Authors Looking directly for Readers discussion

John, some members of the Book View Cafe--a publishing co-operative--are starting to post on Google Play. Not much traffic yet but they are hoping it will grow. If it doesn't cost anything to post books, then the more platforms the better is our philosophy.

I think that Google books is very underrated and poorly advertised. I love Google Books, personally. If it were better promoted, it's a great tool for readers. Very convenient.

One thing I have heard is that Google Play is among the platforms BookBub patronizes. So if you are planning a big promotion that includes a BookBub ad, your odds of getting accepted improve with more platforms available, including Google Play.

The one thing I"ve heard about Google Books is that they can and will change the price of your ebook anytime they want. If they decide to put your book on sale and you have a pricing strategy that might mess you up somewhere else. Obviously then you would have to change your pricing on Amazon to keep it the same or try to get Google to change it back. It's why I don't have my books there. I have them everywhere else. This was a while ago and I don't know if they are still doing it.

They are still doing it. Book View Cafe authors have come up with a pricing strategy, Google Play Books are 24% higher than anywhere else to cover such random intervention. But if you do a Book Bub or ENT ad you can drop the price to $.99 for the period of the add and then back up.

Hi, all

Any idea how to submit books to Google Books? right now the platform says something like "We can not accept new registrations at this time. Sorry for the disturbances. The service will resume soon."
So, please advice if you submitted through other indirect way.
thanks in advance and Regards.

Raúl wrote: "Hi, all

Any idea how to submit books to Google Books? right now the platform says something like "We can not accept new registrations at this time. Sorry for the disturbances. The service will res..."
See here:
https://pronoun.com/author-agreement/

Not all the intermediaries like Draft2Digital (my favourite) work with the Google Play store, but pronoun do.
I don't believe Google plan on adding any more intermediaries at this time and they are not accepting authors direct.

Hi, Thanks Adrian. I will check it. But pronoun looks like focused only in English books?
And what about https://publishdrive.com ??
I have just discovered that european page, and they also include google books. Any experience with them? thanks in advance.

Raúl wrote: "Hi, Thanks Adrian. I will check it. But pronoun looks like focused only in English books?
And what about https://publishdrive.com ??
I have just discovered that european page, and they also include..."

Not heard of PublishDrive before, but they look good. They claim to get access to libraries, which makes me wonder if they are related to "OverDrive" as that is the service that provides ebooks to libraries.
I will ask some of my other contacts if they know about PublishDrive and let you know.

Reading a bit more there, it looks like the possible problem is the ISBN. It is not clear if they provide someone free, it looks like not, and you must buy your own ISBN. Anyway, I will send them a mail to clarify it. Thanks Adrian.

Raúl wrote: "Reading a bit more there, it looks like the possible problem is the ISBN. It is not clear if they provide someone free, it looks like not, and you must buy your own ISBN. Anyway, I will send them a..."
The need for your own ISBN is always a matter of debate between self published authors. I don't use them for Amazon mobi - there is no benefit. I choose to use my own ISBN for epub editions and print of course.

Hi, the answer from publishdrive is that is not required ISBN to publish ebooks through them. But I've found a big problem in their conditions. In the legal data I see this text:

"Although you can provide your personal data as legal info to PublishDrive - and you can use our service with that – please understand that payments can be done only for entity that has legal permit for business activity ( self-employed or corporation).
To receive your earnings you have to act on the behalf of such business entity: provide their data on this form and take care
about taxing commitments on your own."

So that this is excluding "normal" persons, self-published. You need to be a company or autonomous, with all papers, etc.

Raúl wrote: "Hi, the answer from publishdrive is that is not required ISBN to publish ebooks through them. But I've found a big problem in their conditions. In the legal data I see this text:

"Although you can..."
I happen to have a UK limited company already set up for other reasons that I also use for book publishing business. In the UK an individual can also register as a self-employed sole trader. There is no doubt similar arrangements for other countries.

Adrian wrote: "Raúl wrote: "Hi, the answer from publishdrive is that is not required ISBN to publish ebooks through them. But I've found a big problem in their conditions. In the legal data I see this text:

"Alt..."

Thanks Adrian, but in Spain it is just prohibitive... self-employed in Spain means to pay around 260 Euros/month to government just in social security taxes .... it's crazy.