Depending on which method you use for distribution, you will gain access to anything from two to 60 ebook vendors. For assistance figuring out which scenario will work best for you, please utilise our publishing consultation service. This service is included on most quotes, but if you’re not sure, please ask us about it.
Amazon Kindle
Amazon is the biggest bookseller in the world, and Kindle accounts for a whopping 60–80% in the sales for most ebooks. Amazon also offers a range of marketing opportunities for the indie author, which we can teach you how to use or implement for you.
Earnings
Amazon pays 35–70% of the net sale price. If you need help understanding those variables and how to maximise your returns from ebook sales, our publishing consultants can assist you.
Apple iBookstore
Apple is our favourite ebook vendor. With the experience of publishing more than 500 ebooks as Australian eBook Publisher, we can say with confidence that Apple are the easiest to deal with, the ebooks always look beautiful on their devices and apps and, to top it off, they pay the best! Apple also boasts a large loyal following–people who have discernment and intelligence and will only buy ebooks from Apple. In our experience, the sales volume for most titles is higher on Apple than all other vendors except for Amazon. In certain circumstances we see more sales on Apple than on Amazon, depending on the ebook’s marketing strategy. So if you don’t include Apple in your mix, you may be missing out on a lucrative, high-quality market.
Earnings
Apple pays 70% of the net sale price. You will need to be a professional to do business with Apple, and have a Mac laptop or desktop. If you need an aggregator to reach Apple, we can point you in the right direction or distribute your ebook for you on our Apple iBookstore account.
GooglePlay (Google Books)
Google is a significant player in any internet-based market and, while the sales volume of ebooks on this platform tend to be a lot smaller than Amazon and Apple, it is the next biggest for most titles. The thing about GooglePlay is that they are actively trying to increase their foothold in all digital content markets, and readers can benefit from lower prices. There are also a lot of Android device users who simply can’t buy books from Apple. Their choices are many and varied. In fact, there are hundreds of ebook vendors and apps on Android, but Amazon and GooglePlay Books are the ones that are marketed the most.
Earnings
GooglePlay pays 45–52% of the net sale price. You will have to use an aggregator to reach GooglePlay, and we can point you in the right direction or distribute your ebook for you on our account with GooglePlay.
Kobo by Rakuten
Kobo is expert at ebook distribution and claims to own 20% of the global ebook market, second only to Amazon. For western markets and English-language titles, it is our opinion that Kobo is about fourth in terms of sales volume. This is a general statement based on our own sales figures, not specific to any particular genre.
Earnings
Kobo pays 50−70% of the net sale price. If you’d like the inside information on Kobo, one of our publishing consultants can provide that or we can distribute your ebook for you on our account with Kobo.
Overdrive by Rakuten
Overdrive operates under the user-license and lending model, so it is a popular ebook vendor for reaching schools, universities, hospitals, large corporations and non-profit organisations.
Earnings
Overdrive pays differently depending on its contract with each aggregator or publisher. Indies can reach Overdrive through an aggregator. We can point you in the right direction through our publishing consultation service or we can distribute your ebook for you on our account with Overdrive.
EBSCO
EBSCO operates under the user-license and lending model, and is good for disseminating content to institutions like schools, universities, hospitals, large corporations and non-profit organisations.
Earnings
EBSCO pays differently depending on its contract with each aggregator or publisher. Indies can reach EBSCO through an aggregator. We can point you in the right direction through our publishing consultation service or we can distribute your ebook for you on our account with EBSCO.
We consider all other ebook vendors to be long-tail distributors. In other words, they are at the long tail end of the bell curve.