Self publishing platforms. Help

I need a little help finding self publishing platforms. I originally planned on using Createspace but just learned the company closed and the link takes me Amazon’s KDP(kindle direct publishing). For i guess publishing on kindle.
What other websites could i use to publish?

2 Likes

Any particular reason you’re against Amazon? (To my knowledge, Createspace was always an Amazon product - it did the print side, Kindle did the digital side - they consolidated the two halves, what, eight years ago now?)

I’ve been publishing my novels through KDP for a while now and I find it one of the easier ways to get it done.

There used to be Lulu, but I think it was more geared toward comics, and I didn’t find it’s model to be ideal for what I wanted.

Barnes and Noble has a version of on line printing (or it did, and it escapes me what the name of it was. Nook maybe?) I know I didn’t get any return from my book published with them and dropped it from their market.

Im not against Amazon at all. I had assumed iy only published in kindle form, which is fine, i just want to have a physical copy of my book too.

They do handle print as well as digital… :grin:

Amazon KDP is digital eBooks and physical copies. Funnily enough, this is actually my next blogpost/podcast :rofl:

There’s a few places you can publish but my two main ones would be KDP or D2D. If you choose either of these, you can do paperback and eBook, but D2D is considered “wide” distribution - meaning your book is in many stores, versus just on Amazon (you can publish to Amazon through D2D).

Amazon KDP also lets you publish to Kindle Unlimited - a good way to get your foot in the door depending on genre. Works best for loooooong running Romance, imo. I personally publish wide because I make more money that way, but it comes down to where you want to publish.

KDP has print and digital. I use it so can also confirm this :+1: It’s also free to use

My first book is a sci fi adventure. Not to romance focused. Later books i have planned will have more of a romance feel to it.
So if i went with KDP or even D2D, how does marketing work? I dont exactly have alot of readers on wattpad or inkitt😅 and publishing, while being 3xciting, is also intimidating

I use IngramSpark and I like alright, although to be totally honest I haven’t been that invested in the publishing part of this whole writing deal. But both my books are different sizes, paper colour, cover gloss and I liked the quality of both.

It distributes to all the major retailers and has ebook and hardcover options. And it has a good quality control system in place to make sure you don’t print off the margins or anything.

There’s an editing charge 60 days after upload, which feels kinda predatory imo tho.

I’ve also heard good things about d2d, but I haven’t poked around it myself (yet).

Unfortunately this is a different topic completely - I’d suggest you start by learning some of the basics, such as Google Digital Garage’s free digital marketing qualification. Once you’ve done that, you can start figuring out how marketing works, as it applies to you. Things like what marketing do you want to do? Do you want to focus on social media? Run a newsletter? Then you can start learning about each of those things.

Failing that, you can always hire someone.

1 Like

This is why i was going to get my dad’s help. He understands business better then me😂

1 Like

Draft2Digital. They do both ebooks and paperbacks, and I have never had a problem with them. They distribute your books to much more than Amazon - Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, etc.

1 Like

I saw that, and i like it. After thinking about it, i think ill start with KDP, to get a start,and then move on to D2D.

2 Likes

This is a good idea! If you aren’t going wide to start, you might want to look into KU first, especially if this is your first book. You do it through KDP, and it has some upsides - but you will be exclusive for a few months (either 3 or 6, I cannot remember)

1 Like

Really? What exactly is KU?

Kindle Unlimited

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.