Episode 349 - What Draft2Digital's New Fees Mean for Indie Authors with Kris Austin
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In this episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Matty Dalrymple talks with Kris Austin—co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital—about the recent changes at one of the largest distributors for self-published authors: a new $20 one-time activation fee, a $12 annual maintenance fee, Amazon distribution moving to invite-only, print-on-demand change tokens, and Draft2Digital’s new ebook partnership with Bookshop.org.
Kris explains what Draft2Digital was seeing that prompted the changes—a surge in AI-generated spam and bad-actor accounts that, in some months, accounted for more than seventy percent of submitted titles—and how the activation fee is engineered to break the scammers’ business model without shutting out legitimate authors. He breaks down who actually pays the maintenance fee (and why it’s waived for authors earning over $100 a year), how print change tokens and the 90-day rule function as a throttle rather than a cash grab, and what ethical indie authors can do to avoid accidentally triggering rights and review issues.
The conversation closes with a discussion of Draft2Digital’s partnership with Bookshop.org, which lets indie bookstores sell indie ebooks, plus a look at what’s ahead in audio, large print, and hardcover distribution.
Kris Austin is the co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital, one of the world’s largest digital publishing and distribution platforms for self-published authors and independent publishers. Since its founding in 2012, Draft2Digital has grown to support over 300,000 authors from around the globe who have collectively released over 1 million titles.
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