Now that we have gone through how to plan, outline, and write your book, the next step is to format your book for self-publishing on one of the online publishing platforms.
However, before you start changing the margins, font, and layout of your Word document, you need to choose which platform you will use to self-publish your nonfiction book.
Many writers choose to publish their book through Amazon KDP and then upload their book to a book aggregator site, like Draft2Digital, to reach more readers through online book retailers.
The two platforms I currently use to self-publish my books are Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital. I love to use both because I can upload my books to KDP so that they are sold exclusively on Amazon, and if I want to expand to other markets I can use Draft2Digital.
Amazon KDP vs Draft2Digital
Uploading your book to Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital both have their advantages and disadvantages. So which platform is better? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each one.
Advantages of Self-Publishing on Draft2Digital
Draft2Digital offers a wide range of e-book retailers, libraries and e-book subscription services. This means that your book will have access to more readers and book buyers.
There are no upfront costs to publish your book on Draft2Digital, but they do take a percentage of each of your book’s sales, which is approximately 10% of the retail price.
Draft2Digital pays a set royalty rate for all countries and all points of sale. This book aggregator site pays monthly by PayPal, which is easy to set up and helps authors outside of the US to get paid.
It is very easy and it only takes a few minutes to publish your book. All you need to do is upload your book, fill in some sales information, such as the title, description, keywords, and categories, and then set a price.
Currently, Draft2Digital can distribute your book to a wide range of online book retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Scribd, Apple, Tolino, Overdrive, Bibliotheca, 24Symbols, Baker & Taylor, Hoopla and Vivlio. You have the freedom to pick and choose which stores you want Draft2Digital to distribute to.
Disadvantages of Self-Publishing on Draft2Digital
There are many benefits to publishing your book on Draft2Digital, but there are also drawbacks. Let us look at each one briefly.
It may be difficult to promote your book if you have more than 5 other retailers selling your book. However, Draft2Digital does offer a Universal Book Link (UBL) in which the buyer clicks on this link and can choose which online shop they prefer to buy from.
Although Draft2Digital offers several sales channels where you can distribute your book, they only sell to 30% of the e-book market.
Advantages of Self-Publishing on Amazon KDP
Amazon is the biggest seller of e-books in the world, so it makes sense to upload your book to their website. Unlike Draft2Digital, Amazon dominates 70% of the e-book market.
If you publish your book on Amazon, your book has the potential to reach millions of readers through their KDP Select program.
It is very easy to market your book when it is made available exclusively on Amazon. You only need to provide one link to your book’s sales page on Amazon for all your online book promotions.
Also, Amazon offers easy and free book promotion services such as Free Book Promotion and Kindle Countdown Deal. You can only gain access to these services by enrolling your book in Amazon’s KDP Select program.
Amazon requires your e-book to be exclusive, but it is not required for paperback or hardcover books.
Tracking sales of your book is very easy because of its exclusivity on Amazon.
Disadvantages of Self-Publishing on Amazon KDP
Selling your book exclusively on Amazon may present a few disadvantages. It can be difficult and it takes a long time to remove your book from other retailers if you decide to sell exclusively on Amazon. It can also be difficult to move your book from exclusivity to selling on other retail sites because it can take a long time to generate sales.
If you decide to join Amazon’s KDP Select program, your e-book will have to remain exclusive to Amazon for 3 months. This means that you will not be able to sell or distribute your e-book anywhere else until the program has ended.
Selling your book on only one site is a bad idea. If something goes wrong with Amazon’s website, e.g. hacking or the site crashes, you may lose revenue from your book sales.
Conclusion
As an author, I have published my books to both Amazon and Draft2Digital. By tracking my book sales on both sites, I have found that I have generated more sales on Draft2Digital than I have on Amazon. So it is up to you to decide which platform you would like to use to self-publish your book. You can publish on either one or you can do both.
Next week, I will show you how to format your book to publish on Amazon, and then the following week you will learn how to self-publish on Draft2Digital.
