Over the past few years, we’ve done some pretty flashy updates and additions, building out our toolbox of free resources for authors. We’ve had some eye-catching wonders such as our D2D Author Pages and D2D Book Tabs, not to mention our eBook and print templates. And we’ve created some game-changing services such as our Universal Book Links. But some of our best stuff isn’t as flashy or even all that noticeable. Here are some of the big things happening behind the scenes.
EVERYTHING BEHIND THE SCENES WITH D2D
Some of this you may have heard before, so bear with us as we break down some of the improvements and additions we’ve made to D2D over the past nine months.
My Books and View Book Dashboard Changes – If you haven’t logged in lately, you’re in for a real treat. The look, feel, and functionality of our Dashboard has been updated and improved. Now it’s easier to navigate between publishing steps, to grab the autogenerated UBL for your book, and to drill down on details about your eBook, audiobook, and sales. You can even see your publishing status at a glance, download your digital files, and delist your book, right from its View Book Page. Just log in and click your book from the My Books page to check it out.
More library options – When we added bibliotheca as an additional library distribution channel, we gained not only around 3,000 public libraries worldwide but a greater range of discoverability. In addition, we’ve rolled out Cost Per Checkout (CPC), allowing libraries to offer your books to an unlimited number of patrons without having to pay full retail for each copy. It works more like an on-demand service, allowing libraries to offer a book to patrons without having to wait for the book to be checked back in. You’re already opted into CPC, but you can learn more and make adjustments from the Library Pricing Page.
Book Metadata Page – Metadata is the most behind-the-scenes of behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s essentially all the information and data associated with your book, including its description, keywords, search terms, ISBN, and categories. A lot of authors use their D2D metadata to help make quick posts and promotions, grabbing the information about their book from one convenient place. We’ve made this even more accessible, with a whole new Book Metadata Page. You can access this page by clicking on the cover thumbnail of your book on the My Books page. We’ve made this as easy as possible with quick-copy buttons that let you grab the entire contents of a section, copying it to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere, fast.
The Return of the Store Links – We listen to feedback. And when we made some changes, we learned pretty quickly that we’d inadvertently broken some tools that authors depended on. One of those was the metadata (see above). Another was the collection of store links. We’ve remedied this by bringing back the store link icons, which you can now find below each of your books on the My Books page.
Quick Price Change – Another new addition to the View Book page is Ebook Price Change—a quick and easy way to change the price of your ebook for promotions or any other reason. Changes made to your price on this page take effect in 1-3 business days, and will not impact your library pricing. If you’ve customized your territorial pricing, you’ll need to make changes on the Publish Step, but otherwise, things will be nice and automated. You’ll also be able to see your current and projected royalties, including royalties for Amazon. You can get started by logging into your My Books dashboard and clicking on your book to open the View Book page.
CHANGES ARE HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES WITH B2R TOO
The updates don’t stop there. As we continue to develop Books2Read.com, we’re adding more and more features that will inevitably help you connect with more readers. A couple of recent updates include:
Support for multi-professional designations – If you’re an MD, CPA, ESQ, or IDK (heh) you’ll be able to include that in your author name on D2D Author Pages. We know how important professional credentials and accreditation can be, so we’re happy to help you display your designations loud and proud.
UBL Landing Pages Refresh – We’ve refreshed the landing pages for our Universal Book Links, making them fit better with D2D Author Pages and Book Tabs. Not only are they a little easier on the eyes, but they can also be a great landing page for readers to discover your work everywhere it’s sold online.
TOP SEKRET
There’s a lot more in the works that we really wish we could talk about. Exciting things. Game-changing things. SO MANY THINGS.
But we can’t tell you about them.
Not yet, anyway.
That’s why you’re going to want to stick close and keep watching. Over the next few months, we’re going to fine-tune and adjust and update and build from scratch a whole lot of tools and resources you’ve been asking for!
One thing you’ll always be able to count on with Draft2Digital: We’re always doing something to make author lives easier. Our mission is to build technology that makes your writing life so easy, the writing becomes the hardest part of the gig.
More to come.