All-in-One Self Publishing Platform: PublishDrive

PublishDrive is an all-in-one self publishing platform that has helped 18,000+ indies publish 100K+ books since 2015. In 2020, PublishDrive indies increased their book sales by 85% (despite the pandemic).

This article goes over how the platform helps with its easy publishing process, exclusive tools and features, and extensive distribution network including Amazon and many more.

Easy Publishing Process

Publishing is easy to navigate with PublishDrive’s dashboard. It takes four main steps to get your book up and running. Start by creating a free PublishDrive account and head straight to the book upload process:

Upload Your Book Free

“I know when I submit my information to PublishDrive, they're in charge of getting it up where it needs to be. As long as I’m on time with my files...I trust PublishDrive to see it done...They handle all the heavy lifting...To take five minutes and do it with PublishDrive saves me a bunch of time.”
— Lauren Smith, Bestselling Author

A few other things –

Apple publishing: As one of the few book aggregators trusted by Apple, PublishDrive gets a direct line of communication. That means indies get fast and reliable representation for handling issues.

"With PublishDrive, there is a bigger representative on the market which can fight for us publishers.”
— Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder of J-Novel Club

Google publishing: Google Books is notorious for having a rather complicated publishing process. It can take publishing authors up to years to get their books up. PublishDrive speeds up the momentum. ↓

“Honestly, the amount of time it takes to upload to each platform is ridiculous. There’s no way we can distribute to all the channels that PublishDrive distributes to...We wouldn’t even bother uploading to Google Play if we weren’t going through you guys. It’s just too much.”
— Quinn Loftis, Bestselling Author

Get Started With Google Publishing

Exclusive Publishing Tools and Features

PublishDrive indies save an average of 23+ hours per title per month and maximize royalties by +82%. They made 85% more digital book sales in 2020 by selling books internationally, marketing effectively, and streamlining their work. Here are the tools and features that made things happen at every step of the publishing journey:

1️⃣ Prepare Your Book

Free ebook converter: For a polished ebook file that meets industry standards, upload your .docx manuscript to PublishDrive’s free ebook converter. (Make sure to format your manuscript before conversion.)

Friendliest user interface: With your converted book file (ebook, audiobook, or print books) and cover design file, upload them to PublishDrive and follow the instructions.

Bulk import: For multiple titles, upload or edit books in bulk with a single excel sheet.

AI support with metadata: PublishDrive’s AI helps with recommending book categories that help you get discovered in stores.

Formatting help: After submitting your book for review, your manuscript gets checked for any issues. Get formatting errors fixed by publishing experts in no more than two business days.

Pre-order: As long as you have placeholder files, set up a pre-order for your book up to a year in advance. Since stores like Amazon count sales on the first day of release, this is a great way to collect orders and shoot up sales to get a better chance of landing on bestseller lists.

“It was fabulous that I could hit one or two buttons and then my whole account transferred over. I started self-publishing on PublishDrive new titles...I found that to be incredibly easy...I would upload it to the system and it would automatically import several fields. I didn't have to add a bunch of extra information. I really loved that quick and easy step to get the book up that much faster.”
— Lauren Smith, Bestselling Author

2️⃣ Publish Your Book (to PublishDrive’s Extensive Distribution Network)

When it’s time to publish, all you have to do is switch on the stores you’d like to sell in. After submitting and getting approved, your book gets sent out immediately.

PublishDrive’s extensive distribution network is made up of over 400 book stores and 240K libraries. The reach includes not only online retailers like Amazon but niche channels like Dreame. 

Publishing wide means to sell beyond stores like Amazon and go everywhere else. This is essential for indies looking to expand their revenue streams and grow a sustainable gig. Plus, the demand for digital books across stores and markets has been at an all-time high:

These channels are diverse and lucrative. Niche reading app Dreame had a growth rate of 92,441%. Spanish library Odilo hiked by 670%. Chinese book store Dangdang hiked by 288%. PublishDrive gets you into all of them.

“When you guys brought up Dreame, that was a game changer for sure...When we first got our Dreame check it was almost equal to iBooks and everything else combined except for Amazon. I was really shocked at how much revenue Dreame generates.”
— Quinn Loftis, Bestselling Author

3️⃣ Promote Your Book

Book reviews: Collecting book reviews should be a top priority. With PublishDrive’s tool, send digital review copies of your book straight to Apple or Google devices. Files are DMR protected, meaning they can’t get stolen.

Price promotions: Schedule and run price campaigns such as discounted or free books for multiple stores. These kinds of book promotions generated 10x more sales for PublishDrive indies who ran 800 campaigns in retail stores.

Amazon ads: Amazon advertising for books can get tricky, but worry not. PublishDrive’s built-in Amazon ads tool helps with easily setting up campaigns and optimizing targeting performance with AI suggestions.

Featuring: Browse a curated list of free book featuring opportunities with hundreds of PublishDrive’s partners. These include getting placed on newsletters or the front pages of stores like Kobo. PublishDrive has a 90% approval rate!

Paid placements: Buy paid book placements with PublishDrive’s partner Written Word Media and reach millions of readers.

Suggested reading: Marketing Self-Published Books

4️⃣ Track Your Book

Automated royalty reports: No more spreadsheets. Instead, receive royalty reports for all books and stores regularly.

Real-time sales: Track what’s happening with your sales in real-time.

Analytics: Dig deeper into the numbers by viewing pre-made charts with filtered categories by countries, categories, and more. See what is and isn’t working, discover trends, and make the best decisions for your business.

Ratings and rankings: Stay organized with all stores links, ratings, and rankings in one place. (Also, keep your ratings and rankings when transferring titles to PublishDrive. Read more about switching to PublishDrive.)

All-in-One Self Publishing Platform Price

Now you know how PublishDrive works. But how much does it cost? You can try the platform free for 14 days. Then, you can keep up with global publishing services for as low as $16.99 a month. This is one of the lowest fees for book distribution of its kind.

You also want to find an all-in-one self publishing platform that gives you the most royalties. PublishDrive doesn’t take any sales commission, meaning you keep all royalties earned as if going direct with stores.