To Distribute or Not To Distribute

Not a whole lot has changed in the nearly  three years since I first talked about distributors. If anything more distributors for e-books have joined the fray since Smashwords opened their doors. The problem is that many distributors are distributing in order to get their claws in the burgeoning indie market without regard to long-term implications.

And yes, despite claims that e-book sales are down or flat, many of these pundits have no accurate way to count indie books that don't use ISBNs. Amazon isn't about to inform them either.

Is it worth it to use a distributor?

Three years ago, I said yes, if only to get into Apple, Kobo and Sony. None of these retailers allowed direct uploads from individual writers at the time. Sony still doesn't. But three years ago, the only distributor to handle indie e-books was Smashwords.

There were complaints about Smashwords at the time, primarily about their trademarked Meatgrinder software that converted a MS-WORD file to various formats for distribution. Smashwords has since upgraded so you can upload an EPUB file. However, the EPUB must pass EPUB3 check (which, frankly in my personal opinion, is a bogus, bullshit way of trying to keep some books out of the market). But you still have to upload the MS-WORD file in order to convert to MOBI and other formats.

Since 2011, Kobo and Apple have launched their own self-publishing initiatives. Unfortunately, as the Kernel Pornopocalyspe showed, using Kobo's Writing Life shows their utter disregard for indie authors regardless of their genre. Apple insists that you can only upload through a Mac or other Apple device.

More companies have popped up since 2011 offering to distribute your e-books to retailers.

One of the most popular is Draft2Digital, aka D2D. They currently only distribute to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. They ran in to a major snag during the Kernel Pornpocalypse when their entire catalog was deleted from the Kobo retail site. They have worked hard to settle the situation for the benefit of their e-book vendors

While I have no complaints about D2D's handling of the matter with Kobo, I had problem with a particular book passing the EPUB 3 check for distribution to Apple in June. Again, this was not something that was D2D's fault. Because of my family's moving situation, I marked the book as 'Do Not Distribute' to Apple on June 10. I saved the e-mail confirming the book's status.

Out of the blue in October, I received a notice from D2D that the book had been rejected by Apple. When I went online, my D2D dashboard said the book had been sent to Apple, but the book's individual record page said it was stil marked as do not distribute. After several frustrating e-mails with a young woman in Customer Service where she basically accused me of lying about the situation, I was so angry that I called D2D president Kris Austin and told him to delete my account.

My experience with XinXii wasn't much better. The company started as a German e-book retailer, but has expanded into distribution to the major retailers (Amazon, Apple, Kobo, etc.). I have sold books in Germany, but only through Amazon DE. The year and a half I was with XinXii I didn't sell a single thing, but there are American indie writers who sold very through them. My problem with them began when they switched to an opt-out method instead of opt-in and only gave vendors two days to opt out.

In all fairness, Smashwords has also switched to opt-out for new markets, but they give vendors at least two weeks notice.

Overdrive focuses on the library and educational markets, but they do some distribution to retailers. They still doesn't distribute for individual indie writers. In theory, writers could form their own company to apply with Overdrive, but so far I haven't heard from anyone if it's worth distributing through them.

If you write romance, in ANY of its subgenres, check out All Romance e-Books. They are primarily a retailer, but they do distribute to the major markets. I haven't applied to them yet, but there are some legal matters involving Angry Sheep Publishing since I want to apply as a company.

So does using a distributor make sense?

It depends on your resources and plans. For me, uploading directly to Amazon and Barnes & Noble makes sense as long as books are $2.99 and up. Below that I actually earn more by distributing through Smashwords.

DH has suggested that I buy a MacBook for the sole purpose of directly uploading to Apple since my sales have improved significantly during 2013. I don't know if I want to deal directly with Apple considering some their previous behavior.

Kobo? It's going to take a lo-o-o-ong time to forgive their extreme over-reaction during the Kernel Pornocalypse before I would try them. I wasn't harmed, but I know too many authors who were.

One last word of warning, do not take my word or anyone else's concerning any distributors. Do your own investigating and do what's best for your business.

Scams, Scams and More Scams

There's another scam that's surfaced. This time, it's not a publisher creating a vanity imprint, but a distributor who wants to be God.

Autharium offers to distribute your book and you keep the copyright, but the catch? They keep all worldwide licenses of all types to your primary AND subsidiary rights for the length of the copyright!!!

You cannot get any rights back with permission from them. Period. If you sign with them, you have been royally fucked up the ass without the benefit of soap.

The Passive Voice has a breakdown of some of the terms. And please read the comments to understand further that this IS NOT A GOOD DEAL. Hell, Random House's Hydra imprint is gentler about screwing you over.

Speaking of which, apparently the bad publicity got to Random House. RH has revised their terms for Hydra and its sister imprints. Personally, I don't think they changed enough that I would sign with these imprints, but that's my opinion. Always read the fine print!

For even more laughs, J.A. Konrath talks about a survey Harlequin recently sent to its authors. Unfortunately, I have experience with these kind of corporate surveys. Despite their alleged claims of anonymity and a desire to improve, the suits are looking for the complainers in order to ditch them.

Once upon a time, I thought it would be so cool to write for Harlequin. But after hearing a few horror stories, the urge has committed suicide.

One more time, ladies and gentlemen, WRITING IS A BUSINESS! Treat it like one, and you'll be fine.

Lessons Learned Part 4 - Electonic Distribution

Currently reading - Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris (HC)

When I did a series on avaible e-distributors for self-publishing back in February (see Part 1. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 for more information), I included quite a few companies.

As I said in my series, I narrowed my choices down to Amazon's KDP program, Barnes & Noble's PubIt! program and Smashwords.  At the time, Amazon and Barnes & Noble had the most extensive reach.  I choose Smashwords for the flexibility of creating coupons, which the other two programs still do not offer.

Since I wrote that series (remember, this is only three months ago), the following has happened:

-Amazon has extended its reach to Germany.
- Barnes & Noble has changed its royalty percentage for books below $2.99 and above $9.99 to 40%.

And a new player has entered the scene--XinXii.

XinXii is a German company founded in 2008, and of course, they are looking to capitalize on growing e-book sales.  E-books don't have the market share in Europe that they currently have in the U.S.  But the folks at XinXii foresee the increase of e-book sales just like here, so they got their English version up and running approximately eight months before Amazon opened their German website.

XinXii is attempting to out-Amazon Amazon by offering a 70% royalty rate on e-books priced over $2.49 and a 40% rate on e-books priced between $0.99 and $2.48.

The great thing is they are willing to pay authors in U.S. dollars, so you don't have to worry about the cost of exchange.  And according to XinXii's CEO, Dr. Andrea Schober, they are actively seeking English-language books.  For more information, check out their website, or see Joan Reeves' analysis from March.

Frankly, I plan to try out XinXii.  Hey, sales are sales, right?

The Distrubution Dilemma

Currently reading - Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Part of the reason self-publishing was discouraged (and discouraging) for lo these many years was the lack of distribution.  Even if you did the smart things on your own like hiring an excellent editor and an incredible cover artist, you still had to pay for the printing yourself.  Then you faced the problem of how to distribute your books to readers.

Bookstores didn't want to take a chance on some Jo Blo off the streets, preferring to stick with trusted wholesale distributors like Ingram.  The wholesale distributors relied on the publishing houses and often refused to even talk with the Jo Blos.  Maybe Jo could get her foot in the door at Independent Book Store down the street from her house, but her reach was limited to her neighborhood.  Once Jo had sold books to Grandma, her two aunts, her three neighbors, and five random strangers that stopped in Independent Book Store, who else could she sell her book to?

The law of diminished returns started to apply to Jo and her efforts.  She would have to go to other independent book stores, in other neighborhoods, other towns, possibly other states, on her own dime.  The travel costs soon outweighed the number of books sold in these excursions.  Ask John Grisham about the fate of his first edition of A Time to Kill.  While the book was published by the now-defunct tiny comany Wynwood Press, John literally couldn't give it away out of the back of his station wagon.  Copies stored in his garage had to be hauled to the dump after a flood.  Imagine your own money landing in that garbage heap.  Kind of defeats the purpose of pursuing a writing career, doesn't it?

The game has changed.  Now you've got retail players like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu not only acting as wholesale distributors but willing to work with the Jo Blos of the world.  You now have access to millions, that's right, MILLIONS of people, not just in the U.S., but around the world.  You can sell your story in just about any format you can imagine!

Here's the CAVEAT!!  READ THE FINE PRINT before accepting terms from anyone, including the folks mentioned above.  If you don't understand the Terms of Agreement, GET SOMEONE WHO SPECIALIZES IN PUBLISHING TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.  Seriously, folks, as a former attorney, I can say a little preventative legal medicine goes a long way in keeping you out of trouble.

READ what others say about their experiences with a particular company.  Bob Mayer, Dean Wesley Smith, Kris Rusch, and Joe Konrath are brutally honest in their opinions and experiences doing their own thing.

First and foremost, do your research.  You won't regret it.


(Photo by Liam Quin, 2003)