KDP - alternatives?

[Barbara]

Me again. This is a BrainPick as well as a Rant.

Did anyone else have trouble getting their book onto KDP? I'm not getting anywhere when it comes to setting up the royalty payments thingybob (custom serv tells me I need the correct details. I do have them but the corresponding fields keep telling me I'm an ejit when I enter the first letter) .... grrrrrrrrrr and I'm starting to lose the will to live. I'm tempted to open a second account but I have read on forums that having multiple KDP accounts risks a lifetime ban. At this point, it seems getting published by Penguin is easier.

Are there any alternatives to KDP?

What about Smashwords? Anybody know much about them?

 

[CageSage]

Smashwords is now owned by Draft2Digital.
Which area is the problem? Putting in the first dollar amount, or somewhere else? The top field is the main value, and then the others fill according to that. You can change each field, but there has to be a minimum.
To get the 70% royalty, the book must be priced at USD2.99 or higher. If you're using UK as the main market, calculate [or keep entering a different price until you get the value in pounds that's equal to or higher than that. Then adjust the other markets [if you've gone worldwide].
Is that what you wanted to know?

 

[Barbara]

Smashwords is now owned by Draft2Digital.
Which area is the problem? Putting in the first dollar amount, or somewhere else? The top field is the main value, and then the others fill according to that. You can change each field, but there has to be a minimum.
To get the 70% royalty, the book must be priced at USD2.99 or higher. If you're using UK as the main market, calculate [or keep entering a different price until you get the value in pounds that's equal to or higher than that. Then adjust the other markets [if you've gone worldwide].
Is that what you wanted to know?

I'm still trying to set up my bank details (acc name, IBAN BIC etc) where the royalites will go into. When I enter anything into that box, even a simple 'B', it tells me my IBAN has the wrong format. (I've gone through the entire keyboard and entered every character as the first character alas .... I've tried customer service and they just tell me to get a correct IBAN which I told them I have. They said if the correct IBAN doesn't work (which it doesn't) to send all my bank details (inc details provided by my bank) via email to them for further investigation, which I'm NOT willing to do. I'm not putting any such details into an email to Amazon. Can you tell I'm fed up with them??

And they've opened an Author Central account for my husband (he has a normal Amazon account) for some reason neither of us can understand.

 

[Hannah F]

Sorry if I'm being totally daft but the kind of mistake I might make is entering a lower case letter when the system only accepts capitals or vice versa.

 

[Barbara]

That's the kind of thing I might do too, so I tried that but nothing .... SIGH.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Have you tried switching web browsers? I know that sounds weird but I regularly have to switch between browsers because some sites are not set up properly for some browsers, and it creates bizarre glitches, sort of like what you're describing. I switch between Chrome and Safari, depending on the website.

 

[Barbara]

I have, thank you. Switched from Edge to Chrome. I haven't tried the phone yet. That's next.

 

[MattScho]

There are alternatives. I plucked this, however, off the intertubes: With indie books (published without ISBNs), the Amazon market share accounts for 83% of US ebook purchases.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I do distribution of e-books through Draft2Digital as well as Amazon, but there's no reason you can't just do D2D--they'll distribute to Amazon (and every other digital seller) for you if you haven't uploaded through KDP directly. D2D is trialling print on demand, too, though I haven't used it. They're clearly setting themselves up to be a one-stop shop for indie publishing. I've found their platform easy to use, and they have some nice features KDP doesn't have. I think @Paul Whybrow has more thoroughly made use of D2D. He might have more insight.

 

[CageSage]

D2D

The only issue I've had with D2D is the royalties returned to me through 'zon - where it's priced to get 70%, D2D's cut is taken first, which leaves me with 35% royalty [D2D's money comes out, which leaves the wrong numbers for 'zon to pay the higher royalty], which means the price has to be higher by 16-20% to publish to 'zon through D2D.

 

[Barbara]

I do distribution of e-books through Draft2Digital as well as Amazon, but there's no reason you can't just do D2D--they'll distribute to Amazon (and every other digital seller) for you if you haven't uploaded through KDP directly. D2D is trialling print on demand, too, though I haven't used it. They're clearly setting themselves up to be a one-stop shop for indie publishing. I've found their platform easy to use, and they have some nice features KDP doesn't have. I think @Paul Whybrow has more thoroughly made use of D2D. He might have more insight.

What are the downside to D2D?

Edited: just saw Cage's post. We crossed

 

[JohnBertel]

When I enter anything into that box, even a simple 'B', it tells me my IBAN has the wrong format.

Sorry if this is obvious., but have you tried entering the whole BAN? Sometimes it works like this: every time you enter a new character it will do a validation of the content of the field, and so it will report 'invalid' until it is correct.

 

[Barbara]

Sorry if this is obvious., but have you tried entering the whole BAN? Sometimes it works like this: every time you enter a new character it will do a validation of the content of the field, and so it will report 'invalid' until it is correct.

Yep. Tried that, but thank you. And I tried variations with gaps and no gaps. And every time I get the same message that my IBAN is incorrectly formatted. I'm sure my IBAN is correct because I regularly receive international payments from the US mil using this number.

Not that we're expecting big book sales or anything....

 

[Barbara]

Update.

I FINALLY DID IT!!!!!

I cleared the cookies, told the site to get an effing grip or else I'll send their boss to space with no means to return, and entered the details once more.

 

[Hannah F]

Set up a new bank account?

 

[Barbara]

No, I didn't need to. I could use my current one. YIPEEEEE

 

[MattScho]

Update.

I FINALLY DID IT!!!!!

I cleared the cookies, told the site to get an effing grip or else I'll send their boss to space with no means to return, and entered the details once more.

Wait, isn't going to space with no means of returns his primary goal in life? Still, what works, works

 

[Robinne Weiss]

The only issue I've had with D2D is the royalties returned to me through 'zon - where it's priced to get 70%, D2D's cut is taken first, which leaves me with 35% royalty [D2D's money comes out, which leaves the wrong numbers for 'zon to pay the higher royalty], which means the price has to be higher by 16-20% to publish to 'zon through D2D.

Interesting. Since I do both (and D2D doesn't distribute my stuff to the Zon), I've never had that problem.

 

[izi 出久]

Update.

I FINALLY DID IT!!!!!

I cleared the cookies, told the site to get an effing grip or else I'll send their boss to space with no means to return, and entered the details once more.

Ah, the old clear the cache trick. Always the first thing I should try. Always the last thing I do try.

 

[Hannah F]

Ah, the old clear the cache trick. Always the first thing I should try. Always the last thing I do try.

Question: Are any cookies actually important? If I go to clear cookies, I become overwhelmed by gobbledygook and afraid I will clear something that wipes important documents away.