Self-Publishing Companies & Distributors.
Hey everyone, I’ve put together this list of some of the bigger and well known self-publishing companies and distributors. Yes, there are other companies out there but I’ve talked to a lot of established authors in a variety of groups, forums, and sites and these are the ones mentioned the most.
I realize that everyone’s opinion and experience may vary, but I put a stupid amount of time into this list trying to get the skinny on what each one has to offer. This is just an overview to help you decide which companies best fit your expectations and needs for your publishing style.
Some of you may want to mix and match the distributors you use depending on your needs. For example, you may find one company is better for your ebook needs, while another is better for your overall print needs. It is of course up to you to determine how much time you want to spend using multiple sites and which one has the best offers for meeting the goals you have for your books.
On a separate note, it was suggested by one author, that you can use these distributors for the bulk of your sales. But it wouldn't hurt to go directly to some of the distributors if you want to maximize your book royalty earnings. Again, this all depends on the time you want to spend tracking sales and managing multiple sites.
This list includes the following companies:
· Lulu
· KDP (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing)
· D2D (Draft to Digital)
· Ingram Spark
· BookBaby
· Smashwords
This list will give you the following information about each company:
· Membership cost/Sign-up fee’s
· The book formats offered
· Royalties you can expect
· How your royalties get paid to you
· The markets each company distributes to
· Pros/Cons
· And lastly my over-all opinion after Googling reviews and perusing each site.
Lulu
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: Site list’s services as free, though they do have packages you can buy that will assemble your book for you, as well as editing, marketing, promos, and website set-up.
If you look around online you may be able to find a promo code to get around the fees.
Book formats offered:
Ebook: Yes
Paperback: Yes
Hardcover: Yes
Royalties Earned: The net profit from the sale of a print book project sold on Lulu.com is split 80/20 between the Creator and Lulu. For eBooks sold on Lulu.com the net profit is split 90/10 between the Creator and Lulu.
eBook Note: eBooks sold on Lulu.com can be offered free of charge or for $0.99 or higher. Net profit includes all revenue earned above $0.99.
So if your ebook is $2.99, Lulu takes $.99 as a hosting fee leaving you with a $2.00 net profit. From there they take $.20 as their share and you get $1.80
If you sell through other markets such as Kindle, Kobo, Nook, or Apple Books don’t forget that these will take an addition distribution fee from your book price, which varies depending on the market.
How you get paid: Lulu’s sight doesn’t seem very straight forward. I had to do a lot of searching to find any information on how they pay authors for their sales, and could only find one mention of Paypal. It did not list how often you got paid, if there were any fees, or if they held off paying you until you reached a certain sales threshold.
Distribution markets: Lulu, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books
Pros: Offers a volume discount for printed books
Cons: It can take 6-8 Weeks for paperback or hardcover distribution availability to outside retailers.
Lots of complaints about customers not getting paid for their books.
Outsources to Author Solutions.
Many complaints about quality on printed books including missing pages.
My opinion of Lulu overall: Even when trying to figure out an exact number for royalties earned Lulu’s sight claimed that your earnings may vary. They didn’t have a place where you could just enter a price and have your expected earnings calculated.
They don’t list anything about a sales tracker, and if it is all on one place for various markets, or if you have to track the sales independently through each site.
They have bad ratings all around the web, and don’t seem very transparent. Lulu may work well for some author’s, but I think there are better site’s out there.
KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing):
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: None
Book formats offered:
Paperback: Yes
Hardcover: No
Ebook: Yes
Royalties Earned: Several options to choose from. Clear and precise about what your final payments will be after royalties are deducted.
How you get paid: Direct deposit to bank only, once a month.
Distribution markets: Amazon.
As long as you are not signed up for the KU Select program you are free to distribute your book through other sites and do promos and giveaways.
If you sign up for the KU Select (Kindle Unlimited) program, you MUST only sell exclusively with Amazon during your 90 day enrollment period. During this enrollment you will get paid by ‘pages read’ for readers purchasing your books through Kindle Unlimited. Your ebook also has to be a minimum of $2.99 while enrolled in the KU program.
Pros: KDP does offer a cover creator for those of you that don’t have the money to buy one. They are kind of cheap looking, but there are creative ways to spruce your cover up if you have the patience and a little Photoshop/editing computer skills.
KDP has a separate site just for monitoring your sales and setting up your book, making everything easy to track from one place. You can even download reports of your sales (when it is working). However they have an additional sight for your author page called Author Central, which I’ve been personally experiencing a lot of glitches with. Having multiple sites to track all of your book/author stuff is a little frustrating and it is easy to forget upkeep on the Author Central site, but it is easy and friendly to use for all no matter your skill with the computer.
You can also use the Author Central sight to link your series together. This way if a reader clicks on one of your books, the other books in your series automatically pop up on the same page. I see a lot of new authors forgetting to do this on a regular basis.
Cons: Lately there have been a lot of complaints about the print quality of paperbacks. The covers have been misaligned, one author got a copy of their book with another book printed halfway through it, pages have been said to be missing, etc.
I also hear a lot about authors not getting paid for all of their sales, but I think this is more to the authors misunderstanding how the KDP sight works and how to view your sales. The site automatically updates to show week-week sales, so if you want to see your sales for a whole month/three months/year etc, you need to click on that option.
My opinion of KDP overall: Let’s face it, Amazon is a huge market and if you ask any author they will probably tell you that most of their sales are through Amazon. The problem is that the market is flooded with so many books, it is hard to get your book seen. Rankings are based on sales and verified purchase reviews (Some of your readers may review on Goodreads since they track their books through that site, and it doesn’t count as an Amazon review even though Amazon owns Goodreads.) If you use KDP which is a great free sight, I would recommend also shopping around and using a couple other sights as well to distribute your book so readers who use Nook, iReader, and GooglePlay can find your books as well.
D2D Publishing (Draft to Digital)
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: None
Book formats offered:
Paperback: Not at the moment, though they are running a beta program so this option should be available in the future.
Hardcover: No
Ebook: Yes
Royalties Earned: Clear and precise about what your final payments will be after royalties are deducted. From what I could see you get roughly 85% royalties from ebook sales.
How you get paid: Check, Paypal, Direct deposit, Payoneer
Distribution markets: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play Books, Kobo (including Kobo Plus), Tolino, OverDrive, Bibliotheca, Scribd, 24Symbols, Playster, Baker & Taylor. And they are working on adding new markets,
Pros: D2D is known for its great customer service. They actually have a support line you can call with real live human beings picking up the phone. They also have an option to email.
The site is straight forward and easy to use, and most of your questions about what to expect from them and their services provided can be answered right on their home page before you even sign up for anything. You can also use their site to format your book into an Epub, Mobi, or PDF file without having to publish your book through them.
Cons: At the moment they only offer ebooks, but hopefully that will change soon. Fingers crossed that the reason it is taking so long is that they want to ensure a quality product. Until then, there are other site’s you can use to bulk order paperbacks to sell, or you can even use Amazon for single order paperbacks.
I’ve also heard through authors on their beta program that D2D isn’t offering wrap covers at the moment, but that too may change when they go live with their paperback program. It’s a wait-and-see type deal.
While the set up for your ebook is easy to use, my only complaint was that the formatting was a little off. I’m used to having a little more control with Amazon on how my font’s and chapters are set up, so it took me a little bit of playing around until I could find a satisfactory set up with D2D. It’s nothing a reader would find major, or even really pay attention to…but as an author who loves my little book baby, I can be picky.
My opinion of D2D overall: To be honest, I haven’t heard any nasty rumblings on the web about D2D. If you are a newbie author or not very tech savvy I would highly recommend this sight. You can honestly download your book, and as long as you have clear page breaks, they will pretty much do all of the formatting for you setting up your chapters ect. They will also setup copyright info and front and back end material and a plethora of other things you might not have thought of as a new author.
Ingram Spark:
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: Yes, it’s a title set up fee. $25 for ebook or $49 for ebook and print. Though I’ve heard from many that you can find Promo codes online to get a discount or free setup.
Book formats offered:
Paperback: Yes (B&W or Color)
Hardcover: Yes (B&W or Color)
Ebook: Yes
Royalties Earned: I couldn’t find anything on their site without signing up, but after a quick Google search I saw that they pay 40% royalties on ebooks. (ouch) And to get the print royalties you need to use the calculator tools they offer in the ‘Tool’ tab to get your expected royalties.
How you get paid: I couldn’t find this information anywhere so I don’t know if it’s limited to Paypal, checks or Direct-deposit. I can’t tell you how often they pay you, or if you have to wait to reach a certain threshold before they payout. I even googled it and none of that information was listed.
Distribution markets: They have way too many to list but below are some of the major ones. You can also go onto their site and they have a list of Global Online retail partners for ebook distribution.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo. They also have markets in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Pros: Ingram Spark has several free tutorials that cover everything from publishing to marketing. They actually have an ‘Acadamy’ with free courses.
They have a ‘Tool’ bar that has a Publisher Compensation Calculator, a Print and Ship Calculator and more. They also have Self-publishing templates and Cover generator templates. The site is pretty upfront about what to expect before signing up. I’ve heard a lot of experienced authors recommend them.
With the wide market place selection, you can get your book distributed easily and out into the world.
Their site allows you to track all sales through all distributors in one place. (Super helpful)
They also have some of the more reasonable printing cost's, especially if you aren't looking to do a massive bulk order.
Cons: The royalties earned for ebooks are very low compared to other sites. There a lot of bad reviews online for this company. From what I’ve heard and read about this company, there is a high learning curve that comes with it, which may not be best for new authors. There are some pretty hefty set-up and change fees, so if you want revise an existing title’s cover or interior, it costs $25. To update both, it costs $50.
My opinion of Ingram Spark overall: This one is hard. I’ve heard a lot of experienced authors recommend Ingram Spark. If money isn’t an issue for you, than this may be the best site for you to use. However, if you’re just getting started or are a poor starving artist like many of us, than Ingram Spark seems to have lower royalties than most other sights, on top of title set-up and revision fees. The one nice thing is the general transparency of the site.
Also, you can use their ACADEMY courses for free. All you need is your name and email to sign up.
BookBaby:
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: Yes and No.
If you convert your own files it is free of cost. (Something that’s easy and free to do using other conversion sites) They do have two other packages with the first starting at $99.00
Book formats offered:
Paperback: Yes
Hardcover: Yes
Ebook: Yes
They have POD (Print on Demand) but you need to pick a package before having books printed. Prices have a wide range depending on what kind of print book you chose, how many pages, and the quantity. Example; 25 quantity, Soft Cover, 400pgs - $374.29 The site is easy to use and will give you an upfront estimate before signing up for anything.
Royalties Earned: From what I can see, if you upload your own ebook already converted you can earn 85% royalties. If you purchase their premium package ($249) you get 100% royalties for your ebook.
How you get paid: Check, Paypal, Direct deposit, Payoneer
You can get paid weekly, but you need to meet a $10 minimum.
Distribution markets: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Apple Books, Nook, Scribd and many more.
Pros: Bookbaby is fairly easy to use. They offer coupons and you can find some online to save money on printing and packages. They are very transparent, and you have a variety of publishing packages to choose from depending on your needs. In my opinion they have one of the better sites as far as book selection goes. Paperbacks and hardcovers come in many sizes and types. If you are looking to publish a children’s book or even cookbook they offer some great choices. If you know how to format your own book (which is pretty easy, and you can find a lot of free online tools to help you with this) you can save a lot of money.
They have so many packages to choose from in case you don’t have a cover yet, or even need an author page set up.
This is one of the more affordable sites for bulk print book orders, and the quality is great.
Ingram Spark is cheaper for your standard paperback, though I'm not sure about how they compare with hardcovers or children's books. However the paper stock is a little better with BookBaby. You'll really have to dive into each site putting in your specific book needs to get the best quality and price.
Cons: I don’t think they offer a report of your sales for all of the outside distributors you use with all the packages, so you would have to track those sales independently. If you need to make changes/amendments to your book it can result in a fee depending on what you’re changing up. From what I’ve read online they don’t offer the best marketing services.
My opinion of BookBaby overall: If you are looking for a company that can offer ebook and print book distribution then BookBaby can be a great choice. If you need help setting up your books from start to finish or anywhere in between, BookBaby has a variety of packages to choose from, and coupons you can use to help offset the cost. I would only recommend them over Ingram if you are looking to do both ebook and print from one site due to their higher royalty payouts on ebooks...but don't forget to use the promo codes to your advantage.
Smashwords:
Membership/Sign-up Fee’s: Free
Book formats offered:
Paperback: No
Ebook: Yes
Hardcover: No
Royalties Earned: Earn up to 80%
How you get paid: Once a month via Paypal with a one cent threshold.
Distribution markets: Global distribution Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive, Smashwords , Kobo, Scribd, and more
Pros: Daily sales reporting from Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords store. Free ISBNs or you can use your own. Free author profile page. Free ebook conversion to multiple formats from a Word .doc. Free unlimited anytime-updates to books and metadata. Free consolidated sales reporting simplifies year-end tax reporting. Free centralized metadata management. Free exclusive marketing and selling tools.
The Smashwords site is as transparent as they come. Literally everything that you need to know is right there on one page under the ‘How to Publish on Smashwords. It is user friendly and made so that even the biggest computer dummy should be able to navigate around easily.
Cons: This is a sight to use if your book is already formatted and has a cover and all that good stuff. They aren’t for someone who needs everything put together for them.
Smashwords only offers ebooks, so if you are looking for printed books you’ll have to find another distributor on the side. They don’t have Amazon as one of their distribution markets, so you’ll want to set up your book with Amazon/KDP separately.
My opinion of Smashwords overall: Smashwords has been around for a long time and they know what they are doing. A lot of authors recommend them. Just keep in mind that they are not a one stop shop, you’ll want to put your book in Amazon as well. If your main focus is on ebook distribution I would recommend Smashwords. They are simple and easy to use for authors that have their book ready to go and put together.