Working on Ebooks This Week and What Draft2Digital’s New Fees Mean for Me
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King
While I waited for my Spanish translator, Vanessa, to be able to review the book, Bye-Bye, tetita proofs, I finally had some time to work on creating ebooks for my picture books that have been published in both hardcover and softcover. It will take a while but it's worth it and there's been enough of a break to try again.
Up until now, I had one picture book as an ebook out there, Bye-Bye-Boobies (original Canadian poem) but the process of getting it into shape was frustrating enough that I kept putting off doing more versions.
The program I made that file with wasn't the best even though I paid for it and followed all the steps. The file looked fine when I tested it in Thorium. Then when I uploaded it to D2D, it came with so many errors that I had to get that company to fix before I could upload it to get it accepted by them. When I tried to use that same file to submit it to a new platform inside of D2D, it was rejected so I put it aside at the end of 2025 as something to do more research on for the future.
Why Make Picture Books into ebooks?
Let's face it, picture books do not look great as ebooks, especially with the reflowable formats that are required (so the text isn't always on the same screen as the image). At the same time, ebooks matter for accessibility and pricing, so they’ve been sitting on my to-do list for a while to get through the titles I have.Kindle Create
For Amazon KDP, I used Kindle Create for the first time to see how the files would look inside their system. I used Krita create the PNG files and uploaded them one by one into the software, exported it and uploaded it into my KDP account and it was accepted without any flagged errors. I have to say I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.Draft2Digital and Beyond
For D2D and other platforms that require reflowable EPUB files, I went a different route using a combination of LibreOffice, those same images from Krita with the vector files removed and then finally Sigil to build EPUB files for distribution through Draft2Digital and to upload for the legal deposit with the LAC. While there are a few more steps here, it worked out much better than that other program I had used before.And, of course, that’s exactly when the Draft2Digital fee announcement came out when I was uploading this new file and everyone started saying they were either fine with it or it was the worst thing ever.
Testing Two Different ebook Workflows
What I’m doing right now is essentially testing two separate workflows side by side using the same images but adjusting how the vector files and text is applied to them to match what each platform will accept.
Kindle Create is clearly designed to work smoothly inside KDP. The formatting is controlled, the preview looks clean as you go, and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of how the book will appear for Kindle readers. For the American English version of the Bye-Bye, Boobies poem I bumped up the font size on the images so that I could read them without issue in all screen previeews, resized some of the other "pages" to make them all the same size and it seems to be working fine with the text embedded into it.
On the other side, using LibreOffice, Krita and Sigil gives me more direct control over the EPUB file itself. It’s not as polished of a process, and it definitely takes more time, but it also means I can create a file that can be distributed across multiple platforms without being tied to one system.
This time when I uploaded the file to D2D there were a couple of very simple errors like the language I had added was American English needed to be switched to en-us but it has gon through now error free and was also accepted as the LAC deposit.
Right now, I’m still figuring out what works best and I think that means using both for the near future. There isn’t a single “right” way to do this, especially when the goal is to have books available in more than one place, especially libraries for greater access for families.
Where Draft2Digital Fits Into This
This is where Draft2Digital comes in for me. It’s been one of the simplest ways to take an EPUB file and distribute it across multiple retailers without having to upload and manage everything separately. That includes platforms like Chapters, Kobo, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble, along with library systems.
That matters for me long term because not everyone reads on Kindle (especially since they are no longer supporting older models as of their announcement this week), and not everyone buys books through Amazon. Being able to reach other retailers and libraries without multiplying the workload is a big part of why I’ve been using it. It also fits alongside everything else I’m doing rather than replacing it. It's also fun to see that people have "checked out" the books from libraries too.
The Timing of the New Fees
The timing of all of this was… interesting. Just as I started working on ebooks again, Draft2Digital announced their new fee structure via email and through their website and boy has it caused a lot of chatter.
What's Changed with D2D Fees?
There’s now a one-time setup fee for new accounts of $20 and an annual fee for accounts that don’t meet a certain earnings threshold (currently $12 annual fee if your payout from them is less than $100 over that year). No one is excited about that in the groups and the forums that I'm in. At the same time, reading more into it, I can understand the reasoning behind it.See Draft2Digital FAQs to see all their fees
Why has D2D started charging these new fees?
There’s been a noticeable increase in low-quality, mass-produced content being pushed through distribution platforms not just D2D, but Amazon, Ingram, Barnes & Noble (who also announced a change in their self-publishing options this week). That doesn’t just affect visibility. It affects how retailers and libraries view indie titles as a whole. If those systems lose trust in what’s being uploaded, that impacts everyone using them. This doesn’t make fees fun, but it does explain why something is being put in place.What will be interesting to see if these fees actually accomplish what they are saying they are for. I think they will at least I hope they will.
What I Actually Appreciate About Draft2Digital
One Upload for Multiple Distribution Channels
Even with the changes, there are a few things I keep coming back to. D2D is extremely easy to use. That’s not a small thing when you’re managing everything yourself. It expands reach with things like Apple Books and Kobo. I don’t have to manage multiple dashboards or upload separate versions of the same book to different platforms, once it has been reviewed and approved, they send it to those places for me.
It connects into library systems not just in Canada but around the world. That’s something I care about, especially as I continue building out more titles in different languages as often that is the only place people can afford to get their books from.
Free downloads of files created with their tools
What I really appreciated with my previous books is it allows you to download and use the files it creates, even if you’re not distributing through them, which adds flexibility when working on ebook formats. I've used their ebook file download from my Eh, Canada? Trivia books to upload those to the LAC deposits.
Print Books
They also offer print distribution through their system, for select sizes of books, which connects into wider channels. I’m not relying on that side right now as I'm using IngramSpark for that type of distribution on my books, but it is nice to know it's there as an option.
Where I’m At With ebooks Right Now
At this point, I’m still very much in the testing phase with ebooks. I’m figuring out how I want these files to look, how different tools handle formatting, and how everything fits together across platforms.
At the same time, I’m looking at where Draft2Digital fits into that long-term. Right now, it’s still part of the process because I really don't want to have to upload my books to multiple distributors and manage all of those different platforms this keeps things manageable without adding a lot of extra steps. That may evolve over time, especially as I build out more books and refine my workflow or if there is another similar one-stop shop as they say option, but for now, even with the changes to those fees, it still has a place in what I’m doing.
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