How to use Draft2Digital: the aggregator route for wide publishing

Draft2Digital is an aggregator: one manuscript goes in, and Draft2Digital converts it, distributes it to a list of retail and library stores, tracks sales and pays you, while you keep one dashboard instead of one account per store. Every claim below comes from Draft2Digital's own pages, fetched and read for this guide. The direct routes it can sit beside or replace each have their own walkthrough: how to publish on Amazon KDP, how to publish on IngramSpark, how to publish on Kobo Writing Life, how to publish on Barnes & Noble Press, how to publish on Apple Books and how to publish on Google Play Books.

What Draft2Digital is

The company's one-line description is "We are Self-Publishing with Support", and the job description follows: "We build tools and services that let you focus on writing while we take care of layout, publishing, distribution, print-on-demand paperbacks, and more." The reach claim sits on the same page: "We distribute ebook and paperback books to all the major retailers online, plus hundreds of storefronts worldwide."

The money model is commission, stated twice in the FAQ: "Draft2Digital has no up-front charges for any of our services (formatting, conversion, distribution, and sales tracking)", and "We make a percentage of each of your books' sales, so we don't get paid unless you get paid." The account itself costs nothing to open: "It is free to make an account with Draft2Digital." Two account fees introduced in 2026 sit on top of the commission; their pages state them exactly, below.

Which stores Draft2Digital reaches

The FAQ answers under the heading "Draft2Digital helps you publish books to:" with a list that names Amazon (invite only), Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo (including Kobo Plus), the Smashwords Store, Tolino, OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Everand, Hoopla, Vivlio, BorrowBox and Gardners. The partners page describes the same network and adds Fable and Bookshop.org. The Amazon line is qualified there in plain words: "Draft2Digital offers Amazon distribution by invitation only."

Two fine points deserve their own sentences. Neither list fetched for this guide names Google Play Books; that store is reached direct, in how to publish on Google Play Books. And new stores require your action: "we won't automatically add your books to any new stores."

Switching channels is deliberately trivial: "Turning any of the sales channels on or off is as easy as clicking a checkbox."

How to publish through Draft2Digital

Files first: "Upload your book in .doc or .docx file format, and we'll convert your manuscript into an ebook or print book." The FAQ adds reach and one limit: "Anything Word can read, we can read. (RTF, OTF, TXT, too!)" and "Draft2Digital accepts epub files for ebook, but not print." There is no house style to learn: "we accept a variety of document formatting styles and don't have any single style guide". The one instruction that matters is to "Mark each new chapter or scene break with something distinctive, and be consistent."

ISBN handling is automatic: "Draft2Digital will automatically assign an ISBN to any book published through our system free of charge." The recording agency lists Draft2Digital as the "vendor of record", and a D2D-assigned ISBN cannot be used outside Draft2Digital's services. Bring your own and the answer is one word: "Absolutely!"

Pricing is yours: "The list price is up to you!" Free is allowed with a fallback: "You can price your ebook for free except for certain stores and libraries", and where a store refuses free, "your book will be submitted at $0.99 (99-cents USD)". Scheduled sales exist too: "You can also schedule a promotional price so that your book's price will automatically change on the day of your choosing, and change back to your original price when your promotional period is over."

Pre-orders work without a finished book: "You can set up pre-orders as far out as a year in advance of your chosen release date", and "You aren't even required to have a final manuscript or cover for your ebook when you schedule your released date." One store gap: "At this time we are unable to support ebook pre-orders through Amazon."

Listing speed, in their words: "Draft2Digital will get your book listed just as fast as going direct", with the honest per-store footnote: "For ebooks, some stores will have your book on sale in a few short hours while other stores have more manual review processes that can take a few days. Library retailers often take the longest." Print is slower, "somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 weeks".

Formatting tools: what the conversion gives you

The conversion step is a product of its own: "Just give us your story or book content with consistent header styles, and we'll make the files for you." "We'll make sure your book gets a working Table of Contents and page breaks between chapters." The output is portable: "Our conversion process creates a beautiful epub, which you are allowed to download and use at your discretion." It stays portable even if you never publish with them: "Even if you choose not to publish with us, we have you covered. Draft2Digital gives you the option of downloading the files we convert for you at no charge." Series authors get "automated end-matter" that updates "content such as the author biography" without touching each book again.

Draft2Digital fees: the commission, then the account fees

The commission, in the FAQ's own arithmetic: "The short answer is that our fee is approximately 10% of the price you set for your book (list price). That means most of our stores take about 30%, Draft2Digital takes about 10%, and you keep about 60% of the list price of your ebook."

In 2026 the company added account fees, announced on its blog: "New accounts will include a one-time fee of $20 (USD)." The FAQ's phrasing of the pair: "there is a non-refundable, one-time activation fee of $20 (USD) for new accounts and an annual maintenance fee of $12 (USD)" which applies "for accounts that earn less than one-hundred dollars a year in book sales." The waiver is stated plainly: "If you earn $100 or more from your book sales over 12 months, you will not be charged this fee." Accounts with nothing live are spared: "Accounts with no titles in distribution (no active request to list at stores) are not subject to the maintenance fee." And publication has a gate in front of it: "All accounts must pay an activation fee and complete tax verification before publication is allowed."

D2D Print: paperbacks through Ingram's channels

Print exists, with limits stated up front: "With D2D Print, our print-on-demand (POD) service, you can publish a paperback as quickly and easily as an ebook." What it is: "D2D Print is a Print on Demand (POD) service where your published book will be listed as in-stock through online booksellers". Where it reaches: "Your D2D Print book will be made available to Amazon and to all distribution channels served by Ingram, including Barnes and Noble and most independent bookstores in the US."

The format list is short: "D2D Print only offers perfect bound paperback books." Six trim sizes run from 5 x 8 to 8.5 x 11 inches, and the page-count rule is exact: "For print, the minimum page count is 32. The maximum is 1050." Earnings: "you will make about 45% of the list price of your print book, minus the base printing cost." The overlap warning deserves its own line: "If you currently sell a print book with Amazon KDP Print Expanded Distribution or Ingram Spark, we do not recommend you list with D2D Print." The direct print routes are IngramSpark and KDP; the vocabulary is print on demand.

Getting paid through Draft2Digital

Five payout methods, each with its own minimum in the FAQ: direct deposit at $10 USD, international direct deposit at $20, Payoneer at $20, PayPal at $10 and check at $100. Rhythm: "Draft2Digital will send payments on or around the 15th of each month." The lag behind the rhythm belongs to the stores: "Most stores pay for ebook and audiobook sales 30-60 days after the end of the month when the sale happens, and print sales are typically paid up to 90 days after the end of the month when the sale happens."

Non-US authors have one tax fact to know: "Draft2Digital is required to withhold 30% income tax for all international publishers and submit that percentage to the IRS", though the FAQ notes a reduced withholding rate may apply for residents of countries with a US tax treaty.

Aggregator or direct: how to decide

What aggregation does not cost you, in their words: "Publishing with Draft2Digital does not affect your copyright. Draft2Digital claims no ownership of any copyrights for your book." Exclusivity: "We don't acquire rights or require any kind of exclusivity". Books already published elsewhere can still be added: "If you've already published your book through another distributor, you can still use Draft2Digital to expand your reach and simplify your project maintenance for all other digital stores." One caution sits in the same answer: "We do not recommend double-listing your books as this will split your sales ranking."

Direct still wins in three places their own pages mark. Amazon: the Kindle channel here is invitation only and ebook pre-orders do not run through it, so KDP direct is the full Amazon route. Apple: promo codes are an iTunes Connect feature, as how to publish on Apple Books covers. Print overlap: with KDP Expanded Distribution or IngramSpark already live, their advice is to not double-list. Every other direct route, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, has its own guide linked above; the route decision as a whole is publishing paths.

Who should use Draft2Digital

It fits the wide series author: many stores, one dashboard, one price, end matter that updates everywhere when book three changes your biography. It fits the writer who never wants to learn formatting: a Word file with consistent headers becomes a working ebook with a table of contents and chapter breaks. It fits libraries by default: OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Hoopla, BorrowBox and Vivlio are channels most authors never open directly. It does not fit the author chasing every Amazon feature (KDP direct), the author who needs hardcover or color print (the direct print guides cover those), or anyone already listing print through KDP's expanded distribution. Compressed: open the free account, expect the $20 activation and the $12 maintenance fee if the book earns under $100 a year, upload Word or EPUB, take the free ISBN per book or bring your own, price once and let the checkbox channels carry it, and go direct where a store's own tools matter.