Publish Drive - another D2D Style Aggregator

[RappaDizzy]

Repurposing this thread on Publish Drive. Mark Dawson did a couple of podcasts on this company and here is one. Another opportunity to go wide with our books.
You can sign up here; yes my aff link

https://admin.publishdrive.com/registration/aff/eugenelloydmacrae

[Bill Hiatt]

I found PublishDrive to be easy to work with. I used it primarily for Google Play, but, as long as I was there, I picked up other storefronts not covered by other distributors.

PD adjusts the price on Google Play until it matches what you want. In other words, it takes care of getting the price to match what it is elsewhere despite GP's ridiculous discounting.

The list of unusual storefronts is not as big as it looks. Some only take books in Hungarian. Others are still listed as "on the way" for me, meaning the distributor has been sent the book but hasn't yet set it up. (The book in question was listed with PD in November of 2017--you've got to love small storefronts.) I think I ended up with the book in five extra stores. Since it costs nothing, it's worth it.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I've just started down the PublishDrive road myself.  I've only uploaded Buddy so far.  I want to see how everything works first.

It took a week for Buddy to be approved by PublishDrive.  Then it got sent to the stores.  It took several additional days for the story to appear "live" at one of the stores.  It just happened within the last day or so.  Still waiting on the other stores.

As long as there aren't any problems, I'll continue trickling my books in.

The unknown (to me) is the issue of price changes.  My hope is that any price changes I make will take place more rapidly.  This is necessary, obviously, for promotional purposes.  I can't wait two weeks every time for a price change to go through.  Perhaps someone with more experience with PD can chime in on this.

Anyway, that's my experience so far.  The interface takes a little getting used to, but it's not hard to figure out.




ETA:  Forgot to mention something.  They require you to classify your book as "adult" if it contains violence or erotic material.  The erotic part is clear enough, but I'm not sure what they mean by "violence."  Plenty of children's books contain violence, so I would guess they just mean graphic violence--like horror-type stuff--rather than, say, the violence found in Old Yeller or something.  I might contact them about this unless someone else knows.

I also decided to withdraw Buddy from every store except Google Play.  Once I get an idea for what these smaller stores' sensibilities are, I might add them.  But I figured I'd take baby steps until I know what I'm doing.

[Bill Hiatt]

I also decided to withdraw Buddy from every store except Google Play.  Once I get an idea for what these smaller stores' sensibilities are, I might add them.  But I figured I'd take baby steps until I know what I'm doing.

Given your concern about price changes, that's wise.

Judging by how slowly those small storefronts put books up, I have to think price changes are not exactly going to be fast.

[RappaDizzy]

Thanks for the feedback to all.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Update on my PublishDrive adventure so far:

I'm only using it for Google Play for now.  Not using it for any of the other stores PD offers.  That may change some day, but baby steps.

The product pages are live on GP, but the books are still listed as "on the way" on my PD dashboard.  Not sure what's going on there.

Google Play installed DRM on my books.  I didn't know this would happen, and it sucks, but from what I can tell, it's unavoidable.  PD doesn't install any DRM, but the various stores do their own things.

The paragraph breaks in my blurbs on the GP product pages are jacked up.  By which I mean there's supposed to be a blank line between block paragraphs but there isn't one.  So I'll need to figure out how to format that stuff and re-submit.

I set my prices higher on GP to compensate for any discounting shenanigans.  Looks like GP has already attempted some shenanigans.  It also looks like PD automatically adjusted the prices to compensate.  If that's indeed what happened, then I'm pleased, because it looks like PD is on top of that nonsense just as they claim.  This will give me the latitude I need to lower the prices so they're in line with prices on other retailers.  So far, this feature seems to be the best thing PD has going for it.

Alasdair Shaw's anthology was already on GP.  I discovered that when I clicked on my author name on one of my GP product pages and all my books--including the anthology--came up.  The anthology isn't DRM-protected, so I guess being direct on GP allows one to have that option.  It's just us riiff-raff from PD who are stuck with it.

That's all for now.  I'll continue to fumble my way through this thing.   

[RappaDizzy]

Okay. Got my first sale. One is better than none.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Okay. Got my first sale. One is better than none.

 

I just had my third sale on Google Play.  I'm still getting downloads of Clouds of Venus there every day since the Bookbub, but those downloads are down to a trickle, and I'm not sure they'll stick around.  Remains to be seen.

I'm also thinking about lowering the prices so they're the same as elsewhere.  I was reluctant to make any changes like that during the Bookbub and its immediate aftermath, but now that the big spike has mostly tailed off, I might do it.  On the other hand, the royalty rate is lower, and that's a good reason to leave prices higher.  Still undecided.

As far as customer service goes, I've been impressed with PublishDrive so far.  Réka was both friendly and competent, and you can't ask for much more than that from a customer service rep.  She solved my blurb formatting issue quickly and with good cheer.

[RappaDizzy]

Got an email. These guys are adding some features I've heard authors asking about. Interesting.
Hello,

Co-authoring is great for collaborating and sharing the writing workload, but one of the biggest challenges is distributing royalties to each author.

Our new feature, Team Royalties, makes it easy to split royalties between multiple authors and other contributors!

This new feature offers the following:

Secure Opt-In Process: Only the book owner (the person who uploads the book to the platform) can add a co-author, and royalty sharing is enabled only when both sides confirm.
   Convenient Royalty Splitting: At the end of each pay period, royalties will be automatically distributed to the confirmed authors based on the fixed percentage set by the book owner.
   Account Access Restrictions: The co-author(s) assigned by the book owner can access the book’s metadata and sales data, but cannot edit the book.
   Unlimited Number of Co-Authors: One book can be shared with any number of co-authors.

Team Royalties will be a paid service, but all users who activate the service from now until the end of April 2019 can use it for free through the end of the year.

You can learn more about this feature in our recent blog post https://publishdrive.com/royalty-splitting-feature-for-co-authors/, help center article https://publishdrive.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019654433, and tutorial video

&feature=youtu.be.

Users can access the feature here https://admin.publishdrive.com/team-royalties.

We’re excited to see how Team Royalties will help authors maximize their professional collaborations!

Happy publishing!

Monica Dubé

Communications Manager

[Bill Hiatt]

Yet something else Amazon could easily incorporate but hasn't.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Yet something else Amazon could easily incorporate but hasn't.

It's a paid service, though--only free through the end of this year--so I wonder how feasible it's going to be for most authors.  If you're not already making pretty good sales, then this service could end up being a money pit.  And if you are making good sales, then there are probably easier ways--like setting up an LLC or something--to do the royalty-share thing anyway.  I couldn't find any prices for when the service goes to paid, so I have no idea how much it's going to cost.  So who knows if this is a good idea or not.   

If folks here give it a try, then I hope they'll share their experiences.

On a related note, has anyone figured out PublishDrive's/Google Play's reporting frequency yet?  It seems kind of haphazard.  Yesterday, my latest report was from March 10, three days prior.  Today, numbers for March 11, 12, and 13 all showed up at once.  I don't know whether this is PD's doing or Google Play's doing.  Anyway, it's weird.

[Bill Hiatt]

Yet something else Amazon could easily incorporate but hasn't.

It's a paid service, though--only free through the end of this year--so I wonder how feasible it's going to be for most authors.  If you're not already making pretty good sales, then this service could end up being a money pit.  And if you are making good sales, then there are probably easier ways--like setting up an LLC or something--to do the royalty-share thing anyway.  I couldn't find any prices for when the service goes to paid, so I have no idea how much it's going to cost.  So who knows if this is a good idea or not.   

If folks here give it a try, then I hope they'll share their experiences.

On a related note, has anyone figured out PublishDrive's/Google Play's reporting frequency yet?  It seems kind of haphazard.  Yesterday, my latest report was from March 10, three days prior.  Today, numbers for March 11, 12, and 13 all showed up at once.  I don't know whether this is PD's doing or Google Play's doing.  Anyway, it's weird.

You're more observant than I am. I missed the paid service part.

PublishDrive also has an option for full royalty pass-through--if you pay a hefty fee. Again, that would be something only really successful authors would even want to consider.

It doesn't seem as if splitting royalties between two people should add so much complication as to require a big extra fee, but I guess we'll see how big it is at some point.

[deedee]

On a related note, has anyone figured out PublishDrive's/Google Play's reporting frequency yet?  It seems kind of haphazard.  Yesterday, my latest report was from March 10, three days prior.  Today, numbers for March 11, 12, and 13 all showed up at once.  I don't know whether this is PD's doing or Google Play's doing.  Anyway, it's weird.

Google Play often delays reporting by a few days.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Just got the notification today that PublishDrive wants my payment info.  I've apparently reached whatever threshold they have for requiring that.  I entered my info and discovered they charge a dollar to make a deposit into my bank account.  Not crazy about that.  I raised my deposit threshold to $100.   

For the record, I've made a total of nine paid sales since the Bookbub--all from the trilogy books--and am getting a small but steady trickle of free downloads.  My presence on Google Play is very prawny, but it's not nonexistent.  It's something I can build on.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Just got an email from PublishDrive about Google Play.  I'm not pleased.

Recent changes in Google Play’s (“GP”) policies require that they must be in direct legal relationship with the copyright holder.
What this means for you:

    To keep titles for sale on GP in the future and upload new ones to GP via PublishDrive, you need to sign up to the Google Play Books Program as a publisher.
    Once you have an account, you’ll need to entrust PublishDrive to handle your Google Play Books account.
    Don’t worry; after completing this process, there will be no operational changes. We’ll still take care of your publishing, reporting, and payout. You will have a legal relationship with Google, but PublishDrive will be the Service Provider of the account.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the deadline to accomplish this is short. You must complete this process by 12 April 2019, or your books will be unavailable on GP after that deadline.
Thank you for your cooperation. Please act soon so your books will continue to be available to potentially billions of readers worldwide through Google Play.

I don't want a legal relationship with Google, damn it.   WTF   

Nonsense like this is part of the reason I wanted to use a distributor in the first place.

Not sure what I'm going to do yet.

[Leegreg]

I am confused as to why I would go through the process of getting a google play account, whatever that process is I haven’t even looked yet, and then turn it over to the distributor. If I have the account, why wouldn’t I just upload the books directly and not split the revenue?

[bardsandsages]

I am confused as to why I would go through the process of getting a google play account, whatever that process is I haven’t even looked yet, and then turn it over to the distributor. If I have the account, why wouldn’t I just upload the books directly and not split the revenue?

If Google is requiring a direct relationship with the publisher (and this is not a surprise to anyone that understands Google) then there is no benefit to having a third party manage that for you. In fact, legally, I would not allow a third party to do that for the same reason I would not turn over my KDP account to a third party.

If Google is making this change, it is for a reason. They closed down access to Google Play to indie authors for a long time due to poor customer experience. Google has also taken a lot of heat recently over malware apps on their site. To get a handle on that, they need to be able to deal with publishers on  a one-to-one basis. Allowing a third party to upload anything and everything to Google Play makes it harder for them to control the content on their site.

Look at it this way: If Google band John Doe from setting up an account, then John Doe can't just use a new name and set up a new account (because with a direct contract, John Doe has to provide his credentials to Google). But if Google block's John Doe's books through a third party, then John Doe can just republish using a pen name and Google wouldn't know.

[writeforlove]

I got the email too and I’m confused. I took a look at Google’s terms and it looks like the part Publishdrive is talking about has been there for months, if not years. I also don’t understand what that has to do with me because they mention companies, and I don’t have a company.

And yeah, I don’t see why I need Publishdrive then at all. If this is going to affect all distributors, I’ll have to stop publishing on Google, which makes me sad, but I don’t want to be forced to create a gmail account and I don’t have time to mess with yet another site.
 
I hope this is something that only affects Publishdrive. I wouldn’t mind if the distributors shared my basic info with Google, but I don’t want a Google account, especially if someone else can control it.

I’m tired of chasing Google Play. I already had to start from scratch when Pronoun closed and now this, just when my sales were recovering. I’ll be waiting to see if this affects D2D. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

I hope this is something that only affects Publishdrive.

I'm hoping this, too.  I sent an email to D2D last night asking them if Google had made the same demands from them.  They responded that no, Google hasn't made any such demands yet, but the relationship between D2D and GP is still "in beta," so they anticipate some changes once the "beta" period is over.

I also sent an email to PublishDrive last night.  I asked them what sort of info I would be required to give to Google.  I told them I couldn't find a publicly available sample of the publisher form Google wanted me to fill out, and I wasn't going to make an account without knowing in advance exactly what I was getting into.  Publishdrive hasn't responded to my email yet.

As far as I can tell, I now have three options:

1.)  Submit to Google's demands and continue to have my books on GP via PD.

2.)  Take my books down from GP and leave them down.

3.)  Take my books down from GP via PD but re-publish them at GP via D2D.

I'm leaning towards #3 at the moment.  I'm almost certainly not going to go with #1, because not only is it sort of the worst of all possible worlds from a practical standpoint, but it's also just plain offensive.  This demand from Google Play--and its absurdly short deadline for compliance--is unnecessarily onerous.  There are plenty of ways to combat black/gray-hat author shenanigans that don't require this sort of arrangement.

I won't do anything yet since PD hasn't responded to my email yet.  But yeah, I'm leaning towards option #3.  Maybe Google will eventually make similar demands of D2D, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[RappaDizzy]

I have (had?) a Google Play account from the start, put one book up and had nothing but problems from then on. I haven't bothered with it for years.  I'm not jumping through hoops for Google. I took my books off Google on Publishdrive and I'm not going to worry about it.  Maybe if I had been making significant money I would have worried about it.

On a side note I can also say I had money that Google owed me from my Google ads on a couple of websites but they always had a problem depositing the money into my account - the transit numbers, bank numbers etc were never right & they kept saying it was my fault so I just stopped working with them. My wife worked in the bank for 40 years so it wasn't like we didn't know what we were doing Google & YOU were the only problem

[notthatamanda]

1.)  Submit to Google's demands and continue to have my books on GP via PD.

2.)  Take my books down from GP and leave them down.

3.)  Take my books down from GP via PD but re-publish them at GP via D2D.

4?  Go direct to GP?

I know sometimes they aren't accepting new accounts, but if they are...

[Jake]

I also sent an email to PublishDrive last night.  I asked them what sort of info I would be required to give to Google.  I told them I couldn't find a publicly available sample of the publisher form Google wanted me to fill out, and I wasn't going to make an account without knowing in advance exactly what I was getting into.  Publishdrive hasn't responded to my email yet.

Why not just hit the "signup" button and read what information it's asking for? I have a Google Play account, I don't remember everything it wanted but I seem to recall the process was pretty painless.

[Bill Hiatt]

Though I agree with Julie that Google has good reason for wanting a direct relationship with its publishers, the one thing organizations like Publish Drive and Streetlib did was keep Google's insane discounting in check. I think Streetlib has an ancient agreement (similar to the one Pronoun had) that prevents the random discounting. Publish Drive was addressing the issue by fiddling with the price until it ended up being the one the author had asked for.

Without a middleman running interference on pricing, it's just not worth the headache for me. I don't sell enough on Google to make it worth it. I'll just pull my wide titles from there and be done.

[Jeff Tanyard]

1.)  Submit to Google's demands and continue to have my books on GP via PD.

2.)  Take my books down from GP and leave them down.

3.)  Take my books down from GP via PD but re-publish them at GP via D2D.

4?  Go direct to GP?

I know sometimes they aren't accepting new accounts, but if they are...

I don't want to go direct at GP.  See my response to Bill below.

I also sent an email to PublishDrive last night.  I asked them what sort of info I would be required to give to Google.  I told them I couldn't find a publicly available sample of the publisher form Google wanted me to fill out, and I wasn't going to make an account without knowing in advance exactly what I was getting into.  Publishdrive hasn't responded to my email yet.

Why not just hit the "signup" button and read what information it's asking for? I have a Google Play account, I don't remember everything it wanted but I seem to recall the process was pretty painless.

I still may do that.  I don't know.  I'll see what PD says first.

Without a middleman running interference on pricing, it's just not worth the headache for me. I don't sell enough on Google to make it worth it. I'll just pull my wide titles from there and be done.

This.  It's not just about the discounting, either.  If something goes wrong--and things do go wrong--then you'll have to deal with customer service.  I'd rather deal with PD's or D2D's customer service and let them wrestle with Google on my behalf.  I don't have the time or patience to deal with something like what Gene went through.

[Bill Hiatt]

I feel for Gene. I've heard Google Play horror stories before, but never one like that.

Imagine having a huge catalog and having to deal with that. Google would have to have a much larger market share to make it even remotely worthwhile to deal with them.

[bardsandsages]

Though I agree with Julie that Google has good reason for wanting a direct relationship with its publishers, the one thing organizations like Publish Drive and Streetlib did was keep Google's insane discounting in check.

See, I don't mind their discounting, because it is under the normal wholesale model. They discount, I still get my full profit. Amazon isn't my primary retailer, so any retailer wants to put my stuff on sale and let me get my full profit is welcome to do so. 

[bardsandsages]

Imagine having a huge catalog and having to deal with that. Google would have to have a much larger market share to make it even remotely worthwhile to deal with them.

Google isn't so much worried about "market share" as it is "profit." Google's interface has a learning curve, but once you get it, it is simple enough. And I've never had issues with customer service or getting paid. And I have a substantial catalog with them.

Also keep in mind: Google (like Apple) isn't set up to hold your hand and teach you the business. They assume you are already a professional business person and your relationship with them is a business-to-business relationship. A lot of people had their hand held by Amazon (because, let's face it, that made it easy for Amazon to get you to do things the way they wanted you to and to drag you into their exclusivity. Amazon's goal with indies was never "profit." It was marketing. They sold themselves as the world's largest bookstore, and they needed a volume of cheap content to convince people to adopt the Kindle. Indies were always a loss leader for Amazon.

Google isn't looking for a high volume of cheap content to serve as a loss leader. in order to sell devices or other services. It wants stuff that will sell and make them money. Babysitting a bunch of indies who frankly are often only even bothering to list on other sites just to get Amazon to price-match to zero isn't to their benefit. Their system is set up to benefit the way they run their business. There is no reason for them to make changes to make it "easier" for a demographic that may not actually benefit them at all.

[notthatamanda]

See, I don't mind their discounting, because it is under the normal wholesale model. They discount, I still get my full profit. Amazon isn't my primary retailer, so any retailer wants to put my stuff on sale and let me get my full profit is welcome to do so. 

So if Google discounts the book, and Amazon matches, when the discount period ends do you just go to Amazon and ask them to change the price back?  Do you get the emails that they found a lower price and you are violating the TOS?  Hope you don't mind me asking, I haven't run into this, but it would be nice to know the best way to handle it.  Thanks, Amanda

[bardsandsages]

So if Google discounts the book, and Amazon matches, when the discount period ends do you just go to Amazon and ask them to change the price back?  Do you get the emails that they found a lower price and you are violating the TOS?  Hope you don't mind me asking, I haven't run into this, but it would be nice to know the best way to handle it.  Thanks, Amanda

No. I don't.

1. I am NOT violating the TOS. I set my LIST PRICE the same at every vendor. When Google discounts, they still show the list price and then a sale price. I've never had Amazon email me that I was violating the TOS. And if they did, I would tell them to learn to read and see that the LIST PRICE is the same on Google as it is on their website.

2. I don't micromanage pricing like that. That isn't how I run my business. If a vendor is discounting my book, I simply promote that and say "Hey! They are discounting the book on their own right now and I don't know how long it will be on sale, so get it while it's hot!" Unless Amazon did something stupid like price-match to free because of an illegal pirate site, they can discount all they want.

[notthatamanda]

No. I don't.

1. I am NOT violating the TOS. I set my LIST PRICE the same at every vendor. When Google discounts, they still show the list price and then a sale price. I've never had Amazon email me that I was violating the TOS. And if they did, I would tell them to learn to read and see that the LIST PRICE is the same on Google as it is on their website.

2. I don't micromanage pricing like that. That isn't how I run my business. If a vendor is discounting my book, I simply promote that and say "Hey! They are discounting the book on their own right now and I don't know how long it will be on sale, so get it while it's hot!" Unless Amazon did something stupid like price-match to free because of an illegal pirate site, they can discount all they want.

Thank you!  These are the nuances I need to understand better.  I get it now. 

Edit - My whole post was the edit because I hit post before I managed to write anything.

[Bill Hiatt]

Though I agree with Julie that Google has good reason for wanting a direct relationship with its publishers, the one thing organizations like Publish Drive and Streetlib did was keep Google's insane discounting in check.

See, I don't mind their discounting, because it is under the normal wholesale model. They discount, I still get my full profit. Amazon isn't my primary retailer, so any retailer wants to put my stuff on sale and let me get my full profit is welcome to do so. 

I get that part, but doesn't Amazon price match? There seems to be quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that it price matches when Google discounts, sometimes with undesirable results.

[notthatamanda]

Though I agree with Julie that Google has good reason for wanting a direct relationship with its publishers, the one thing organizations like Publish Drive and Streetlib did was keep Google's insane discounting in check.

See, I don't mind their discounting, because it is under the normal wholesale model. They discount, I still get my full profit. Amazon isn't my primary retailer, so any retailer wants to put my stuff on sale and let me get my full profit is welcome to do so. 

I get that part, but doesn't Amazon price match? There seems to be quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that it price matches when Google discounts, sometimes with undesirable results.

Sorry for butting in, I'm just trying to understand this myself.  From KDP:

4. Setting Your List Price
You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book.

So there is list price (which is the price you put into GP, for example).  Then GP discounts it.  You aren't violating the TOS with Amazon if your GP list price and Amazon (list) price are the same. 
EG:  GP List price:  $10  Discounted to $7.99
Amazon List price could be $10, or $7.99
If you put Amazon list price in at $10, they can/probably will price match GPs discount to $7.99 but you aren't violating your Amazon TOS because the list prices were the same.  Ditto if you list your Amazon book at $7.99, it is lower than the GP list price so you are honoring the TOS.
So you start with the price you want to get for the book at Amazon, and raise up the GP list price to make sure you won't be price matched lowered than you want at Amazon.

That's how I'm understanding it, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I received the following comment on my blog:

Hi Jeff! This is Monica from PublishDrive. We apologize for any inconvenience this situation may have caused. Our team understands how frustrating it is to deal with these logistical issues.

Also, I wanted to give you a heads up that Google let us know these updated policies are being enforced consistently across all aggregators and ebook distribution services. So unfortunately, if you distribute your books to Google Play through another aggregator, you’ll likely run into the same problem.

We’ll continue to keep our users updated about this situation as more information becomes available. In the meantime, feel free to email support@publishdrive.com if you ever have any questions.

So there we go.   

As I've said before, I don't blame PublishDrive for this at all.  It's all Google's doing, and it it looks like they're not done yet.

[bardsandsages]

GP List price:  $10  Discounted to $7.99
Amazon List price could be $10, or $7.99
If you put Amazon list price in at $10, they can/probably will price match GPs discount to $7.99 but you aren't violating your Amazon TOS because the list prices were the same.  Ditto if you list your Amazon book at $7.99, it is lower than the GP list price so you are honoring the TOS.
So you start with the price you want to get for the book at Amazon, and raise up the GP list price to make sure you won't be price matched lowered than you want at Amazon.

Again, I come from a retail/consumer packaging background, so I use terms in specific ways. Your LIST PRICE should always be uniform across all retailers. This is a huge deal in the entirety of retail. In fact, pretty much every user agreement you agreed to to sell your book has some sort of verbiage in it that says you will not offer to sell the product at a lower price elsewhere. It is NOT just Amazon that has that statement in the TOS. They pretty much all do. 

To understand this, you have to not think about "royalties" and think about "revenue." Amazon, Google, Nook: these are NOT your publishers. Despite them saying they pay "you" royalties, what they are really paying you is the difference between you list price and what you agreed to sell the book to them for. In normal retail terms, Amazon doesn't "pay" you a 70% royalty. You "sell" the book to Amazon for 70% of the list.

By setting different LIST prices at different retailers, you are actually engaging in fraudulent business practices. You are telling retailer one: My book's list price is $5 and telling retailer two: My book's list price is $6.

Put it this way: You and I both go to Toyota to buy a car. They have a "$2000 trade in guaranteed!" promotion going on. I come in with a nice trade-in, so the salesman says, "the car lists for $19,999, and you have a $2000 trade, so you final price is $17,999." But my trade-in is worth $2000, so it's all good.

You, however, have a shoddy trade-in. So the salesman says, "the car lists for $21,999, and you have a $2,000 trade, so your final price is $19,999."

THAT is the reason why list prices are supposed to be uniform across the board.

This is why I 'set and forget" my list prices and use other promotional tools to market instead of relying on "sales" that require that I lower the list price temporarily.

[writeforlove]

I received the following comment on my blog:

Hi Jeff! This is Monica from PublishDrive. We apologize for any inconvenience this situation may have caused. Our team understands how frustrating it is to deal with these logistical issues.

Also, I wanted to give you a heads up that Google let us know these updated policies are being enforced consistently across all aggregators and ebook distribution services. So unfortunately, if you distribute your books to Google Play through another aggregator, you’ll likely run into the same problem.

We’ll continue to keep our users updated about this situation as more information becomes available. In the meantime, feel free to email support@publishdrive.com if you ever have any questions.

So there we go.   

As I've said before, I don't blame PublishDrive for this at all.  It's all Google's doing, and it it looks like they're not done yet.

I saw this too, but I still can't find any information about Google's policy updates or figure out what exactly was updated. The link Publishdrive gave me still leads to a page that hasn't been changed or updated and only mentions companies and publishers. Unless they changed their definition of what a publisher is. But even if that's the case, I'm confused why Publishdrive has such a short deadline that can't be extended while Google apparently hasn't contacted any other distributors about it yet, as far as I know. 

[Bill Hiatt]

GP List price:  $10  Discounted to $7.99
Amazon List price could be $10, or $7.99
If you put Amazon list price in at $10, they can/probably will price match GPs discount to $7.99 but you aren't violating your Amazon TOS because the list prices were the same.  Ditto if you list your Amazon book at $7.99, it is lower than the GP list price so you are honoring the TOS.
So you start with the price you want to get for the book at Amazon, and raise up the GP list price to make sure you won't be price matched lowered than you want at Amazon.

Again, I come from a retail/consumer packaging background, so I use terms in specific ways. Your LIST PRICE should always be uniform across all retailers. This is a huge deal in the entirety of retail. In fact, pretty much every user agreement you agreed to to sell your book has some sort of verbiage in it that says you will not offer to sell the product at a lower price elsewhere. It is NOT just Amazon that has that statement in the TOS. They pretty much all do. 

To understand this, you have to not think about "royalties" and think about "revenue." Amazon, Google, Nook: these are NOT your publishers. Despite them saying they pay "you" royalties, what they are really paying you is the difference between you list price and what you agreed to sell the book to them for. In normal retail terms, Amazon doesn't "pay" you a 70% royalty. You "sell" the book to Amazon for 70% of the list.

By setting different LIST prices at different retailers, you are actually engaging in fraudulent business practices. You are telling retailer one: My book's list price is $5 and telling retailer two: My book's list price is $6.

Put it this way: You and I both go to Toyota to buy a car. They have a "$2000 trade in guaranteed!" promotion going on. I come in with a nice trade-in, so the salesman says, "the car lists for $19,999, and you have a $2000 trade, so you final price is $17,999." But my trade-in is worth $2000, so it's all good.

You, however, have a shoddy trade-in. So the salesman says, "the car lists for $21,999, and you have a $2,000 trade, so your final price is $19,999."

THAT is the reason why list prices are supposed to be uniform across the board.

This is why I 'set and forget" my list prices and use other promotional tools to market instead of relying on "sales" that require that I lower the list price temporarily.

What you're saying is very clear, but some of us are up in the air about what happens when Google discounts from the list price and then Amazon lowers it's list price to match the discounted price on Google? That's really the concern. Gene's example earlier in the thread sounds like a nightmare that isn't really worth having.

[notthatamanda]

So what you should do is decide what you want the book to sell to the customer for?
Say that is $7.99.  Google play is going to discount it so you put it in google play at $10, they mark it down to $7.99.
You put it in at Amazon at $10 so they have the same list price as google, but amazon price matches it to $7.99.
You put it in at every retailer at $10 and if they don't price match it's on them?

Now I want to pull my books off Google play.  I'm not trying to defraud anyone but I'm worried that I'm doing something wrong and don't even know it.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I'm confused why Publishdrive has such a short deadline that can't be extended while Google apparently hasn't contacted any other distributors about it yet, as far as I know. 

I don't understand that either.  I got the email from PublishDrive on April 3.  The deadline for compliance is April 12.  That's only nine days for authors to talk about the issue and decide what they want to do.     And that's assuming all the technical stuff goes off without a hitch, and we all know the odds of that happening.  In fact, I just now received an email from PublishDrive warning about Google-related delays outside of PD's control.

Even if we assume Google's motives for doing this are as pure as the driven snow, the way they've gone about it is, to understate the matter, "not ideal."

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm confused why Publishdrive has such a short deadline that can't be extended while Google apparently hasn't contacted any other distributors about it yet, as far as I know. 

I don't understand that either.  I got the email from PublishDrive on April 3.  The deadline for compliance is April 12.  That's only nine days for authors to talk about the issue and decide what they want to do.     And that's assuming all the technical stuff goes off without a hitch, and we all know the odds of that happening.  In fact, I just now received an email from PublishDrive warning about Google-related delays outside of PD's control.

Even if we assume Google's motives for doing this are as pure as the driven snow, the way they've gone about it is, to understate the matter, "not ideal."

I don't really care why they're doing it, either. I just removed Google Play from my PublishDrive distribution.  Actually, that was only one title. (I have other wide titles, but I haven't gotten around to setting them up on PublishDrive's unique outlets yet.)

The one title has thus far sold exactly one copy on Google Play and about 80 on Amazon (not counting paperbacks). About 1.2% extra sales just isn't worth jumping through flaming hoops to get.

[Mammasan]

1.)  Submit to Google's demands and continue to have my books on GP via PD.

2.)  Take my books down from GP and leave them down.

3.)  Take my books down from GP via PD but re-publish them at GP via D2D.

4?  Go direct to GP?

I know sometimes they aren't accepting new accounts, but if they are...

To go direct with Google Play:

https://play.google.com/books/publish/?re=1&fbclid=IwAR27tLY290FLFJ0Zt_2XN7TztwnToxS9whINRvT1gzahrGZmplBH7N0DBHQ

[BillSmithBooksDotCom]

A simple way around the Google vs Amazon discounting issue is to have different "editions" on each store -- even adding a small preface, etc would make it a different edition and you just need to give edition distinctive edition names so if you ever get contacted by a distributor you can make that distinction.

That is how stores with price-matching guarantees often get around it -- they ensure with manufacturers that they have exclusive sku/model designations for a specific product so that no other retailer carries that exact sku/model # even if the product is identical to that carried by another retailer.

[okey dokey]

BillSmithBooks above had the best advice I've seen.

Very creative!

[bardsandsages]

That is how stores with price-matching guarantees often get around it -- they ensure with manufacturers that they have exclusive sku/model designations for a specific product so that no other retailer carries that exact sku/model # even if the product is identical to that carried by another retailer.

I work in contract packaging. No. This is not have exclusivity works. When a company has an exclusive product, it is an exclusive product. Period. Full stop. A manufacturer try to pull a stunt like you described with WalMart, WalMart would fine them (because that is what Walmart does, they "fine" you and just take the money out of what they own for the product.)

If a manufacturer creates a specific SIZE for a retailer, it is not to "get around" price-matching guarantees. It is normally part of a larger promotion. Manufacturers are not going to spend money on cutting dies, molds, and special equipment (changing the size of a product is a HUGE expense) to make special sizes just to appease some weird price-matching guarantee issue.