Smashwords to D2D–Things you need to know

Posted on Posted in amazon, AmWriting, D2D Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Smashwords to D2D–Things you need to know

Harmony Kent new author photoHi everyone. A while ago, I published my ebooks on Smashwords and its extended network. Smashwords have since merged with D2D. Here are some things you need to know about the Smashwords to D2D changes: 

  • If you want to use D2D’s easy ebook to print tool, they need you to upload your ebook from an  MS Word document and use their formatting tool.
  • D2D has a separate print formatting tool once you click on ‘Create Print Book’. 
  • So, yes, that’s a LOT of formatting required if you go that route. If you’re comfortable with current publishing standards and requirements and feel confident with interior book design, then their requirements and tools are great. However, if you’re not, and you use a book formatter, you’ll need to let them know which size PDF that D2D asks you to upload. [Me being me these days, I may have missed a bleed option or something 🤪. If that’s the case, I’ll add to this post once I’ve summoned the energy to give it another go 😊.]
  • If, as I did, you uploaded ePubs–mine transferred automatically from Smashwords–then you will need to upload your own pre-formatted PDF. Which is where I’ve hit a problem. It seems the size requirements differ from Amazon KDP’s. I’ll need to look into it further. [Again, it could be me overlooking one small thing.]
  • THE BIGGIE: Outside the US, you have to now earn $20 before they will pay out. Which for many indie authors is a lot and will take time. 

HUGE NEWS! I’VE JUST PASSED OVER 100,000 SITE VIEWS!!! 🤩🤩🤩

In Summary:

I love the expanded distribution options with D2D (and the now no-longer Smashwords), which has more reach than I’ve had with KDP.

I don’t love the fact that they don’t like working with the industry standard ePubs, which most platforms now require you to upload. Using a Word document is usually messy and needs a lot of work to get the formatting correct. On the positive side, D2D’s formatting tool makes this much easier than it otherwise would be!

I don’t love that I now have to wait until my earnings reach a whole $20 before I see any payment.

Going Forward:

I’m doing much better and am back up to speed for the most part.

Which means I can get back into working and–hopefully–writing, but we’ll have to wait and see on the creative front.

In the immediate, I want to get print books up on D2D, and both the print and the eBooks are cheaper to buy via D2D than via KDP. This is due to Amazon’s new pricing and royalty pricing policies, which are not favourable to either the author or the reader. Sigh.

After I get that ‘little’ (haha) job sorted, I plan to knuckle down and get my non-fiction book finished. It’s more work than I’d anticipated despite having the blog posts from my Story Empire series on the subject.

My absolute next job, however–even before publishing my print books–is to update my Carrd links to reflect the move from Smashwords to D2D. Happily, you can still find my eBooks via the Smashwords link here: https://harmonykent.carrd.co/

At some point, I’ll have a link(s) for the extended distribution options on my Carrd too. 

Question:

With a book on words, broken down into separate chapters for A, B, C, and etc., would you like the lists within the chapters to be in alphabetical order or to have like with like words listed next to one another? I’m leaning toward making them alphabetical and would love your input. 

Thank you!

Your support and love over these last couple of years have been tremendous. I’ve barely been online, and yet here you are for me. I cannot express my gratitude for you all enough. For now, I’m staying offline for the most part, and will post when I have something for you. Right now, my time remains limited, and visiting lots of blogs regularly isn’t realistic no matter how much I want to visit. I will, though, make a point of visiting every single person who responds to my posts. That’s the best I can do for now, and we’ll see how things pan out later. My priority has to be getting my print books onto D2D and then finishing my long-awaited non-fiction book. I know you  understand, and I thank you.

As ever, hugs and warmest wishes from me! 🤗💖

19 Comments on “Smashwords to D2D–Things you need to know”

    • You’re welcome! I know what you mean—time is against me right now. I finally submitted all 18 books, and I now have to remove all interior decorative effects from page backgrounds on two or three that had that feature, which I hate the thought of. Amazon KDP allows backgrounds on interior pages, whereas D2D does not. So many new rules, and it’s disheartening. Especially when one of my books has been rejected outright due to being too similar to many others—I published it years ago, and I suspect it may have been trawled and replicated via AI. It’s my ‘Creative Solutions’ and this situation puts me off bothering with finishing and publishing the Homonyms etc book entirely. Sigh.
      Good luck with everything, Yvi, and lovely to see you 😊💗

  3. Good to read this. I hope you’re starting to feel better. As to the question about words, I think I’d relate better to alphabetical, but I’m sure you’ll make it work well, either way you go. I know very little about D2D, but I have read some good things about the platform recently. I guess I have some exploring to do.

  6. Great post, Harmony, and glad to hear about your progress. When you get back into working with D2D, I look forward to sharing my experience working with PDFs that include images. Also, I found the low cost of printing 8.5X11 inch books through D2D beat all the others. I also used Atticus to format one book. BTW, using Apple’s Pages makes updates to PDFs a snap and allows conversion to and from Word. With Affinity’s free app that includes the publisher offshoot, there are many possibilities, especially for the more complex layouts.

    • Thanks so much for all your info and shared experience, Grant!

      My older books were made in an old version of Scrivener, and so much has changed that I just don’t want to have to relearn it. I’ve formatted in Vellum on more recent publications, and that’s so easy.

      Great point on using Affinity. I’m not on the most upgraded version but I could have a look at that. As always, I appreciate your sharing of your knowledge 😊💗

  7. Always good to hear from you, Harmony. You have a lot of work ahead of you for sure. Not sure about your question, but if you are leaning toward alphabetical, I would go in that direction. Take care of yourself.

  9. It is so wonderful to see you here, Harmony and to learn that you are feeling better. I love D2D and have had no problem slotting my MS Word document into their template. Very little formatting needed to be done. I’m new to this self-publishing lark and am not very tech-savvy, but I did it with no problem. I don’t mind waiting for $20, as what can you do with $3 these days. It’s kind of like a savings account. With every minus, there is a plus. I like that we have an option other than Amazon. Sending hugs. xo

    • That’s great, Darlene!
      All my formatted books are in ePub, and I simply cannot start from scratch with Word manuscripts and the mess that would be.
      Instead, I need to find a resizing tool for my older PDFs. The newer ones are easy as I have the necessary formatting software to generate a different sized PDF.
      So, I’ll get my newest books on there in print soon.

      I totally get your savings idea, and it’s a good way to view it. Still, I’d like the interest in my bank rather than theirs, lols 🤣.
      Thanks so much for your input, and I’m really happy their formatting tool from Word is so easy to use 😊💗