Moving Your Books to PublishDrive from Another Self-Publishing Platform or Aggregator
So you’ve decided to move your books to PublishDrive from another self-publishing platform - that’s great! Although you might think it's complicated, making the switch is a pretty easy process. For certain stores (like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo), you can even keep your rankings and reviews.
In this post, we’ll show you exactly how to move your ebooks from another self-publishing platform.
Want to get a head start? Before we dive in, sign up for your FREE PublishDrive account and then follow the simple steps below.
How to Move your Books to PublishDrive from Another Self-Publishing Platform
First thing’s first: before moving your books from another platform, you should take the necessary steps to keep your reviews, whenever possible. We know how hard you’ve probably worked to get your reader reviews, so you should do everything you can to keep them.
Thanks to our partnerships with certain retailers, you can transfer your reviews and rankings from the following stores when you switch to PublishDrive:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Kobo
All you have to do is send an email to support@publishdrive.com. Just let us know you’re in the process of moving your titles and that you’d like to keep your reviews and rankings.
When reaching out, please provide us with your current buy links and retailer-specific book identifiers (like ISBNs or Amazon’s ASINs). We’ll take care of the rest - it’s that easy!
Step One: Unpublish Your Books from Your Current Aggregator
You’ll need to unpublish all titles that are currently being distributed through another aggregator or self-publishing platform. To do so, log in to your account and remove the books from sale on your dashboard for any aggregator you’re using.
If the books haven’t been taken down after about a week, contact the aggregator’s support team.
NOTE: If you distribute any titles directly to retailers, you’ll need to also remove those titles from sale before distributing them through PublishDrive. Since each retailer has their own process for withdrawing titles, you may have different waiting periods. However, this is generally what you can expect:
- Amazon: up to 48 hours
- Apple Books: up to 48 hours
- Google Play Books: up to 48 hours
- Kobo: 3-5 business days
- Barnes & Noble: 5-7 business days
Step Two: Sign up for PublishDrive and Distribute Your Books!
Once all of your titles have been removed from sale, you’re good to go!
Sign up for an account at PublishDrive and complete the book upload process. If you have a large backlist, we have a bulk import option that allows you to upload many titles at once.
After you hit “Publish,” our team will quickly get to work so your books will be live as soon as possible.
Things to Keep In Mind When Switching Self-Publishing Platforms
Buy Links
When you move your titles to PublishDrive from another aggregator or self-publishing platform, your buy links will change. So be sure to update your back matter, website, social bios, and any other place where your buy links appear.
Using the Same ISBNs
If it’s not specified in the Terms of Use that you can only use your current ISBNs at a specific aggregator, then feel free to upload your books to PublishDrive with those ISBNs.
And if you can’t use your ISBN, we’ve got you covered. PublishDrive can assign unique identifiers to your titles, which most stores accept.
What You Get When Switching to PublishDrive
You might think that all self-publishing aggregators are mostly the same, but PublishDrive goes beyond just ebook distribution.
Here are some of the unique features and services you’ll have access to when moving your books to PublishDrive from another self-publishing platform:
Full Royalty Rates
Most self-publishing platforms offer ebook distribution in exchange for charging a 10% commission on your sales. While this might not seem like much, it adds up, especially for higher-earning authors.
When you distribute through PublishDrive, you get to keep ALL of your royalties instead of giving up 10% of your earnings.
How does it work? PublishDrive’s ebook distribution is priced on a subscription basis, so you just pay a flat fee every month, no matter how high sales go.
Free Ebook Distribution for Beginners
Not ready for a paid plan yet? No worries. We have a FREE Tryout plan just for you, which allows you to distribute 1 title for free - forever. And the best part? You’ll still earn full royalty rates at every retailer or sales channel you distribute to using this plan. This is the perfect way to learn the ropes of self-publishing while you prepare to fully invest in your publishing strategy.
Ebook Promotion Tools
Marketing is a challenge for many self-published authors and indie publishers. PublishDrive makes it easy to access promotional tools anytime to boost sales. Within your PublishDrive dashboard, you can submit your ebook for in-store featuring opportunities at top retailers, distribute free review copies to readers, and submit your book for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.
Want to get started with advertising? You'll love our built-in Amazon advertising tool, where you can create Sponsored Products ads directly through PublishDrive. The tool is also enhanced with PublishDrive’s AI technology so you can build optimal campaigns.
Analytics for Data-Driven Authors
Having access to detailed analytics is a must, but many authors use third-party apps due to a lack of sufficient stats within self-publishing platforms. When you distribute through PublishDrive, you can view robust sales analytics across global sales channels in one streamlined dashboard. PublishDrive's sales charts also display when you began an Amazon advertising campaign, so you can easily track the success of your ads.
Royalty Splitting Solutions for Co-Authors and Publishers
We spoke to best-selling authors, publishers with 100+ books, and two-person co-author teams. What did they all have in common? Royalty splitting is a huge pain for them every month.
With our royalty splitting services, you can reduce your administrative workload and keep your publishing teams happy. We have two services to fit your needs:
- Team Royalties: If you distribute through PublishDrive, this service will automatically pay out your co-authors and contributors every month based on the royalty percentages you set.
- PD Abacus: This service is perfect for those who distribute directly to Amazon KDP/KU (and other retailers) and need a reliable method of calculating and tracking royalties for collaborative projects. All you have to do is import your sales reports, and PD Abacus does the rest. It works for all book formats (ebooks, audiobooks, and print books), and it can be used whether you have a two-person team or a publishing company.
Not convinced? Our case study shows how bestselling authors like Michael Anderle reduced their workload by hours with PD Abacus. Read the free case study here.
Free Ebook Conversion
Free ebook conversion means you have one less thing to worry about when publishing your ebook. You can either use our free online ebook converter here, or convert your manuscript during the book upload process within your PublishDrive dashboard.
AI Technology
Have you met Savant? Savant is PublishDrive’s AI-powered robot, who can help you throughout your publishing journey:
- Metadata: Refining your metadata is crucial for discoverability. If you don’t know where to begin, Savant can help! He will instantly “read” your uploaded ebook, and suggest the most relevant ebook categories so that your ideal readers can easily find your titles in stores.
- Amazon Ads: Savant helps identify the most relevant products to target for optimal campaign performance. (Note: Savant for Amazon Advertising can only be used by authors who distribute ebooks to Amazon through PublishDrive).
Ready to Get Started?
If you’re ready to move your titles to PublishDrive, we’d love to help! First, sign up for your FREE PublishDrive account to take the next step. We’re looking forward to distributing your ebooks worldwide!