Tellwell is not able to both manage your accounts and give you access to them. Through the Managed Distribution Program, Tellwell does all the heavy lifting for you in order to make your book available for purchase online. For most authors, the ability to access one’s own distribution accounts is not necessary, because the managed distribution fee includes one annual “metadata” update to your book’s description, pricing, keywords, and/or categories. If you want to make a change to your book’s listing, please reach out to support@tellwell.ca and we’ll do our best to help.
Please note that it is possible to sign up for an Amazon Author Central account, which will allow some control over your book's Amazon listings. For more info, see the article can I gain access to my author page on Amazon?
If you would like to manage your own distributor accounts, you do have the option to select the Direct Distribution Program instead. However, you will need to weigh the benefits (real-time control over pricing & metadata, ability to order books directly from the distributor), against the fact that you will be solely responsible for correctly setting up the files for distribution, as well as correctly filling in the taxation and banking forms. Furthermore, because you will be dealing directly with the distributor(s), you would need to liaise directly with the various distributors' support teams if you encountered any difficulties.
This option is only recommended if you have previously distributed a book and have a high level of technical expertise.
If your book has already been published, there is a title transfer fee of $250 + tax involved if you wish to take ownership of your book's distribution account(s).
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