When it comes to selling your books online there is right or wrong path you can take.
If you're a new author you need to get your books in front of as many people.
You also need to decide whether you want to go with Amazon's exclusivity, or use a number of different retail platforms to sell your books from.
You need to understand what each online retailer can offer you and what they ask of you in return.
If you're a new author you need to get your books in front of as many people.
You also need to decide whether you want to go with Amazon's exclusivity, or use a number of different retail platforms to sell your books from.
You need to understand what each online retailer can offer you and what they ask of you in return.
Discover the biggest book and ebook retailers online, along with a summary to help you decide which selling route you want to take:
Apple Books
Second only to Amazon in selling e-books, its a good place to start.
Devices such as Kindle, iPads, iPhones and tablets have now become a regular part of our leisure time making iBooks a pretty good option.
You can publish directly with iBooks but using an aggregator will allow you to do it alongside other book retailers. I'll explain more about aggregators later in this article.
Barnes and Noble
With a declining book seller market, Barnes and Noble who used to rank #2 to Amazon has taken a hit in recent years, this includes its eBook business Nook.
Nook books is only available to US authors, but for non US authors they only choice is to use an aggregator.
If you decide to publish a paperback retailers such as Lulu will list your books with Barnes and Noble.
Kobo
About third in market share of e-books, Kobo has its own user audience, and loyal customer base. If you spend time marketing your books you'll gain sales from this particular channel.
You can publish direct, but it's probably more worthwhile looking into an aggregator to sell your e-books.
Books on Google Play
Unfortunately it doesn't offer an easy-to-use dashboard like Kindle or Createspace and its sales reporting system isn't much better.
If you're looking to get your eBook onto as many platforms as you can then Books on Google Play is certainly worth a try.
Kindle Direct Publishing
I've saved the best till last, it goes without saying that Amazon has the biggest platform, and therefore more eyeballs looking for books online.
Taken from personal experience, Amazon is always the best to place to start if you're looking for readership and book sales, especially if you're new to writing books.
You can get your e-books and paperback books published under one roof with Kindle.
If like me, you're a new author you need a platform that also offers various ways of promoting your books. This comes in the form of Kindle Select. This gives Amazon absolute exclusivity of your book on their platform, but allows you to make your e-books available for five free days over a 90 day period.
Note: When you're using Kindle Select you give Amazon exclusivity over your e-book. Which means you can't sell on any other platform during this period.
With an interesting book, and cover you can get your books will be seen by thousands of people all over the world.
It also gives Amazon Prime members the option to borrow your e-books. This is extra income on top of e-book and paperback sales.
E-Book Aggregators
Both Smashwords and Draft2Digital are e-book aggregators that offer excellent support and services to authors.
With very little knowledge Draft2Digital is easy-to-use, while Smashwords offers a wider distribution channel, which includes libraries.
Benefits of Using Aggregators
All of your royalties are managed in one place, and your e-books are available to a wide range of retailers.
Your royalty will be slightly lower because the aggregator takes a small cut from the sale of your books.
Your Decision
Deciding on which route to take can be really difficult, but not impossible.
You can publish your books and e-books with as many publishers as possible, at the end of the day its all trial and error.
I'd love to hear about your experiences using these platforms, in the comments below.
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