- Amazon Kindle definitely has the market
for e-books cornered in the United States
but it's not the only player in the marketplace.
If you're a non-fiction author about to publish an e-book,
you might be wondering
where you should upload your book for distribution.
If you are, stick around.
(upbeat music)
Hi there, I'm Julie, the book broad,
award-winning author and founder of Book Launchers,
your professional self-publishing team
that will help you write, publish, and promote
a money-making, impact-creating non-fiction book.
We help authors take an idea
and turn it into a fantastic business
and brand-boosting book.
And then when it's done, we help them get distribution
and attention for that book.
Authors like Gautam Baid, Carol Sanford,
Dr. Mark Lindholm, and Thomas Gabor.
As part of that, we're also helping them
create print books and e-books.
And a discussion that comes up
is where their e-books should be distributed
and how to get it there.
So first, where?
That largely depends on who your readers are
and where they're located.
We've talked about going exclusive with Kindle before
and it's not what I typically recommend.
So I'm assuming you want distribution more than just Kindle.
If you are on Kindle,
you're hitting a pretty good chunk of the U.S. market,
but it's not everyone,
and U.S. is only one country in the world.
If you wanna capture Canada
and other English speakers around the world,
you really should look at including Kobo, Apple,
and if you want library distribution, OverDrive.
You're gonna need a way to access all of these
unless you're willing to go direct
with the ones that you can go direct.
OverDrive, you need a way to get there.
So the first decision is where do you think your readers
are going to look for your book,
then once you've decided where you should be,
the next decision is how to get there.
Now there's two options for getting e-book distribution.
Direct, and this works for most of the platforms
but not all, like OverDrive, the library system.
Or the second option is through an aggregator.
Now before I get into the big details around this,
I want you to know this is a gigantic rabbit hole
and you can get lost in the details.
I'm gonna stick to the high level, most important points
but if you do wanna dive into finer details
of everything I'm saying,
I've got a great post by David Wogan
who broke down the different aggregators
and the pros and cons.
It's a touch out of date in terms of a few details,
but it's a great overview
if ya like traveling down rabbit holes.
(gasps)
- I love rabbit holes!
- So what is direct versus an aggregator?
Direct is uploading your e-book direct to each provider
so going onto KDP,
and then if you have a Mac and only if you have a Mac,
uploading your e-book to Apple,
then Kobo, then Barnes & Noble, and Google,
and filling in each of the forms
and uploading your files directly.
(bright chime) The upside of doing this
is you can adjust the finer details of your book,
that's the metadata, to be specific, to that channel
and you will make more money because there's no middle-man.
The downside is pretty big.
The effort it takes to upload to all those channels
is one part of it,
but now if you have to update or make a change,
you have to update it everywhere,
and then checking your sales
and getting paid from all these different places,
which means more paperwork at tax time, that's no fun.
That's where companies like Draft2digital, Publishdrive,
Smashwords, and others come into the picture.
They are what are called an aggregator
and what they do is act as the hub
for your book to be distributed to many places at once.
You upload your book once,
select where you want it to be distributed,
and they take care of the rest.
We've talked about aggregators before
when we talked about ACX versus Findaway Voices.
The downside of an aggregator is, of course, less money
and a little less control.
The upside is a whole lot of reduced pain
in the patootie. (chuckles)
It becomes one place to see your stats,
one place to make updates, et cetera.
And they will reach a lot more than just the big players
so you really can connect with a reader
wherever they are looking for you,
including OverDrive, which is the library system.
Of course, for this, you pay them a fee for their services
which is only fair.
So ultimately, going direct or going through an aggregator
is largely a choice between cost and convenience.
Whatever you decide, know this.
It is not the job of Kobo, Kindle, Apple,
or any distribution channel to sell your book.
That is your job to get the book in front of readers.
Some of these folks do a better job
of helping you with this than others
and there are different benefits to each channel
but ultimately,
it doesn't matter how much distribution you have
if you're not marketing your book.
Also, (clock ticking)
if you have more time than money
and you are okay with hassle, upload direct
to the channels you want your book distributed on.
This will make you the most amount of money
and most of the platforms are totally free to use.
Finally, know that readers are loyal to a store.
If your book is not available on Kobo
and that is their e-reader of choice,
even if they've heard great things about your book,
they're unlikely to switch to a different app or device
just to buy and read your book.
So you will be missing out on some readers
if you aren't widely available.
But it's impossible to know until you do it
whether or not it's a game-changer
for your and your book sales.
My advice to most non-fiction authors who can't decide
is this:
Upload direct to KDP and Kobo
and use Draft2digital or PublishDrive for the rest.
We set our clients up with Draft2digital
and they're really happy with their services,
distribution options, and support.
I'll link to them below.
But I'm curious.
What are you doing with your e-books?
Share it in the comments below
and when you comment the day a video is released,
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Now, why are you still listening to me
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There are so many other videos
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like this one, which is fantastic,
and this one, which is equally fantastic
so just pick the thumbnail that you think looks the coolest.
I'm waiting for you.
(upbeat music)
- I freakin' love rabbit holes.