Streetlib vs. PublishDrive

[Jeff Tanyard]

In another thread, someone mentioned that Streetlib won't let you price a book at "free."  This is the first I've heard of this.  What about PublishDrive?

Help me out, folks.  Tell me what I need to know about these two distributors.

[guest819]

from personal experience I would suggest you avoid Streetlib - I don't know about PublishDrive

[Jeff Tanyard]

from personal experience I would suggest you avoid Streetlib - I don't know about PublishDrive

Can you share any details?  What soured you on Streetlib?

[ashleycapes]

I've got a free title on Streetlib now and had no problems with making it so - but it's my perma-free, so I haven't seen how Streetlib responds to ensuring retailers raise/lower the price between free and paid during a temporary free promo. I just set it to free or price 0.00 (can't quite remember) and haven't looked at it via the dash since, but it's still free on the retailers.

I'm only using Streetlib for access to Google books and a few other smaller guys though.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I'm only using Streetlib for access to Google books and a few other smaller guys though.

This is my interest, too, so your experience is definitely relevant to me.

I've got a free title on Streetlib now and had no problems with making it so - but it's my perma-free

Perma-free is my main concern.  Thanks for chiming in, Ashley.   

[guest819]

from personal experience I would suggest you avoid Streetlib - I don't know about PublishDrive

Can you share any details?  What soured you on Streetlib?

Not on a public forum and no, not really. Except their system of recording sales is iffy and the errors they made while covering up their own failure left me well out of pocket during a Bookbub. Their customer service response was jaw-droppingly arrogant. I will never use them ever again.

[RPatton]

I tend to hear extremes from great to run, don't walk, away about StreetLib. For me, the extremes raise more concerns than any critical review of the service. Also, the US CEO who had been active in communities is no longer with the company (and it wasn't one of those, "moving on to new opportunities" exits either).

I wanted a distributor to get on google play and iBooks. At the time only StreetLib and PublishDrive had access to Google Play. When I started the signup process it was confusing and a pain unless you set it up as a publisher account. Around that time, Pronoun dropped their "have to publisher to Amazon through them" restriction. So I ended up going with them instead (and I seriously miss Pronoun, they had some great juju on iBooks and GooglePlay). By the tie Pronoun closed its doors, Google was doing what it could to help authors make the transition and opening accounts.

If I didn't have a Google Play account, I would either sign up for their waiting list and wait until I got one or go through PublishDrive. With my luck, I would be one of those people who had a craptacular experience with StreetLib.

[guest819]

I would be one of those people who had a craptacular experience with StreetLib.

I've never heard anything different..

ps, I'm D2D for Apple and it works very well. Direct for Google and that works EXTREMELY well.

[MelanieMRodriguez]

In another thread, someone mentioned that Streetlib won't let you price a book at "free."  This is the first I've heard of this.  What about PublishDrive?

Help me out, folks.  Tell me what I need to know about these two distributors.

Hey that was probably me. Years ago I pushed some permafree no problem. Now though there are these colored areas that show up. My new books go green with valid until I went through to set one free. Then it went yellow with warning. I thought I did something wrong so I went to another title that was valid, did nothing but put 0.00 and got another yellow warning.

If it isn’t green I just assumed they are having trouble with new titles going free. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.   

And if anyone else has any anecdotes, please post them up.  I'd like to hear whatever I can.

[ashleycapes]

I'm only using Streetlib for access to Google books and a few other smaller guys though.

This is my interest, too, so your experience is definitely relevant to me.

I've got a free title on Streetlib now and had no problems with making it so - but it's my perma-free

Perma-free is my main concern.  Thanks for chiming in, Ashley.   

No probs! I've not had any trouble with them yet but I'm a pretty small sample size :D  (have had great customer service thus far too)

[Reveries]

I ran from streetlib almost a year ago and would never sell anything through them again. I signed up for the waiting list for Google play and had an account within days.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I ran from streetlib almost a year ago and would never sell anything through them again. I signed up for the waiting list for Google play and had an account within days.

Thanks for chiming in.   

Can you give us any details about why you feel that way about Streetlib?  (If not, I understand; it's cool.)

[Reveries]

I ran from streetlib almost a year ago and would never sell anything through them again. I signed up for the waiting list for Google play and had an account within days.

Thanks for chiming in.   

Can you give us any details about why you feel that way about Streetlib?  (If not, I understand; it's cool.)

There were a whole series of problems that made it impossible for me to keep accurate accounts of what my books were earning. The last straw was them withholding a chunk of a payment I was expecting. On enquiry I was told this was an adjustment because of a commission error they'd made in payments I'd received about nine months earlier. I really can't cope with random retroactive adjustments made to money I received months ago.