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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Sept 27, 2019 21:55:02 GMT
Publish Drive has decided to start charging authors to upload books. They have a free plan, but it only includes one book. They decided to charge on a tier, which I think is ridiculous. But I suppose people with money won't mind. People with money seem to love spending it on things. I sure hope amazon doesn't start charging or my publishing career would be over. Here's their blog post about it. Tryout Plan (FREE): Just starting your publishing journey? The Tryout plan is perfect for you. With this option, you can distribute one title for FREE - forever! And you’ll still earn full store royalty rates. Standard Plan ($19.99/month): Ready to take things to the next level? Upgrade to the Standard Plan, and you can distribute up to 5 titles while accessing PublishDrive’s full distribution network, including China and Google Play Books. This plan also includes access to built-in promotion tools to boost sales. Pro Plan ($99.99/month): Publish like a like a pro and distribute up to 50 titles to our full network, while enjoying promotion tools, multi-user account access, imprint management, and a bulk import option. Publisher Plan (ask for a quote): The Publisher plan offers all the benefits of the Pro plan, plus dedicated VIP support and the ability to distribute more than 50 titles. |
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Post by Jeff Tanyard on Sept 28, 2019 8:59:30 GMT
Luckily, authors with existing accounts are grandfathered in, so this change won't apply to me... for now.
I'm not sure what PD is trying to accomplish here with this radical change. I have a theory, but I won't post it.
I would also add that I haven't been notified of this change at all. K'Sennia's post is the first I'm hearing of it. So thanks, K, for posting this, because I wouldn't have known otherwise.
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Sept 28, 2019 19:36:30 GMT
I heard about it from a story shop email from the Sterling & Stone guys. I'm glad my sharing helped and that you'll be grandfathered in, for now. As far as what they're trying to accomplish, that's easy - they want to make more money. Doing it this way ensures they always get paid whether an authors books sell or not. And it also might ensure that only the most popular and prolific authors join since they're the only ones for whom 100% royalties vs the monthly fees would be a fair trade. It will likely force all of the smaller, low-selling authors to leave since they can't afford it. But even if those authors manage to stick around it won't matter to the site owners since they get paid, either way.
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Post by writeway on Oct 1, 2019 3:31:49 GMT
I saw that and I laughed because all they are doing is shooting themselves in the foot. They will lose a lot of authors doing this. Makes no difference to me though. I probably got one book there that I uploaded to try the place out and hadn't thought about it since.
I wasn't notified either. I heard it from Facebook.
Get ready for the flood D2D! I see plenty of authors coming your way.
Seriously, does anyone even make enough money through PD to even consider paying them? I mean, they act like they are Amazon. It would be different if Amazon who has a choke hold on a huge chunk of the US market did this. It would be crappy but Amazon can do something like this because authors see a benefit in being there. But PD? I don't know anyone hardly on it and the ones there don't seem too impressed. Every time I see someone mentioning it in an indie group most authors haven't even heard of it.
Good luck charging, PD. Let's see how long this last or you do. Don't be surprised if in 3 months someone is posting that PD is dead.
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Post by davidvandyke on Oct 8, 2019 16:53:40 GMT
I'd say the big key would be if the pro authors could leverage the tools they're paying for to make more money.
But the prices seem quite high to me. I'm not paying $1200 a year or more unless I can guarantee more than that in extra profits.
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Post by PublishDrive on Oct 10, 2019 20:59:27 GMT
Hello everyone,
Adding to the information stated above. PublishDrive was always charging after sales as other companies do (many of them charge before AND after). With the new pricing option, PublishDrive will payout 100% of the royalties.
When is the new pricing worth it for authors financially?
Tryout: in ALL cases
Standard: If you earn at least 120 USD from 5 titles.
Pro: If you earn at least 600 USD from 50 titles.
With keeping 100% royalties, authors instantly save at least 14% on earnings.
Why is it good for authors besides saving money?
PublishDrive interviewed authors and with 1 book, they save at least 23 hours per month with PublishDrive and they can maximize their royalties by 82% by reaching out to new markets. If you have more titles, you can save more time.
It is up to you, what your goal is. Whether your time is worth more than $19.99 USD.
Many authors switched over their titles from other partners so they can save on ebook distribution using logic above.
Hoping this clears up some things.
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Post by davidvandyke on Oct 12, 2019 19:19:57 GMT
Great, thanks!
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Post by dormouse on Oct 14, 2019 19:20:32 GMT
With the new pricing option, PublishDrive will payout 100% of the royalties. 100% always sounds good. But, if the sale was through Amazon, then that means 100% of 35% or 70%.  After the monthly fee. That doesn't sound quite so good. And of course an Amazonian 35% or 70% is before AMS. Usually quite a lot less afterwards. |
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After the monthly fee. That doesn't sound quite so good.
