Distribution Services vs Creating Your Own Accounts
For my next book, I'm creating accounts on a variety of platforms
When I published A Freelancer’s Tale, I was using the book to learn as much as I could about self-publishing and some of the free services offered online. As such, I published the book through Draft2Digital, which distributed the book to a variety of online platforms. You also get a couple of nifty landing pages that you can use when marketing the book through links, such as when sharing on social media or in an email signature.
However, with my new series, I’m going to work on setting up those accounts personally.
That means I’ll have to contact Barnes & Noble considering how my account with them is a bit screwed up thanks to the bank address not matching my physical (which I fixed a long time ago).
This also means that I’ll have to schedule time specifically for setting up those accounts and uploading the book. There are a couple of reasons why I am doing this instead of using distribution services this time around. Despite the time invested, I feel the experience will be well worth the process.
Having Control of My Own Book
First of all, I don’t like the idea of someone else having publishing control over my book. Sure, using Draft2Digital was much easier than trying to get Barnes & Noble to fix my publishing account. But I am the type of guy who would rather have control over how something is published on a platform.
Don’t get me wrong, Draft2Digital did exactly what they said they would. And for most people, using services like this could be a massive time-saver. After all, there are thousands of places where your book can be seen by the public. For instance, IngramSpark has a massive list of how they will distribute your novel.
For some of the major platforms, though, I’d rather have complete control. I’ll probably still use distribution services for some of the smaller book sites, such as Bibliotheca, OverDrive, and tolino. Before Draft2Digital, I’d never heard of these sites. But for Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, and Smashwords, I’d rather have them under my own profiles.
Cutting Out the Middle-Man Fees
Although Draft2Digital and IngramSpark don’t really charge an exuberant fee for helping to sell your books, I’d rather put the majority of the money in my pocket. Of course, this only affects the major book sites I want to manage on my own. I’m not particularly picky when it comes to selling books on sites I’ve never heard of.
It’s not like I am planning on my next book to be a best seller. Nonetheless, the fees can add up quickly, especially if I stumble across a marketing method that truly brings in the audience.
Fees such as the ones these distribution services charge may be worth the time for most people. I can already tell that I’m going to spend a great deal of time setting up all of these primary accounts. So, by no means am I bashing these services and what they provide. It’s more of a personal preference and how I would rather make more money per book.
Learning More Marketing Methods
I love learning new things. And this time around, I plan on dumping a lot of time and resources into marketing. Mostly, because I would love to publish my experiences on both the blog and the YouTube channel.
With A Freelancer’s Tale, the idea was to see what I could do with a book completely for free. Although I didn’t market the book nearly as well as I should have, I learned a lot about self-publishing without spending a single dime. With the series I’m writing now, however, I plan on doing far more and exploring what methods work the best.
I’ll even dedicate a bit of time to marketing the page these distribution services provide just to see if I can make a sale or two from them. And like everything else I do while self-publishing my books, there is sure to be a blog post and video for the follow-up.
In any case, I am excited to dive into the marketing aspect. How many authors do you know say that? It’s all part of who I am and how I was such as successful writer for content mills. I truly enjoy learning everything I can about every topic. That’s how I became an expert in so many things when I was writing full-time for a myriad of clients.
Reviews and Tutorials for Future Posts and Videos
As I said, everything I learn and explore provides a long list of content when it comes to reviews and tutorials. I still get views on my Barnes & Noble video that backfired, and I would love to publish an updated fix for it.
Not only am I an author, but I’m also a content creator. My aim is to entertain readers while also helping writers and self-publishing authors find their own paths. So, taking on all of the responsibilities of promoting my books provides quite a bit of that content.
A lot of it has to do with diversifying your income. In today’s world, it’s best if you spread out the different platforms that generate revenue. That way, if something tanks, you’re still bringing in a bit of money.
While I would love to do nothing but write books all day long, I know that right now, that’s just not a feasible plan for current success. And by that, I mean making sure the bills are paid. So, for the time being, I’ll still manage the blogs, YouTube channels, and clients until I can secure enough income to do just that…write books.
Even then, I’m sure I’ll still keep the blogs going simply because I love the topics and truly enjoy writing in any regard.
The Ends Justify the Means
Distribution services such as Draft2Digital or IngramSpark do have their place for those new to self-publishing. And as I said, I’m still going to use them for the lesser publishing platforms. However, the time and effort I’ll put into the major outlets will only work to provide a wealth of information while creating new strategies to sell my books.
It’ll suck a lot of time out of my daily routine, but the ends will justify every minute I spend. Remember, I love learning new things. Even if I don’t sell a single book, the experience alone is well worth every moment I spend setting up all of these accounts.
Hopefully, I can sell a few more books this time around. A Freelancer’s Tale is quite niche, but the Witcham series will have a much larger potential audience.