Enterprise Manage Distribution (Self Service Tool)... 1

Transcription

1 Enterprise Manage Distribution (Self Service Tool) User Guide Contents Enterprise Manage Distribution (Self Service Tool)... 1 Contents Introduction Discovering the Tools Prerequisites to Manage Distribution (Agreements and Payment Profile) Navigating to the Prerequisites Publishers Agreements Royalty Payment Profiles Title Distribution Management Navigating Manage Distribution Downloading Title Metadata to Manage Editing Title Metadata Uploading Title Metadata Changes Correcting Problems with Title Metadata Introduction The new CreateSpace Self Service Manage Distribution tools create the opportunity for Enterprise members to manage the distribution options of their make on demand (MOD) titles. The CreateSpace.com web site now provides international publisher agreements and royalty payment information management as well as distribution (sales) channel management. The intent of this document is to provide you with an overview of where to find and how to use the new feature. 2 Discovering the Tools Once you have a CreateSpace.com account, log in to access your Member Dashboard. There you will see a site navigation pane at the left and a list of your titles listed in the main body of the page. There are two general areas of the site that will be made available to members: Online Publishers Agreements and Royalty Payment Profiles (located under Edit Account Settings ) Title Distribution Management (located under Manage Distribution ) The ability to enter into publisher agreements and to provide royalty payment information is a prerequisite to being able to enroll in additional international distribution channels

2 3 Prerequisites to Manage Distribution (Agreements and Payment Profile) To enroll your titles in additional sales channels, two general prerequisites are required you must enter into a Publishers Agreement with the legal entity responsible for the distribution channel desired, and you must complete a Royalty Payment Profile to assure royalties from the desired distribution channel are paid to you properly. There are two ways to discover address these prerequisites proactively or reactively. Proactively means the ability to use the CreateSpace.com site to locate and accept Publishers Agreements and to locate and complete the Royalty Payment Profiles for the distribution channels desired prior to managing your titles. Reactively means the system will alert you if you attempt to manage distribution channels for which you have yet to accept an agreement or complete a payment profile and lead you to the necessary items. This section will address the proactive steps to completing your prerequisites. The reactive steps will be covered later in the Title Management sections. 3.1 Navigating to the Prerequisites 1. From the Member Dashboard, select Edit Account Settings under My Account in the left navigation pane. 2. From the My Account/Account Settings page, select manage the information and method in which you receive royalty payments under Royalty Payment Information. 3. These steps bring your to the Account Settings/Royalty Payment Profiles page. From this location you may select Enable on each distribution channel tab (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan) to complete the prerequisites to Manage Distribution. 3.2 Publishers Agreements A Publishers Agreement must be accepted to enable enrollment in the international distribution channels: Amazon.com (United States), Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), Amazon.de (Germany), and Amazon.co.jp (Japan). The distribution channels are maintained by different legal entities globally, requiring separate agreements with each entity On Demand Publishing (ODP) for Amazon.com, Amazon EU Sarl (AEU) for Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de, and Amazon International Services (AIS) for Amazon.co.jp.

3 To complete the agreement and fill out the payment profiles: 1. Select the desired distribution channel tab on the Account Settings/Royalty Payment Profiles page. Click Enable. You will be presented with the Publishers Agreement that corresponds with the selected distribution channel. 2. Select Print Preview for a printable version of the agreement and print for your records. 3. Select I have read and accept and click Continue to accept the agreement and return to the Royalty Payment Profile. You may select I do not accept to return to the Royalty Payment Profiles without committing to the agreement. 3.3 Royalty Payment Profiles Along with your Publishers Agreement for distribution, we also require that you tell us how and where to send you your royalties when they are earned. After accepting the Publishers Agreement, you will be returned to the corresponding Royalty Payment Profile tab, now opened as a form for completion. To enable your titles for distribution in the desired channels, you must provide the required information on the form, including US tax information, your contact information, and payment information (including bank information if you are selecting electronic funds transfer). There are helpful links to explain what each field is for and what information is required. You will see an orange alert on the profile tab indicating your profile is Incomplete until you provide the required information. The distribution channel is not enabled until the profile is completed. 1. When you have completed the required information in the Royalty Payment Profile form, click the Save All Changes button at the bottom right corner of the page to submit. Any incorrect or incomplete information will be noted with an alert message next to the offending field. The profile tab will now be noted with an orange alert indicating an Action Required to complete the profile.

4 SOME NOTES ABOUT THE ROYALTY PAYMENT PROFILES US Tax (IRS) information is required for the US and Japan distribution channels. This is because each distribution channel is managed by a US based legal entity. Tax information for the US and Japan profiles must match. The UK and Germany distribution channels are both managed by the same legal entity (Amazon EU Sarl). You may choose to enroll in one or the other, but will only be required to accept the AEU Publishers Agreement once for both distribution channels. If and when you decide to enroll in the other channel, you will bypass the Publishers Agreement and go straight to the Royalty Payment Profile. At any time after accepting your Publishers Agreement, you can find a summary of your contract terms by clicking View Amazon Contract Terms link at the bottom of the profile form for each locale. A helpful Copy button is provided in each Payee Contact section. Save time and effort by using this to copy previouslyentered address information from another profile. Available payment types vary by locale o US/UK/DE locale accepts a choice of check or electronic funds transfer (EFT). There is a check fee of $8/ 8/ 8 as well as a minimum threshold of $100/ 100/ 100 of sales prior to sending out royalty payments. There is also a minimum threshold for EFT of $10/ 10/ 10 (previously $20) sales. EFT does require information regarding your bank. The EFT bank account countries that are supported for US/UK/DE profiles are US, FR, DE, ES, GB. o Currency Conversion of Royalty Payments to USD, GBP, or EUR for sales earned in any country. The payment currency is not explicitly set, but is set based upon the country of the bank. We support payments to US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal. o JP locale accepts a choice of electronic funds transfer (EFT) or wire transfer. Wire transfer for Japan requires that you work with your Amazon contact to get set up. We are unable to set this up online at this time. In your royalty profile, you have a choice for Japan distribution currency. This currency must match the currency of your list prices you use on Amazon.co.jp. This is the currency you will be paid in. The available currencies are USD, GBP, EUR, and JPY. Once the currency is selected, you will not be able to change in the future. If you have any questions, please contact your account representative.

5 Bank information for EFT and wire transfer takes up to six hours to propagate though our financial systems. If you change any of your payment information within that window of time, you may be asked to resubmit all of the bank information to ensure it is saved properly. 4 Title Distribution Management The core purpose of this toolset is to allow you to manage the distribution and list price information of your titles on your own. The title distribution management features use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to allow you to download the metadata of each of your titles for editing, and then upload the changes to submit the edits. Downloads and uploads are limited to 20,000 titles at a time. 4.1 Navigating Manage Distribution 1. From the Member Dashboard, select Manage Distribution under My Account in the left navigation pane. 2. This step brings you to the Manage Distribution by Upload page. From this location you may access your title metadata to edit list prices and to enroll titles into additional distribution channels. 4.2 Downloading Title Metadata to Manage To access your title information for editing, you may download a preformatted template of your title metadata by using the Build a Spreadsheet Template tool: A few basic filters are provided to help you narrow down your results and lighten your spreadsheet. (Selecting no filters will build a spreadsheet containing all of your titles in our system.) Status allows you to filter by titles that are Available, have an Action Required, or that are Incomplete. Selected for sale on allows you filter by individual or combinations of distribution channels where your titles are currently enrolled. Date range allows you to filter by the dates you originally submitted your titles. o Leaving Start Date blank will result in titles submitted prior to the End Date. o Leaving End Date blank will result in all titles submitted after the Start Date. To build and download your title Metadata spreadsheet: 1. Select your desired filters, if any. 2. Click the Build Spreadsheet button. The tool will begin processing the information.

6 3. As instructed in the text box, you may now leave the page or site as the information is processing. When processing is complete and your spreadsheet is ready for download, you will receive an e mail notification. NOTE: If you do not leave the page, or leave your browser window open, the processing bar will continue to spin even after you receive e mail that processing is complete. To check that processing is complete, refresh your browser. 4. When you receive notification that processing is complete, return to the Manage Distribution by Upload page to find your spreadsheet ready for download. 5. (Refresh your browser if you do not see the download icon and link.) 6. Select Download Spreadsheet and Open or Save the file. Your title metadata is now ready for edit. 4.3 Editing Title Metadata Use the title metadata spreadsheet to make changes to list prices or to enroll your titles in additional distribution channels. SOME NOTES ABOUT EDITING THE TITLE METADATA SPREADSHEET Grey columns are non editable they are for your reference in identifying your titles. These columns are locked as readonly. Enrollment in distribution channels is indicated with a y (yes) or n (no). o To enroll a title in a new distribution channel, change n to y. o To remove a title from a distribution channel, change y to n. List prices are in the currency of the distribution channel. o US List price in US Dollars (format 00.00). Do not include dollar symbol ($). o UK List price in Great Britain Pounds (format 00.00). Do not include Pounds symbol ( ). o DE List price in Euros (format 00.00). Do not include Euro symbol ( ). o JP List price JP list price currency is selected from your Royalty Payment Profile. For JP list price in US Dollars, Great Britain Pounds, or Euros, format as * Do not include symbol ($,, ) or mix currency types. For JP list price in Japanese Yen, format as 00 * Do not include Yen symbol ( )

7 4.4 Uploading Title Metadata Changes When you have completed your desired distribution information edits, you must upload the edited spreadsheet back into our system to submit your changes using the Upload Spreadsheet tool. 1. Next to the.xls File field, click the Browse button. 2. Browse to the saved title metadata spreadsheet you would like to submit. 3. At the bottom right of the tool box, click Start Upload. The system will begin initial validation of your spreadsheet. 4. If you encounter any preliminary validation errors (see next), you will be asked to correct them and then be presented with the state Ready to process. 5. To complete the upload, click the Process spreadsheet button. SOME NOTES ABOUT VALIDATING THE TITLE METADATA SPREADSHEET There are generally three (3) stages to validation: 1. File level: is the file format an.xls or.xlsx? Is it in the correct template? a. If the system encounters this preliminary validation error, you will be prompted to your file format or template and resubmit. 2. Prerequisite level: have you accepted your Publishers Agreement and set up your Royalty Payment Profile for the distribution channels your have edited? a. If the system encounters this preliminary validation error, you will be prompted to go back through the prerequisites workflow (this is the reactive use case mentioned earlier). b. Click the Continue button to be led through the prerequisites process. When completed, you will be returned to the Manage Distribution by Upload page. 3. Data level: Do your updated list prices generate a negative royalty (price too low)? Is there any incorrect data present did you add a title that is not in our system already; change an identifier like the ISBN or ASIN? a. This validation occurs after the spreadsheet is uploaded to the system. Similar to the Build a Spreadsheet Template process, you will be notified that you may leave the page or site as the information is processing. When processing is complete and your spreadsheet is ready for download, you will receive an e mail notification. NOTE: If you do not leave the page, or leave your browser window open, the processing bar will continue to spin even after you receive e mail that processing is complete. To check that processing is complete, refresh your browser. SOME NOTES ABOUT UPLOADING THE TITLE METADATA SPREADSHEET You do not need to Build a Spreadsheet Template prior to uploading your title distribution metadata edits. You may: o Use a previously downloaded spreadsheet template (that is, if you ve built a spreadsheet with all or some of your titles in the past, you may continue to edit that spreadsheet without downloading a new one). o Use the Download a blank spreadsheet template link to save a blank template and fill in the information manually.

8 4.5 Correcting Problems with Title Metadata After your title distribution metadata spreadsheet is processed, you will receive e mail notification to return to the Manage Distribution page. If this is your first upload, you will notice a new area on the page below the Upload and Download tools: My Uploads. There you will find a history of your uploads from the last year: The date each file was uploaded A link to the uploaded file A count of successfully edited titles A count of edited titles that have errors And, if the file has errors, a link to a spreadsheet containing the problematic titles with error messages. To correct problems found in the title distribution metadata: 1. Select the Download_Problem.xls link and Open or Save the file. 2. In the far right of the spreadsheet, you will find a new column: Errors. Review the error message and make the suggested fix to correct the problematic title. 3. Save your changes. 4. When you are satisfied with your changes, you may use the Problem spreadsheet to upload your corrections. Follow the steps in Section 4.4 to upload title metadata changes. SOME NOTES ABOUT UPLOADING CORRECTIONS TO THE TITLE METADATA SPREADSHEET You may use the Problem spreadsheet to upload your corrections, or you may go back to your original title distribution metadata spreadsheet to make the corrections and re upload. When the corrected spreadsheet upload completes processing, you will receive the e mail notification and find it listed in the My Uploads history. If the corrected spreadsheet still has errors, you will find another Download_Problem.xls in the My Uploads history. The filename will be appended with a version number (2), (3), etc. Repeat the processes until your errors are fixed.