We last updated you on Pronoun in January, when they unveiled new royalty rates for authors selling through Amazon that beat even what Amazon offers. Last month, they announced another round of new features. These include:
- Enhanced back matter. Authors can now easily add a back matter page to their ebook (“More by This Author”) that automatically includes direct links to other ebooks at the reader’s preferred ebookstore—meaning that authors don’t have to create separate versions of their ebooks for each retailer.
- Custom pricing for international markets. Authors can now set specific pricing for international territories. Before, the US dollar price was automatically converted to other currencies based on the prevailing exchange rates.
Pronoun appears to be taking a page out of its competitor’s playbook, since these features are already available through Draft2Digital (but, notably, not Smashwords).
Bottom line: After Pronoun’s big January announcement, there was renewed interest from the indie author community in its services—but also skepticism, given Pronoun’s ownership by a Big Five publisher. In response to author feedback since then, Pronoun has made it possible for authors to control what publisher name appears at ebook retailers; authors can now select the new “Set Custom Publisher” option. The new features just announced indicate Pronoun’s ongoing commitment to being a competitive player in the ebook distribution space. It still remains unclear how or when Pronoun will directly monetize the service, since they currently charge no up-front fees and take no cut of author sales.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
