If you’ve always wanted to publish a book, now is the time to get started. Years ago, we as writers had to get in touch with multiple book agents, only to get rejection after rejection. But thanks to modern online publishing platforms, independent authors have now the opportunity to publish digital versions of their books with little or no upfront cost. Some of these platforms even let us publish printed books on-demand!

Want to know how?

That’s why in this article, I’ve decided to reveal to you the best places to sell your eBooks online.

Here are the 7 Best Self Publishing Companies for eBooks:

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

This is one of the world’s best eBook publishing platform. So if you’re an eBook author, putting your book through KDP will provide you with the opportunity to reach approximately 300 million potential readers.

It’s free to set-up an account at KDP and uploading your work is easy too. You can upload your eBook and make it available within 24-48 hours.

KDP also gives a pretty good payout for the eBooks you sell. If your eBooks are between $2.99-$9.99 then you will get 70% of the money earned. If your eBooks are between $0.99 – $2.99 then you will get 35% of the money earned.

You can also further increase your authority and following by setting up an Amazon Author Central page.

You can choose to sell your eBook exclusively through KDP by selecting their KDP Select program which would expand your reach of potential readers. However, if you choose to also publish your eBooks with other platforms, you might not want to choose this option.

The great thing about KDP is that you can also publish paperback books by using your eBooks. So you’ll be able to reach readers who like to read printed book copies too!

Lulu Publishing

This is fast becoming another popular platform to sell eBooks amongst independent authors. You can join and publish with this platform for free.

At Lulu, you can create your eBooks to suit a variety of different platforms and reading devices.

You can create and edit your eBooks or pay them a fee to do the editing for you. Besides editing, they also offer other services like cover design, marketing and illustration.

You can generally earn more from each eBook sold through Lulu. And your eBooks sold will be able to reach a global audience.

iBooks

If you’re an Apple customer, then you might want to consider publishing your eBooks with iBooks.

The royalty rates for selling eBooks are a flat 70% for all prices and territories.

The downside of this platform is that your eBooks can only be sold to people who are using Apple devices and have an Apple app store.

And if you’re not using Apple devices, it will take you more steps to get your eBooks prepared, designed and formatted for iBooks.

However, bear in mind that Apple products are really popular globally and the iBook app is downloaded more frequently compared to the Kindle app.

So that’s why it’s worth publishing through iBooks.

Smashwords

If you’re looking to distribute your eBooks through multiple platforms but don’t want to spend time going to each one at a time, then Smashwords might be a great option for you.

Smashwords is one of the world’s largest eBook distribution platforms that will help you distribute your eBooks to major retailers and public libraries.

It’s free to join this platform and they also provide a generous royalty payout of 80% for eBooks sold in their store. However, if you sell through other platforms via Smashwords, you’ll get 60% royalty.

If you’re an author that loves working towards deadlines, then you can set-up your eBooks for pre-order through Smashwords. People can choose to order your eBooks 12 months in advance through this platform.

Publishing with Smashwords is also easy as they have free tools to get you started with marketing, managing and distributing your content.

Barnes & Noble Press

If you’re looking to target readers from the US, UK and other European countries like Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy and France then you might want to consider publishing via Barnes & Noble Press.

Especially if you’re a first-time author, you might be pleased to know that Barnes & Noble Press has user-friendly publishing tools to help you get started.

Their royalty rates are pretty similar to KDP. However, the downside is that they would want you to publish exclusively through them.

It only takes about 20 minutes to publish your eBooks through their platform. Once published, you’ll be able to reach millions of readers.

You also have the option to publish your printed hardcover and paperback books through Barnes & Noble Press.

Kobo

If you’re a new eBook writer then you might want to consider publishing through Kobo as well.

Kobo has an easy-to-use platform for publishing eBooks. With just 4 steps, you can complete your publishing process. Their platform will convert your manuscript to a format suitable for eBook reading.

And you’ll be able to reach 190 countries in 68 languages through this platform too!

Another good thing about Kobo is they do not expect to have exclusive rights over the sales of your eBooks. This means you can also sell your eBooks through other platforms besides Kobo.

Their royalties are 70% for those who publish eBooks from $1.99-$12.99. For eBooks priced outside this range, the royalties given will be 45%.

Draft2Digital

If you would like to have your eBooks formatted for free and gain maximum income from each eBook sale then Draft2Digital is for you.

With Draft2Digital, they only take 10% of the retail price of the eBook you sold.

You can upload your manuscript in a Word document format and have them convert it to an eBook or print format.

They’ll also distribute your eBook to other platforms like Kobo, iBooks and other smaller stores.

With the existence of modern eBook publishing platforms, we as independent authors can publish and sell our eBooks and even printed books with ease. I hope that this article has been a great insight into your book publishing journey. Are you currently an eBook seller and have used any of these platforms before? Which ones are your favourite? Do you have any other online publishing platforms to share? Just leave your comments below.

References:
https://www.magloft.com/blog/ebook-publishing-companies/
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/11/places-to-publish-your-business-ebook.html
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/popular-platforms-self-publish-ebook.html
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/websites-sell-publish-ebooks/
https://writingtipsoasis.com/top-ebook-publishing-platforms/