Indie Book Club discussion

Hi all,
I am getting ready to publish my first book (actually, my dad wrote it and has handed over publishing and marketing to me). I am utterly confused about which ebook platform to use for distribution. Does anyone have any advice? Vook? Book Baby? Book Masters? Uploading individually to Amazon, B&N, etc individually? Something else? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

Best,
Diana

I'd go with Smashwords. They will distribute the book to all the major retailers for you provided you submit your father's book into the correct format for them. They have guidelines for their "Meatgrinder" process. They take a small % for each sale. I'm presently using them for all three of my books.

I also have a separate account with Kindle where I uploaded to them directly. Better royalties. :) Also, I used Createspace when making print editions.

If you have any questions, ask away! I should be able to answer it (I'm a computer tech by trade), and if I can't, we have a great group of members in here that should be able to help!

Big J

Hi Diana,

It depends where in the world you are. If you're in the US, then I'd recommend KDP with Amazon, B&N's PubIt and Kobo's Kobo Writing Life. Smashwords is also good for getting onto Sony, Apple and other platforms.

I mention location because if you're not in the US, then you won't be able to access PubIt - making going through Smashwords essential for getting better exposure.

Thanks Big J and Geoffrey! I am in the US. I'm trying to figure out whether it is better to go with Smashwords which is free to set up but takes a cut of our royalties, a service like BookBaby which has an upfront fee but then takes 0% of our sales later or uploading individually.

At the moment I am leaning towards uploading to KDP and PubIt individually. How important is it exposure-wise to also have it on Kobo, Sony, Apple and other platforms? I get the feeling that KDP and PubIt are where most people but their ebooks, but don't know for sure.

KDP and PubIt are definitly the biggest places right now, but many people are thinking that Kobo's going to be a huge competitor soon. I found Kobo to be the easiest direct distributor, so if you're going to figure out each platform yourself, Kobo's pretty easy to tag on to the list :)

Unless you're assured of how many sales you'll get, I would avoid services with upfront charges.

My experience is that Amazon and Barnes & Noble are the bulk of my sales. Smashwords is good for other venues, for me it's Apple that's good there, and their coupon option. But SW distribution to Amazon doesn't work and is very slow to B&N. I only use SW to distribute one book to B&N because its the free one, and PubIt won't let you set a free price but will carry free books from SW.

If I were to upload to KDP, PubIT and Kobo individually, but also upload to Smashwords, can I change the settings in Smashwords so that it only distrubutes to the outlets I have not set up myself? Or will it muddy the waters by redistributing to the three I already have?

Also, how do you all feel about the lack of DRM at Smashwords?

Yes, you can individually choose where you'd like Smashwords to distribute too, so simply uncheck B&N and Kobo. :)

I actually prefer lack of DRM. I started out with the whole 'MUST APPLY DRM', but actually, listening to most readers, people prefer the lack of DRM. Ripped off books only get you more exposure and it doesn't happen that much. Only my view though. :)

You can set your distribution channels in SW so it won't send to those vendors.

Personally, I don't care about the DRM. If someone really wants to strip it, they can and without that much trouble. I focus more on my copyright and don't worry about the DRM. I could be in the minority there, though.

I see your point about DRM. I tend to agree, but wondered if I was crazy. Now I see that I'm not :-)

So now I have a plan - upload individually to KDP, BN, Kobo and SW. Thanks everyone!

And tell your dad to start writing his next book, if he is not already! It seems having multiple titles helps draw attention.

It's worked for me. :)

Don't worry :-). The book is part of a trilogy and he's already at work on the next one!

I pretty much agree with everything that was said by everybody. Smashwords worked awesome and Createspace for the printed edition.