Publish Setup · Draft2Digital Topic 1 of 6

Creating Your Draft2Digital Account

Please note: A quick note before you get started: this whole Draft2Digital walkthrough, like the KDP and IngramSpark walkthroughs earlier in this stage, is guidance and instruction only. It walks you through Draft2Digital's process step by step, but it can't promise that Draft2Digital or any retailer it distributes to will accept your specific book, that it will sell, or any particular outcome. Draft2Digital's own rules, screens, and requirements can also change over time, so always treat what you see on the actual Draft2Digital site as the final word.

What to do

Create your free Draft2Digital (D2D) account, a platform that's a bit different from KDP and IngramSpark, because instead of being one retailer or one printer, it's an aggregator that pushes your ebook out to many retailers and library platforms at once from a single upload.

Why it matters

It's worth being clear about what kind of platform this actually is before you start, since it's easy to lump all three platforms together as "places to publish." KDP is a single retailer account (Amazon only). IngramSpark is a single wholesale printer/distributor account (mainly print, reaching bookstores and libraries). Draft2Digital is different again: it's primarily an ebook distribution aggregator, you upload your book once, and D2D forwards it out to a whole list of other ebook retailers and library services on your behalf, so you don't have to create and manage a separate account with each one. D2D also offers its own print-on-demand option (D2D Print), but its main strength and the reason most authors use it is ebook-wide distribution.

Step-by-step

Go to draft2digital.com and create an account. It's free to join, there's no signup fee, no per-title setup fee, and no charge for creating an account, unlike IngramSpark's per-title setup fee.
Fill in your account and payment details (where D2D should send your royalty payments) under your account settings.
You don't need to decide right now whether you'll also use KDP or IngramSpark, plenty of authors run all three, and using one doesn't require or block using the others. This app treats them as separate optional platforms, the same way it treated KDP and IngramSpark as separate from each other.

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming Draft2Digital charges an account or setup fee the way IngramSpark does, it doesn't; joining and publishing through D2D is free, and D2D earns money only by taking a percentage of each sale (more on that later in this walkthrough).
Confusing Draft2Digital with a single retailer like KDP, it's an aggregator that reaches many retailers and library platforms from one upload, not a storefront of its own the way Amazon is.

Completion checklist

0 of 2 checked

I created my free Draft2Digital account.
I entered my payment details so D2D knows where to send royalties.

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Troubleshooting

Is Draft2Digital a replacement for KDP or IngramSpark?

Not exactly, it does something different. KDP sells directly on Amazon. IngramSpark is mainly about wholesale print distribution to bookstores and libraries. Draft2Digital's core job is getting your ebook out to a wide list of other retailers and library platforms (Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and more) from one upload, plus it now also offers its own print-on-demand option. Many authors use all three together, each for what it does best, see the comparison topic at the end of this walkthrough.

Does Draft2Digital distribute to Amazon?

No, not directly. Amazon still needs to be published through KDP itself. Draft2Digital's own help pages are clear that its distribution list is the retailers and library platforms other than Amazon, you'll see the full list in the Distribution Channels topic later in this walkthrough.

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