How Publisher J-Novel Club Maximizes Monthly Revenue & Saves Valuable Time With PublishDrive
"With PublishDrive, there is a bigger representative on the market which can fight for us publishers.”
- Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
About J-Novel Club
J-Novel Club is a digital publishing company that licenses, translates, and publishes Japanese content such as manga and light novels into English. They release around 20 volumes a month, distributing both ebook and print copies. With membership access, readers get the latest digital releases around the globe.
The team coordinates translations to layout formatting with over 100 freelancers. With sales coming from many stores and countries, financial reporting is a multiplied event.
With a catalog of 700 book titles, there’s a lot to take care of at J-Novel Club.
Main Results:
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Saved Months Of Time With Automated Tech Tools
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Integrated PublishDrive's API System
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Increased Quarterly Royalties
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Reached Over 400 Stores & 240K Libraries
The Challenges
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Manually Uploading Books per Store (everything from BISAC To Metadata)
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Manual Generation Of Financial Reports
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Not Enough Manpower to Publish To Multiple Stores
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Delayed Communication & Support With Stores Like Amazon KDP
J-Novel Club went from publishing four books in 2016 to 220 new releases in 2021. With rapid growth came a need for more manpower, optimization, and support.
Like most publishers, J-Novel Club had signed up with all major stores directly, including Amazon, Apple, and Google. They branched out to book platforms like Kobo and OverDrive too.
They performed all the work manually, from uploading their gigantic catalog of 700 titles to unifying metadata across stores.
How J-Novel Club Maximizes Monthly Revenue
After switching to PublishDrive, J-Novel Club increased revenue by tens of thousands of additional dollars.
This was due to publishing books on Amazon that wouldn’t have made it through KDP’s process.
No More Commissions:
“For a business model like ours where we’re doing 40-50,000 sales a month, once you start taking 5-10% off, that would destroy our profit margin. PublishDrive’s pricing structure based on the flat rate per title scales much better for us.”
-Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
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Increased Revenue Because of PublishDrive's Flat Pricing Model
Bulk Import:
Allows publishers to upload or update a batch of books and metadata with one Excel file.
AI Support:
Gets publishers suggested BISAC categories, lets them optimize Amazon ads, and much more.
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Months of Wasted Time Saved Using PublishDrive's Tools
Expanding Global Sales:
65% of J-Novel Club’s readers are in the US. 3-5% are in the UK, Canada, and Australia. And the rest 15-20% are scattered throughout Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America. Expanding global reach is crucial for the group.
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Published to New Hard-To-Reach Markets
Sales Insights
With a Sales Analytics dashboard, publishers like J-Novel Club can track sales in real-time, generate charts, and discover trends they would otherwise miss.
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Understood Their Sales Data Through Deep Sales Insights
Auto-Reporting
With Auto-Reporting, PublishDrive routinely handles financial reports, so publishers don't have to keep track of them manually.
Saving them both time and proctecting them from human errors.
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Had Financial Reports Handled on Auto-Pilot
Personalized Support
“But with PublishDrive, we will talk. It’s good to have a direct rep to resolve issues...the corrections have happened faster with PublishDrive.”
-Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
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Dedicated Support Representative To Handle All Problems
Did you know? PublishDrive Users Save an Average of 23+ Hours per Title per Month!
Why Sell To All Stores Via PublishDrive?
Instead of selling directly with stores, going through PublishDrive helps publishers like J-Novel Club scale their business. With the global demand for digital books higher than it has ever been, reaching more markets is key.
PublishDrive acts as the middleman to big players like Amazon and solves problems immediately as they arise:
“It’s good to have a partner who can act as a representative with these stores.... there can’t be personal reps for everyone. With PublishDrive, there is a bigger representative on the market which can fight for us publishers,”
-Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
What The Future Looks Like For J-Novel Club
As J-Novel Club uploads their monster catalog on PublishDrive, the group plans to distribute in more stores. The need for careful reporting will only grow:
“Clear royalty reports are necessary to calculate our fees to pay Japan for their rights. It’s a crucial part of the business. As we continue to use PublishDrive more and more, those features will be very important,”
-Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
They also plan on taking advantage of the rest of PublishDrive’s features, such as launching audiobooks and developing a stronger API system.
And the fun part: PublishDrive’s marketing tools offer new options to consider, like sending DRM-protected review copies and submitting titles to get featured in stores and newsletters (for free).
Lastly, Samuel gave PublishDrive the kindest words:
“The communication with the support staff has been fast and accurate. PublishDrive has a solid future in the industry and looks to get bigger because of all the advantages. There are other companies that do similar things to what you do. But you are doing all those things, doing more, and doing them correctly. I want you guys to be successful so that we can sell more of our books, right?!”
-Samuel Pinansky, President & Founder, J-Novel Club
Read our next case study on how bestselling indie author Lauren Smith makes 1/4th of her income with PublishDrive.
About PublishDrive
PublishDrive is the all-in-one platform for self-publishing ebook, print, and audiobook in over 400 stores and 240K libraries. Sell and promote in channels like Amazon, Apple, Google, and hard-to-reach markets like China. Run your best business with trusted publishing tools and solutions.
Did you know? PublishDrive indies sold 85% more books across stores and markets in 2020.