Ebooks are the cheapest, easiest and most logical way for self-published authors to distribute and sell their work these days.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform
When it comes to ebooks, Amazon has been and continues to be the undisputed king of ebook sales. You can sell a substantial number of downloads from that platform. Given its dominance (especially in the U.S. market), it’s a logical place to distribute one’s work. Click here to access their digital publishing platform, located here: https://kdp.amazon.com/.
When you sign up with Amazon, you have a choice between joining KDP Select (publishing only on Amazon) or staying completely indie. If you choose to be Amazon exclusive, you’re relying solely on their platform and primarily U.S. sales, which are (admittedly) considerable. However, it does prevent you from uploading your work to other publishing platforms. in 90-day increments. You’re also unable to sell ebooks directly from your website during the 90-day exclusivity period.
I’ll confess that I don’t know whether being KDP Select allows you to do giveaways outside of free promotions offered through Amazon. I haven’t chosen to be Kindle exclusive enough to know.
Personally, these days I wouldn’t limit myself to Amazon. When I first self-published, Amazon was the only game in town. Now we (the authors) and our readership have other options.
I’ve blogged previously about the benefits of publishing wide. You can do this by uploading your work directly to different retailers or use an aggregate distribution service.
For these tutorials, I’ve used Amazon’s KDP platform for illustrative purposes. What you do on them is essentially so similar to what you do on the others.
Here’s the two-part self-publishing tutorial. A step-by-step guide.
Publishing directly to other digital platforms
Among the options for publishing direct are Barnes & Noble’s Nook at www.nookpress.com and Kobo at www.kobo.com/writinglife.
Publishing directly to Apple Books is a bit more complicated than the others. So, if you’re looking for the easiest way to get your books on Apple, I’d go with a distribution service.
Publishing through an aggregate distribution service
I use the following aggregate distributors to publish and sell my books on Apple and other online platforms: Draft2Digital, Smashwords, and PublishDrive.
Each of these has pros and cons. Here’s a link to an article that compares Draft2Digital to Smashwords.
At the moment, I’m using PublishDrive primarily to get my books distributed on Google Play. However, at the time I write this, Draft2Digital intends to add Google Play to their distribution list.
If you’re a complete newbie to self-publishing, let me assure you that the process is simple. I’m creating a series of YouTube tutorials on the subject for complete beginners.
If you’re interested in learning more about self-publishing or fiction writing techniques, just click here and I’ll send you a free guide to the various platforms.
PS: If you’d like to check my Udemy classes, just click here! 🙂
