13. Smashwords offers ebooks only.
Cost: You can upload files for free. Free ebook conversion to multiple formats from a Word.doc. Unlimited anytime-updates to books and metadata
Rights: You retain all rights. They offer a free ISBN or you can use your own.
Distribution: Smashwords Store as well as global retail distribution to Apple Books (51 countries), Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Walmart (via Kobo), OverDrive (reach 20,000+ public libraries), Gardners (reach hundreds of small ebook stores and 2,000+ public and academic libraries), Scribd, Libri (powers Germany's largest ebook stores), Baker & Taylor, Odilo (2,100+ libraries in North America, South America and Europe), Bibliotheca CloudLibrary (3,000+ public libraries in the US, Canada, U.K. and Australia), and Enki by Califa (supplies over 100 California libraries; acquires a subset of Smashwords titles).
Services: Audiobook production and distribution via their partnership with Findaway Voices. Participate in exclusive Smashwords promotions such a Read an Ebook Week and the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale, and the Smashwords End of Year Sale. Free exclusive marketing and selling tools such as our Smashwords Coupon Manager, Special Deals, Smashwords Alerts, Smashwords Series Manager and Smashwords Interviews. Run private and public presales. Generate custom coupon codes to enable free downloads or discounted promotions. Create and track campaigns. Alerts automatically notifies your readers of new releases. Preorder distribution to Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo up to 12 months in advance of your release. Audiobook production and distribution: you can transmit your ebook and metadata to Findaway Voices where you can begin auditioning professional narrators. Once you produce your audiobook with Findaway Voices, they can distribute it to their growing global network of over 20 sales outlets including Apple iTunes, Audible, Kobo, OverDrive and more. Series Manager improves discoverability of your series titles. Smashwords proudly supports libraries, and they're working to make ebooks available to every library in the world.
Payment: Monthly payments with one penny payment threshold (via PayPal). Daily sales reporting from Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords Store.
14. Wattpad is a unique platform where you can upload any kind of writing, including works in progress. You can upload one chapter at a time or serialized fiction. It is on the platform only. No ebook distribution.
Cost: Free to upload your stories.
Rights: Wattpad doesn’t ask for the rights to your work, and it doesn’t decide where it gets published. From start to finish, you’re in control of the what, when, and where of your project. If you publish using “advanced options,” you can also add copyright language to the story like “All rights reserved” or a “Creative Commons” license. They have strict rules about copyright infringement and posting content that is obscene or hateful. Read those guidelines carefully before creating content. Writers get direct interaction and feedback.
Distribution: Only on Wattpad.
Services: Create an account and upload any of your writing. Anyone can read it or comment on it. . Wattpad Studios works with untapped Wattpad writers to facilitate connections to their publishing and multimedia partners. Over 1000 original Wattpad stories have been published, produced, or adapted to TV or film. And with their own direct publishing division, Wattpad Books, they’re bringing Wattpad stories to bookshelves. They make it easy for readers to share stories via email, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. They have some articles for writers about marketing, self-publishing, etc.
Payment: None.
15. BookLocker is a different type of publishing platform. You must submit your book for their approval. Your book may not be approved. They have a non-exclusive publishing contract with the author. They offer print on demand paperbacks, hardcover, children's books, and ebooks.
Cost: They have a list of services you purchase from $150 to $1200 and up. There is a further fee for inclusion in the Ingram catalogue. Ebooks are listed at no additional charge. For authors submitting a second book to BookLocker, the set-up fee is reduced. There is an annual fee to keep your book listed on their POD service and through Ingram. There are fees to change and re-upload files. A 25% cancellation fee applies to all fees that were paid. However, if any file transmissions have occurred, or work has begun on your book or cover art, no refunds are permitted. The expedited plan cost is $1199 (that includes original paperback cover design) to get a book to market within 2 weeks of the author submitting their final file to them. You can request the hardcover add-on at a discount with the program but black-and-white-interior paperback is the only format eligible for the Expedited program.
Rights: BookLocker does not include copyright and library registration. They provide an ISBN and bar code or you can use your own in your print book(s). You retain all rights. However, authors using the Payment Plan Program agree to only sell their book through BookLocker until their balance is repaid. Those authors can, of course, purchase print copies at their author discount(s), and re-sell those. You can terminate your contract same-day by contacting them through your author account. Payment Plan authors need to reimburse their balance to the company before their book can be terminated.
Distribution: BookLocker's home page directs traffic to 30+ advertised titles. If you pay the fee, the book is submitted to Ingram. Print books are currently listed on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, booksamillion.com, Indigo, and many other smaller, online bookstores across the globe. Ebooks are on Amazon (for the Kindle), BarnesandNoble.com (for the Nook), Apple (for iPads, iPods and iPhones), Kobo (Canada’s popular ebook retailer), Overdrive (which sells ebooks to more than 40K libraries and schools in 70 countries), and BookLocker.com.
Services: BookLocker offers a distribution database listing, custom cover, ISBN, set-up, and internal/external layout. They offer interior formatting and cover design. Authors are responsible for promoting their own books. All authors are provided with a free copy of their how-to-market booklet. BookLocker does not offer promotional and marketing add-on services but they will happily advise authors on a one-to-one basis in these areas.
Payment: Only available to USA clients. Print Royalties are 35% of the list price for public sales of print books sold through BookLocker.com and15% of the list price for print books sold through other distributors/retailers/etc. Ebooks earn 70% of the list price for ebooks priced $8.95 or higher and 50% of the list price for ebooks priced under $8.95. Third-party Ebook Royalties (Amazon, BN.com, Apple and Kobo) are 65% OF THE NET AMOUNT BookLocker.com is paid for each ebook priced $10 or higher and 55% OF THE NET AMOUNT BookLocker.com is paid for each ebook priced under $10.They pay royalties on the fifth business day of the month to authors with an unpaid royalty balance of $40 or more on the last day of the previous month. You can access your account at any time. Sales dashboard includes all sales for which they have been paid, BookLocker.com-direct sales are credited instantly, and a list of all payments made to the author within the last 24 months.
https://publishing.booklocker.com/
As to what services to pay for, you have to calculate whether you would recoup your upfront investment. If you only earn $2 per book, you would have to sell over 500 copies to recoup a $1000 investment. Then you should deduct the cost of pesky income taxes.
https://writersweekly.com/breakeven?
It has been said that the average traditional novel never earns back its initial advance. On average, a self-published ebook sells about 250 copies in its lifetime. By comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies, with about 250-300 of those sales in the first year. A publisher considers a book a "success" if it sells more than 10,000 copies over its lifetime.
My fiction series has sold thousands since 2008 with almost no marketing and my nonfiction series has sold ten to twenty copies every month since 2008. Marketing is my Achilles heel. They would probably have done better if more people knew about them.
It is tempting to hand over your manuscript to someone else to do the technical stuff and marketing. That is why there are so many predatory companies. You can research individual publishers and see who to avoid here:
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Posted by Diana Hurwitz, author of Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict, Story Building Blocks II: Crafting Believable Conflict, Story Building Blocks III: The Revision Layers, and the YA adventure series Mythikas Island. Her weekly blog, Game On: Crafting Believable Conflict explores how characters behave and misbehave. Visit DianaHurwitz.com for more information and free writing tools. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter. |
What a great series this has been, Diana. I've done quite a bit of self-publishing and don't use places that charge huge fees for services. I've found that hiring freelancers for editing, formatting, and cover design has worked well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maryann about self-pubbing with companies that charge huge fees. There are enough affordable options to avoid that scenario. This, indeed, has been a super series, Diana. Thank you for all the research you did to pull it together.
ReplyDeleteA comprehensive list. Very helpful.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with this series. You should put it in book form and publish it.
ReplyDelete