Why My Books Are Only On Ko-fi (Itch Incoming)

Draft2Digital, the platform I’ve been using to format and distribute my e-books – one that was helpful and convenient and affordable – recently added a maintenance fee for users. Now, this would not be such a huge problem if a) this were communicated before roll out, at least so we wouldn’t be blindsided, and b) the costs took into account the users themselves. So many of us are primarily indie authors from countries outside of the US, and it honestly seems as if D2D does not care about that.

So I have decided to delete my account with that. Which also was more difficult to do than simply finding a ‘Deactivate Account’ button. One has to email them to get their account deleted, and then wait for a reply to confirm. (The reply I got asked me if I was certain, gave me the option of delisting my books so I wouldn’t need to pay an activation fee if I ever decided to resign up. No thank you, D2D!)

I used the word “predatory” in my email to D2D to cancel my account to them, and I stand by it. It certainly seems that way when the platform is choosing to penalise those of us making under a certain amount – already struggling to sell our books – and not those authors who are selling their books well. It feels almost targeted to smaller authors, to possibly already marginalised authors, and for those of us living in countries where conversion rates mean the $12 maintenance fee amounts to more than, it can even be dangerous.

Maybe D2D will change their mind if too many of the writers using their platforms reach out. They did about their AI stance, after all. But if and until they do, I will not be using the platform. I have my account and with that, my books will no longer be distributed to the e-retailers that work with D2D. Even after they change their stance (if they do), I may not get back on the platform. The trust is gone for me.

Until then, my books are available on Ko-fi. I am looking at putting them up on Itch.Io as well, a few friends have spoken well of the platform – I made an account last week to get a feel of it – and I’ll be looking into how else I can get my books back on the major e-retailers.

This has been a disappointing turn of events but I am taking steps to figure out where I go from here and I know many other authors are too. I hope you’ll stick with us as we do.