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An e-book writer has a growing number of options for how to get his/ her book out to the public. Publishing your e-book has never been easier. but that can present many challenges. With so many e-book platforms—old, new, and updated—to choose from, which is the right fit? In this blog we are going to look at four very popular e-book publishing platforms.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
KDP is Amazon’s e-book publishing platform that helps you make your e-books available on Kindle. It offers a royalty rate of 70% of list price minus delivery costs, with a few exceptions. Your book appears on Amazon within 24 hours. It will be available to customers in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, India, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and more.
In their optional KDP Select Program, a writer must offer their books exclusively through KDP/Amazon for 3 months. “With the Select Program, the writer is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (earning money every time their book is borrowed), and gets access to promotional tools such as free copies for readers during specific periods.”
Smashwords
The largest distributor of Indie e-books in the world now carries more than 300,000 titles in its catalog. Writers can convert their Word document into any of nine e-book formats to transfer into any of the major e-bookstores. “Authors receive 85% of net sales made directly through Smashwords, and 70.5% through affiliate sales to global retailers like Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and Kobo (full distribution details here).” It also offers authors a helpful, free book-marketing guide that is worth a read. Smashwords distributes to all major platforms except Amazon. So, it can effectively be a substitute for publishing through all these platforms (Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble’s Nook Press etc.)
Within minutes of uploading the book, it’s featured for sale on the home page at the Smashwords store. From the Smashwords Dashboard, the writer controls all aspects of publishing, from changing the cover image to running a promotion or changing the price. Updating the book is simple and quick.
Kobo Writing Life
With three generations of Kobo e-readers along with the successful Kobobooks.com e-book store, Kobo added a self publishing outlet called Kobo Writing Life, a few years ago. They claim now to control roughly 10 percent of the US e-book market. Its latest e-reader, the eReader Touch, has also received mostly positive reviews while Kobo’s e-reading apps have topped the iTunes Store and are the default e-book platform on tablets from Samsung and RIM. Writing Life publishes works in 138 countries and in more than 50 languages.
Kobo Writing Life allows anyone to upload a book to the Kobo platform, which will then make it available to a global audience. The e-Books can be read on a wide variety of mobile devices and personal computers. They offer authors a royalty rate of upto 70% and the ability to set prices for their e-books including giving them away for free. “Through its Kobo Author Notes Program, they also provide a layer of social reading functionality that allows an author to embed additional commentary within the book and through its apps. Kobo Writing Life is also integrated with Facebook Timeline.” The self-service portal also has a dashboard offering a variety of data that allow an author to track its sales.
Apple iTunes Connect
iTunes Connect is a suite of web-based tools for managing content sold on the iTunes Store, AppStore, Mac App Store, and iBooks Store. A writer must have a valid Apple ID and must use a Mac to upload his/her e-book files because the software required only runs on a Mac.
A writer must be approved (it’s not an instant approval like the other 3), and then begin the process by visiting this site to request a new account. While a Mac is needed to upload files, a Mac is not needed
to create an account (or to check your sales).
Finally…
When using any of these excellent publishing platforms, why send them amateurish and improper formatting? Contact the professionals at InstaScribe and find out how you can format your e-book perfectly. No hassles, no wasted time! It is important that your book look exactly the way you want it to and is accepted by these publishing platforms. Contact us now to learn more. We look forward hearing from you and assisting you in getting your e-book noticed, sold and appreciated.
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