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The solution is to use D2D for everything but Amazon Kindle, and then list the title separately with them

@@authortommcauliffe Oh wow! That's really good to know. I personally have always loaded my KDP books separately into KDP, and D2D for everything else, but I wonder if you could add the book to your KDP author dashboard (not re-list it, but the public-facing about the author section) maybe, and then run the ads to it?

Thank you for watching, and for your kind comment!

Hi Tom! Here it is: dashboard.autocrit.com/forums/discussion/which-editing-reports-you-can-run-at-which-stage

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor thanks

Thank you for watching! Yes, it can be a bit confusing. I made a video about how to use the Books2Read link via D2D here, if you're interested: th-cam.com/video/9GK7MectfaI/w-d-xo.html

Hey!! It's so good to see you. Thank you for watching!

If you publish on Draft2Digital you can 'unpublish' ('delist') your work anytime, but it takes some time for all the linked retailers to remove it from sale, so you would probably want to give yourself time before enrolling in KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited). With that being said, unless you publish to regular KDP through D2D, you can have a regular non-Select KDP version up at the same time as Draft2Digital on all other platforms (note: you should research this a bit to be sure, but those were the permissions as of 2023 to my knowledge). KDP Select is an exclusive agreement, to my knowledge, but regular KDP (not on Kindle Unlimited) is not. Thank you for watching!

@@thomasmcgauley1330 you can go to KDP at the same time as Draft2Digital unless you have D2D publish to Amazon on your behalf, but you have to wait to do Kindle Select (Kindle Unlimited ) until your ebook has been completely unpublished everywhere else, I believe, as that is considered an exclusive license. You can take your books down on Draft2Digital anytime, but sometimes it can take a few days or even a couple weeks for it to sync on the retailer sites.

@TheThirdPerson3 Yes, that's DraftDigital's service: a one-time set-up to publish to most major retailers all at once for you. You can publish on Amazon through Draft2Digital as long as you have not already published it directly on Amazon KDP yourself.

@@astrocoastalprocessor Thank you for watching! I have personally entered all of these myself in the past, though this year SPFBO is the only one I'm currently in. Thank you for the suggestion about looking into other genres! It's harder for me to get outside my own genre (as I can only take part in ones for fantasy), but I may ask around the community.

Thank you for watching! On Draft2Digital, 'Delisted' typically means that your book has been removed from sale ('unpublished'). If you unpublished them, you can click on the 'ebook' section and then re-publish them, I believe. If you don't have that option, you may want to try reaching out to DraftDigital's customer service team for assistance.

@@GenXLisa Welcome to the community, and thank you for watching! I hope to release an update video soon; they've added even more features.

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor I’m watching your backlist now! 💜

This is a great question! I have never personally used D2D's print program. I have used B&N Press (paperback & hardback), KDP's (paperback and hardback), and I've helped people set up IngramSpark (paperback and hardback). If you're looking solely to order author copies of print books, based on my limited personally experience I'd suggest KDP between the three I've tried. Ingram is more expensive for similar quality printing. B&N was very picky and hard to get approved. KDP was the easiest and gives the most royalties, in my experience there. If you're looking to also have books available in brick & mortar bookstores, though, I'd suggest the extra hassle and extra cut on author copies (with the set-up fee they have sometimes in there) and go through Ingram instead. Bookstores/libraries are far more likely to purchase copies of your book from Ingram than they are from KDP. Regardless of the route you choose, though, keep in mind that it can take 3+ months to receive your books once you order, so you may want to build in extra time for them to arrive. Wishing you all the best!

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor thank you for the speedy, and thoughtful reply!

Thank you for watching! If you wait until your book has launched, someone else may have added it (or Amazon possibly pushed it over to Goodreads, as they're both owned by Amazon). I do always search to ensure that my book is not already in Goodreads before adding it, but I add mine as soon as the pre-order goes up (as soon as there's an ASIN assigned that I can use for Goodreads), which prevents anyone else from adding it.

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor Yes, it's in their database but never attached to me as the author. I think it might take a while for it to sync.

@@dmandrewsauthor It won't automatically attach to your Goodreads author account. If you don't add it before the system does, you'll need to reach out to the librarian support thread for each book to connect them, which I know can be a hassle (but thanks to the volunteers who do that for us!).

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor Yes, it is complicated...but last time I did it they got back to me and said it had happened already...so I think it happens after a few weeks...

Thank you so much!

In that specific context, I was saying that if you have ever sent a gift to someone through Amazon and have their email address or physical address saved in your address book, it could potentially keep their reviews from going live on your book, or be flagged. I had one book release where I did send some readers ebook copies as gifts on amazon, and when they posted reviews later those reviews were not approved to be shown to the public, even though ARC copies are currently allowed. That was just my personal experience though. You may need to reach out to Amazon directly to clarify what they mean by 'friends and family' not being allowed to review.

@@KatherineDGrahamAuthor it's interesting that Amazon can see who is in your address book. Just the techie in me is puzzling through that one. Thank you!

@@JanetteGellarRomanceAuthor Since it's my Amazon address book (stored on their site, within my account) I assumed that was the trick. But only speculating. 🙂

Ha, I am 100% going to do one, the problem is having time to actually look through narrators.

Sooooon!

You did fantastic!

I'm sorry to hear that you didn't find what you were looking for in this video, but it is only about adding books to your existing Goodreads author profile. I'm not sure which aspect of using Goodreads you were looking for, but I have a different video that is an overview of using Goodreads as an indie author, if you're interested.

In my limited experience, the answer to this varies widely based on your target audience and genre. Over 65% of my readers purchase outside the US, but I write dark/grimdark epic fantasy for New Adults with little to no steam. For me, going wide has sold way more copies than staying on KU. But I know plenty of writers who have huge reader platforms on Kindle, too, and who do great at KU. My humble suggestion would be to find fellow self-pubbed authors with similar books to yours to see where their success is, because that's likely where your readers will be. I wish I could give you a sure-fire answer, but with every book genre being so different, it's difficult (and there is no catch-all strategy for these decisions).

Both platforms can assign you a free ASIN (ISBN equivalent for eBooks on Amazon) or ISBN. Even if you purchase an ISBN of your own, Kindle still assigns/uses their own ASIN, so I have started saving my money and not buying ebook ISBNs if I'm publishing through one of those platforms. I do purchase ISBNs for print books (paperback/hardback), though.

​@@KatherineDGrahamAuthorthank you

Thank you 😊