I am publishing wide on Draft2Digital, but it looks like I will need to handle Amazon directly.

Can anyone recommend good, RECENT instructions on how to set up non-exclusive publishing through Amazon? (The instructions I have seen are more than a year old and probably obsolete, and online search is not trustworthy these days.)

I have set up an LLC to be the publisher.

#WritingCommunity #selfPublishing

@elysegrasso From what I understand, if you aren't opting into Kindle Select, you are non-exclusive with Amazon.

At least, that's what I've had to do for my books. I was on Kindle Select. So had to opt-out, wait till I was off the Kindle Select program and then I published with Draft2Digital.

@f I'm already on D2D.

@elysegrasso

I might be misunderstanding your question, but if you want to be non exclusive when publishing on Amazon KDP, just don't enlist your book in Kindle Select.

Exclusivity is opt in (by using Kindle Select). If you don't do that, your book is non exclusive.

@Zumbador I do not want Amazon to published my book (it is already published) I just want them to distribute it. Most of the articles I am finding assume the reader wants (or will allow) Amazon to be the publisher.

@elysegrasso It sounds as if you are not publishing via Amazon. If you aren't publishing via Amazon, then you should be fine to just tick the box on D2D to distribute via Amazon and you should be good to go.

If you are publishing via Amazon, then you should not opt into Kindle Select because that's when the exclusivity kicks in.

Hopefully that clarifies things better than my first response since in my first response, I assumed that you were publishing via Amazon and also wanted to publish via D2D without Amazon exclusivitity.

@elysegrasso
When you upload your book to KDP, on the last page, you have the possibility to enroll in KDP select.
Do NOT choose that, and you'll be fine.

Also, on the second page, where you upload your manuscript, use your own ISBN. Then, Amazon will just be a distributor. I've done it with most of my books now.

BTW, started reading from smashwords,and im already a fan of Franz-Karl!

@anderlandbooks Thanks. I think (hope) that I have everything filled out correctly on the KDP forms.

People who read my prompt responses will not be surprised to hear that I am nit-picky about the meanings of items on standard forms, and paranoid about making errors due to false assumptions.

I never seem to fall into the simplest default categories: D2D decided I was enough of a corner case they wanted me to deal with Amazon directly.

I'm glad Franz-Karl is gaining a fan. 🙂

@elysegrasso oh, and name your superior magpie as (I forgot the term, but it's right below the ISBNn part)...

@elysegrasso and last addition: If you chose Amazon on your d2d submission, do not go through KDP again. They will reject you.

@anderlandbooks I chose Amazon at D2D but would not promise Superior Magpie never publish anyone else's books (I have 98 unused ISBNs and a friend who might want to publish) so they asked me to deal with Amazon directly.

@elysegrasso ah, ok. Then you should be fine

@elysegrasso

This might just be an imprecise language thing in the articles you're reading.

I'm assuming you're publishing your book through Amazon KDP? That means you're the publisher, and Amazon is the distributor.

Amazon does publish books, but that's a different (sorry my brain has gone blank on the term) aspect? Of Amazon than KDP.

People say the book is published with Amazon KDP but that doesn't mean Amazon is the publisher. KDP is making it possible for them to publish the book themselves.

Does that make sense?

@Zumbador @elysegrasso Yeah this. If you have an account at kdp.amazon.com and you go to the bookshelf to create an e-book: Amazon is the distributor. Amazon is not the publisher. Amazon will offer a box under the "content" page where you can list your LLC as the publisher.

@elysegrasso

If you're distributing ebooks through KDP to save on D2D's fee (I do this), you need to deselect Amazon as someone D2D is distributing to, and then create your ebook on KDP.

I've published 19 titles, using both KDP and D2D for each of them. I'm afraid I never used a guide for the process so I can't point you to one, current or otherwise, but I'm happy to help if you have other questions. I found both sites pretty self-explanatory.

@rowyn Part of my problem is that 40+ years of software engineering left me deeply suspicious of online forms...

I initially told D2D to distribute through Amazon, but my LLC made them twitchy, so they asked me to deal with Amazon directly.
Removing a layer of indirection probably makes sense if there's a chance Superior Magpie will ever publish other authors. Trying to set up with D2D's POD service does not give me good feelings about their handling of complications.

@elysegrasso Oh that's interesting. I never tried to distribute through D2D to Amazon, because Amazon's site was easy to use and the sales there made it worth an extra 15 minutes to upload the book and not have D2D collect a fee.

I am confident uploading to KDP will not make Amazon say they're your publisher. If you look at any of my books there, you'll see they all list Delight in Books as the publisher.

@elysegrasso The good thing about KDP is that you can change almost anything later on - apart from title, author, ISBN, and book size, though. And the support used to be quite good (no idea what it's like nowadays, though).

I had a lot of trial and error.