We don’t know about you, but if the first three weeks of the new year are any indication, 2025 is off to a rip-roaring start!
The best part of working at Draft2Digital is that we get to serve you, the indie author community, and do our part to help you get your books into the hands of more readers. Every action we take, every year, is with the intent to help you become more successful. While we couldn’t be more excited for what’s coming in 2025—we’ll give you a sneak peek near the end—let’s take a look back at what transpired in 2024.
W I D E R Distribution
In April 2024 we welcomed Fable as the newest retail destination for your books. As we stated in the original announcement, Fable is so much more than a place to buy books. Fable is an amazing social reading app that has grown to power over 65,000 book clubs and serve two million avid readers! Fable readers average 30 books a year and 90% of them set an annual reading goal. Anyone can set up a book club at Fable, including indie authors and their fans. A cool fact about Fable is that they partner with hundreds of the most popular bookish social media influencers. In fact, these influencers and other celebrities moderate some of Fable’s most popular book clubs, some of which have thousands of members.
Acquisitions and Migrations
If you’ve been publishing with Draft2Digital for more than a couple years, you probably noticed that we don’t shy away from difficult tasks, especially when we know those tasks will benefit authors for years to come. While we didn’t acquire any companies in 2024, the following is an update on what we’ve been up to with the Smashwords and SelfPubBookCovers.com acquisitions.
- Smashwords to Draft2Digital – In January 2024, we reported that author account migrations from Smashwords to Draft2Digital had begun, but with just a trickle of accounts. We proceeded cautiously to ensure a smooth transition for all of our authors, publishers, libraries and retail partners. What started with a trickle soon became a torrent of account migrations as we gained confidence and automated many of the processes. We’re happy to report that nearly 90% of Smashwords author accounts have successfully transitioned to Draft2Digital. We’re ecstatic, because this frees up development resources to innovate publishing and distribution tools at D2D, and to modernize and expand the retail experience at the Smashwords store.
- SelfPubBookCovers.com (SPBC) to BookCovers.com – As you may recall, Draft2Digital acquired SPBC in July 2023. SPBC was a pioneering online marketplace for premade book covers. In June 2024, D2D announced that SPBC would be relaunched as BookCovers.com. We’ve been hard at work rebuilding the website to make a better, more efficient marketplace for authors and professional cover designers.
Smashwords Store
Last year at this time we reported that the Smashwords store had just completed its 7th consecutive year of sales growth. Guess what? Smashwords just completed its 8th consecutive year of sales growth. But, that’s not all. Sales at the Smashwords store in 2024 were up 20% over 2023!
What’s going on here? Afterall, ebook sales industry-wide aren’t exactly gangbusters, so what’s driving sales at Smashwords? We believe there are multiple factors at play, but let’s focus on the top two. First and foremost, there’s YOU. You’re distributing more books into the Smashwords store. You’re taking advantage of self-serve merchandising tools, like Coupon Manager, to create customized promotions for your books at Smashwords. You’re participating in annual Smashwords super sales. You’re promoting your books, and the books of your fellow authors, to your readers.
Readers noticed. Which brings us to the second factor that we believe is driving sales at Smashwords: the rise of indie readers!
Indie readers are typically voracious, discerning consumers of the written word who are at the leading edge of literally trends. In fact, indie readers are driving literary trends (Romantasy, anyone?). Indie readers aren’t the type to sit back and be force fed what the mainstream tells them to read. Indie readers covet the opportunity to find the diamond in the rough and shout it from the rooftops. They love the social cred that comes with being an early fan of the next breakout, bestselling media sensation.
The Smashwords Dashboard
Speaking of Smashwords, in December we unwrapped the new Smashwords Dashboard. Accessible from your Account page at D2D, the Smashwords Dashboard gives you easier access to Smashwords tools for book promotion, reader engagement, and sales tracking.
For recently migrated Smashwords authors, the Smashwords Dashboard is a convenient way to find a lot of the Smashwords tools and data you’re already accustomed to using. For D2D authors, you’ll discover that the Smashwords Dashboard is your command center to get you closer to the readers who browse and buy at the Smashwords store.
D2D Print
Thanks to you, we couldn’t be happier with the growth of D2D Print, D2D’s print-on-demand (POD) publishing service. Although D2D Print has only been out of beta since March 2023, you’ve already published more than 80,000 print books! That’s fantastic, because despite the popularity of ebooks of audiobooks, data from the Pew Research Center states that most readers in the US prefer print.
In January 2024, we announced that you now have multiple shipping options when ordering a physical proof of your D2D Print paperback. If you haven’t yet created a physical version of your book, a proof copy is meant as a preliminary version of your print book so you can give it a good, close look before you publish it. An author copy, on the other hand, is your finished book that you can order for promotional purposes.
If you haven’t tried publishing a print book with D2D Print, we’re here to help you. In fact, we sent out a 3-part newsletter series extolling the virtues of print-on-demand for indie authors. See below for more on the newsletter.
The Indie Advantage – D2D’s new monthly newsletter
At D2D we’re quite proud of the tools we’ve created and the support team we’ve assembled to help make your publishing dreams a reality. We know, however, that it’s nearly impossible for busy indie authors to stay on top of every tool we announce.
That’s why we launched The Indie Advantage newsletter in November 2024. The Indie Advantage is a monthly digest of D2D tools and tips to help you reach more readers. As mentioned above, the first three issues focused on how to make POD an essential part of your publishing strategy: Part 1 extolled the virtues of POD publishing for indie authors; Part 2 covered the nuts & bolts of POD publishing; and Part 3 covered POD marketing strategies.
What’s Coming in 2025
- New Partnerships: We’re always looking for new ways to get your books into the hands of more readers. Be on the lookout for an exciting new retail partnership in the first half of 2025.
- Smashwords Store: Ebook preorder sales are coming to the Smashwords store in 2025! For almost a decade, Smashwords distributed ebook preorders to other online retailers, but never sold preorders. We expect ebook preorder sales in the Smashwords store by the end of June. That’s not all. We’re planning to introduce at least one new thematic super sale this year, possibly two.
- D2D Print: One of the most requested print-on-demand features we receive from authors is for large print formatting. We heard you! Large print formatting is coming to D2D Print later this year.
- BookCovers.com: We can’t wait to show you the new BookCovers.com marketplace coming in late winter or early spring 2025! Expect to find over 65,000 premade and customizable cover images from thousands of professional cover designers.
As we dive into 2025 and consider all the promise that a new year has to offer, we’re extremely grateful that you’ve chosen D2D as your publishing partner. We hope you’ll take full advantage of all we have to offer to help you publish faster, reach more readers, and sell more books!
Wishing you all the success you deserve in 2025.
The Draft2Digital Team