Q&A with Pronoun: An Increasingly Competitive Ebook Distributor

Pronoun ebook distribution

Update: Pronoun is shutting down in January 2018. They are not accepting new authors, and existing authors will need to find another solution for ebook distribution. Consider any of the following: Draft2Digital, Smashwords, StreetLib.


Do you remember the digital publishing startups Vook? Booklr? Byliner?

All of these services/companies have been folded into an ebook distribution service known as Pronoun, which was launched in fall 2015 and later acquired by Big Five publisher Macmillan.

Pronoun works with independent authors to distribute and sell ebooks to the five major online retailers: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play. Pronoun charges authors nothing upfront, and doesn’t take a cut of ebook sales either.

Let’s restate that, since it’s so remarkable: Authors are paid 100 percent net on ebook sales (after the retailer takes their cut), and authors pay no fees to Pronoun.

Today, Pronoun is announcing some significant changes to their terms, including:

  • 70% royalty on ebooks sold through Amazon when the price is below $2.99 (standard is 35% if you sell direct to Amazon via KDP)
  • 65% royalty on ebooks sold through Amazon when the price is beyond $9.99 (again, the standard is 35% if you sell direct to Amazon via KDP)
  • The ability to make ebooks free at any time through Amazon without being exclusive (not possible via KDP)
  • No requirement to be “all in” with Pronoun; you can use them to distribute to just one retailer, several, or all. It’s up to you.

Recently, I asked Justin Renard, Pronoun’s head of marketing, a few questions about Pronoun’s services for authors.

As far as I know, Pronoun is the only distributor open to indie authors that can promise a 70% cut on Amazon sales on prices below $2.99 or 65% at price points beyond $9.99. Do you welcome authors who are already selling their ebooks through Amazon KDP to move their books over to Pronoun to take advantage? How long does it take you to get a book available for sale on Amazon once someone sets up their account and uploads their files?

Justin Renard: Our door is open to all authors who are excited by what Pronoun has to offer, and with our new terms, we offer the flexibility for authors to decide what publishing strategy makes the most sense for their books. 70% sales on books priced below $2.99 will be very appealing to authors who rely on ebook price promotion tools to market their books.

We’ve tried to create a frustration-free publishing experience—from uploading and producing a cover, to preparing a book for success on retail sites. Once you press publish it usually takes between 2 hours and 48 hours for your book to appear on all the retailers we serve.

Right now, Amazon KDP offers authors immediate sales data about their ebooks, as well as total control over all the book information and metadata. Does Pronoun match all that functionality in its dashboard for authors?

We do offer total control over all the book information and metadata pushed out to retailers, the difference being is that on Pronoun, you can push the updates out to all retailers at once. Our sales reporting updates daily from all retailers.

Copies sold, total sales, and estimated earnings are some of the sales information we report from all retailers. We also automatically record major events like go-live dates and metadata changes so authors can see the impact of their work on their sales. Authors can also add their own milestones for promotional activities or any offline marketing.

I know many authors have trouble figuring out the right keywords and categories for their books at Amazon. Could you explain the tools Pronoun offers to help authors get this right?

Pronoun has been tracking data of over six million books for over five years, recording important information like sales ranks, ratings, prices, keywords and categories, so we’re able to provide authors with enough information to help make decisions.

Amazon, for example, has over 4,000 distinct ebook categories, and any book might be relevant to several or even dozens. When publishing on Pronoun, we’ve made it easy to find relevant categories by searching for a topic or genre, even if it’s a niche topic or doesn’t perfectly match an Amazon category name. And we rank these options based on the size and competitiveness of the category, so you can choose the ones that have the most opportunity.

Another great example is our keyword recommendations. Keywords are most valuable when they actually help surface an author’s books in more reader search results. If an author chooses broad and popular keywords—like “romance” or “science fiction”—it won’t help unless the book is already selling extremely well. So when authors choose keywords, Pronoun suggests real search phrases that are still popular but have less competitively ranked books in the results.

Pronoun includes support for free ebooks and pre-orders at Amazon. Just to confirm: Does that mean authors can make their books free at any time on Amazon if they distribute through Pronoun (since that’s currently not allowed if you use KDP)? How far out can a pre-order be scheduled, and what materials are required to make a pre-order available?

That is exactly right. Authors are now able to make their books free at any time and across all of our retailers, including Amazon. This is a feature that authors have been asking for a long time now, especially those with a series.

Pre-orders can be scheduled as far as one year in advance. Authors will need to upload a book file, cover image and include all the book information, but this can be temporary placeholder files and information that can be updated before the release date.

Pronoun used to require that authors be “all in” with Pronoun, meaning they couldn’t cherry pick which retailers they wanted to use Pronoun for. That’s now changed. I imagine—since Pronoun can reach Google Play—many authors may sign up with you for that alone. I assume you welcome that? I’m also curious, if you’re able to share, what percentage of overall sales you see happen through Google Play?

We welcome authors who want to publish to only one or a few retailers, though we think over time more and more authors will want to use Pronoun as a one-stop solution. And while I can’t share the exact Google Play market share, I can tell you that for some of our best-performing authors, sales on Google Play are at par or greater than their sales on Kobo.

I know Pronoun is making a significant effort to be clear, transparent, and honest with authors about how your company works. To that end, there’s a question as to how Pronoun survives if it doesn’t take a cut of book sales, and it doesn’t charge fees. Can you offer insight into your current or future business model?

Pronoun works not only with individually self-published authors, but we also work with a number of paid enterprise publishers and count our own digital nonfiction imprint Byliner in our business mix. Through these income-driving activities and the strategic backing of our parent company, Macmillan, we are in a unique position to continue building a truly author-centric and free publishing experience. Our core pursuit as a business is to help authors succeed at publishing. As we grow along with our authors, new business opportunities will emerge that add value to what authors need.

Pronoun had a former life that some authors may remember—Vook—and there were at least a couple pivots for Vook as a business before it became Pronoun. Right now, many authors in the indie community are worried about ebook retailer and distributor longevity, since All Romance Ebooks recently went out of business. I know you can’t make promises about what your corporate parent Macmillan will or won’t do in the future, but what would you like to say to authors who may be understandably wary?

This is such an important question and valid concern for authors. At Pronoun, we want to ensure a publishing experience that empowers authors with not only intelligent insights but also the flexibility to make choices for their books and careers. Plus being a part of Macmillan, which as you know has a 174-year history, means we are a part of a special community of award-winning publishers and a company with a commitment to self-publishing as a critical part of the overall publishing mix.

Thank you, Justin.

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Mark Williams Int.

One small correction to your intro, Jane.

Pronoun launched in 2015 but Macmillan only bought out Pronoun in May 2016.

Pronoun has some impressive tools (keyword and category analysis as reffed in the main post, daily emailed sales reports, etc) but also some major drawbacks (only offering Paypal as a payment, limited post-sales data, and limited choice of outlets – no OverDrive, for example).

As part of a diversity package Pronoun should be part of every indie author’s toolkit, but still lots of room for improvement.

Lawrence D. Elliott

As of now, Pronoun offers distribution to Amazon, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, OverDrive, and Bibliotheca (the last two recently added).

Doris

Thanks for this interesting article.
I read it about 3 times – and could not figure out how they make money.
Where is the trap? I can’t imagine someone (MacMillan) treats it as an expensive hobby.
Distributors either charge for sign-up or they take a commission from books sold.
How can this work? They have to pay for salaries, promotion, etc.

Cheers, Doris

Amanda Hagarty

It seems to me that the company has a traditional publishing arm where they make their money. They most likely set up this system of distribution to make it easier to publish those books. Allowing Indies to use the system probably costs a negligible amount and will also give them information about which Indies are doing well and a foot in the door to working with them if they want to offer a successful indie a publishing Contract. Seems pretty genius. Winners all round. It’s the bowl of quarters philosophy. Nothing builds loyalty better than giving people extra and unexpected rewards. Macmillan, it seems, is interested in being around in the future of publishing rather than going the way of the dinosaur.

Edward Smith

How does Pronoun compare to Smashwords? They seem to offer roughly the same service, except Pronoun appears to have some special deal with Amazon.

James King

I have an ebook published by Smashwords and I was under the impression that once Smashwords has published a book they have exclusivity and you can’t use another outlet. It appears from what you say that is not correct. Am I under the wrong impression?

Mark Williams Int.

No comparison, Edward Smith.
• Smashwords does not get our titles into Amazon (except special cases, nor into Google Play. That’s a dozen Amazon stores and 75 Google Play stores we miss out on.
• Pronoun pays more.
• Pronoun pays monthly.
• Pronoun lets us format our book descriptions with bold, italics, etc.
• Pronoun lets us customise our author pages.
• Pronoun does not make us jump through ridiculous hoops to link series or to add contributors (translators, designers, illustrators, even co-authors).
• Pronoun lets us add sub-titles.
• Pronoun will let us style our titles how we like, not reject a submission because Smashwords insists Every Word Of The Title Must Be Initial-Capped, which is ridiculous when the same store Smashwords says is responsible for this – Apple – has no problem accepting Pronoun titles without initial caps.
• Pronoun will format our books to several different designs, all from a straight Word doc without having playing silly games with the meatgrinder.
• Pronoun lets us use our formatted epubs elsewhere. Smashwords does not.
• Pronoun emails us with sales updates daily.
• Pronoun offers keyword and category analysis tools, and over 4,000 categories to choose from while Smashwords can’t even manage all the core BISAC categories.
On the plus side Smashwords does get us into OverDrive and other library outlets, and several other outlets not offered by Pronoun.

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Bron

Just one wee point in Amazon KDP authors DO get 70% on $2.99. it’s only 99c books that we get 35%.

Harald Johnson

Actually, with KDP, *anything* under $2.99 is at 35% royalty: $2.29, $1.99, whatever.

Jasmine Kelley

You may be thinking of the ability to offer a Kindle Countdown Deal and still reap the 70% royalty. When a book’s on that limited-time deal, you can offer it for 99 cents and still get 70%. It just needs to be originally listed at $2.99 or above.

Tamara Leigh

It’s been interesting to watch Pronoun evolve into a tool indies will embrace. Nearly all my concerns have been put to rest since I first looked into Pronoun 1-1/2 years ago. One concern that remains is the payment system. Like many, I’m averse to receiving funds via PayPal. Hopefully, direct deposit will be offered in the near future. And then…I might test those waters.

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Chris Syme

Skeptical as I am the only thing I worry about here is what we don’t see. There’s a carrot: 70% royalties across the board. But I’m not sure how Amazon is going to treat books not loaded through KDP. Time will tell. I’m not going to jump up and down yet. Who has the rights? I saw in a group this morning that if you put books on Amazon through Pronoun, Macmillan is listed as the seller. Not sure yet–need more info.

Mark Williams Int.

The author has the rights at all times. The author or author’s imprint will be listed as publisher on the Amazon page, depending on what the author lists in the metadata at upload. If you have your own ISBN the ISBN record will also show the author as publisher. If you use a Pronoun ISBN the publisher will show as Pronoun, in the same way as using a Smashwords or Draft2Digital free ISBN will show Smashwords or D2D as your publisher.

Amazon will treat books not loaded through KDP as books loaded by a publisher. Aggregators like StreetLib, PublishDrive, Ebook Partnership, etc, have been happily loading indie books to Amazon for years without a problem.

Macmillan does not come into the equation except as owner of Pronoun, and that only happened in May 2016. Pronoun was launched in 2015 before Macmillan bought it, not as the main post states.

For balance, StreetLib also offers indies the chance to list at $0.00 on Amazon.

Laurie Gienapp

This is not correct. I’m part of an indie publisher. We listed several titles with Pronoun and were VERY happy with the experience, UNTIL we realized that Pronoun was listed on Amazon as the publisher, notwithstanding the fact that the metadata at the upload listed Smoking Pen Press. We do have our own ISBNs, and the ISBN records show Smoking Pen Press as Publisher.. but the Amazon page lists Pronoun. We have had many cordial discussions with Pronoun about this.. pointing out that we put out the Call for Submissions, we review submissions, we sign contracts with the authors, we edit, we format, we obtain a cover, we upload, and we market. All Pronoun does is distribute, and we’re more than happy to list them as distributor.. but in all fairness and honesty, they are not the publisher. So far, Pronoun has not changed their position (although some recent communication suggests that this may be a change coming in the future). So — for the moment.. it is NOT correct that the author or author’s imprint will be listed as publisher, even if the author brings his own ISBN to the table.

Mark Williams Int.

As Vook, Pronoun has been around since 2009, so not really a new kid on the block. Draft2Digital is younger.

Pronoun keywords are same in number as KDP, but Pronoun offer us a great tool to chose them. Unlike with KDP we get the full range, almost, of Amazon’s 4,000 categories.

If Pronoun got its act together for the international markets (a total focus on the US – one language accepted, no currency options, no proper sales data) and offered even a fraction of the outlets Macmillan titles go to then Pronoun could become a real player.

Anna Tan

Speaking as someone publishing *from* the international market, Pronoun is better than other distributors at the moment for two reasons:

1. Payment via PayPal which is in almost every country – most other places require a US bank account or requirement to accumulate high amounts of USD to receive any royalties.
2. Google Play – Google Play is more well known than the other international ebook markets -everyone knows itunes but iBooks is a mystery; Kobo has hardcore followers but misses out casual readers; Amazon and nook doesn’t sell to like 99% of smaller countries

Besides, earning in USD is no big deal, esp since it’s quite strong atm and is easy to convert.

Brittney Sahin

I am a little nervous about how Pronoun can offer free/70% (below $2.99) on Amazon titles when Amazon cannot. It seems odd Amazon would give such power away…?

Jeff Shear

The revenge of the big five? Undersell Amazon?

Nicky

I’m curious about a particular portion of the Pronoun Author Agreement (Updated January 16, 2017). Does this mean that you cannot self-publish erotic romance/erotica or romance novels with adult content through this distributor?

“your manuscripts do not contain objectionable or pornographic content that will prevent retailers from selling them. (We’re all about artistic freedom, but retailers set their own standards, with which we need to comply. If your manuscripts do not comply with those standards, we’ll let you know and give you the opportunity to fix the issues. Until any issues are resolved, we may have to cease selling the ebook(s) in question.)”