Yeah, they came back and said that they always show a preview for Amazon and Apple no matter what distributors you check. (Very odd, but okay.)

Do you know, it looks like for payment all they collect is your paypal email? No need to provide the information they'd need to complete a 1099 at year-end? Or did I miss something?

BTW, for everyone following this, the books I loaded were live on Amazon within less than a couple hours of hitting publish.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

You didn't miss anything. As I've just joined Pronoun myself, I don't know about the 1099 but so far they've been great and answered my emails within 24 hours (I had quite a few questions!) so probably worth asking them how that will work.



Cassie Leigh said:


> Do you know, it looks like for payment all they collect is your paypal email? No need to provide the information they'd need to complete a 1099 at year-end? Or did I miss something?


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

Forgive me for asking if this has already been covered, but does anyone know if they are able to sort out the tax withholding problem that international authors face? My understand is that because Australia has a tax treaty with the US, the company doesn't need to withhold the sales tax that it does for a non-treaty country. With Amazon I believe you just have to put in your Tax File Number, but with some other services you need to talk to the IRS (which obviously I'd rather avoid).


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## crow.bar.beer (Oct 20, 2014)

TellNotShow said:


> A lot of people are talking like this is a loss leader. Isn't it much more likely that Pronoun, through MacMillan, receive MORE than 70% from Amazon anyway? Seems like most people assume Amazon only give the Big Five the same sort of deal they give us -- which is definitely NOT the case.
> It MAY only be 70% across the board,in which case Pronoun only make money on non-US/Canadian sales.
> But they MAY receive more than 70% in their deal with Amazon. 80% would not seem unlikely, as Amazon is only a retailer, after all.


It's difficult to imagine their deal with Amazon regarding Pronoun distribution is the same deal they have for their own titles.


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## BlouBryant (Jun 18, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Forgive me for asking if this has already been covered, but does anyone know if they are able to sort out the tax withholding problem that international authors face? My understand is that because Australia has a tax treaty with the US, the company doesn't need to withhold the sales tax that it does for a non-treaty country. With Amazon I believe you just have to put in your Tax File Number, but with some other services you need to talk to the IRS (which obviously I'd rather avoid).


Morning, Jeeves! I asked them that very question and their answer was: "if you send us a W-8BEN (that includes your tax ID), we can withhold per the Can-US tax treaty." Soooo... no online form like Amazon, but it's the same thing, a simple one pager. I suppose I should send that in, eh?

BB


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Forgive me for asking if this has already been covered, but does anyone know if they are able to sort out the tax withholding problem that international authors face? My understand is that because Australia has a tax treaty with the US, the company doesn't need to withhold the sales tax that it does for a non-treaty country. With Amazon I believe you just have to put in your Tax File Number, but with some other services you need to talk to the IRS (which obviously I'd rather avoid).


A good point re Pronoun. I can't see any info regarding that. From the UK here, and yes, Amazon is soooo easy to deal with directly. In our case it's just a national insurance number, but with D2D I had to fill out a form. I think it was a W8 but it was pretty simple 15 minute job. They took care of the filing, etc. Kobo and Apple aren't necessary because they are also registered here and we get paid directly.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

So another downside with Pronoun - I can't see a way to control international pricing. 

I pubbed a series with Pronoun on Wednesday to get into Google Play only. They instantly dicked with the price, so I instantly unpublished again. How does anyone deal with GP? Is there a way to stop them messing with prices? I went direct with them a while ago and unpubbed for that reason.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

ADDavies said:


> So another downside with Pronoun - I can't see a way to control international pricing.
> 
> I pubbed a series with Pronoun on Wednesday to get into Google Play only. They instantly dicked with the price, so I instantly unpublished again. How does anyone deal with GP? Is there a way to stop them messing with prices? I went direct with them a while ago and unpubbed for that reason.


Google is consistent in how much they reduce the price by so you just price that much higher. There's a thread on here with a chart of what price to set to get what you want. (I think the reduction is 28% or something like that?) I have my normally $4.99 titles set to $6.99 on there. But I'm also direct with them.

I also noticed the issue with no ability to set international prices and emailed them that feedback today. It means any title I think could possibly qualify for a Bookbub won't be listed with them.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Cassie Leigh said:


> I also noticed the issue with no ability to set international prices and emailed them that feedback today. It means any title I think could possibly qualify for a Bookbub won't be listed with them.


Cassie, can you clarify? Thanks.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

crow.bar.beer said:


> It's difficult to imagine their deal with Amazon regarding Pronoun distribution is the same deal they have for their own titles.


Not really when the Pronoun listings are also getting a "Sold by MacMillan" banner under the buy button. There appears to be something more than just what we get that's KDP.

That said, I am starting with Pronoun with boxed sets so I can get the 65% on more than $9.99. I haven't made a firm decision yet about the backlist, I was going to just move everything over (keeping my wide accounts as a backup, just delisting) but the more and more I crunch the loss on the international sales the more it appears it's a pretty big step down for me. (going from 65-70% on international sales to 41-52%). International sales are between 20-35% of my monthly earnings depending on the month . . . And I don't have a bunch of .99 books, so the increase on that <$2.99 price point really doesn't help me.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

For me, the deciding factor is going to be whether you can or cannot run an AMS ad on books listed through Pronoun.

Any reliable testing done on that by anyone?


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## Sailor Stone (Feb 23, 2015)

Silly Writer said:


> For me, the deciding factor is going to be whether you can or cannot run an AMS ad on books listed through Pronoun.
> 
> Any reliable testing done on that by anyone?


I emailed Pronoun two days ago about that and here is their response -

Thanks for getting in touch! It isn't possible to use Amazon's Marketing Services through Pronoun. If you'd like to be able to use AMS, I recommend continuing to publish your books directly on Amazon through your KDP account. You're more than welcome to use Pronoun for further distribution to iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and/or Google Play.

--
So that would be a nicely worded, "NO".


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

mmandolin said:


> Cassie, can you clarify? Thanks.


When I ran my first Bookbub this last week I had to set the prices in the countries where it ran to very specific prices. If Pronoun only lets me set one price in USD to 0.99 (they seem to be hardwired to prices that end in 99 cents, likely because of Apple), then I'd run afoul of Bookbub in foreign markets where 99 cents USD is, for example, 1.32 AUD, but Bookbub wants to see a price of .99 AUD. Which either limits me to US-only deals or maybe(?) I could put in for a Bookbub and tell them the converted prices and see if they bite, but I don't think it's worth it to try that. So until I can manually set prices for the major countries on Pronoun, I wouldn't use them for any title I think might be eligible for a Bookbub. And lest someone think that won't be an issue, someone in Patty's group just recently mentioned losing out on their Bookbub run in the UK on Google due to an issue like this. (In that case it was the difference between checking the "include VAT" box or not.)


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Sailor Stone said:


> I emailed Pronoun two days ago about that and here is their response -
> 
> Thanks for getting in touch! It isn't possible to use Amazon's Marketing Services through Pronoun. If you'd like to be able to use AMS, I recommend continuing to publish your books directly on Amazon through your KDP account. You're more than welcome to use Pronoun for further distribution to iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and/or Google Play.
> 
> ...


Admirably clear, compared to KDP's missives.

For those wondering about how to price at Google so as to end up with the price you want, the Google Play megathread contains that info.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Cassie Leigh said:


> So until I can manually set prices for the major countries on Pronoun, I wouldn't use them for any title I think might be eligible for a Bookbub. And lest someone think that won't be an issue, someone in Patty's group just recently mentioned losing out on their Bookbub run in the UK on Google due to an issue like this. (In that case it was the difference between checking the "include VAT" box or not.)


Gotcha. I still *think* you can do a BookBub - they just won't advertise to those certain foreign countries where it's not discounted to 0.99.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

mmandolin said:


> Gotcha. I still *think* you can do a BookBub - they just won't advertise to those certain foreign countries where it's not discounted to 0.99.


Agreed. But it seems to me, and I could be wrong about this, that most first-time Bookbubs are international-only. So the one I just got was only for India, Canada, UK, and Australia. I applied for U.S. as well, but international is what I was offered. Not being able to participate in those would be pretty limiting if you think your book has a chance of getting one at some point.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Having just looked at the latest Author Earnings deck, I'm wondering if the MacMillan tag on books through Pronoun will tip the sales scales toward trad pub artificially.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

GeneDoucette said:


> Having just looked at the latest Author Earnings deck, I'm wondering if the MacMillan tag on books through Pronoun will tip the sales scales toward trad pub artificially.


Probably similar to the artificial sales ranking on APub from the Kindle First promotions each month (people I know with Apub contracts are not reporting that it's doing better this past year than it did before, and not better earnings than their indie stuff). But it's looking like the publisher on Amazon is labeled Pronoun. My guess is the data people will just categorize that as indies.

I think the slide showing our ebook sales account for nearly HALF of the non-traditional sales suddenly makes Pronoun make sense. Because I can see where they are making money on the international sales. I have things I do + what my genre is for why my international sales are such a big part of my monthly take home. Like I get mad when the dollar gets stronger (I know, I know, globally better blah blah blah the POUND falling from 1.5 to 1.2 means I'm getting $960 not $1200. And the Euro is down 20%+ compared to when I started publishing this genre). And traditionally speaking, most indies don't try to promote to other countries as much, and that's probably a space an outfit like Pronoun could do more with the international storefronts of some vendors. Pronoun's parent is Macmillan, Macmillan's parent is Holzbrinck based in Germany.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Like I get mad when the dollar gets stronger (I know, I know, globally better blah blah blah the POUND falling from 1.5 to 1.2 means I'm getting $960 not $1200. And the Euro is down 20%+ compared to when I started publishing this genre).


Welcome to econ 101. (Forgive me if you know all this already).

The dollar strengthens, the US balance of trade gets worse because we buy more foreign goods cheaper and sell less, more expensively. Individuals like us who sell overseas lose out.

The dollar weakens, and our goods get cheaper and easier to buy--and we get more dollars from them!

This is exactly why some countries try to weaken their own currencies, in order to improve exports, get more tourists to visit, and so on.


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> ...I am starting with Pronoun with boxed sets so I can get the 65% on more than $9.99


This is a wise move. I'll do the same. I only have one collection that is more than $9.99, but guess where it's going soon! LOL

This also frees me up to create more mega-collections. I had discontinued three of my smaller collections, until I realized that not everyone wants a mega eBook...LOL


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Anyone use the "Send Review Copies" feature? I just clicked on it on one of the books I pubbed via Pronoun and it generated me this email which I can send to reviewers: (I changed book info to XXXXX, it's one of my pen names I don't share with peeps lol)



> Hi,
> 
> Would you be willing to read and review my new book, XXX XXXXXXXX?
> 
> ...


Curious to hear if anyone has used this yet and how it worked out. I tried the links and they worked on my PC, but the downside is that they don't give instructions on how to side-load to ereader devices, which is a big part of why I use instaFreebie to distribute ARCs.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Quick update on my Pronoun experience so far...

The titles I published through them are all live at this point.  Took less than a day for each one and some were up in a couple hours.  One had existing reviews and those have yet to show up but they say it can take a few days so I'm waiting to see if that happens before moving the others in the series that have reviews.  

Author Central has locked down my author page so I can't add the republished titles yet.  They have some note on there about needing to verify my account that appeared after I added the first of the republished titles.  After waiting a couple days I've just broken down and sent them a message asking what I need to do to clear it up.  Hopefully they'll respond soon and it'll be a simple fix.

I had sent Pronoun an email with some feedback on my experience and they emailed me back with a very nice message within a day.  None of what I mentioned was something they could just change on the fly, but glad to hear they're open to feedback and friendly about it.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

My reviews took 3 days to move over on all my titles, but they are all there now. 

I will say they are really good at responding. My two titles meant to be free were free everywhere upon publishing...except Canada, for some reason. I emailed and let them know, and it was fixed within 24 hours.


Cassie Leigh said:


> Quick update on my Pronoun experience so far...
> 
> The titles I published through them are all live at this point. Took less than a day for each one and some were up in a couple hours. One had existing reviews and those have yet to show up but they say it can take a few days so I'm waiting to see if that happens before moving the others in the series that have reviews.


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## Sailor Stone (Feb 23, 2015)

Here is what needs to be thought through by the author as to whether Pronoun is a good fit for them -

- Lets say this is for a three book trilogy (separate books) plus the complete trilogy as one book.
- And you must have all of the books in KU if you want to be in KU since Amazon won't allow for parts of a boxed set to be out of KU. (you can't have the three books in KU and the boxed set out or visa versa). 
- You can't advertise with AMS on a book that is on Amazon through Pronoun. 
- Of course, you can't be wide in KU.
- Pronoun can make your book free (first book of the trilogy) on Amazon.
- Pronoun pays more under 2.00 and over 9.99.
- You could still get your book free on Amazon the old fashioned way, but they seem to be making that process more difficult by not trying to do it as readily as they used to(I could be wrong here).
  
So, for the author, is it better to have your first book in the trilogy with Pronoun to make it free and be wide, but not be able to use AMS or be in KU, or go all in with KU?

I'm sure there is more to consider but this at least puts a focus on one aspect of the decision.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Violet Haze said:


> My reviews took 3 days to move over on all my titles, but they are all there now.


Good to know. Thanks! Makes me more comfortable about moving over the other one.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

You're welcome.
And I'm going to guess the verification on the Author Page has something to do with adding books through Pronoun because now my page wants verification too...so I sent an email going WTH?



Cassie Leigh said:


> Good to know. Thanks! Makes me more comfortable about moving over the other one.


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

After you upload the cover, you add the files next. First it will say to upload my ePub or docx file, so I upload the ePub first. Then, it asks me to upload a mobi file, when I do that it "checks" them and says whether I'm ready to go or not. That's all I do and it's been fine, sorry you're having issues!



Mercedes Vox said:


> How did you accomplish this? I've been writing back and forth with Pronoun for two days, asking how I can upload my formatted files without their software intervention, but so far they can't answer my question.


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## WestofCassy (May 29, 2016)

It's a trap.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

So if I wanted to list a book for $9.99 on Kindle via Pronoun, I'd likely list it at $15.99 wide because of Google Play's discount wonkiness? (and would I only then receive 65%, not 70%, royalty from Pronoun?)

I feel like Google Play might be too risky to publish with on the Pronoun platform...


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


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## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

Shawna Canon said:


> since it's coming from a big publishing house, I'm highly skeptical that it's anything that'll be good for indie writers.


This more than anything else is raising red flags for me.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Mercedes Vox said:


> I posed a question to Pronoun on Twitter regarding Google Play's pricing, and received two tweets from them in reply:
> 
> 1) "Books published under our new terms are not subject to discounts on Google Play!" (Source:
> 
> ...


Thanks Mercedes. 

Anyone noticing if this is actually happening?


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Mercedes Vox said:


> I posed a question to Pronoun on Twitter regarding Google Play's pricing, and received two tweets from them in reply:
> 
> 1) "Books published under our new terms are not subject to discounts on Google Play!" (Source:
> 
> ...


No.

I uploaded a book @ $3.99 - now, I'm UK-based so GP won't show US pricing without some IT wizardry, but it came through in the UK as £2.56GBP when it should have been £3.20-£3.29GBP ish so it was a significant discount. The lack of international pricing control was problematic too, but even with the Brexit/Trump see-saw carnival on the exchange rates it's too big a swing to blame on that. They screwed with the pricing so I pulled the books. Sent feedback


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

So they are not a bookseller, just a distributor? Don't think they can do much for me since I am already published on all those sites. Besides, in the beginning Smashwords was allowed to upload to Amazon and then Amazon pulled the plug. The same thing happened to D2D, if I remember correctly. I'll wait to see what happens.


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## mach 5 (Dec 5, 2015)

For the comments regarding D2D having had permission to upload to Amazon as an aggregator, I may be misremembering, but they did not have an agreement and were merely collecting under one publisher account just like any of us could do. Only the reality was they were an aggregator, not a publisher, and that was why Amazon closed their account. 

Smashwords only allowed a select number of authors, hand picked, to use Smashwords' Amazon account and were acting more like a publisher than an aggregator for those authors on the Amazon platform. I have yet to hear of Smashwords losing that account, but I don't follow closely and may be misremembering.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

mach 5 said:


> For the comments regarding D2D having had permission to upload to Amazon as an aggregator, I may be misremembering, but they did not have an agreement and were merely collecting under one publisher account just like any of us could do. Only the reality was they were an aggregator, not a publisher, and that was why Amazon closed their account.
> 
> Smashwords only allowed a select number of authors, hand picked, to use Smashwords' Amazon account and were acting more like a publisher than an aggregator for those authors on the Amazon platform. I have yet to hear of Smashwords losing that account, but I don't follow closely and may be misremembering.


You're probably right.


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## AaronShep (Nov 18, 2011)

"Books published under our new terms are not subject to discounts on Google Play!"

This doesn't mean that Google Play won't discount it, it means that Amazon won't match Google's price or reduce your royalty. Books under the new terms come under Macmillan's contract, so YOU determine the price and Amazon can't change it or ding you. It's called agency pricing.

Look at the books published under the new terms. The Amazon page identifies Macmillan as the seller and says "Seller determines the price." That's Amazon's way of saying, "Don't blame us if the price is too high!"

There's no need to adjust Google pricing. It's irrelevant.


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## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

ShayneRutherford said:


> The last time I looked at Pronoun's terms, I was sure it said that when you published with them you could only use it for all platforms at the same time, rather than pick and choose platforms like at Smash and D2D. Did this just change recently? Because if it did, it would be a really great way for people to publish with Google Play.


I just signed up (which was really easy) and published one of my books on Google Play.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

AaronShep said:


> "Books published under our new terms are not subject to discounts on Google Play!"
> 
> This doesn't mean that Google Play won't discount it, it means that Amazon won't match Google's price or reduce your royalty. Books under the new terms come under Macmillan's contract, so YOU determine the price and Amazon can't change it or ding you. It's called agency pricing.
> 
> ...


Interesting. Thanks Aaron. 

At the same time, is Amazon _actually_ not price matching Google Play?


----------



## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Pronoun have the best job titles. I had an email today from a "Author Happiness Advocate" - which I love the sound of.


----------



## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Came across this old thread re: Pronoun from May 2015, where we asked lots of questions. A rep from Pronoun named Elissa came here to Kboards to comment on it. The bolded part (emphasis mine) is interesting to see, as I believe it's the first time I've seen anyone from Pronoun put it quite this way when questioned about how they make their money:

_"Hi everyone! I'm Elissa and I work at Pronoun. I'm really excited to see authors talking about us, and I certainly understand your skepticism. Here's the way I think about it:_

_People can post their every thought on Twitter for free. People can publish stories on Wattpad or Wordpress or Medium for free. Why shouldn't people publish and sell books for free? Yes, the existing book publishing models are pervasive, but they don't have to persist. That's why we're focused on creating useful publishing tools, not charging fees or taking cuts. We want to build a platform so valuable that every author wants to use it.

*Right now, we pay the bills by partnering with enterprises like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Thought Catalog and charging for those production and distribution services. Our plan is to make our free offering so great that happy authors who are selling lots of books tell us what paid features they want us to build*. (That said, we strongly believe that publishing a beautiful book and releasing it to every major retailer should always be free, no matter what.)_

_Does that make sense? We've been working hard to make sure we can deliver what we envision, and if you're interested in seeing more of our technology as we build it, just reach out to [email protected] and we'd be happy to show you what we're up to. Thanks for reading!"_

and then she said this:

_"You all make some great points, and it's true that we risk being perceived as scammy by sharing our mission before we share the specific details about what we plan to offer. Maybe that was a mistake (we hope not!), but we took the risk because we thought it was important to tell authors what (and who) we're busy working for as we develop our tools and services.

I'm sorry I can't give you all the answers you're asking for today, but your questions are understandable, and we are eager to share more information about our new platform as soon as we have more information to share. (That's what the email form on Pronoun.com is for--information only. It's actually not possible to sign up for our services yet, although some early-access authors are helping us by giving feedback on what's in progress.) Thanks again for your __interest and your comments; your perspectives are truly helpful."_

And then it looks like we ran Elissa off, as she didn't post again. 

Link to old thread: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,214999.0/all.html#lastPost


----------



## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

Elissa is still around (well, part of Pronoun, anyway). I received an email from her yesterday regarding reviews for the book I've published with them. She is a/the Author Happiness Advocate.

Also, while I'm on this thread, I thought I'd mention that the book has sold 4 copies (x2 from iBooks, x2 Amazon). I don't think it ever sold a copy in the months it was published through KDP.

I'm not sure what the future holds for Pronoun, but I'm cautiously optimistic with my one book.


----------



## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Violet Haze said:


> You're welcome.
> And I'm going to guess the verification on the Author Page has something to do with adding books through Pronoun because now my page wants verification too...so I sent an email going WTH?


I suspect that's because MacMillan is in some senses acting as a publisher. If I recall correctly, if a publisher other than the author makes any changes to anything on Author Central, the author account locks so that only that publisher can make further changes. MacMillan probably needs to work out thank kink with Amazon, or everyone will have to go through the same verification process.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Nanny Ogg said:


> Elissa is still around (well, part of Pronoun, anyway). I received an email from her yesterday regarding reviews for the book I've published with them. She is a/the Author Happiness Advocate.


Is that really her title?? If so, it sets the gee-whiz and oh-pleeze sides of my personality at war: I don't know whether to be touched or roll my eyes. 



Silly Writer said:


> *Right now, we pay the bills by partnering with enterprises like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Thought Catalog and charging for those production and distribution services.*


Huh. I wonder what, exactly, Pronoun is doing for those publications.


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

Becca Mills said:


> Is that really her title?? If so, it sets the gee-whiz and oh-pleeze sides of my personality at war: I don't know whether to be touched or roll my eyes.
> 
> Huh. I wonder what, exactly, Pronoun is doing for those publications.


It seems to be, yes. I'm not really a fan of that kind of overeagerness, myself, but it's certainly different from the faceless 'Zon.


----------



## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Here's one way to think about Pronoun:

Right now, Amazon gets 30% of each sale of books priced $2.99 - $9.99 and 65% of books < $2.99 and over $9.99

There are a LOT of books in the bestsellers lists that are priced < $2.99.

That's a LOT of margin.

Maybe Macmillan is taking a page out of Amazon's books -- Amazon's margin is _Macmillan's_ opportunity.

Why not use their arrangements with Amazon to get a piece of the indie pie? Even if only for the information and big data, it might help them sell their own books. Or they may have their eye on Amazon's margin on eBooks.

It costs _zip_ to send a book to a reader after they have paid. Considering how much business we bring Amazon, in terms of loss leaders into the Amazon store, and given the tiny cost of storing an eBook on Amazon servers, *Indies should get 80% of the price of all eBooks*, not 70% on books in Amazon's preferred price range.


----------



## Chrissy (Mar 31, 2014)

sela said:


> Here's one way to think about Pronoun:
> 
> Right now, Amazon gets 30% of each sale of books priced $2.99 - $9.99 and 65% of books < $2.99 and over $9.99
> 
> ...


If Pronoun gains momentum, perhaps Amazon will expand their pricing model to under $2.99 like they did when their royalty model was challenged by Apple/Steve Jobs in the very very early days.


----------



## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

Was that comment from Elissa on their 'mission' before Macmillan bought it? I'd be curious if she'd say with as much enthusiasm that it's still their mission under the new owners.


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## Jacob Stanley (May 25, 2015)

Mercedes Vox said:


> I still haven't been able to load my book on Pronoun (going for the entry into Google Play, since I missed the boat when indies could sign up). My epub passes the external validation, but the Pronoun system is kicking it out with an unspecified error. I did finally get a reply to my problem report (day before yesterday), but it was only to say they are looking into it. That was two days ago, so here I sit, aggravated. I guess I'm just spoiled by D2D's exemplary customer service.


I've had the same problem. I finally got a response. They told me it was being kicked out because of the link to Amazon in the back, but I just tried removing the link and it still gets rejected, so I'm not sure what's going on. If anybody figures out how to get epubs to load, I would love to hear how they did it. If you have links, try removing them. It didn't work for me, but it might work for you.

I'm still somewhat interested in this service despite this problem. I'm not sure how I would use it, and I still think it might be a bad idea to pull out of KU at the moment, but it seems like this could be a good way of going wide once they work out all the kinks. I'm definitely not gonna bother with it until I can load an epub with my own formatting.


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

I don't consent


----------



## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Mercedes Vox said:


> I still haven't been able to load my book on Pronoun (going for the entry into Google Play, since I missed the boat when indies could sign up). My epub passes the external validation, but the Pronoun system is kicking it out with an unspecified error. I did finally get a reply to my problem report (day before yesterday), but it was only to say they are looking into it. That was two days ago, so here I sit, aggravated. I guess I'm just spoiled by D2D's exemplary customer service.


I had a delay issue as well. Emailed several times, no response for over a week until I tweeted them, then had a great response but still no resolution as to why my .docx file was stuck in conversion. I ended up downloading the .epub file version and loaded it, and that file immediately converted with no issue. If I run into a conversion error again I'll just try a different file type. I like a lot about PN so far, so I'm willing to wait a bit & see how it grows. I'm not taking too much risk as I'm only putting two of my pen names in and keeping my main pen name in KU.


----------



## Bookread (Mar 8, 2016)

BVLawson said:


> I'd also love to hear from someone who's actually used the publishing platform. When the service first debuted (it was originally founded as Vook), I signed up to check out the details but was concerned about some of the restrictions and limitations. Last year, it was bought by Macmillan, which further muddied the waters:
> 
> http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/70484-macmillan-acquires-pronoun-formerly-known-as-vook.html
> 
> ...


Interesting. It's good to note that on Smashwords, authors get 70%-ish royalties for books priced under $2.99. I have all my $0.99 books listed there.


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Bookread said:


> Interesting. It's good to note that on Smashwords, authors get 70%-ish royalties for books priced under $2.99. I have all my $0.99 books listed there.


It's actually 59.5%, once Smashwords takes their cut.


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

What's the typical turnaround time for uploading the books and going live on the retailer's site? I uploaded a freebie to Amazon only on Friday but nothing appearing as yet


----------



## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Has it been determined that we cannot have links to Amazon on the back of the book? This is a deal-breaker for a lot of folks who put a sample to next book and a hotlink to 'download now.'  (those that don't use a splash page in between)


----------



## ASDeMatteis (Jan 29, 2017)

This is really interesting. Glad to see it works out for some people. I'll keep it in mind


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Huh.  This is interesting...

I've sold a few copies of my 99 cent titles through Pronoun at this point.  They're virtually identical in terms of length and covers etc.  But some are showing as earning only 50 cents per title.  I haven't dug in to figure out why at this point and it's still more than the 35 cents going direct with Amazon, but still.  I read everything pretty carefully before I signed up and didn't see anything that would explain this.

Also, the one title that had a review on it, that review has never shown up.  Will probably have to write them about it soon.


----------



## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

While I have no plans to use this service to publish, I thought it would be interesting to list my books through their sales tracker thingie, to see what kind of recommendations came out. I'm sort of amused by the emails I'm getting suggesting new categories for my stuff.

Their latest blast says Spaceship Next Door could be on 15 top 100 lists, and gives examples. But I can't pick fifteen categories on Amazon's dashboard. I also can't drill down to the degree of granularity they're talking about: Amazon picks those categories.

Not sure what value there is in telling me how many lists the book would be on if I can't put my book on those lists.


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

If they aren't automatically connected with the review, contact Amazon as you would if you republished a book and they will fix it for you no problem. I had to do that with one book.

I also noticed about the difference estimated sales vs estimated earnings and sent an email asking so when they give me a reply, I will post that here.



Cassie Leigh said:


> Huh. This is interesting...
> 
> I've sold a few copies of my 99 cent titles through Pronoun at this point. They're virtually identical in terms of length and covers etc. But some are showing as earning only 50 cents per title. I haven't dug in to figure out why at this point and it's still more than the 35 cents going direct with Amazon, but still. I read everything pretty carefully before I signed up and didn't see anything that would explain this.


----------



## Melanie Tomlin (Nov 9, 2015)

Mercedes Vox said:


> I still haven't been able to load my book on Pronoun (going for the entry into Google Play, since I missed the boat when indies could sign up). My epub passes the external validation, but the Pronoun system is kicking it out with an unspecified error. I did finally get a reply to my problem report (day before yesterday), but it was only to say they are looking into it. That was two days ago, so here I sit, aggravated. I guess I'm just spoiled by D2D's exemplary customer service.


Apart from this type of error, has anyone else had any issues getting their book(s) onto Google Play? I'm having no end of trouble with StreetLib ... been waiting eight weeks for my boxed set to appear, and they're not answering my emails. I'm thinking it's time to switch to someone else.


----------



## JPDavid (Jan 9, 2017)

Hi, I'm new to this topic having just learned about Pronoun.com. Does anyone have any experience with running sale prices across all of the various selling platforms (Amazon, Apple, B&N, etc.)? Is it possible to have all of the selling platforms reflect the sale price at the same time? How much lead time is needed?
JP

PS, My latest, _Mind Game_, is currently competing on Kindle Scout at https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2BEUBP1JI2MM1


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Just letting you know that I just received an email from PayPal saying that Pronoun has paid me. That was easier, and fastest, (I'm in Australia) than being paid by Amazon. 

I am an early acceptor of Pronoun, having been with them from the moment they became ALLi partners, and I'm still 100% happy with them. I find it easier, given I'm Australian to give one book distributor my US tax exemption information, and for me, it is more profitable to avoid US$ to AU$ conversion fees and bank transfer fees by being paid in US dollars to PayPal. I prefer to be paid by one distributor. It saves me time.

Re the question above about sale prices. 
When I set a price, I set it to all venues. When you submit the price change, Pronoun advises how long each venue is likely to take to implement the changed price. It is from one to two days on Amazon, the other venues a little longer. I've never had a problem getting the prices changed. Prices changed in Pronoun appear to have changed faster on Barnes & Noble than when I altered prices through Draft2Digital. 

I was also happy with D2D. I've had no problems with either D2D or Pronoun, but Pronoun now offers me more of what I want, and far more than Amazon gave me.


----------



## JPDavid (Jan 9, 2017)

Ryn Shell said:


> Re the question above about sale prices.
> When I set a price, I set it to all venues. When you submit the price change, Pronoun advises how long each venue is likely to take to implement the changed price. It is from one to two days on Amazon, the other venues a little longer. I've never had a problem getting the prices changed. Prices changed in Pronoun appear to have changed faster on Barnes & Noble than when I altered prices through Draft2Digital.


Thanks Ryn, that's exactly the information I needed. 
JP


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

JPDavid said:


> Thanks Ryn, that's exactly the information I needed.
> JP


----------



## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Ryn Shell said:


> Just letting you know that I just received an email from PayPal saying that Pronoun has paid me. That was easier, and fastest, (I'm in Australia) than being paid by Amazon.
> 
> I am an early acceptor of Pronoun, having been with them from the moment they became ALLi partners, and I'm still 100% happy with them. I find it easier, given I'm Australian to give one book distributor my US tax exemption information, and for me, it is more profitable to avoid US$ to AU$ conversion fees and bank transfer fees by being paid in US dollars to PayPal. I prefer to be paid by one distributor. It saves me time.
> 
> ...


I'm an Aussie as well, but was under the impression Pronoun was for US/Canadian authors only. Do you know if they have recently changed policies, and is there a florr on their payments? (I sell a book a month in Japan and get frustrated watching miniscule amounts growing into a payable sum).


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> I'm an Aussie as well, but was under the impression Pronoun was for US/Canadian authors only. Do you know if they have recently changed policies, and is there a florr on their payments? (I sell a book a month in Japan and get frustrated watching miniscule amounts growing into a payable sum).


I've been with Pronoun since mid-2016, no issue with being an Aussie. I don't know about payment floors, why not ask Pronoun support?


----------



## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Ryn Shell said:


> I've been with Pronoun since mid-2016, no issue with being an Aussie. I don't know about payment floors, why not ask Pronoun support?


You know, I never even thought about that. My instinct is to come here first. Talk about your pavlovian reaction. Writing question? Ask on Kboards. Of course, the human brain is too sophisticated to be trained in such a way.

*huff* *huff* *bark* *whimper* So does anyone know? *beg* *huff* *huff*


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> You know, I never even thought about that. My instinct is to come here first. Talk about your pavlovian reaction. Writing question? Ask on Kboards. Of course, the human brain is too sophisticated to be trained in such a way.
> 
> *huff* *huff* *bark* *whimper* So does anyone know? *beg* *huff* *huff*


I just find Pronoun support excellent, that's why I suggested asking them. I'm not putting down the idea of asking here.


----------



## Marseille France or Bust (Sep 25, 2012)

It takes a few days before I receive a response to my email from Pronoun, but the responses answer all questions. Have noticed it takes a while for books to be published. One of my books just went live on Google after 5 days. I'm still waiting for Amazon and iTunes to publish. So if you're going to use, be sure to upload 1-2 weeks prior to launch.


----------



## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

I went ahead and sent them a few questions, then checked the faqs in their support section, which answered everything *blush* Is it the aging process? It's just that feel like telling everyone who'll listen that, in my day, they didn't have faqs and other such nonsense. We had to live with with our ignorance, and we were happy with that....


----------



## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

Just joined up with it and have pushed out my first short story through it - my plan is to use it for short fiction.

Has anyone tried to crate their own covers through it?  I noticed it was an option but past experience has my thinking they can tend to be a bit iffy doing that kind of thing.  If they are semi-decent I might try using them for future short fiction.  Can't really afford to fork out for heaps of short fiction covers when it would take a long time to recover those costs.


----------



## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Any update on Google Play NOT reducing their sale price when published via Pronoun?


----------



## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

mmandolin said:


> Any update on Google Play NOT reducing their sale price when published via Pronoun?


Google Play hasn't reduced mine. [knock on wood]


----------



## baronfrosti (Jan 29, 2017)

Can you select iBooks only for We the sad Mac-less?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

baronfrosti said:


> Can you select iBooks only for We the sad Mac-less?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yes, you can choose Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and iBooks.


----------



## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

This is a little perplexing, I think.

I put up my first story through Pronoun, selecting as the two categories SF&F > FANTASY > ANTHOLOGIES & SHORT STORIES & SF&F > FANTASY.

Except it is showing up live in SF&F > SF >  ANTHOLOGIES & SHORT STORIES.

Not only the wrong category (it has no SF elements in it) I'm a bit worried about the negative reaction books in the wrong categories can get.


----------



## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

A. S. Warwick said:


> This is a little perplexing, I think.
> 
> I put up my first story through Pronoun, selecting as the two categories SF&F > FANTASY > ANTHOLOGIES & SHORT STORIES & SF&F > FANTASY.
> 
> ...


That's definitely odd, though I wonder if it's a Pronoun thing or an Amazon thing. One of my stories, I distinctly used 'romance' as a keyword. It's primarily fantasy, and for some reason Amazon says not to choose both romance and sci-fi/fantasy as your main categories, but putting 'romance' as a keyword should have gotten it sorted into fantasy>romance, but it didn't.


----------



## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

If you are having issues with the categories, send an email to Pronoun. I had an issue with one of mine and Elissa wrote back asking me what I intended my categories to be so they could look into getting them into the correct ones. Just let them know and they should be able to help you.


A. S. Warwick said:


> This is a little perplexing, I think.
> 
> I put up my first story through Pronoun, selecting as the two categories SF&F > FANTASY > ANTHOLOGIES & SHORT STORIES & SF&F > FANTASY.
> 
> ...


----------



## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

T. M. Bilderback said:


> Google Play hasn't reduced mine. [knock on wood]


Thanks, T.M. Good to know.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Look what came across my Fb feed today. They're really making a play for us.










P.S. The image they've chosen makes me feel insufficiently hip and edgy to be indie.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

TwistedTales said:


> If the point of advertising is to make you notice then I think they succeeded.


Yes, very true! I don't think it's a bad ad, even if the indie-hipster alignment gives me the giggles. (I suspect a good chunk of us are middle-aged introverts with mortgages.)

It feels odd to me that indie authors have become a recognized consumer group. I mean, I know we have been for some time, but most of the advertising aimed at us has felt more informal -- Kboards threads by cover artists, etc.


----------



## skylarker1 (Aug 21, 2016)

Silly Writer said:


> Has it been determined that we cannot have links to Amazon on the back of the book? This is a deal-breaker for a lot of folks who put a sample to next book and a hotlink to 'download now.' (those that don't use a splash page in between)


Not only can you not have links to Amazon, you can't even mention Amazon, or any other book retailer by name.

iTunes refuses to publish books that name other book vendors! (In the back matter at least. I can't say for sure that they'd refuse to publish a book about ancient women warriors or explorations in a major river basin in South America.)


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## Helen_Christian (Jan 17, 2017)

Cassie Leigh said:


> Quick update on my Pronoun experience so far...
> 
> The titles I published through them are all live at this point. Took less than a day for each one and some were up in a couple hours. One had existing reviews and those have yet to show up but they say it can take a few days so I'm waiting to see if that happens before moving the others in the series that have reviews.
> 
> ...


This is happening with me and I sent Zon and Pronoun a mail. They locked the entire name. How long before yours got corrected??


----------



## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Helen_Christian said:


> This is happening with me and I sent Zon and Pronoun a mail. They locked the entire name. How long before yours got corrected??


I sent an email to Zon through Author Central and I think they cleared it within a couple of days. It didn't require anything on my end other than telling them I'd moved the titles from direct to through Pronoun and asking what they needed from me to verify it. That was after waiting a few days to see if they'd reach out to me, so for anyone else who goes through this just reach out the minute you see the message.

After a week or more of waiting I also had to email to request that they link the prior edition of my ebook that had the review on it to my current version. That was cleared in a day. Just gave them both ASINs.


----------



## Helen_Christian (Jan 17, 2017)

Thanks Cassie


----------



## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

Now you can set your own publisher/imprint.


----------



## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I heard back and had my problem fixed within a day.


----------



## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

skylarker1 said:


> Not only can you not have links to Amazon, you can't even mention Amazon, or any other book retailer by name.
> 
> iTunes refuses to publish books that name other book vendors! (In the back matter at least. I can't say for sure that they'd refuse to publish a book about ancient women warriors or explorations in a major river basin in South America.)


I tried using Pronoun for a short story, and while it looks like it has potential, I am wholly unimpressed with it compared to D2D. D2D is super streamlined, so if you don't have any special need to adjust formatting yourself, it's very quick and easy to get a nice looking ebook published quickly and without having to spend even half the time going through "options."

Also--D2D allows you to use the books created on their site on your own as well. Pronoun doesnt fully create your book as the preview. That also means there are a few beginning pages which you don't get to see until you actually publish, and it includes what's effectively water-mark content ("These pages will not be in the final book" blah blah) so you can't use their preview on your own. I like that once I create a book on D2D I can immediately use the .mobi, epub, and PDF for newsletter bait, ARC, whatever, while the book itself gets published to the various retailers over the next couple days.

Maybe once you go through the entire publish process you do get access to the finished book? I don't know because....

Apparently if you include an "also by"page, your book breaks their system. I don't have store links on my "also by" page, each title links to my own website...so it's not a conflict there, nope, it just breaks.
I know that page is the critical one because I ran my short story through several times, trying different layout options. Worked great until I stuck in my "also by" page.

So far I've been waiting for one day with zero response beyond an automated email. From posts above I'll be surprised it doesn't take until after the weekend.


----------



## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

At the very very end of the process you can download the final version.  It's a few steps past that preview stage.  But they also have "Pronoun" pretty prominently placed on the cover page, so not sure how they think that works if someone wants to use the file after delisting from them.


----------



## melodybremen (Feb 10, 2016)

I'm using Pronoun and so far everything has gone smoothly for me. I really like their service and their customer support has been pretty responsive.


----------



## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

CheriB said:


> I'm trying out their book making tool but it seems no matter what I do they are giving me errors on the book saying that my chapter titles cannot be in list format, and I cannot link to retailers the book.
> 
> My chapter titles are not in list format. And I have not linked to any retailers.
> 
> ...


What kind of file are you working with? If you highlight each chapter name and use the style 'Heading 1' and then add a space after that line it should work smoothly for you. Not sure what they mean by list format. Also, I stripped out my hyperlinks to my books but left the ones to my website and mailing lists and had no problem so maybe check what you have hyperlinked to see if one of those is being interpreted wrong?


----------



## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Mercedes Vox said:


> Easy enough to remove the "Pronoun" info from the epub using Sigil. IANAL, but as long as the contract says you can reuse the files, your modifying them shouldn't be a problem.
> 
> This made me wonder, though, why they chose that name. Since their logo is a pilcrow, it would've made more sense to use _that_ as the company name. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Good to know. As someone who has been straight-up Word files up to this point any edits to the file are new to me. But I'm actually about to switch over to Vellum for everything so I can have more control.


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE.


----------



## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

Just an update, they finally responded--sort of. After waiting for 6 days, I received an email yesterday apologizing for the wait and
*" I've sent the issue on to our developers, and we've tagged the issue as critical, so we hope to have an answer soon. The problem appears to be in converting your document, but we can't tell from the backend precisely what the problem is, but the developers can."*
As of today it's been a full week. 
As I stated here (and to them) the book published multiple times as I tested layouts with no problems until I added links to my webpage.

It's been a full week as of today.
Obviously, YMMV. but so far, I am NOT impressed.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

RBN said:


> Their formatting guide instructs you to remove ALL the front matter, including the copyright page. They then give you the option of either no copyright page or their super casual, poorly punctuated auto-generated one that fills in the current year and author name regardless of accuracy.
> 
> I've been told the copyright date and holder issue is "on their radar" and we're welcome to use our own copyright pages, regardless of the guide. I haven't tested it to see where it gets placed in relation to the TOC or if it passes review -- because my styles are warring with their conversion and I'm fed up to here (climbs ladder to approximate altitude) for now -- but I thought I'd pass that info along for anyone concerned about sloppiness in the legalese.


Because I don't copyright using my pen names and I was publishing older material, I didn't use their copyright page. I just put it at the end where I normally put it and titled that section as either About the Author or Contact the Author and included links to my website and mailing list as well. It worked out fine. These were all short stories that I've moved over.


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## Marseille France or Bust (Sep 25, 2012)

Just decided to track all my ebooks on Amazon. Their service pulled book covers from 3-5 years ago on two of my first books.


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## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

Ok through ZERO help from Pronoun (not even their developer department is capable of figuring simple stuff out apparently) I found the issue with my own book. Pronoun as of now, cannot handle 24-bit PNG images in a book. My About the author page has a 24-bit PNG for my author image--for those who are unfamiliar with the file-type, 24-bit PNGs allow you to have an alpha, or transparency, channel in the image. That's what allow the cool effect of my semi-transparent "tape" in my author image. Is it necessary? Hardly. Is it necessary for a developer to have a clue about what kind of image files break their system? Absolutely.

Here's there "help file info"
_7. Insert images

You can add images and illustrations directly to your manuscript, and we'll automatically center them in your book. We recommend large, high quality, color images. *All images must be .jpg, .jpeg, or .png files*._

Just tested and I can confirm that 8-bit.png files also break their system.

Good job Pronoun.

Not.

Also of interest: Time to get back to me--7 days. Time to inform or resolve--9 days and counting (they still haven't figured out the problem...I'll update when they do)


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## AaronShep (Nov 18, 2011)

Guy Riessen said:


> for those who are unfamiliar with the file-type, 24-bit PNGs allow you to have an alpha, or transparency, channel in the image. That's what allow the cool effect of my semi-transparent "tape" in my author image.


Kindle does not support transparency in PNGs. They do accept PNGs with transparency, but the transparency is ignored and the file is converted to JPG without it. Only GIF transparency is supposed to be honored -- but under Enhanced Typesetting, that transparency too is discarded (the last time I tested).

Aaron


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## skylarker1 (Aug 21, 2016)

CheriB said:


> I'm trying out their book making tool but it seems no matter what I do they are giving me errors on the book saying that my chapter titles cannot be in list format, and I cannot link to retailers the book.
> 
> My chapter titles are not in list format. And I have not linked to any retailers.
> 
> ...


I got an error just for /mentioning/ Amazon - no links involved. iTunes won't publish anything mentioning any of their competitors.


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## celadon (Sep 12, 2015)

I was excited to hear about Pronoun and wanted to like them. Wanted to be all-in. The first book I submitted had formatting problems which were vague and hard to resolve, but I finally worked around it. The second book (just fresh out of Kindle Select and my biggest seller!   ) was getting its table of contents mangled. I'd upload a Word document (the same one that worked for Kindle) and either Pronoun would only show the first chapter listed in the table of contents, or it would show each chapter, but mysteriously remove the link for chapter 13. Just chapter 13. Re-doing the Chapter 13 link in the table of contents was no help. I believe the Pronoun "templates" are the culprit for this. It was exasperating. Also I was getting an error for linking to my own site.

I gave up and went with D2D, which worked beautifully with the same Word file that Pronoun mangled. I was later able to get an epub up on Pronoun (so I could get in Google Play) but I didn't particularly enjoy all the frustration and aggravation that was not my doing.


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

celadon said:


> I was excited to hear about Pronoun and wanted to like them. Wanted to be all-in. The first book I submitted had formatting problems which were vague and hard to resolve, but I finally worked around it. The second book (just fresh out of Kindle Select and my biggest seller!  ) was getting its table of contents mangled. I'd upload a Word document (the same one that worked for Kindle) and either Pronoun would only show the first chapter listed in the table of contents, or it would show each chapter, but mysteriously remove the link for chapter 13. Just chapter 13. Re-doing the Chapter 13 link in the table of contents was no help. I believe the Pronoun "templates" are the culprit for this. It was exasperating. Also I was getting an error for linking to my own site.
> 
> I gave up and went with D2D, which worked beautifully with the same Word file that Pronoun mangled. I was later able to get an epub up on Pronoun (so I could get in Google Play) but I didn't particularly enjoy all the frustration and aggravation that was not my doing.


Since I use D2D for distribution to Scribd, Tolino, and others not covered by Pronoun, I use the free epub and mobi files given to me by D2D. I go to D2D first, upload my Word documents, download my epub and mobi files, and continue publishing to the lesser sites. The epub and mobi files go to Pronoun for distribution everywhere else.

I also use Smashwords for distribution to Overdrive, Gardners, etc., and simply let the Meatgrinder do its doody on a .doc Word file, too.

Works all the way around for this happy author!


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## 39416 (Mar 18, 2011)

cheri-- click on your heading and then look up at your taskbar: did your bullet list light up, i.e. hot itself? If so, you must click it off for each heading.

To get rid of this automatic "list formatting" in Word:

File > Options > Proofing > Auto Correct Options > in Apply as you type, unclick automatic bulleted lists, and, automatic numbered lists > OK


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## Andre Jute (Dec 18, 2010)

skylarker1 said:


> I got an error just for /mentioning/ Amazon - no links involved. iTunes won't publish anything mentioning any of their competitors.


A book I edited was repeatedly stopped by Smashwords for the line, "Birn would be up the Amazon at a time like this." Mick, my designer who was searching for the link that caused the trouble, tore out handsful of his hair. Eventually, by searching for "Amazon", rather than "Amazon.com", we found this innocuous phrase. That was days later. I promptly made it policy that if a book was stopped by Smashwords for the second time, after we already made one good-faith effort to make it conform to their picayune rules, we just take it to another aggregator. (I always found Smashwords' titling rules, which they claim Apple insists on, more than a little irritating. Surely a bunch of computer salesmen don't know more about reprographics conventions than I do.)

In about 60 full-length books published through D2D, we had a small problem once or twice, in each case sorted without hassle; in one case, with a Christmas deadline, I just authorized them to make whatever change was required. What more can you ask for?


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## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

AaronShep said:


> Kindle does not support transparency in PNGs. They do accept PNGs with transparency, but the transparency is ignored and the file is converted to JPG without it. Only GIF transparency is supposed to be honored -- but under Enhanced Typesetting, that transparency too is discarded (the last time I tested).
> 
> Aaron


Which is fine, of course. Except that it literally BREAKS Pronoun's conversion process and after NINE days of waiting they were able to provide no help at all. Ignoring the transparency is fine--it's a separate channel in 24-bit .pngs and there's a lot of software that only looks at the RGB channels.

In addition, the Pronoun help files specifically state that 8-bit and 24-bit .png files are fine to use. Except they're not. They break their book conversion and the "developers" seem to have no clue.

Seems to me, just say .gif and .jpg are the only acceptable formats and be done.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

I'm definitely interested in using Pronoun to get onto Google Play, but it seems the formatting is needlessly difficult.  (At any rate, I'm having difficulty with it!)

I wonder if they're planning to upsell some conversion services.  *side-eye*  :/

It really shouldn't be more difficult than D2D or Amazon in this day and age!


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## smw (Mar 9, 2015)

Over the last couple days I signed up for Pronoun and found the publishing process to be pretty painless.  Took my (Vellum-generated) epub and mobi files right off the bat, my self-owned ISBN and found my currently listed Amazon title just fine.  Published for release on March 1 (when my Select term expires) to all the non-Amazon vendors.  We'll see how it goes.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

smw said:


> ...and found my currently listed Amazon title just fine....


Where do you do this? I've had to basically email them on all my titles and ask them to link the Amazon edition to the Pronoun one after it was published. Is there a step where you can link to your existing listing?


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## smw (Mar 9, 2015)

Cassie Leigh said:


> Where do you do this? I've had to basically email them on all my titles and ask them to link the Amazon edition to the Pronoun one after it was published. Is there a step where you can link to your existing listing?


If I recall correctly, when I got to the part where you have to select where you want to distribute your book, I un-selected Amazon and it made me paste in my book URL from Amazon as proof that it was already there (because of their contractual agreement with Amazon or whatever). Is that what you mean?

There's also a link, towards the bottom of the page I think, where you can paste in an Amazon URL and track a book you don't have published with them, but I don't think that will link it up with the "book account" (for lack of a better term) if you've distributed to the non-Amazon merchants with Pronoun.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Ah, okay.  I removed my 99 cent titles from Amazon and moved them to Pronoun, so it's a different thing.  Supposedly if you do that your reviews transfer over but I've had to email Amazon and ask them to link my old version and new version each time.  I was wondering if they had a box where you could list the prior ASIN that I'd somehow missed.


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## smw (Mar 9, 2015)

Cassie Leigh said:


> Ah, okay. I removed my 99 cent titles from Amazon and moved them to Pronoun, so it's a different thing. Supposedly if you do that your reviews transfer over but I've had to email Amazon and ask them to link my old version and new version each time. I was wondering if they had a box where you could list the prior ASIN that I'd somehow missed.


Oh, sorry, no. I haven't gone that route so far. I haven't yet decided if I want to keep my Amazon stuff published through KDP or move it to Pronoun.


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## VMJaskiernia (Jan 7, 2014)

Quick question for anyone using Pronoun- they say in their FAQ that Paypal charges a 3% flat fee up to $2 if you're in the US. On paypal is says there's a 2.9% fee, plus $0.30, and doesn't mention a cap. Does Pronoun have a deal with paypal, or are they simplifying it/getting it wrong?


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

Does anyone know quite how the sales emails work?  There seems to be somewhat of a delay between publishing and getting your first sales report even if you are getting sales on the first day.

And does it only track the US sales or does it cover all of the various countries?  I had a poke around and noticed some of my freebies had been picked up in UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and India, but have no idea if they were getting counted in with the US sales or I have to set up tracking for them separately.


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## dylanjmorgan (Feb 19, 2017)

Just spent the last hour or so reading this thread. Very interesting. I'm exclusive to Amazon right now, with ten titles. I might just take one of my worst sellers, that hardly gets any page reads, and try that on Pronoun and see what happens. I'm not about to mess around with all ten titles, but it's definitely worth experiementing.


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## Beth_Hammond (Oct 30, 2015)

A. S. Warwick said:


> Does anyone know quite how the sales emails work? There seems to be somewhat of a delay between publishing and getting your first sales report even if you are getting sales on the first day.
> 
> And does it only track the US sales or does it cover all of the various countries? I had a poke around and noticed some of my freebies had been picked up in UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and India, but have no idea if they were getting counted in with the US sales or I have to set up tracking for them separately.


From what I can tell the reporting is about 3 days behind actual sales. When they do report them they stick them on the current day not the day it actually sold. I emailed them about the frustrations of tracking sales to see how promos perform. They said they are trying to work with Amazon to speed the process up. As for out of country sales I have no idea if they report them. I would assume so? But maybe shoot an email over and ask. They seem to like friendly suggestions and feedback from us.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Okay.  Just got my first sales report from Pronoun and wasn't very impressed with it.  I'm only using them for Amazon.

The report lists title, retailer (Amazon), copies, gross sales, distribution fees, net sales, and earnings.  (For my report net sales and earnings were the same.)  Since they pay different amounts for different customer locations, I would've liked to see Amazon sales broken out by market.  Also, you can go to each book and download a daily sales report to see what day sales were reported on, but no way to generate that report across titles or for the time period.  And I just realized as I type this that it's based on the day the sales were reported to them not the day they occurred which is why I was paid for a sale that supposedly occurred on February 7th in January's payout. 

Also, in terms of the question above about a paypal fee.  My payout was only about $5 and I paid .15 for the processing fee, so looks like they have some sort of deal set up.

So, I'm not unhappy with them, but they wouldn't be at the top of my list of best platforms for information and reporting.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

Thanks for this Douglas, great info.

I'm thinking of using them for novellas only which will be 99c, so the more info the better.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Douglas Clegg said:


> Regarding Bookbub international stuff: write to Pronoun and mention this. They should be able to adjust prices enough in CA, the UK, IN and AU so you're within the 0.99 price.
> 
> They did for me. There is some circumstance where they can't do this, and that involves using all platforms. But the circumstance of using Amazon and Nook, they can do this for Amazon.
> 
> Plan on contacting them at least 4-5 days before your Bub and include your start date for when you absolutely need those price changes. You can't wait till the last minute. Once I switched my book to its Bub promo price, that switch was made within an hour or two on Amazon and Nook via Pronoun.


Thanks Doug, great info.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

So... Some questions!

1. If I publish an ebook through Pronoun, I'm assuming I will be able to link it up to the paperback on Amazon as normal?

2. I'm assuming that if I ever wanted come off Pronoun, I could keep the reviews, or does that only work when moving to them?

3. I've seen people say that sales reporting is delayed. Have pronoun said they are working on improving that?

Thanks to anyone who can answer any of this!


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## aimeeeasterling (Sep 22, 2014)

A.G.Barnett said:


> So... Some questions!
> 
> 1. If I publish an ebook through Pronoun, I'm assuming I will be able to link it up to the paperback on Amazon as normal?


This is the only one of your questions I can answer. A definite yes --- I put a book on Amazon via Pronoun, made a paperback version, and emailed KDP support to link the two. No problems.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

aimeeeasterling said:


> This is the only one of your questions I can answer. A definite yes --- I put a book on Amazon via Pronoun, made a paperback version, and emailed KDP support to link the two. No problems.


Great, thanks Aimee.

Are you all in with them?


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

A.G.Barnett said:


> 2. I'm assuming that if I ever wanted come off Pronoun, I could keep the reviews, or does that only work when moving to them?


I think the reviews will remain on Amazon as long as your paperback remains for sale (but am not sure.)



A.G.Barnett said:


> 3. I've seen people say that sales reporting is delayed. Have pronoun said they are working on improving that?


They are, but that doesn't guarantee they'll fix it anytime soon. In the big scheme of things, the delay in reporting usually isn't that big a deal.


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## aimeeeasterling (Sep 22, 2014)

A.G.Barnett said:


> Great, thanks Aimee.
> 
> Are you all in with them?


No, I've just barely dipped my toe into the water over there. I put my most recent box set up there so I could get 67% instead of 35% when I marked it down to 99 cents and applied for a Bookbub. Gearing up for that sale now.... For most of my books, though, it makes sense to stay direct on Amazon.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

mmandolin said:


> I think the reviews will remain on Amazon as long as your paperback remains for sale (but am not sure.)
> 
> They are, but that doesn't guarantee they'll fix it anytime soon. In the big scheme of things, the delay in reporting usually isn't that big a deal.


Thanks, yeah I guessed they would stick on amazon because of the paperback, but not so sure about the other channels...


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

aimeeeasterling said:


> No, I've just barely dipped my toe into the water over there. I put my most recent box set up there so I could get 67% instead of 35% when I marked it down to 99 cents and applied for a Bookbub. Gearing up for that sale now.... For most of my books, though, it makes sense to stay direct on Amazon.


Ah ok, thanks.

I was originally thinking of just adding my 99c novellas there for the 70%, but I am considering using them for everything. If only the international percentage was just 10% higher, I'd be convinced.

I just don't fancy the thought of having to change the back matter in 30 places each time when I have six books out in a year if I was direct!


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Good news!  Just got notice that Pronoun is going to be rolling out regional pricing options.  Looks like they cover all the territories that Bookbub handles and one or two more.  I still have a question or two about how it works with countries that charge a tax, but at least they listened and are working on it.  Not sure when full rollout will be, but if it matters to you now, looks like you can write and request access to it early.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

Just a heads up that in addition to the regional pricing mentioned above, Pronoun now offer a 'More by this author' page which automatically adds the correct direct store links like D2D.

I use Vellum so not much use to me, but I have asked if they will add the ability to add specific files to each store in the future.


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## Guy Riessen (Mar 27, 2016)

A.G.Barnett said:


> Just a heads up that in addition to the regional pricing mentioned above, Pronoun now offer a 'More by this author' page which automatically adds the correct direct store links like D2D.
> 
> I use Vellum so not much use to me, but I have asked if they will add the ability to add specific files to each store in the future.


Note that this is not quite as magical as it seems--if anything changes with your links, you'll need to manually re-pub your .docx to get updated links, additional books, etc. It is definitely not a 'set it and forget it' feature.
This from their website (http://support.pronoun.com/knowledge_base/topics/including-a-more-by-this-author-page):
"This page doesn't automatically update, so if you change the books on your Pronoun Author Page, you'll need to convert your docx again to update your ebook files."


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

Happened to see this on a FB group discussion:



> http://support.pronoun.com/knowledge_base/topics/amazon-sales-known-issue?from_search=true
> 
> Amazon sales known issue
> 
> ...


Any Pronoun users experience this issue? I'm just starting to look into Pronoun, but haven't seen much that would inspire me to use them over going direct through Amazon.


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## Ellie L (Aug 6, 2016)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

I kinda wanted to poke this thread too, just to ask how they're funding the 70% royalties for $0.99-2.98 books. Do we know? I know they're backed by tradpub, but I wasn't sure if they're just taking a loss before monetizing later, if they have a special deal with retailers, if they're drawing affiliate income from their landing pages, or what.

Makes me nervous when I don't understand how somebody's making the money that they're eager to pass on to me.


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## Ellie L (Aug 6, 2016)

NOTHING TO SEE HERE


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

That and they have deals with their own unique set of specialists. Not to mention the data they gain of what sells through them can push them to choose wisely in their traditional offerings. I've heard of Macmilan approaching people through Pronoun for a traditional contract, albeit a bit better. Similar to how Amazon picks people up that do really well through the KDP/KU program for their imprint. I've spoken to a few people on here who got picked up by an Amazon imprint, but not a single story was similar. In other words, there is no set formula for how Amazon picks and approaches potential authors.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

A few things to consider around the question of 'How are they making their money?'

1. They may not have to. Being owned by Macmillan means this may just be a data gathering exercise to understand the indy market.
2. As a trad pub (through Macmillan), they may have a different agreement with Amazon than us Indies do. their royalty maybe higher and they are just passing it on to us.
3. They are paying for the extra percentage on US books by dropping the percentage on world wide sales.

I think it's a combination of 1 and 3.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

It also appears like they have a fair few freelance editors and cover artists on their site, so maybe they also take a percentage of any business they generate for publishing professionals who get work through their them.


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## Steve Voelker (Feb 27, 2014)

A quote from an interview with their head of marketing:

"Pronoun works not only with individually self-published authors, but we also work with a number of paid enterprise publishers and count our own digital nonfiction imprint Byliner in our business mix. Through these income-driving activities and the strategic backing of our parent company, Macmillan, we are in a unique position to continue building a truly author-centric and free publishing experience. Our core pursuit as a business is to help authors succeed at publishing. As we grow along with our authors, new business opportunities will emerge that add value to what authors need."

I remember them talking about "new  business opportunities" when they were first getting started. I assume the whole point is to gather data on a huge number of indie authors, then start selling them stuff. 

Which is fine. Honestly, I'd rather be marketed to than give up 10% of my royalties!


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Is anyone else having trouble uploading files to pronoun? It's especially narky on cover images. I've tried to upload 3 images so far, one of which I left for several hours, and nothing has successfully uploaded.

Getting your files up to a site should be the easy part. Right now, it feels like the bad ol' days at smashwords when the meatgrinder would take an entire day to convert your file.


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## Mercedes Vox (Jul 22, 2014)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> Is anyone else having trouble uploading files to pronoun? It's especially narky on cover images. I've tried to upload 3 images so far, one of which I left for several hours, and nothing has successfully uploaded.
> 
> Getting your files up to a site should be the easy part. Right now, it feels like the bad ol' days at smashwords when the meatgrinder would take an entire day to convert your file.


I've uploaded 25 titles to Pronoun over the course of the past two weeks with no issues.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

How long does it usually take to upload a cover image? Or do I have to wait for the file to convert before it adds the cover image?

It's accepted that I have, in fact, supplied a word file, now it's just having trouble accepting the image file.


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## StellaPurple (Jan 11, 2017)

It's so sad that Pronoun is going away. I've only been using the site for a few months but I think it's a great tool.

Does anyone have any suggestion on which ebook distributor I should move on to? Preferably a site that's similar to Pronoun, one that distributes to Amazon, Google Play, etc. at the least, and also use Paypal as an option to pay out the money.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

StellaPurple said:


> It's so sad that Pronoun is going away. I've only been using the site for a few months but I think it's a great tool.
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestion on which ebook distributor I should move on to? Preferably a site that's similar to Pronoun, one that distributes to Amazon, Google Play, etc. at the least, and also use Paypal as an option to pay out the money.


www.draft2digital.com


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