Ebook Platforms for Authors

Sell your books direct. Now there is no reason not to.

This post is about selling your ebook—not travel. If you’re not interested in the writing business, click the heart to show your support (thank you), and I’ll see you when I’m in Istanbul, Turin, Milan, and Zurich later in January and February.

With Ingram Spark's recent price increases, the outcry from indie bookstores and authors, and the resulting negative royalties on print books, I will be looking for more and better ways to provide books at reasonable rates for readers. With higher prices, the theft of artists’ work will increase. It is simply logical.

Sell Your Books Directly To Readers

So now what? I set up my own e-book sales site in addition to joining all the other platforms available. I went “direct.” What does that mean? It means I sell my e-books, audiobooks, and paperbacks directly on my website: https://www.rshamptonbooks.com.

If you order a book from my website, it will either come to you via Book Funnel instantly for digital items, with clear emails and instructions for downloading (with good support if you need it), or via BookVault for your print book.

This gives me the ability to reduce e-book costs and keep print and audio prices from continually increasing. No, they aren’t free. There is a cost to actually creating and producing the book, then offering it on a shopping website. But I can offer sales, discounts, boxed items, and other support.

Selling on Platforms

If you are a new indie author, you might wish to get some understanding of how all this works before you set up your own shop. So how do you do that?

By selling your books first on other platforms. There, you will learn how your book needs to be formatted correctly (just use Vellum), uploaded, and you can learn where each platform will distribute your book and how much you will get paid when someone buys it from that platform.

First, read the details on what you need to set up your author account on each distribution platform. You can find this at:

What Are Your Choices?

Your options for uploading and distributing your e-books will probably begin with these platforms (in the legal world, that sentence would read “Included but not limited to”):

Amazon KDP (NOT Amazon.com)

Setting up your ebook is the same as the print book (see above), with a few additions. Understand the difference between KDP and Kindle Unlimited. There are details on this platform. One is simply selling your book. The other (KU) is a subscription service where you will be paid per page read.

When uploading to KDP, you will also automatically upload to Apple Books. KDP also now allows you to submit your books to libraries (on my to-do list).

Kobo Writing Life

This is the easiest platform. The upload is fast and very easy. The most difficult thing is finding the correct login link to get you to the space for authors, not readers. You use the same login as both author and reader. Once you get that bookmarked, you are good to go. If you decide to distribute your book to other countries, do not be alarmed when you arbitrarily see your book on a Taiwanese shopping site!

Apple Books

I found it irritatingly difficult to upload books here, especially if you’ve already set up your KDP and Kobo accounts. I love reading on Apple Books, but I defaulted to having them uploaded via KDP and/or Draft2Digital. You upload through iTunes, then into Apple Books. There are too many unnecessary steps.

Google Play Books

I found this platform reasonably easy to use for uploads, but it could be much easier. Be certain that if you use a distributor like Draft2Digital below, you might be uploading your book twice, and possibly at different price points.

Draft2Digital

This platform is an aggregator. It distributes to library sites, other larger platforms such as Apple, B&N, and Google, as well as a long list of other sites. I use it only for ebook distribution.

Barnes & Noble Press

B&N Press is easy to use. I have an account here, but like Apple and Google, I use D2D to distribute.

There are other platforms out there, such as Ingram Spark’s new services for authors, Smashwords (part of D2D), and PublishDrive. If you see anything interesting or not mentioned here when you are researching, by all means, check it out. So many new things are cropping up that it is difficult to keep track of them all. If you wish to read more information on e-book distribution, here’s a link to an article by Reedsy.

Word of Caution: THE DEVIL IS ALWAYS IN THE DETAILS. Please be certain you understand each element of:

1. the metadata page(s),

2. the exact requirements for uploading your cover and your manuscript into their platform, and

3. the royalties and distribution page(s).

   1. Compare the royalties, for example, directly from Apple Books and those if D2D distributes your book to Apple instead. They will most likely be different.

4. Understand what happens if you decide to delete your book from their system. Do they keep your royalties? Read the details when you set up your account.

5. Do you know what DRM is? You will be asked on every platform if you wish your book to have digital rights management.

6. Finally, each time you come to something on the platform that you do not understand, please don’t blow by it. Stop and research the terms or ask an experienced author for help. Or ask for help from the platform’s support team.

Essentially, just start. Pick one platform. Learn it, upload your book, and get used to being an author through just that one if you want. Or, if you’re in a hurry like me, upload on every platform.

Happy Writing!