I take it that you are a new self-published author or one who is thinking of self-publishing books. You must have heard of platforms that help you create an ebook and also distribute it. There are two types, standalone and aggregators.
Amaozon KDP (=Kindle Direct Publishing) platform is the most popular stand-alone book creator and distributor. The books are produced through the KDP while they are distributed across the world through the Amazon's marketplace. There are dozens of other book/ ebook creation and distribution platforms such as Barnes & Noble, Lulu, and so on. Book distribution aggregators named below supply books to these stand-alone book distributors also.
ebook distributors, aggregators
The ones that distribute books and ebooks to other distributors are better called aggregators. There are many well-known ones. In different countries, there are local aggregators too. Their core activity is like wholesalers who distribute the book to actual sellers and take their commission.
Some do not take any upfront fee while some do. The ones who do not
charge a fee take a percentage commission out of the royalties you
earn.
Aggregators often give services other than selling books through retail book distributors. Some of them help you create the book (free or paid) and some also have their own marketplace.
Like stand-alone ebook creators and ebook distributors, some aggregators also in printing of book. They can print your book on POD (print on demand) model and do not charge upfront for that; some do printing for you, and you have to sell the book yourself; some have a mix of the two: they charge for printing and help you in marketing and distribution. Some distribute audio-books also.
If you have manuscript and book cover ready, most of them format the book for you for no charge. Some charge even for that, saying that they manually check for any issues. When they give editing/ cover designing/ book review services, they definitely charge extra - and the charges can be rather high.
Aggregators help the author in that he/ she does not have to create a book separately in each platform or sell a book separately to different sellers. It saves him/ her a lot of headache in terms of cresting books, maintaining accounts and tracking sales.
Smashwords is the oldest and perhaps the most popular ebook distributor/ aggregator. It does not charge any flat fee, but takes a cut of 10% out of royalties earned by the author. Smashwords also has its own marketplace. Its commission is 15% out of the royalties earned there.
Its 'retail partners' (retailer distributors) include major ebook stores such as Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and it also distributes ebooks to libraries. It also offers some promotion services.
Draft2Digital is younger than Smashwords but gives competition to Smashwords on equal terms. I can say that its terms and service levels are better than others.
D2D's book creation tool is extremely simple; if you have your manuscript and cover ready, the ebook comes out in 5 minutes! In addition, you can download the book in different formats.
This platform seamlessly distributes the book to all well-known ebook suppliers including Amazon (You can go to Amazon directly or through D2D.), Apple Books and Barnes & Noble. It supplies books to libraries also. However, it does not deal with Google Play Store / Google Books.
D2D also provides a universal book link. Using it, one can go to any of the about a dozen ebook distributors with whom the book is available.
On D2D, there is no upfront fee. It charges 10% out of the royalties you earn from the sale of your book.
eBookPartnership is a new book publishing and distribution service. It claims to be efficient in sale of books and have worldwide tie-ups. It charges a flat fee for different works. The present distribution fee starts from $99 for a title. For creation of print and ebooks, they charge a good amount (e.g. for ebook: $349 onward) but then do not deduct a cut from the royalties that the book earns.
Bookbaby is a big name as ebook distributor. It charges a flat fee, which is not small (currently $ ). After that, it takes care of the book in distributing it to all major ebook sellers including Google Play Store, and also has a tie-up with Amazon Select. It also has a bookshop through which you can directly sell the book.
Publishdrive also charges a flat fee for ebook services that include creation, distribution and promotion. It has a free plan that distributes the book only to 6 distributors and has other limitations.
Which ebook distributor is the best for small self-published authors
As a self-published author of about ten non-fiction and fiction books, I can say that among ebook distributors, I find Draft2Digital as the best, especially for new authors.
I have established myself as a non-fiction writer but as a fiction writer (with the assumed name of Mony de Panja), I am yet at the first pedestal. But my experience with D2D platform has been excellent so far in terms of ease and service. I am waiting for good book sales. I will update this post after some time with updates on sales.
I am not sure, but once an author starts selling books in large numbers, other services might work as well. Perhaps that is the time when traditional publishers/ literary agents start approaching the author. Long way to go!
A request: Though not many people comment on blog posts these days, may I request to leave a comment, sharing your experience, what you have heard about this or your anticipation/ fear/ doubt. That will help making it more useful for others. Thanks!
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