Places that you can sell books

[Ralph Rotten]

Okay, even though I have been an Indie for a few years, I am constantly finding out about new market places where I could be selling my books.

So I thought I'd start a thread for authors to talk about places they sell books.
Y'know, granular stuff like "Are they any good?"
Not all vendors are created equal.



Amazon: Currently Amazon is king of sales. Personally, I sell 95% of my books as eBooks via Amazon. They seem to have their crap together better than any of the other online vendors (Jeff Bezos is officially the richest dude on the planet.) The only downside is that Amazon publishes some 70,000 books a month, and many of them awful. So you really have to work to stand out in that sea of books.

CreateSpace: Good place for your print books. They offer expanded marketing options, but those jack your price up substantially. However, on CreateSpace you can de-select these options and keep your cover price reasonable. Example: A 255,000 word novel retails via CP for about $12.00 minimum. Author copies of that same book are about $8.65ea [with expanded marketing de-selected]

GooglePlay Books: Electronic books. I have found their sales to be underwhelming. Also, their e-builder is the most persnickety of all. I usually have to build an eBook special for GooglePlay.

Nook eBooks: This is Barnes & Noble's eBook market. I sell a few books there, but nothing significant. My impression is that B&N is becoming less and less relevant in the marketplace every day. They still use reviews for unverified purchases so there is a lot of room for unscrupulous writers to review themselves a hundred times.

Nook Print: If you wanna sell print books in B&N stores, you need to use their publishing arm. However, they are a rip off! Remember those expanded marketing options on CP? Well, on Nook you CANNOT disable the option, so that same 255,000 word novel retails for $19 MINIMUM. Personally I'd avoid them altogether or you could have your own print copy make you look like a vanity press author.

Amazon Kindle Print: Amazon recently started a print company, which is odd because they already owned createspace. I have not published there, but have heard it was okay. Maybe one of those authors could post their views on Kindle Print.

Kindle Unlimited [KDP]: Amazon has a program where readers pay a monthly fee so they can read unlimited books from a pool of books. I have made money from this program in the past, but it has downsides. They require exclusivity--you cannot publish that book digitally anywhere else (and they check!) The agreement says exclusivity is only for the first 3 months, but in practice it is permanent. I have had books dropped from KDP 6 months in because they found the book being sold elsewhere. Also, the way they pay authors is a little sketchy: writers are paid from a monthly pool of cash, but the size of the pool is not based on monthly revenues for the program...they just pull a number out of thin air and let the writers fight over soup bones.



So let's hear from other authors about places they sell their books (like Smashwords...)

[Ralph Rotten]

Oh, I forgot Kindle Scout!
This is actually an interesting program they run continually.
You submit a book to be judged by the other writers in the contest.
Each writer gets 3 votes (to be used on OTHER PEOPLE's books)
Books that get a lot of votes get picked up for a publishing contract.
The contract is only like $1500 (I think)
But $1500 could be more than you make on your own.
Also, you get marketed by Amazon.

Note: If you enter Scout, bring your A-game. Don't show up with some ugly cover you threw together at the last minute.
There are a lot of semi-professional Indies competing there, and the books they bring look very good!
And you can only submit a book once, so make it count.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/about

[Ralph Rotten]

Here is an interesting site that a member posted a while back (forget who...Pip maybe?)
Anyhow, this is a list of writing contests and such.
Many of these include a publishing contract with small-house presses.
Some are just places to spend money, others are bona fide, so read the small print!

https://www.dystopianstories.com/wri...ions-contests/

[Ralph Rotten]

Awwww, c'mon.
Let's hear from some of the other authors: Where else have you sold your books?
Inquiring minds wanna know.

[TeaParty]

I've been writing for years and haven't published any of my books. Thank you so much for posting thing, you are my saving grace in a world filled with so many options.
Although, I still need to do some editing and proof reading to polish it up before I head in that direction.
Do you have any tips on writing, marketing and publishing by any chance?

Stay Imaginative, Stay Inspired

[moderan]

Lulu. www.lulu.com
also distributes through Amazon and B&N. I make my hardcovers there.

[rayhensley]

I used to sell on LULU back in the day, then Smashwords. Now I just use Amazon.

[Moose.H]

I was on line here to see where I could publish. I was very confused at the offerings and was considering KDP. I was going to post online tomorrow but getting paid is a little sketchy with most offerings. Going through Amazon from South Africa is an eyeopener. There seems to be some serious dislike for South African offerings.