How to upload a book?

Prepare your metadata, epub, and cover files! Click 'Add book'. Just drag and drop the epub and the cover, fill in the metadata and save. Once you have revised your files and metadata, you can send them to stores with one click.

For further help, read on.

How to upload a book?

Choose the Add book option on the home page or click the Upload your first book button on your dashboard.

Your Book page comes up: this will be the dashboard not only to upload your book but to make any changes in the future. All parameters you see here can be changed any time (except your ISBN) without withdrawing the book. Read this article on making changes to your book.

Drop or upload the content file (epub) and the cover file (jpg or png). We accept epub 2 and epub 3 formats and don’t run epub validation during upload. We check epubs for validity in the background. If there are any errors in the code, we’ll try to fix them (if we can).

If you don't have an epub file, click "other files", and drag and drop your word document to the "Source files" field. Please save your book page as a draft; your book will be converted.

Once you drop your epub file, we read whatever metadata your epub file contains and automatically fill in those fields. You have the option to accept or reject the metadata we found in the book. If you don't click the "Import selected fields" button, you have to enter your metadata manually.

Creators

This is the field for the book's contributors: author, editor, illustrator, or translator. If your book is in the public domain, please always add the translator as a contributor. If your book is not in the public domain, there is no such requirement. (But we still recommend it as common courtesy.) You can use your pen name in the contributor field, but please don’t use pen names that could be misleading for readers. The author's name on the cover should match the name you enter here.

Metadata

Publisher/Imprint: This only displays if you have multiple imprints. (Read about imprints here.)

Title and subtitle: Enter the title as it is to be seen on the cover, but using the title capitalization rules of your language. The subtitle should go to the subtitle field. Most stores display the subtitle using the same case as the title, separated by a colon. For example, Title: Subtitle. Our content review team uses Amazon’s metadata guidelines when checking the books. According to those, please don’t add any keyword in the title, subtitle or series field.

If you are not sure of how what your book will look like in the stores, you can check the preview at the top of the page.

Series: The accurate name of your series. Please make sure that you always enter your series name exactly the same way, for example, don’t enter A Mean Mushroom Book once and Mean Mushrooms next. If your series is indicated properly, shops will automatically organize the books in the series into series pages. If your series field is not empty, you can add the volume in the next field. Just enter a whole number.

Language: Signal the primary language of your book. You can add multiple languages. If your book is a Spanish coursebook where the instruction language is English, please select "English" as the primary language and add Spanish as the secondary language. If you select "Spanish" as the primary language, your book will be displayed to Spanish speakers, not to English-native Spanish learners.

Number of pages: Although the ebook has a different number of pages depending on whether you read it on the computer screen, tablet, e-reader or smartphone, some stores are still asking for the number of pages. Please enter the number of pages in your print edition, or divide the total number of characters by 1500. Many stores (Amazon or Kobo) calculate their own numbers based on the length of the book. Others will use the number we send in.

ISBN: Select "Yes" to enter your ISBN. If you don’t have an ISBN for the ebook format, don't worry: we’ll automatically assign an identifier to your book. Read more about ISBN here.

Print edition: If you have a print edition, we'll send your print ISBN to the stores. This'll help them match your print and ebook listing.

Description: it should be unique and accurately describe your book. Please don’t add any references to prices and any links. It should not contain any explicit words or phrases.

Categories

Categories: Select up to three categories for your book. You can enter your BISAC code or select from the list. You can also just start typing the category you would like to use and it will come up. Your book will display in the stores within the category you chose. The more specific you are, the more likely it is that your possible readers find your book.

Here's the place to mark if your book contains adult content, select your target audience (if applicable), and enter your keywords (up to 7).

Price

Simply enter the price you'd like your readers to buy your books for. You have to give a price in your main currency; additionally, you can enter your price in most currencies our stores work with.

Rights

If you own copyrights, select "I wrote this book" if you wrote the book, or "I have secured rights from the copyright holder", if you are the publisher of this book, or if you are helping your friend upload their book to PublishDrive. We don’t ask for any documentation (unless we see something fishy) but would like to know whether your book is in the public domain, you wrote it or you are the publisher.

If you own your copyrights, select "Yes" for worldwide rights. If you are a publisher, you can check your contract for enabled territories.

Enter the publication date, or press "Yes". If you give a future date, pre-orders will automatically be allowed and your book will be available to pre-order immediately in the stores that have this option.

Publishing books

Just press save to publish! If your profile is complete, you can send the book to stores immediately. 

Before publishing the books, our colleagues will review them both automatically and manually. If everything is fine, PublishDrive will send your titles to the stores.

Do you need to change something? You can update your metadata (price, description or even an updated epub file) any time and we’ll send the updates to the retailers.