Tips on how to distribute your published books
- Siva Prasad Bose
- Aug 17, 2021
- 3 min read
In this article we consider a few ways in which an author can distribute their published books to a larger audience. Please note that this is only a selective list based on our own experience, not an exhaustive list.
For E-Books
Sites to publish E-books
Amazon Kindle: Amazon has the biggest reach of any book store in the world, so it should be the first choice of any author. It has also got a very good interface using KDP to create your ebooks (for distribution in Kindle) and/or print books. One can create their books using the KDP interface or create their book as a Word file and simply upload them to KDP. After a few design checks and selecting a proper cover etc, the book can published in a very short time. One can also use KDP Select to promote their book by enrolling it as part of the kindle unlimited program, where kindle unlimited members can access and read the books, and authors get paid on the basis of number of pages read. However it must be noted that KDP select is exclusive, meaning that an author must not put their e-books on any other platform when using KDP select (print books are fine and can be put on other platforms). As the author you can decide the price of the book and the revenue split.
Google play books: Here too one can create the word file or PDF file of the book and upload it on google play, using the google play books partner center. It will get listed as part of the google play books. Here one can choose to list it for sale (after specifying the book price in different countries) or just put a few pages (say 10-20% of the book) for people to read and google search to index the book, so it might appear slightly higher in google search results.
Draft2Digital: Draft2digital is an excellent site which can distribute your created e-books to multiple sites such as Rakuten Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Scribd, Bibliotheca etc. So it can save the book author a lot of time and effort in publishing your ebook to multiple sites.
For Print Books
Amazon KDP: As mentioned, KDP can be used to publish print books as well as e-books, which will then be available for sale through Amazon. However the number of languages in which print books can be published is limited
India specific sites for self published print books
There are many sites available in India where one can upload the draft manuscript of the book and get it published and available for sale.
Sites for print books self publishing in India
Notionpress is quite a good site for publishing print books in India. It has support for multiple Indian languages. The minimum price of the book is set based on the number of pages and the size of the book and other features.
Pothi is another site which is good for self publishing, for example when the number of copies of the book are low and one wants to distribute early copies of the book among their friends and select readers. It also supports multiple Indian languages.
There are also quite a good number of other Indian sites: one can search on google for a more exhaustive list.
For audio books
Nowadays audio books are becoming popular. They can be used as an additional means for authors to reach a wider audience. In order to produce an audio book, one needs to record the book chapters professionally and design a proper cover image for the book.
Sites to publish audio books
Findaway Voices: Findaway voices is a good site both for finding the professional narrators to narrate and record the audio book, as well as send the approved book to different distributors including google play audiobooks and amazon’s audible. Given that Amazon’s ACX is currently only available in select countries, it might be the only way an author from other countries can put their audio books on audible.
ACX: Amazon’s ACX is the most popular site for authors to put their books on amazon’s audible, where they can be bought by the customers of Amazon audible, which is by far the largest market for audiobooks currently. It can also help connect the author to readers and narrators who can record the audiobook professionally and at a reasonable price depending on the length of the book. However ACX is currently only available directly for authors in select countries, notable USA and UK. Authors in other countries can use other means like Findaway voices.
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