Pronoun publishing

[Jo Zebedee]

this looks interesting:

Pronoun | Publishing, for Authors.

Anyone else have any knowledge of this platform? Their rates are good and they seem a viable way of cutting through the Amazon monopoly.

@Amelia Faulkner ?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Looks like an alternative to Smashwords, though the rates for Amazon outside of North America are poor: What are Pronoun’s royalty rates? | Pronoun

Perhaps the most interesting part is that it's owned by Pan Macmillan - clearly one trad pub building a self-pub platform.
Macmillan Acquires Pronoun, Formerly Vook

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Looks like an alternative to Smashwords, though the rates for Amazon outside of North America are poor: What are Pronoun’s royalty rates? | Pronoun

Perhaps the most interesting part is that it's owned by Pan Macmillan - clearly one trad pub building a self-pub platform.
Macmillan Acquires Pronoun, Formerly Vook

I think they go a good way beyond Smashwords including a focus on key words which would be a useful interface.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

*Steeples fingers*

Everyone I know who uses Pronoun absolutely loves them, even though their reporting is slow as balls and sometimes nonfunctioning altogether. Advantages of Pronoun include being able to list books on Amazon above $9.99 and still at the higher royalty rate, rather than taking a whacking great big pay cut for it, and people have noticed that when they distribute via Pronoun they get handle considerably better by Amazon's algorithms than when they distribute via Smash or D2D.

I've been considering giving them a shot purely to list a bundle above $9.99, and if you're interested in signing up it's best to do so fast, before they start charging for the service.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

*Steeples fingers*

Everyone I know who uses Pronoun absolutely loves them, even though their reporting is slow as balls and sometimes nonfunctioning altogether. Advantages of Pronoun include being able to list books on Amazon above $9.99 and still at the higher royalty rate, rather than taking a whacking great big pay cut for it, and people have noticed that when they distribute via Pronoun they get handle considerably better by Amazon's algorithms than when they distribute via Smash or D2D.

I've been considering giving them a shot purely to list a bundle above $9.99, and if you're interested in signing up it's best to do so fast, before they start charging for the service.

Thanks, Amelia - I was hearing good things about them on Facebook too.

I have a trilogy due for republishing soon (rights reversion) so that might be the ideal time to jump and give it a try Inish Carraig finishes its current kdp enrolment around then too.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

Oh heck yes!

 

[Nick B]

I might give them a try, swap out primordial from d2d and try them. I'm still pretty loath to lose kindle unlimited on my main stuff as it still gets reads compared to almost no sales of primordial on d2d...

 

[ralphkern]

I have swapped one book to Pronoun. Thus far it performs very well (however, that is in combination with a re-release and partnership working). There is a somewhat frustrating delay in reporting when compared to the instant gratification I'm used to.

I would be loath to lose unlimited and its benefits. I need to assess whether the wide sales compensate for that. The biggest advantage is to price at 0.99 and receive 70% royalty.

The next milestone - Do they actually pay up?

 

[The Bluestocking]

Another advantage of Pronoun which may be not obvious to folks:

They distribute e-books to Google Play. Not every distributor does.

And this is a godsend to readers in Asia because we can access Google Play with no problem but Amazon has not entered most of Asia (except India and Japan) and has only just set up shop in Singapore as part of their rollout in Southeast Asia.

Readers in Asia may not seem important to many Western authors but we're here and I'm guessing that we're a huge untapped market, especially in former British colonies where we do read, write, and speak English.

 

[The Bluestocking]

One drawback that one of my favourite Indie romance authors told me about:

Indie authors distributing via Pronoun are unable to put their books up for pre-order on Google Play. The book will only appear once it's published and on the market.

 

[Nick B]

Is that right though that the royalties for Amazon sales, for UK authors is just 41% though? Because that is pretty poor...

 

[The Bluestocking]

In case anyone missed this:

Pronoun is winding down. They'll cease operations by January 2018.

 

[ralphkern]

Rather annoying, not to mention costly, as it means losing all those valuable 'Also Bought' links. Reviews will carry over.

I notice today, Draft 2 Digital has announced a partnership with Amazon. Personally, I will be steering clear - once bitten, twice shy and all that jazz. But it does hold some value for wide authors to consider.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Rather annoying, not to mention costly, as it means losing all those valuable 'Also Bought' links. Reviews will carry over.

I notice today, Draft 2 Digital has announced a partnership with Amazon. Personally, I will be steering clear - once bitten, twice shy and all that jazz. But it does hold some value for wide authors to consider.

I find Draft 2 better than Smashwords but the big draw of Pronoun was the flexibility around promotions

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

Rather annoying, not to mention costly, as it means losing all those valuable 'Also Bought' links. Reviews will carry over.

Yeah, that's a real pain in the arse. Keeping the reviews is the easy part, alas.