Draft2Digital Introduces Activation and Maintenance Fees for AuthorAccounts

X Equestris

X Equestris

Active Member
I found out about this from an email and thought I’d share. D2D is introducing a $20 account activation fee for new accounts and a $12 maintenance fee for accounts earning less than $100 in royalties per year.

Here’s the link to their official announcement:

draft2digital.com

Understanding D2D's Activation and Maintenance Fees - Draft2Digital | Blog

A brief explanation of D2D's activation and maintenance fees, which accounts are subject to them, and what this means for you.
draft2digital.com draft2digital.com
 
Good gravy. I haven't received an email about this, so maybe I'm grandfathered in? If they do inform me of this, I'll just close my account. As I've said elsewhere, I wish I didn't go wide anyway, and should've gone exclusive with the Bezo Boy.
 
My understanding is everyone who already has an account (and maybe those who create accounts before the fees are implemented in May?) is grandfathered in and don’t need to worry about the activation fee. Everybody who makes less than $100 annually is subject to the maintenance fee, though.

I’m curious how this will work out for them. The activation fee wouldn’t be so bad on its own, and might actually stand a chance of achieving their goal of cutting down on “slop accounts”, since a lot of those are based in countries where $20 would be a substantial expense. But when you add in the maintenance fee…

Anyone who’s consistently making $100 a year in royalties from their books is already more successful than most. I feel like the fees will drive a lot of new or semi-successful authors off D2D. It might even drive some in the more volume-driven genres towards AI in an effort to generate more sales and clear the threshold.
 
From the article:

"Like many platforms, we’ve seen a significant increase in automated and low-quality account creation in recent years. This onslaught from automated content farms threatens reader trust in indie titles and risks indies being associated with low-quality “slop.” A modest activation fee can make a real difference and allow our team to stay focused on supporting genuine authors like you."

Which makes sense, to weed out the riff-raff. Probably too late as AI has already diluted the product below tolerable consumer trust levels in many people's opinion.
 
Ah shoot, yeah just got the email today. It makes sense, and I'll wait to see if I make any sales before closing my account, since they will warn me before charging the maintenance fees.

This reminds me, I got an email from B&N this week saying that they now require a minimum print sales price of $14.99 USD, so I gotta go increase prices before I get delisted.
 
Set2Stun said:
This reminds me, I got an email from B&N this week saying that they now require a minimum print sales price of $14.99 USD, so I gotta go increase prices before I get delisted.
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They’re also setting a limit of 100 books per account, which works well enough for most, but those who serialize or publish novellas and other short fiction as standalones really get hit with the short end of the stick.
 
Set2Stun said:
Good gravy. I haven't received an email about this, so maybe I'm grandfathered in? If they do inform me of this, I'll just close my account. As I've said elsewhere, I wish I didn't go wide anyway, and should've gone exclusive with the Bezo Boy.
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From what I'm hearing, yes, you'd be grandfathered in. If you don't want to pay the $12 a year, you can withdraw your books from publication and distribution. But keep the account open, in case you change your mind later and don't want to pay the $20 for a new account.
 
I just did the math, and at my current ebook pricing, if I list on D2D I'd have to sell 34 copies to avoid the $12 maintenance fee. The only reason I'm not with them now is when I looked into it a few years ago, back when I published my first novel, they wanted a version of epub I couldn't get my HTML file to convert to. I'm thinking the conversion tech and/or my expertise has grown since then, and I've always intended to go very wide.

So, I ask myself, would avoiding the $12 be an incentive to do some marketing and make sure I sell enough? How do you drive sales to Draft2Digital, anyway?

I have a lot more to learn.
 
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