When I was starting my ebook journey, I used Amazon, as it is easy to use and handles a lot of the work for you. It also gives decent commissions, so it seemed like the obvious choice.
Since then, I have discovered a better option. Here’s the short answer:
Make a website for your ebook. It allows you to keep more profits, add more description and make your ebook more enticing to readers. If you cannot, then Amazon KDP is the next-best option.
If you want to know a little more than that, then firstly, well done, but secondly, read on!
What are all the options?
Here are some of the main options and a little of their most important information:
1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – KDP publishes your ebook to the near limitless audience of Amazon. They take 30% or 65% of profits, depending on how you price your ebook. They accept many different file formats such as Word, PDF, ePUB and more.
2. Nook Press – Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble provide a self-publishing service with strong global reach. They provide a 65% commission for their authors, taking 35% themselves. They accept HTML, Word, TXT, ePUB, etc.
3. Lulu Press. Lulu Press gives a whopping 90% royalty to their authors, and distributes to many leading bookstores including Amazon. They accept many formats such as PDF and ePUB, and also provide support throughout the publishing process, including design and formatting.
4. Kobo – Rakuten. Provided by eCommerce giant Rakuten, Kobo is free and open-source. They provide helpful promotional opportunities for budding authors to begin their journey. They offer a 70% commision, taking 30% of profits, and accept PDF and ePUB.
5. Google Play Books (GPB). This app is installed on every Android phone in the world on the Play store, with over 2.5 billion users. This massive reach allows GPB to offer the largest audience of all self-publishing companies. They give out 70% of profit and can use only PDFs and ePUBs.
6. Blurb. The primary advantage of Blurb is their design software that allows users to create magazines, ebooks and the like. They have outreach into Amazon, Apple Books and their own bookstore and give out 100% of their profits. They only support PDFs.
7. Apple Books. Apple Books have an audience of over 1.4 billion, and authors receive 70% or profits. They developed a powerful word processor called “Pages”, used to create multi-touch ebooks, and allow authors to list for free. They accept ePUB and the like.
8. IngramSpark. IngramSpark allows authors to reach millions of people on Amazon, BookTopia, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, plus many more. They are fast and cost-effective with a 70% payout, but they only support PDF. They give marketing assistance to their users.
9. Kitaboo. Kitaboo is mainly used for combining multimedia elements in ebooks. It has its own reader app, and built in DRM protection to safeguard copyright. They have flexible pricing and support many different file formats.
10. Draft2Digital. Smashwords, a popular self-publishing platform was acquired by Draft2Digital, who publishes on many platforms. Draft2Digital offers UBL (Universal Book Links) which are very useful for getting discovered as an ebook creator. They give 90% of profits to their authors and support files like Word, ePUB and OTF.
11. Your own website. This is a great option. It supports every file, gives every penny to you and anybody in the world can reach it near-instantly. The only downside is that you may have to do a bit more marketing and set-up.
Which option is best?
Any of them is fine. I would recommend either Amazon KDP, because of their wide distribution and good commissions (85% of ebooks are now published on KDP), or publishing on your own website, because of its incredible flexibility.
Go with Amazon if you want to just publish your ebook and get on with life. Here is how to publish your book there.
If you want to make significant cash, I highly recommend that you publish on your site, despite the work that goes into it. You can take 100% of the money, and you can create a better description/landing page than any other option. There are no limits.
Can I publish on multiple places at once?
Yes, most platforms allow you to publish on other sites. However, some sites have opt-in programs where you cannot. For example, KDP has Kindle Unlimited, where there are more options to make more money available to you, but you cannot publish elsewhere.
I do not recommend joining these programs unless you plan to only publish on one platform.
However, some sites may run into problems if you also used another site. For example, if you publish on Amazon, and onto Amazon through another site, then it is quite possible that issues could arise.
What should I use to make a website?
If you have chosen to make a website – well done! – then I would recommend using WordPress. Over a third of the internet was built with WordPress – for good reason. It is fast, reliable and easy-to-use with plenty of plugins to customize it.
You will need two other things – a domain name and a hosting service – your website won’t work without them. The latter is a paid service (don’t worry – it isn’t expensive) that you can imagine as a bit like the land a house is built on. The house is your website, but it needs somewhere to go on the internet. Hosting sorts this out for you.
A domain name is what you type into the search bar to get to the site, for example – google.com or youtube.com.
Do a bit of research to figure out what you need to do to build your site.
What do I do after I’ve published my ebook?
Great job! You’ve completed half the battle. The other half is marketing. Don’t worry – I created this helpful guide here just to help you. Don’t thank me!
Marketing is important to get your amazing book into the hands of readers. You don’t want your book sitting on the back pages of Google, do you!
I hope this was helpful to you, and if you need any extra help then I have a ton of posts on it here.