How to Get Your Book Distributed: What Self-Published Authors Need to Know

[Quantum]

Published 6 February 2017

"Today, the most important thing any author needs to know about distribution is that more than half of all book sales (regardless of format) take place online.
...
"A self-published author can quickly get their print and ebook distributed to the most important online retailers by using just a couple services, all of which have no or very low upfront costs. Don’t be fooled by expensive self-publishing packages that claim to distribute your book to thousands of outlets. Today, the most critical distribution is within the reach of each individual author at no cost."
(Emphasis mine.)
(https://janefriedman.com/get-book-dis...)

[Marie Silk]

Good advice :) I am a little confused though, since the first article I read by Friedman seemed to emphasize Book Baby, which (from what I can see) does exactly this.

[Quantum]

Marie wrote: "Good advice :) I am a little confused though, since the first article I read by Friedman seemed to emphasize Book Baby, which (from what I can see) does exactly this."

maybe it was a good deal at the time? things change quite quickly in hi-tech.

[Marie Silk]

Yeah, I'm not sure. When I looked into it, I think Book Baby wanted $1500 which was about $1500 out of budget :D

[Groovy]

Good article, but way out of my price range. I wonder, though, if anyone is happy with just sticking to KDP. Has anyone noticed a big surge in sales when they tried the other ebook outlets?

[Quantum]

Marie wrote: "Yeah, I'm not sure. When I looked into it, I think Book Baby wanted $1500 which was about $1500 out of budget :D"

maybe she changed her mind too. ^_- maybe you looked at this article (published back in 2012)? bookbaby does have a commission option:

"BookBaby allows you to decide what kind of financial arrangement you prefer, based on the level of service you need. You can (a) pay $0 upfront, get ebook formatting/conversion, and give them a percentage of your sales (similar to Smashwords), or (b) you can pay a flat fee up front and keep 100% of your net sales if you’re able to provide ready-to-go ebook files.

"Always read the fine print in these cases. For instance, if you price your book very low (99 cents), and there’s a 25-cent transaction fee for each of your sales, you’ve just cut into your profits even if you’re earning 70% or 80% of list. Another example: Amazon charges a nominal fee for file delivery—but only on the 70% royalty rate— that can cut into your profits if your ebook file is large."
(https://janefriedman.com/10-questions...)

but who do you use? i forgot?

[Marie Silk]

This is her article that I started with when I knew nothing whatsoever about publishing. It covers all the major bases and saved me a lot of grief in figuring out the biz :)

https://janefriedman.com/self-publish...

By Friedman's recommendation, I checked out Damonza and ended up using them for my first book cover as well as all of my ebook and print formatting. They also did the typography of my subsequent book covers for consistency even after I bought the covers from different artists. All of my covers were predesigned which means a significant discount from custom.

[Quantum]

Marie wrote: "This is her article that I started with when I knew nothing whatsoever about publishing. It covers all the major bases and saved me a lot of grief in figuring out the biz :)

https://janefriedman.c..."

great! i added the link to our Author Resources spreadsheet.