StoryOrigin vs BookFunnel
- BookFunnel: ebook delivery, ARC distribution, group promos, strong reader support, from around $20 per year.
- StoryOrigin: delivery plus review copies, newsletter swaps, universal book links, reader magnet directory.
- BookFunnel's help desk handles reader side-loading problems for you.
- StoryOrigin's swap marketplace is its main draw for list building.
- Many authors run both, using BookFunnel for delivery and StoryOrigin for swaps.
BookFunnel is a delivery utility that gets an ebook onto a reader's device and supports them when it goes wrong. StoryOrigin does delivery too but leans on newsletter swaps, ARC management, and its author marketplace. Choose BookFunnel for reliability and reader support. Choose StoryOrigin if list growth through swaps is the point.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Reader magnet delivery fails in boring ways: a Kindle email that never arrives, an EPUB a reader cannot open, a support question you are not equipped to answer. BookFunnel absorbed that problem years ago. StoryOrigin's advantage is elsewhere, in finding other authors to cross-promote with. Picking on price alone misses that these solve different bottlenecks.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Where your bottleneck is: delivery friction or audience size.
- Whether you have list partners already or need a marketplace to find them.
- ARC team size and how much reporting you need on downloads and reviews.
- Integration with your email platform, checked before you commit.
- Cost against subscriber gain, measured after one quarter.
- An export of your reader list so you are not locked to either.
Chapter iii·Example
An author ran four StoryOrigin swaps in a quarter and added 900 subscribers, then moved delivery of her permafree to BookFunnel after the third reader emailed her about a sideloading error. Two tools, two jobs.
In WriteLoom
A launch plan, not a launch day
WriteLoom's Sell studio tracks your reader magnet, launch list, and promo calendar in the same project as the book they belong to.
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