iBookstore Archives - Mimi Barbour

As promised, here is the letter I received from Draft2Digital during my venture in publishing my book with them last week. Yes, the book that was still attached to Amazon Select and I had to cancel once I realized my error. That blasted book!! …………grrrr!!!

But… that’s not what I wanted to discuss now. The message I have for you today is just how wonderful it is be treated as I experienced here. Tara is obviously a person who understands that many of us authors are flying by the seat of our pants when it comes to doing all this publishing stuff. Sure we can create a story from nothing, design conflicts, work in a villain or two and even instigate a romance. But all this techno-garble is beyond a lot of us – and that’s the truth!

Not a problem! We can hire a VA to take on this responsibility. Don’t laugh. Many Indies are forced to take this road. But what if we can’t afford to pay someone else to do this work? What if our budgets won’t stretch that far? I mean, after all, we have so many expenses to cover already. Between the book covers, the editors (2 maybe 3) the formatters to make the work look professional and, and…

It gets to be a pretty expensive hobby, right?

We all know that to take it from being a diversion to a paying proposition, folks have to know about our books and so there is the cost of promotion. Of course, an advertisement on one book might hike up the ranking for a few days, draw a few more sales but then it slides back, levels out and we’re forced to pay for another promotion. It’s the way the game is played today. At least, for a lot of us.

Then there’s the idea that we should have our work available to as many digital outlets as possible: Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Apple, D2D, Smashwords, and on and on…

My own thought is that the best promo is a new book. Sure! That’s great. Except when does one get the time to write when we’re constantly spinning so many balls in the air?

So… I decided I neededto take a break from my busy schedule and slay the dragon of ignorance. I would read everything I could find that would help me with my goal. Learn the steps I needed to share my work on as many of the other channels that I could conquer. Trust me; it wasn’t easy to leave my comfort zone. I had a zillion questions to ask.

And very few places willing to answer!

When I received this letter, I have to confess to feeling a huge sense of relief. Tara accepted and understood that I had to make inquiries. She realised that it was all new to me. And she treated me with dignity and kindness. Therefore, I would never hesitate to recommend Draft2Digitalto any of my colleagues. From my own experience, I’m assured they will be well received and respected.

24.03/2014
Hi Mimi,

Never worry about asking questions! We are here to help you in any way that we possibly can! So ask away!!!

Yes, I believe you’ve got it. If you were to upload a book with your links to your other books for sale, you can submit this to Kobo and B&N (because they do not care about competitor links). When you get to the publishing tab, just click the boxes next to Kobo and B&N (but do not click Apple). This will submit this version to B&N and Kobo.

You can then upload a version (My Books —> +Add New Book) without links to send to Apple. On the publishing tab, ONLY click Apple as a distributor.

You will be able to tell the two versions apart on your dashboard by the icons to the right of your book title (on the My Books page).

The version going to Apple will only have the iBookstore icon to the far right of the title. The version going to B&N and Kobo will have the Nook and Kobo icons to the far right of your title.

Again, PLEASE let me know if you have any questions or need any help with any of this.

Seriously, never hesitate to write or call when you have questions. I would rather you ask then struggle trying to find out the answer, or trying different things on our site that might waste your time. Every system is a little different, so I understand there is a learning curve.

Best Regards,
Tara