EBook Publishing

The rise in popularity of ereading devices and eBooks has had a huge effect on the publishing and book retail industry. The result is that there are many online retailers who now sell eBooks – from the big players such as Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble (US), and Google, to a myriad of smaller retailers. Between them they are selling millions of eBooks. The Ebook publishing industry is now a major force in the book world and, because of the low cost of publishing an ebook and its worldwide reach, getting bigger each year.

We can help and advise you on how to sell your eBook with many of the major retailers. We recommend setting up your own accounts with the retailers because this way you benefit by receiving all of the royalties due to you.

We can also help you sell through any of the medium to smaller eBook retailers. There are a lot of eBook retail sites on the web – too many to list! Once we have received your order we will send you a list of retailers that you can sell your book with. We will advise you of any special requirements they have and help you to set up your account if you require it. We can even upload the fully compliant files to the retailers for you – for free – if you give us your account details.

It doesn’t end there. After the eBook has been published what happens? Well hopefully your book starts to sell – though this is unlikely without some promotion and marketing. We can give you general help and advice on how to market your book. If you can promote your book it is more likely to be noticed and thus sell well. Marketing a book yourself though can be very time consuming and many authors do not have the time to spend on promoting their book. Where this is the case we can put you in touch with a reputable and professional book marketing company who can promote your book for you. See our EBook Marketing page for details.

We include helping you to publish and advising you on how to market your eBook yourself in our basic pricing structure. See our pricing structure for more details.

A more in depth look at the retailers can be found on our EBook Retailers page.

Amazon

• Amazon is the largest seller of books in the world. The Kindle is one of the best selling ereaders in the world. They are a must for any author or publisher – the majority of your sales will most likely be through Amazon.
• Amazon let individual author sell their books through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Signing up with Amazon KDP is easy.
• Createspace is an Amazon company so if you want a printed book as well as your ebook, both can be linked together on Amazon.

Apple

• Apple’s iPad has been a huge worldwide success and alongside it Apple’s iBookstore has become extremely popular and is now a major seller of eBooks.
• To set up an account with Apple you will need a US Tax ITIN number (see our FAQ). You will also need access to an Apple Mac computer to upload your files.
• Your eBook does not need an ISBN if you upload direct to iBooks.

Kobo

• One of the largest and rapidly growing retailers in the eBook market.
• They also produce their own range of popular ereading devices.
• Kobo, as well as selling ebooks on their own website, distribute to many websites around the world such WH Smiths, Borders, Walmart etc.

Google

• Google is a worldwide and integral part of the internet. It has millions of users every day.
• Google’s eBook store is growing and with the internet power of Google behind it can only get bigger.
• Google’s eBook store accepts both the ePub and PDF formats, protected by the Adobe DRM.

Barnes & Noble

• With the introduction of the Nook, Barnes & Noble have also become a major player in the US eBook market  – independent authors and publishers use the NookPress site to sell their books.
• Barnes & Noble are not just a US only site. They now operate in several countries including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium.
• Barnes & Noble have their own brand eReading device – the Nook

Smashwords

• Smashwords are an Apple approved aggregator. They also distribute to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon (though we recommend going direct to Amazon) and more.
• Setting up an account to sell on Smashwords is easy and they are a popular eBook retailer. They also charge the one of lowest commissions of all eBook retailers.
• Smashwords now accept ePub files but they will not convert the epub file into the other formats that they convert a Word Doc into. Uploading an ePub file, in our opinion, is the best option for authors and publishers who wish to use Smashwords as you have much more control over the final output.

More retailers can be found on our EBook Retailers page.