Do you want to have your written work to be published as an eBook and sold through the online market? It is an easy job as there are many self-publishing platforms available online to let you publish and market your book easily. Due to their publicity in the world of eBooks, you are provided with tremendous opportunities to sell your eBooks through them without any difficulty.
The option of self-publishing is a boon to the world of writers/authors who want to publish their book works – sell their books online to be accessible by the great number of population with growing needs to buy online books for easy access at any time, with its very many advantages.
The top-5 leading platforms that offer eBook publishing services are (1) Amazon Kindle, (2) iBookstore, (3) Google eBook Store, (4) Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and (5) Kobo Books, in sequence, which are user-friendly – easy and fast, enabling the publishing process get done within a short span through simple steps.
1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
The No.1 publishing platform, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), is a service that enables self-publishing. Kindle Publishing could be used from anywhere in the world. By getting enrolled in Amazon’s ‘KDP Select,’ you are enabled to enjoy higher royalties, and by choosing ‘Kindle Countdown Deals’ or ‘Free Book Promotion,’ which are two major tools offered by Amazon for your book promotion, you get a maximized sales potential for your books. Moreover, by making your books to be available in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, you will be able to reach more readers, thus making good use of this widely preferred publishing platform of Amazon Kindle(See also – Kindle Formatting Services).
2. iBook Store
The Apple iBookstore ranks second, after Amazon. It supports almost all eBook formats. To sell books, Apple offers a Sign-up account, which is a ‘Paid Books Account.’ Those who offer their books for free may have access to a ‘Free Books Account’ with Apple, for which the account holder or the author-publisher has to provide his/her banking as well as tax information to receive payments for the books sold through iBook Store. Apple provides the application – iTunes Producer for free to be downloaded and used to deliver books to the iBook Store. The users (authors/publishers) are allowed to post a sample of their books to advertise their books, which is helpful in marketing the books. Books at iBookstore are protected by Apple’s own DRM (Digital Rights Management) – FairPlay that prevents duplication of books.
3. Google eBook Store
Ranking No.3 in eBook sales, the Google eBookstore allows readers to buy their favorite books from its “digital cloud”, where the eBooks are stored; that enables the readers to read the books on diverse kinds of devices at any place. The specialty is that a reader could continue reading an eBook on a tablet or smartphone or any other eReading device, right from the page number he had finished reading previously on a computer. The books are usually offered as PDFs or ePubs in order not to let the text get moved, losing originality, but to fit different devices. Google itself synchronizes the page positions across all eReader devices. Except for Amazon’s Kindle, Google eBooks are accessible via the majority of the well-known devices such as computers, iPhone, iPad, Android, Sony, and Nooks, as Amazon’s is a proprietary format still. Google eBookstore provides the reader with a short description of the book, its reviews, the price, a sample to view, and the list of devices that could be used to access the book. These features have enabled the Google eBook Store to reach third place as the best-selling platform for eBooks.
4. Barnes and Noble’s Nook
The NOOK Press of Barnes and Noble’s Nook offers Self-Publishing for free. It enables the user (author-publisher) to write as well as edit and format their book work and provides the output in a professional manner always. NOOK Press also allows the user to share their books for review and get feedback through it. It provides immediate access to a great number of readers via NOOK and Barnes & Noble.com. Author publishers could track the status of their sales every day and are also allowed to change their books’ prices as and when required.
However, publishing eBooks by self-publishing authors directly through Barnes and Noble’s Nook is currently possible for US self-publishers only as it is required to have an American bank account to publish through this platform that ranks No.4 in marketing eBooks.
5 – Kobo Books
Ranking No.5 in selling eBooks across the world, Kobo Books uses an ePub format for publishing. It reformats files submitted in Word, Open Office, or .mobi formats into ePub format automatically, without any cost. Thus, using the ePub format, Kobo enables eBooks to be accessed easily on any eReader device as well as tablets and smartphones, which makes it easier to make sales through the author’s own website. Kobo provides service to self-publishing authors who own digital rights. It enables the books to reach out to readers in about 190 countries. Kobo offers the DRM option to ensure protection for the eBooks submitted to it for sales.
1 Comment. Leave new
These options are great, but don’t really cover selling directly via digital sales services, such as Sellfy. Keeping 95% of all profits is a good enough incentive for me to consider using it.