Book Distributor Draft2Digital‘s new look

I revamped my distribution network earlier this year, and consolidated some of my direct retailer relationships into distribution Draft2Digital. Not only does that mean I have less direct accounts to manage, and book versions to keep current, but it also allows me to reach library networks and other distribution channels I couldn’t reach.

Their user interface was already easy to use, but now they’ve changed the layout of the dashboard, and reorganized where authors can view the different functionality they need to access to manage their books.

As soon as you click on your My Books page it displays all your books and their publishing status:

And when you click on any of your book listings, there’s a colorful new book display page, which has tabs for each format, and a promotions tab. This is all the same information that was there before, but it’s been laid out differently and the edit buttons are easier to navigate to (no more scrolling down a page to update a version).

Beneath the View Book Tab are the distribution details of each book, which clearly shows where it has been published and what date the most recent file was made live at the retailer or distributor.

It’s easy for me to see that I recently made a file change and that it’s live on all of these sites. There’s also easy access to download a digital file of my latest version, and the equally accessible Delist book option.

All of this information and access was available before it was just not quite as easy to navigate, so this reshuffle and new look is a nice bonus. But what is new, is access to the Promotions tab.

Now we no longer have to search around to find the Universal Book Link (UBL), because the integration between Draft2Digital and Books2Read has been streamlined. Now this is a BIG plus. If you’re not familiar with Books2Read and the UBL, this is Draft2Digital’s way of connecting all the places your book is available (no matter whether your book is published through Draft2Digial or not), for Free.

Universal Book Links provide a single URL that an author, publisher, or fan can share online. Instead of linking to just one digital bookstore (or posting lots of links to lots of different stores and territories), an author can share one Universal Book Link, and a reader can follow it to reach the book on her favorite store. Give us a link to an ebook at any bookstore, and we’ll give you back a link to that book at every bookstore. It’s like magic. If you want a really detailed explanation, you can learn more about how Universal Book Links benefit authors and readers.

What I love about Draft2Digital’s UBL, is that you can customize your link (and your original link name will still be active, so you can change this any time), but you can only set one active custom link.

It’s simple to use this UBL page, you simply supply one Book link, and then the system scans the internet to find your book at major sites. You can also add custom retailers. And the bonus?

You can add your affiliate codes so that when a reader ends up on your books page and clicks on their store of choice, they get taken directly to your book, and your affiliate code is attached to the URL.

Each book has it’s own book page, which displays the book and description.

And when readers click on the BUY NOW button they’re shown a page that displays all the stores a book is available at.

It’s good to see that Draft2Digital have streamlined their navigation. It wasn’t clunky before, but they’re improved it anyway. And as their email said:

Stay tuned for even bigger announcements in the future!

What’s next I wonder?

Find out more about Draft2Digital.