The Draft2Digital team attends a lot of author conferences and webinars, presenting a ton of educational content every year. At each event, we’re invariably asked a question that goes something like this: “I know D2D can help me publish my book and get it distributed to online bookstores, but do you do anything to help me promote my book?” With the help of the D2D Promotions Team, yes we can!
Read on to learn how we can help your books gain visibility on the virtual shelves of our retail and library partners, as well as on the shelves of the Smashwords store.
The Draft2Digital Promotions Form
The D2D promotions form is your ticket into the cool kids club. If you’ve ever wondered how books get spotlighted on the shelves and apps of online retailers or library systems, the D2D promotions form can get you one step closer. Here’s how it works:
- Make sure you’re logged into your Draft2Digital account.
- Go to https://draft2digital.com/forms/draft2digital-promotions-form/
- Fill out the form!
The promo form captures two types of information:
- Registering to be added to our promotions distribution list
- You proactively telling us about your unique promos or book releases that you have coming up
If you answer “yes” to being added to our promo distribution list, we’ll notify you with the participation requirements whenever there is a retail or library opportunity suitable to your genre.
Our promo team maintains relationships with the merchandising managers (i.e., the folks in charge of promos) at our retail and library partners, so we often know about upcoming promotions weeks or months in advance. When we learn of a new opportunity that could be a fit for your book(s), we’ll send you an email with all the particulars.
Helpful hints:
- Read the email with all the particulars very carefully. Different retail and library outlets have different requirements. Missing a minor detail can be the difference in your inclusion or not.
- If you’re asked for additional information, please provide it in a timely manner.
- Pay attention to deadlines!
Does the promo distribution list work?
In a word, yes!
Apple Books, the world’s 2nd largest ebook retailer behind Amazon, frequently runs promotional banners on their homepage that carry D2D authors’ books.
At the Kobo bookstore, our partnership enables exclusive opportunities for D2D authors and we’ve secured more Kobo Plus promos.
Hoopla and Overdrive, two leading providers of digital library services, also frequently include D2D books, which is wonderful because libraries are powerful discovery engines for indie authors.
Here’s a breakdown of the volume of emails sent to D2D authors on the promo distribution list and the results in 2024:
- 153,902 = Number of emails sent to D2D authors registered for promo distribution list.
- 13,462 = Number of entries received from D2D authors wishing to participate in promos
- 5,835 = Number of books accepted from our retail and library partners.
- 57 = Number of promotional invitations from our retail and library partners in 2024.
While we love sharing promotional invitations with you from our partners, the numbers above don’t tell the full story. In fact, each year the D2D promo team makes dozens of proactive recommendations to our partners behind the scenes.
Proactive merchandising recommendations to our partners is just one of the ways we go above and beyond to earn our 10% commission from book sales. After all, if you’re not earning revenue from book sales, neither are we.
As a distributor, D2D has a unique vantage point to see how books are performing across our global retail and library distribution network—but only if those books are opted in to all of our major distribution channels. For example, if we see an author’s preorder performing well across multiple retailers, that’s the kind of information we share with merchandising managers. After all, a single retailer can only see preorder accumulations at their individual store, so they love it when they can make more informed decisions about which books to promote.
Please note that filling out the promo form doesn’t guarantee placement within retail or library promotions.
Still, we use the information to identify ways that we may be able to help you secure potential promo spots with our partners in the future. So, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.
The second type of information we capture on the promo form is when you proactively tell us exciting news about an upcoming new book, or perhaps a promotional feature you secured on your own. For example, you can tell us about an upcoming BookBub feature you secured on your own, or the next book coming in your acclaimed series, or if you’re working on a genre-based anthology or box set with several of your author friends—that’s the type of stuff we want to know. You can submit updates to us as often as you like.
We need details! Err on the side of giving us too much information, not too little. The more we know about your author track record, the better our chances of enhancing your books’ visibility on the shelves of our partners, or on our own bookstore shelves at Smashwords. Some of the information we’d love to know:
- Have any of your books received bestseller status?
- Do your books average 4.5 or 5-star reviews?
- Have your books won awards?
- Are you working on a box set or anthology with other authors? If so, tell us about their track records too.
The Smashwords Store & Promotions
We could devote an entire newsletter to the Smashwords store, and we probably will. For now, suffice it to say that the Smashwords store is YOUR bookstore and you can use it to your promotional advantage.
By using the Smashwords Coupon Manager tool, you have the freedom, flexibility, and control to place your books on sale at Smashwords whenever you like. To learn about the versatility of the Coupon Manager tool and how to use it, check out this post at the D2D blog, complete with a video tutorial. You can access Coupon Manager from the Smashwords Dashboard on your Account page at D2D.
It’s also worth mentioning that information we gather from the D2D promotions form helps us identify potential genres and books to spotlight in future “Featured Shelves” promotions at the Smashwords store. The D2D promo team is always on the lookout for reader-pleasing books and emerging authors who deserve additional visibility.
The best things you can do to make your participation in any Smashwords sale a success is to enroll early, tell your readers that your books will be participating in the sale, and partner with your author friends on collaborative promotions.
If you ever have any questions about promotions though Draft2Digital, you can reach our promo team at promotions@draft2digital.com
Happy Writing!