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Something Fishy -- Changing to D2D
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I'm not a Smashwords fan for a variety of reasons that goes back to needing a book taken down for exclusivity purposes at Sony and Apple and their subsequent, slow response.I recently put my books up on D2D for Page Foundry and Scribd. Their website and service is phoenomenal in comparison to SW. I've been direct with everyone (Kobo, Apple, Nook, and of course, Amazon and Google Play). It's very tempting to put everything there (with the exception of Amazon and Google). It's just so easy to manage and make updates. I love those guys!
I think you have to go with your initial feeling regarding Smashwords. I fail to understand why it is so hard to bring the website into the 21st century and put it on the "meatgrinder" for most anything that goes wrong. My 2 cents.
I have several problems with their software.Their interface is about as lame as it gets. Old copies hang around and can't be erased.
The payment schedule is only a bit better than Trade Publishing.
I pulled everything out of KOBO and Scribd via smashwords, now that I've got new covers (that Smashwords doesn't allow me to change without updating the entire file) I'm getting epub check errors that weren't there when I originally u/ld the files.
Grrr! Twice the work to upload a new cover?
The books went through D2D's system without a hitch. I'm impressed by how quickly it happened.
Mod
The most impressive thing about D2D is how smoothly their software and their people work.
It IS smooth.There's a glitch in the D2D system that's stopped two books going to Kobo...but they are working on it.
It's going to take time to get the rest off my ebooks switched over. However, I'd rather have all my Apple sales go through D2D eventually.
The long and short of it - May 25
June 45
July 61
July numbers are still trickling in:July 61 - $2.96
August 86 - $3.58, Correction $4.20
Book Stop Central went out at the end of July. I made a couple sales the next week. Sales are climbing steadily.
Between Book Stop Central, D2D, and the start of Reading Season - things are looking up.
My sales are still up and I've made over $5 this month. Made a buck at Amazon and nothing at Smashwords for the 6th month in a row.
August "sales" now at 109.
I just released "Chronicles of Valinthia" using D2D. That's the entire trilogy under one cover, priced at 5.95 (5.99 to those retailers that round up, like Apple does.) For more than 270,000+ words, I figured that's a fair price. They processed the file right away and got it approved and into every retailer they list within 48 hours. Including Apple and B&N, who are sometimes slow on their intake.
By the end of October, I'll know how slow or fast I want my titles at Smashwords to be imported over to D2D.
That's good. I hope you are delighted by the results.
August sales 123 and $5.28
My results are steady over the last three months. While iTunes gets a couple free d/ls of Impressive Bravado a day, B&N has steadily given me paid sales of 1 or 2 a week.
It isn't much, but it's a huge improvement.
The Book Stop Central newsletter #2 went out last week. It gets a good percentage of opens.
D2D made it so easy to turn the ebooks into paperbacks, I nearly threw up. I never expected them to offer a cover template that I can use layers on to make the cover for that specific book, pre-measured for the amount of pages on the spine. Here is my blog post where I share all three paperback covers. I promise that my skills at producing such things are a touch better these days, than they were even a year ago.
https://magicvsscience.wordpress.com/...
Let me know what you think. Also, the ebook series just got unpublished from Smash and is now in the publish queue for D2D as well.
Mod
Andre Jute wrote: "That's nice and straightforward, Daniel. A professional graphic design job is mainly about restraint, actually, and a handful of technical tricks which, as you say, D2D makes ridiculously easy."Thank you, Andre. I mean that.
I've learned a great deal over the last handful of years, yet it isn't enough to satisfy my inner self, a man who is near hectic over what he produces, because he wants quality. I'm used to doing things all the way with full confidence from the start. Publishing has proven to be one of the most hardest, if not fickle, enterprises I've ever faced. (The fickle part is more about distribution and company policy than anything else.)
In my past, I've done enough professional stage acting to know that it's the performance that counts. I mistakenly carried that over to writing and publishing. While literary performance is a huge issue with readers, the true acting begins on the cover.
Take Hello Dolly, as an example. It's a story most people know. It has been professionally produced on stage for decades. I know, I was one of the dancers, part of the glee club, one of the 'dumb' waiters and my lines was of the role '2nd Cook', as that was my first ever stage production.
Everyone knew what to expect with Hello Dolly. Yet people would still pay to fill the theater. Our performance sold us out, and extended our production days by an extra two weeks. The play-bill didn't sell the story, our performance did. How many times can we print "Hello Dolly" on a play-bill and keep the artwork original, you know?
I figured that performance mattered more in the publishing industry, as people look to read to be entertained. They want the drama. They want the conflict. They demand the comedy, and they will pay big time if all of that is delivered. With the world as the sitting audience, not some theater with only 2,000 seats, how could we not make money?
Boy, did I learn the differences, LOL. The cover is everything, and the performance is only 2nd and sometimes 3rd on the list. Somebody can be a totally crappy writer, but if their cleverly done cover brings in 1 million people who buys it and then groans, shrugging their shoulders over their purchase as bad luck, that's an author who just made more than a million buck if they sell their ebook at $2.99, just to be a flop. However, on the sales channels, they are a best-seller.
Which taught me that best seller isn't about best written. What sells is about presentation. The rest of the content determines if there is ever a repeat purchase.
I know you know this, especially the rest of the authors on this board. I have a hard head, however, and a sense of loyalty to those who have stuck with me since the beginning. Preaching to the choir helps me to vent, but I will share something here that I'm reluctant to be proud of.
Of all the things I have yet to learn, I do so with the sole intent to make a living out of this. In order to do that, I must conform to standards that aren't my own, even if I don't agree with them.
There, I've said it. Now it's real to me. HA!
^_^
My Valinthia trilogy is the only thing left on the 'Zon as I've been keeping my promise. If any one novel doesn't sell a single copy the month before, especially since they've been out for years, then it's off and over to D2D.
The only thing on Smash are my short stories and Valinthia trilogy. By the end of October, if not much sooner, everything will be off of the 'Zon and Smash and over to D2D.
When I do, covers will be updated across the board.
This is great news, Daniel. I'm quietly spreading the word about D2D - I'm going to have to look at the paperback option. I found another horse-archer photo that I want to use.
Well, surprise. My Darya trilogy sat at Apple and Barnes & Noble, barely moving a single copy in forever.
13 sales and almost 40 bucks later, I made more in the last month with the Darya series on D2D than I did for an entire quarter on Smashwords. It looks like I even sold a few paperbacks, but I haven't gotten an updated report yet through D2D with Createspace.
It looks like moving to D2D is a wise choice. It's not like I don't like Smashwords, I do, for my own twisted reasons, but hey, it does look like there is some type of perception problem out there.
I'd love to narrow it down. Is it how the retailers look at Smashwords, is it how the customers looks at Smashwords, or is it a combination of both?
Mod
Andre Jute wrote: "But why should they deliberately throttle a distributor's books?"I think that's the million dollar question, Andre. I don't think it's deliberate, or if it is, it's very subtle.
Today, a good number of my work is unpublished from Smashwords. They are still in transition from vendors from D2D. Your work, however, has been at D2D for some time now.
I went to a vendor we rarely, if at all, see sales from. Books-A-Million. I did a search on my name and your name. Both of us appear at the top of the search results, respectively. When I went there, my URL bar transitioned smoothly. (That is a dead giveaway for bots and sample sniffers to keep tabs on partners. Non partners won't be delayed or manipulated.)
Next, I went to Barnes & Noble. The URL paused, the transition bot redirected for about one point five seconds to Google reads, making the tag. Aha.
I searched for Andre Jute, boom, all of your titles from D2D are right there at the top, as they should be.
I did a search for my name. Not so boom. My stuff started near the bottom of the page, with unrelated titles on the first three rows. All of those titles are mostly from Smashwords.
Since Oyster was recently bought out by Google, we will see some changes in the coming months. But Google is bot tagging, whose to know if google, which powers many retailer's own websites, is doing this on purpose?
Smashwords, unlike D2D, has an untapped potential. They have, as you pointed out correctly, their own front-end store which rarely at all sees any sales. I think Google and Amazon would love to keep it that way, and Mark Coker, the good guy he is, isn't fond of promoting his own store.
Google is also loving that stance, and they're ready to pounce on those who provide sales to those untapped capabilities. If they whittle Smashwords down, between Google and Amazon who are trying to shoot each other down, Smashwords and their authors are getting caught in the crossfire.
Unintentional or not. Oyster is another casualty of war. Scribd is wounded and bleeding, but still standing. For now. Barnes & Noble are getting hammered too, and are starting to falter. Those guys are pushing who is more popular to the front lines, in an effort to remain profitable, making discoverability a nightmare for most other indies.
But D2D has an in that Smashwords doesn't, and I find their capabilities interesting. They do not have their own store, as previously stated, so their threat level is below the average radar.
That is my 2 cents on it.
Mod
This may just be a matter of different styles, the way D2D first set up their arrangement with the vendors. There was a tough account various of divisions bombed out at three times, and a lot of other agencies too. I was the company troubleshooter -- "if it was easy, one of the lightweights woulda done it already"; my chairman told me to go get it. I turned up with about thirty of our people and research and presentation materials that in today's money would cost a million to put together. I went in alone first. Their chairman said, "Sit, Andre, we're talking rugby." All the directors wore the tie of one of my colleges. I never made my million dollar presentation, or even asked for the business. When the board meeting broke up for lunch the marketing director said, "Let's you and I and your people eat in the canteen so your guys can do a bit of one on one with my guys." I was a bit of a moralist in my youth, so I was quite shocked... It wasn't that I didn't know how it was done, but it wasn't usually that blatant.
Daniel wrote: "But D2D ... do not have their own store, as previously stated, so their threat level is below the average radar."
This may well be the key. I've said for years that the Department of Justice should investigate Amazon and Google for their gross monopolistic practices.
Mod
Daniel is old and scarred enough not to need advice, but unless you've studied these matters thoroughly for yourself, don't just pull your books out of Smashwords and put them in D2D. It's much safer to keep the books live on Smashwords, as long as you don't duplicate any vendors on both Smashwords and D2D. I have in mind specifically that one or the other may go out of business, or be taken over by Amazon or Google, in which case you will at best be up for a huge amount of work to get your books going again or be totally bolloxed. In any event direct sales through Smashwords are definitely worth having, even if they only mount up to a few hundred or a thousand dollars.
Andre is hitting the nail on the head, folks. I am moving titles with little to no sales. Anything that's doing any kind of business isn't being moved at all. Or at least not yet.One thing Smashwords has in favor... once you unpublish and archive a book, it's not dead and gone forever. You 'can' update that book and resubmit it for distribution at a future time.
My slow move to D2D isn't burning any bridges, but building a new one to customers through D2D. If that company gets swallowed whole by the monster 'Zon or the creature-isle reject 'Oogle, going back to Smashwords is easier than restarting someplace else brand spanking new.
@ Andre - If we currently had a Department of Justice worth more than a plastic badge from Fisher-Price, it would have happened by now. Easily. Until we do, we can only hope for some real justice.
Mod
I agree, if you decide to switch, do it slowly and keep Smashwords for their one-off markets. I had improved sales for 3 months, but my numbers are now down. This is what usually happens to me in October to December, so I'm not panicking.
I AM looking forward to the after Christmas Reading Season!
My theory is that B&N adds 10k points to Smashwords e-book ratings to keep the erotica from floating to the top.
Daniel - I'm glad it worked for you!
PS - Smashwords is only good for $10 every other year for me.
This is a graphic from Author Earnings. image:
Mod
I refuse however to believe that authors who place books direct with Apple have higher average sales than those who distribute through either of the other channels. Reason? Your average writer whose books sell a lot has written a lot of books, and placing directly with Apple is pretty inconvenient for that sort of writer, whereas Smashwords and particularly D2D is excellent for brisk and bulk operations.
However else you interpret these numbers, as a separate matter, I just don't believe the discrepancy in average sales per book can depend so much on distribution channel, to which after all the reader is totally indifferent.
These figures, if real, must be driven by something else we haven't yet been told.
"These figures, if real, must be driven by something else we haven't yet been told."There are a lot of backlist books out there. It could be some company has been uploading the books directly to Apple for authors.
Maybe I should get an iPad? If the numbers ARE that different, then it would be a good investment...if iPad can do it. With my luck, it would take a Mac.
Andre Jute wrote: "These figures, if real, must be driven by something else we haven't yet been told."Kudos. There are two issues here, both interact hand in hand.
Apple, B&N, Kobo, pretty much any major retailer absolutely LOVES it when you don't use a distributor.
Issue 1: Either they are lying, or those are real numbers based on 'marked' promotions given to those who upload solo versus those who use a distributor, which would see an increase of sales. The fact they help generate those sales, or they lie about it to con authors into going direct, is the main motive for issue number two.
Issue 2: Single Store Retailers, doesn't matter if they're LLC or not, manages their inventory through the Agency model on purpose. The 'Zon uses Wholesale model, because they aren't a single store retailer. They sell a multitude of different products, so the tax code is different for them.
Tax code? Why yes. This is the difference: When you do direct with a single store retailer, meaning that store's 'primary' product is under one classification... books... digital or paper, doesn't matter. It's the classification that matters, breaks up their tax brackets into two distinct pools.
Pool 1: Supplier(multi-employee distributor) to Retail
Pool 2: Contractor(single-employee author) to Retail
Pool one is any company that has more than one employee with an EIN that aggregates a product to retail.
Pool two is any individual (or even a partnership of less than seven people) who uses a single tax-payer ID that provides a product to retail.
Pool one is taxed differently than pool two. The IRS puts a heavier burden on company profits when they generate revenue between two companies or more.
Because company profits are not individual incomes, they are taxed anywhere from a 33% to 45% of the profits, coming and going. With a good CPA, a company can offset that quite a bit, some companies even pay zero taxes because they can manipulate the tax code so well, but that takes huge man-power and an army of lawyers. An example: in 2014, GE paid zero in corporate taxes. That's right. They made billions, paid zero.
However, if the supplier to the single store retailer is a Contractor, or a single-taxpayer ID, it's only taxed once for the company when it generates a profit, because the IRS knows they get to tax the profits from the individual every April 15th, and that's only if that individual makes enough in royalties to earn a higher tax bracket.
So for Apple, if you go direct without a distributor, they see a corporate tax of only 15% on the profits they earn, after they pay you.
For only half the tax liability, they would love to promote your book a bit harder than the others. Or lie about it, so at the end of every quarter, they get a slightly better tax break.
Evil and manipulative, yes. Fair, no.
It's a good thing I worked in a corporate sector that served both companies and individuals for a few years. To understand the tax code can send the toughest, smartest layers whimpering into corners on cold winter nights. The intent of the tax laws and how it actually works out never uses the same highway.
This I can promise.
Mod
Maybe I should get an iPad? If the numbers ARE that different, then it would be a good investment...if iPad can do it. With my luck, it would take a Mac."
Daniel clearly thinks it possible or even likely that the numbers are that different, in short that Apple, B&N etc indulge in the same unannounced gerrymandering as Amazon, except even more secretly, as at least anyone who takes care to analyze Amazon's various exclusivity schemes can work it out, whereas with Apple you need to understand an arcane tax code differential to even begin to understand it. Given that Daniel is right, of course. It would however fit with your suspicion that B&N and perhaps other vendors favours D2D over Smashwords and gives their books preference, perhaps by the same algorithms.
About the iPad. I don't know if you can publish to Apple with only an iPad. I haven't actually looked into it, but you should be aware that the iPad isn't a standalone computer at all; it's a tool to tie you to Apple's iTunes music selling operation. It needs to be paired with a Mac for many functions. Basically, it is synced from the Mac, which in fact holds its libraries of songs and books. The iPad is also very inconvenient to work with, though the latest (very pricey) iPad Pro will have an option of a case with a keyboard (such as you've long been able to buy in the aftermarket -- I have one and it is the best available, but still not fabulous for serious work). I suspect you will need a proper Mac, but it can be the cheapest you can find secondhand as long as it is capable of taking whatever OS the current version of Apple's placement software demands.
If you lived nearby, I'd give you an old Mac, as I always keep two past series as backups, but carriage would just wipe out the advantage. Try Craigslist.
Mod
For only half the tax liability, they would love to promote your book a bit harder than the others. Or lie about it, so at the end of every quarter, they get a slightly better tax break."
Jesus, save me. How the devil is a non-American ever meant to discover all this, which I bet 99.999% of American indies a) don't know and b) if you were to tell them wouldn't understand and c) would anyway argue about endlessly and pointlessly because that's what they do and d) accuse you of being responsible for because you're part of the patriarchy.
Seems a pretty likely explanation to me. Thanks for taking the trouble to lay it out, Daniel.
Andre Jute wrote: "Seems a pretty likely explanation to me. Thanks for taking the trouble to lay it out, Daniel. "
You're most welcome, Andre. If I hadn't seen the results in the tax math from within a multi-billion dollar corporation with my own two eyes, I may have doubted it myself.
Thanks, Andre. I wish I lived closer, alas, Ireland isn't just down the road.I'll have to look around for a used Mac. There are dozens of used iPads in the pawn shops by Ft Knox. Surely there's a Mac hiding in one of them.
Daniel - you have the most amazing store of knowledge on the darnest subjects.
Well, I've messed around with Create Space and I can't find the freaking Cover Creator link. I've sent them an email and I'll go look for a reply. I found a cute photo on Dollar Photo to use for the paperback of book 2.
Daniel: Thanks again for the Dollar Photo invite. It is paying for itself and I'm grateful for the help.
I'm not going tell anyone from Author Earnings what we discussed here. They'll have to send a spider for it. LOL
Mod
I will. I've got to finish the paperback before I mess around with the e-books again.
K.A. wrote: "Daniel - you have the most amazing store of knowledge on the darnest subjects. "Of all the compliments I've ever received in my 47 years of existence, this is now my favorite one.
^_^
I'm glad the Dollar Photo club is working out for you. It does pay for itself, or I would have never mentioned it.
:)
Mod
For a week or so, my sales numbers for the month were phenomenal and it looked like they owed me more than $50.
For some reason, I didn't get a screen shot of it. Likely because I figured it was an error. But I was still pretty upset when those numbers disappeared. But since then, I can't help but wonder where those numbers came from.
Long and short of it - I'm slowly changing over to D2D, just in case there's something to this.
I'm not going to disrespect Marc Coker without something besides a mental itch. But by putting my ebooks into D2D, instead of Smashwords, I've put a band-aid on my mental itch.
Has anyone else seen strange sales numbers come and go on Smashwords?