Tag Archives: Draft2Digital

Self-publishing in print: preparing text for uploading

print copies of The Duke and the Dubious Damsel by Joanna MaitlandJoanna again, still on self-publishing…

In my last blog, I explored the pros and cons of publishing print books with Amazon KDP, or Ingram Spark, or Draft2Digital. And it wasn’t all that straightforward as you may have seen. This blog is about preparing text for publishing in print. (A future blog may be about covers for print, since there isn’t space here.)

Self-publishing in print isn’t difficult, especially if you’ve already written your text using Styles, as I recommend. But it does involve more steps than ebook publishing and will require attention to detail if you want to produce a really professional-looking paperback.

But we writers can all do attention to detail, can’t we? Without that, our plot and character continuity would be shot. So, if you’re a writer, you can do this 😉

Print preparation : automatic formatting or do-it-yourself?

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Self-publishing in print: Amazon, Ingram, Draft2Digital?

Joanna is still self-publishing…Joanna Maitland print covers via Books2Read.com

A few weeks back, I published a blog about my experiences of self-publishing ebooks on Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital (D2D). I promised I’d write another blog about how I got on with publishing my books in print. There, my direct experience is with Ingram Spark and D2D, but I’ve had a look at KDP’s print requirements so I’m including some notes about that route, too. And if I’ve got any of it wrong, please tell me in the comments below.

The image shown here is of the D2D paperback of one of my recent Regency historical publications. I think the result is handsome. But do you, the buying public, agree? (The image, by the way, is generated automatically by D2D. I didn’t have to stack up copies to create it, which was a bonus, though I did add the link to the page at Books2Read.com where all my books appear. Do go and buy. Pretty please?)

Pricing: Print Cost, Discounts, Author’s Share

woman against background of questionmarksWhen you’re pricing your book, you have to take into account how much it costs to print it—which depends mostly on how many pages it has—and how much wholesale discount you have to give to a retailer or bookshop. Continue reading →

Self-publishing ebooks: Amazon KDP or Draft2Digital (D2D)?

Joanna’s experience and advice on using Amazon KDP and D2D for ebooks

Regular readers of this blog may remember my tale of woe when Amazon KDP terminated my publishing account. I eventually got it back but it was not a pleasant experience. Some of my ebooks are still available on KDP but I’ve been publishing most of the others on Draft2Digital (D2D). I’ve done enough of them now on D2D—as ebooks and also in print—to have some experience and lessons to share.

I’m not including print publishing choices in this blog because it would make it too long. Nor am I including Ingram Spark here, because my only experience with them is print publishing, not ebooks. I’ll include Ingram when I blog about print choices.

graphic figure with box on head, thumb downThere are upsides and downsides to publishing ebooks on Draft2Digital. Just as there are on KDP. Some of the downsides might not apply in every case, but I’ll explain what they are anyway. Then you can make up your own mind whether KDP or D2D is right for your ebooks.

Which platform wins the grinning yellow mug and which gets the down-in-the-mouth blue one? Your decision. Continue reading →