Welcome to The Indie Advantage, a monthly newsletter designed to serve as a reminder of all the awesome publishing, distribution, and promotions tools you have at your fingertips! If you want to get these newsletters in your email when they first come out, be sure to sign up for your Draft2Digital account today!
We’re kicking off The Indie Advantage with a multi-part series devoted to D2D Print, Draft2Digital’s print-on-demand (POD) service. Did you know most readers prefer print books? If you only publish digital books, research suggests you could be missing a HUGE opportunity to reach more readers. Let’s fix that!
This issue of The Indie Advantage originally went out to our authors in November 2024!
D2D Print
POD technology allows for the production of a physical book only once a book is ordered. This is a game changer for indie authors, because while brick-and-mortar bookstores can’t physically stock every book, they can check for the POD availability of a book when a customer requests it. This means your books have the opportunity to be ordered and purchased from a wide variety of physical bookstores, in just about every country, thanks to our global POD distribution partner.
If you don’t think readers care about print books, think again.
A 2022 Pew Research report that examined the reading habits of Americans stated that:
- Of the 75% of survey respondents who reported reading at least one book in the prior year, 13.8% said they read only digital books (ebooks and audio).
- Three times as many (49%) reported reading only print books. An additional 37.2% read both print and digital.
- Digital-only publishers may be missing out on 86% of the potential readership for their books.
Is D2D Print for Everyone?
For experienced authors and publishers who are accustomed to having bookstores order multiple copies of returnable books, or prefer hardcover or large print formats, or who require internal color printing, D2D Print would not be your best option. At least not yet. We’re growing very quickly, and the more we scale the service, the closer we are to offering every capability you’d expect.
Right now, D2D Print is ideal for authors who’ve already published ebooks through D2D, but haven’t yet experimented with POD. D2D Print has no setup or recurring fees, and offers low-cost author copy and print proof shipping options. If you haven’t tried it yet, with D2D Print you can:
- Convert an ebook to a print book in minutes with just a few clicks
- Turn an ebook cover image into a full wraparound print cover in seconds
- Choose from dozens of beautiful interior layouts for that professional look readers expect
- Choose from a variety of industry standard trim sizes and formatting options
- Distribute your POD files worldwide
- Control pesky widow & orphan text
- Order author copies within 32 countries
- Order print proofs from a variety of shipping options (and without “PROOF” stamped on your book)
- Use our free ISBNs
- Use our free change tokens every 90 days to make updates to your print books
- Use our handy print price calculator to calculate your royalties
- Bring in your own print-ready books and covers with no charges or fees
- Receive free help from the industry’s best customer support team!
Want to learn more? Here are some handy links to blog posts about D2D Print
- How to Use D2D Print webinar on our YouTube channel
- Your Top D2D Print Questions Answered – Part 1 article on our blog
- Your Top D2D Print Questions Answered – Part 2 article on our blog
Publishing ebook and POD files may feel the same, but there are fundamental differences in how each are brought to market. In next month’s edition of The Indie Advantage, we’ll walk you through these differences and provide tips to set you up for success. In part three of our 3-part POD series, we’ll provide strategies and techniques to help you market your print books.
We hope you enjoyed the first issue of The Indie Advantage. There’s much more to come!
The Draft2Digital Team