UPDATE: Since making this post there have been some developments. I have been informed that the title cannot be given its correct name: that name being "D100 Dungeon - The Dragon Armour (Book 3)". Their decision is ultimate. I have made the decision to withdraw all publications from the Amazon KDP program, with immediate effect.
Hi everyone, this News article is an update on the series of books that has been given the unofficial name "Green Editions" due to the green book number on the book label on thr front cover.
ABOUT ME
So firstly, please understand that I am such a small publisher in the gaming industry. And I publish under my own name "Martin Knight". I have been very keen recently to explore other print on demand services, other than DriveThruRPG and their associated sites. My reasoning: to help the D100 Dungeon community who currently finds ordering through DriveThruRPG difficult due to their geographic location.
WHY I FIRST PUBLISHED WITH DRIVETHRURPG
I had looked in to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing services back in 2018 when I started publishing D100 Dungeon (Book 1). For me, as an individual that was new to publishing, the information and process was far from straightforward and so I ventured into publishing from DriveThruRPG.
WHY DRIVETHRURPG IS FANTASTIC
DriveThruRPG are fantastic in every way. They assign you a representative from the start and you have direct e-mail contact with them for anything relating to your products. They also help you with suggestions for promoting and provide you with sales reports and how to expand your audience. I cannot recommend them enough. They have been very tolerant of me as a newcomer to the industry and have helped me immensely.
THE BOOK FORMATS
Before publishing the Green Edition series of books through Amazon KDP I had managed to work each book into a single document; that could easily be manipulated to create three separate pdf files: A collector's book, a hardback and softback book (they use the same file), and a digital Book. Then if anything needed updating, essentially I am working with a single document, before I export the three types of books to a print ready PDF. Each book has it's own cover file and as D100 Dungeon has a softback, hardback, and collector's book, I have three separate cover files for each book document.
COMPATIBLY ISSUES
I had hoped that all of these existing files would have been compatible on Amazon KDP. I had planned to make the books available without changing the book size. Unfortunately they were not. The text space between the inside edge and outside edge were different and after some updates to the original, I managed to get them to work in with my existing document. I then had to make new cover files, as they were not comparable either. After submitting the first two files for D100 Dungeon (Book 1) in softback, I sent off for a Proof copy. When it arrived it had proof copy written across the cover (front and back), but otherwise everything looked good and so I clicked publish. It was then rejected as the spine text was too close to the front and rear covers at their current size for their tolerances (this was not an issue for the proof I ordered, or for the DriveThruRPG print on demand books) . I made the text to fit and and it was tiny (around 8-9pts). My option was to either not have spine text on the book or to increase the number of pages in the book.
When you order a proof, strangely it's not always a true representation of what you can publish. Picture 2 shows the tiny text on the spine. Note: We dropped the Green Spine as shown in that photo.
THE NEW BOOK SIZES AND FORMAT
I decided to make the books smaller and thus increase the page count; a thicker book meant I could place the text size I wanted on the spine. However, the more pages a book has, the more it costs to print (regardless somewhat of the page size). This was not ideal as I want to keep the books as inexpensive as I can. The revenue from books using Amazon KDP is lower than the revenue from DriveThruRPG and I effectively lose out when one is purchased from Amazon stores. The next thing I wanted to check was which book sizes and paper choices were available through both Amazon KDP and DriveThruRPG. I didn't want anymore files and documents for all these book formats and choices. I researched and found the format 6"x9" can be printed to premium quality paper in both softback and hardback.
REFORMATTING
I reformatted the original document for D100 Dungeon (Book 1) and created the 6" x 9" format and then submitted the pdf to Amazon KDP. I sent for a proof copy and then published. I believe I had a few publishing rejections (can't be 100% sure), but eventually it got sorted and both the hardback and softback went live for purchase on Amazon. Currently it can take anything for 2-4 weeks for me to convert each original document into the new size and create covers.
I now have 21 individual publishing documents for each book in the series. These are just the files relating to the direct publishing (i.e. files used to create and submit for the printers). Each book also, has hundreds of smaller images, files, and documents to make up each individual book.
SELLING ON AMAZON
I wanted a single link to use to take you to the D100 Dungeon/Space books on Amazon. So that if you were in the USA it would open the amazon page for the USA, or if you were in Spain, it would open the Amazon page for Spain etc. This was far from straightforward and involved creating an account for each country where the books are for sale. I created a few, but it was not viable for me to create all seventeen.
GOING WELL, OR WAS IT?
So after the successful publication of D100 Dungeon (Book 1) using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, I moved on to The Adventurer's Companion (Book 2). From memory after a few issues, that got resolved quite quickly, it was published and so I moved on to The Dragon Armour (Book 3). This is were I have run into serious issues with Amazon KDP and in my opinion a serious lack of willingness to work with the publisher.
The paperback version of Book 3 was accepted and is now available (currently); this may change in the future. The hardback version however, got rejected from publication.
When books are rejected for publication using Amazon KDP you get an email, and in my opinion it is quite vague, and doesn't provide specifics about the actual problem, but instead points you towards possible issues. Here is a snip-it of what I have been receiving.
At least one of the following elements in your manuscript does not match the details you entered on your Bookshelf during setup: title, subtitle, edition number. Please check these details in your manuscript and ensure they match. You can find your title on your Bookshelf.
After making multiple changes (but obviously not the title), and then submitting each time a change was made for publication, they kept getting rejected. I reached out to them via the only way I could: an online chat box. They hinted to me it was because the title and book number for the book's title didn't match the cover. They hinted that it should say "D100 Dungeon - The Dragon Armour (Book 1)", but made no direct clarification. I notified them as to why it needs to be (Book 3). I waited over 72 hours for a reply and they are still insisting that it can't be named (Book 3). I further explained in more depth the reason why it has to say (Book 3), and still they are unable/or not willing to allow the hardback book to be publish as "D100 Dungeon - The Dragon Armour (Book 3)"; despite the softback having the same title.
THE FUTURE OF D100 DUNGEON/SPACE USING KDP
The future for me continuing to publish through Amazon KDP is unknown at this stage. It depends if book 3 is published with the title "D100 Dungeon - The Dragon Armour (Book 3)". I do hoped to release all books with them and grow the range with future books. However the experiences I have had so far have been very uninspiring. To summarise: I am the creator of a book and I am not given the freedom to name it. I am at the stage of processing Book 4, I just have the cover files to create and I will attempt later this week to publish it using Amazon KDP. If this one gets rejected or if only the hardback or softback gets published, whilst the other gets rejected (like Book 3) I will need to rethink the whole situation. I may continue with book 5, or have to abandon publishing with them altogether.
WHY TELL YOU ALL THIS?
I want to remain 100% transparent. I could have just released a statement to say we are currently having difficulties working with Amazon KDP. And left it at that! However, I think it's important for everyone to know that I am fully prepared to publish with Amazon KDP and I hope to do so, but I cannot be forced to incorrectly name a book.
I WON'T LET YOU DOWN
Currently I am about to publish the Green Editions I have already converted on DriveThruRPG. DriveThruRPG have no such constraints (or very few) on the publisher and as usual have been very accommodating. So if you have begun collecting the Green Edition series, they will still be available, just maybe not from Amazon as I had hoped.
I will continue to try and publish Book 3 via Amazon KDP and hopefully one day they may just accept it.
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