Indie Publishing Success- Pre-Publishing Decisions

Click here to listen to the companion podcast episode

You've written a great book. You've laid all the groundwork. Your plans are in place. Now it's time to publish. It's time to make some decisions.

Ebooks

Kindle Unlimited vs Going Wide

•  Kindle unlimited requires Amazon exclusivity but can be an excellent revenue stream
• Risk of losing your account
• Know your genre
• See how others are doing
• Limited "wide" periods?

Other vendors:

• iBooks 
• Have to be a Mac user?
• Nook 
• Poor customer service experiences
• Lack of commitment?
• Kobo Writing Life
• Can take advantage of advertising options
• New lending program
• Sales reporting limitations
• Google Play 
• Discounting policies
• Open to new authors?

Distributors 

The advantage of these services is you can upload a single set of files and they will publish it to a variety of platforms on your behalf. The trade-off is  you will get a slightly lower royalty, although at certain price levels you might make out better.

• Draft 2 Digital 
• Easy to use
• Responsive
• Fast
• Can go free to Nook
• Sometimes get better Nook customer service through D2D
• Reaches a few vendors others do not
• Advertising and promotions
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•  
• Pronoun
• Distributes to five majors including Amazon
• Better Amazon royalty on books below $2.99 and above $9.99

• Smashwords 
• Also reaches a few vendors D2D does not
• Improving
• Variable compensation depending on the type of purchase.
• Doesn't support co-authors

Selling from your website

• Limited success. 
• The average customer values convenience over price. 
• Better for non-fiction?
• Sites
• Selz
• Gumroad

Paperbacks

Likelihood of  selling into bookstores.

Createspace

• Free setup and revisions
• Pricing for expanded distribution
• No flexible discounting
• No annual listing fees 
• Poor quality gloss covers

Lightning Source

• Expensive setup and revision fees
• Flexible discounting
• Annual listing fees
• Good quality product 
• Makes returns possible, but...
• Only accepting publishing houses?

Ingram Spark

• Accepting individuals
• Very similar to Lightning Source
• Lower setup fees. Coupons.
• Same listing fees.
• Fewer discounting options. 

KDP

• Still developing, working out the kinks.
• Doesn't seem to be as good a deal as CreateSpace

Nook Press

• Run in the opposite direction as fast as you can 
• Overpriced, no distribution, not a good deal.
• Basically an expensive printing service.

Audiobooks

ACX 

• Connects publishers with narrators/producers
• Distributes to Audible, Amazon, iTunes
• Whispersync program
• Pay for production vs Royalty Share
• Exclusive vs Non-exclusive
• May provide your own files
• Flat percentage
• Promo codes
• No gifting
• Problem finding narrators

Other distributors are cropping up if you have your own files to provide. No opinions on any of them. Do your research.

Translations

Babelcube

• Works like ACX.
• Is the translator any good?
• Promo/marketing limitations.