Draft2Digital

What Draft2Digital is

Draft2Digital is an American self-publishing distributor, with a postal address in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, that turns an author's manuscript into an ebook and a print-on-demand paperback and sends both to online retailers and library platforms. Its home page sums up the offer: "We build tools and services that let you focus on writing while we take care of layout, publishing, distribution, print-on-demand paperbacks, and more." The print side runs under the name D2D Print. Draft2Digital is a distributor rather than a print plant: its FAQ says D2D Print titles are made available to Amazon and to all distribution channels served by Ingram, and are printed and shipped only when a reader buys.

The audience is the independent author who wants to "go wide", the home page's phrase for distributing to all the major retailers plus hundreds of storefronts rather than to one. Authors stay the publisher of their own books. The FAQ is explicit that Draft2Digital claims no ownership of any copyright, gains no control of the author's intellectual property, and requires no exclusivity.

How publishing works

An author signs up with a name and an email address, uploads a manuscript and builds a book project with the formatting, conversion and interior design templates. Word documents are the most common upload, and the FAQ lists .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf and epub (epub for ebooks only, not print). There is no style guide to follow: the system learns the author's chapter breaks as long as they are marked consistently, and it adds front and end matter such as the title page, copyright page and "Also by" list automatically, keeping them updated across books.

The conversion tools are free to use even without publishing. The FAQ says an author can create, convert and download a paperback PDF or an ebook EPUB without distributing through D2D, and "You are allowed to use your Draft2Digital converted epub anywhere."

Publishing requires an activated account and a completed tax interview. Each book goes through a self-certification step for audience age and BISAC subjects. The company does not accept physical media, printed copies or handwritten manuscripts: everything is uploaded digitally.

D2D Print

The FAQ describes D2D Print as a print-on-demand service where the book is listed as in stock through online booksellers and printed and shipped only when a reader buys it, so the author has no inventory, stock or returns to manage. The specifications are narrow and clearly stated:

• Binding: perfect-bound paperback only.
• Interior: black and white (grayscale) only.
• Trim sizes: 5" x 8", 5.25" x 8", 5.5" x 8.5", 6" x 9", 7.5" x 9.25" and 8.5" x 11".
• Page count: a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 1050 across every trim size.

For the cover, Draft2Digital generates a wraparound print cover from the ebook's front cover, with editable spine and back cover text, or provides a custom-sized template for a professional designer, and it places the barcode itself. It assigns an ISBN free of charge, and authors can use their own instead. A free D2D ISBN can only be used within Draft2Digital's services, a rule the FAQ attributes to the agency that supplies the ISBNs.

Print books are available to Amazon and to all channels served by Ingram, including Barnes and Noble and most independent bookstores in the US, and brick-and-mortar stores can order them, though they are not placed on shelves automatically. Print listings take "somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 weeks" to appear, compared with hours to a few days for most ebook stores. Print pre-orders can be set up to 1 year before publication and require final files.

Authors can order their own copies at base unit cost and use them as they wish, for advance reader copies, resale, gifts or prizes. The FAQ lists the countries author copies ship to: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and a long list of European countries from Austria, Belgium and Bulgaria to Spain and Sweden.

Ebook distribution

The FAQ's store list for ebooks is: Amazon (by invitation only), Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo (including Kobo Plus), the Smashwords Store, Bookshop.org, Tolino, OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Everand, Hoopla, Vivlio, BorrowBox and Gardners. Every store is opt-in with a checkbox, and new stores are never added to an author's books without their choice. Erotica cannot go to Bookshop.org or to library systems.

Scheduled price promotions change an ebook's price at every selected store and change it back automatically, and Smashwords coupons discount ebooks on that store alone. The Books2Read sister site gives every title a Universal Book Link, a single URL that sends readers to every store selling the book, along with author pages and distraction-free book pages.

Fees and royalties

Draft2Digital states its costs plainly. The FAQ says publishing accounts pay a non-refundable, one-time activation fee of $20 and an annual maintenance fee of $12 for accounts earning less than one hundred dollars a year in book sales; accounts with nothing in distribution pay no maintenance fee. The company earns mainly through commission, "approximately 10% of the retail price of every book sale". For D2D Print, the FAQ says to expect "about 45% of the list price of your book minus the printing cost", with a Print Price Calculator for estimates. The price-setting pages show estimated royalties store by store as the author changes the list price. Print books cannot be free, because the materials cost money.

Payments go out monthly, around the 15th, once a method's threshold is met: $10 for direct deposit or PayPal, $20 for international direct deposit or Payoneer, $100 for a check. PayPal payments carry a fee of 2.5% of royalties, capped at $1.50 for US authors and $25 elsewhere; checks cost $2.50 in the US and $4.00 abroad. The FAQ says most stores pay ebook sales 30-60 days after the end of the month and print sales up to 90 days after. For international authors the company withholds 30% US tax by default, reduced under a tax treaty once a W8 form is filed. Payment splitting for co-written books and box sets is built in.

Support

Support works through a contact form that opens a ticket; the company asks authors to send one message at a time and allow a few days for a reply, and it keeps a Knowledge Base covering content guidelines, formatting, digital stores, pricing, promotions and payment. The home page promises "a real, live actual human who cares about you and your books." The mailing address is PO Box 2860, Broken Arrow, OK 74013. For cover design and editing, which it does not offer, the partners page points to outside providers such as Reedsy, alongside marketing partners Written Word Media and audiobook distribution through Voices by INaudio.

Who it suits

D2D Print suits an author who already publishes ebooks, or wants to, and needs a simple black-and-white paperback listed with online retailers without buying stock or learning print layout. The automated conversion, free ISBN, generated cover and published fee structure make the paperback nearly a side effect of the ebook.

It is the wrong tool for anything that needs color, hardcover or unusual formats, since D2D Print makes only grayscale perfect-bound paperbacks in six sizes, and for sellers who want physical bookstore placement, which the FAQ says authors have to pursue themselves.