Where should you sell your book? The best E-book outlets for making the most money.
At first, it might seem like making your book available through as many outlets as possible is always the best choice and will lead to the highest income. But there are pros and cons to each book publisher, and some E-Book publisher pay more money to the author than others. The bottom line is that if you're a new author without name recognition, your most significant battle is to be discovered by the reading public so that you can make as much money, and have the highest income as possible. "Going wide," or spreading your book around to multiple publishing outlets, can ultimately hurt your chances of being seen.
One of the best means of being discovered is to make it onto the best-seller lists at a particular store. Dividing the sales of your book between different outlets reduces your chances of making any store's list.
Not everyone will want to use best-seller lists as a promotional strategy, but it's worth considering before uploading to every available outlet. Learn more about the best E-Book websites and outlets below, including how making a best seller list can benefit you as an author. As writing f a book, telling your story, is yet another income producing opportunity, and future sales can be a form of passive income..
Amazon
The first and most significant consideration is publishing on Amazon. The amount of traffic that your book will have access to is far higher on Amazon than on any other platform. Recent industry studies indicate that about ~80% of all e-book sales take place on Amazon, and this is per multiple sources including the Authors Guild, American Booksellers Association, and Association of American Publishers. There are other viable platforms for you to make income from selling books, but Amazon is the behemoth and will most likely stay in their industry-leading position for years.
Amazon has simplified their e-book publishing system in recent years by routing all e-books through the Kindle service. It's free to upload your e-book to Kindle and get it listed, but Amazon keeps roughly 20 to 30% of each sale, with other fees also charged to the author. The exact sales price you will receive depends on what you sell the book for.
They also offer an optional program called KDP Select, which requires you to keep your e-book exclusive to Amazon for the first 90 days it is available. In return, you get extra revenue from being listed in the Kindle Online Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited. The Online Lending Library lets people read one book per month for free, and Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read as many books as they like for a flat monthly fee. These services base your revenue on the number of pages that users read. KDP Select also gives you access to some additional promotional tools.
This option won't be appropriate for every type of book, but some authors go the route of selling a smaller and simpler version of their book on Kindle at lower cost, then sell the "full" version through some other direct means that allows them to pocket more (or all) of each sale. Find other ways to make money from Amazon.
Other Major Platforms For Making Income From Books
Almost all of the remaining ~20% of United States e-book sales are through four other large platforms: Apple's iBooks, Barnes & Noble's Nook store, Google Play Books, and Kobo.
Apple iBooks is the second-largest platform behind Amazon, with about 10% of the sales in the market. Apple takes the same 30% cut of each sale that Amazon does (regardless of the price of the book), and it is free to upload your book, though you'll first have to apply to be an accepted author. The one unique wrinkle with iBooks is that you'll have to use a Macintosh computer to upload your book unless you pay a distributor extra to do it for you.
Barnes & Noble is just behind Apple with about 8% of total e-book sales in the United States. They take a 35% cut (if the price of your e-book is over $10) but you also get access to their full set of tools with no exclusivity arrangement.
Google Play Books, Kobo and a handful of smaller publishers like Lulu roughly split the remaining ~5% of the market.
Do not have the time, skills, or energy to write an entire book? Then try to write book reviews for a side job/income, as their are online platforms and companies that pay for reviews. New authors may pay as well as publishing houses, as they want the publicity. Get details on writing book reviews for extra cash.
E-Book Aggregators For Wider Distribution
If you want to "go wide" across all the viable platforms in order to try to increase your e-book income or revenue, you might consider signing up with a distributor or E-book aggregator. You'll give up a chunk of your royalties to them, but they'll handle publishing on all of the different platforms for you, and will also handle any updates or corrections to your book. Some even maintain stores of their own that pay higher royalties than the major platforms.
The big names in this aggregator space are Smashwords, BookBaby, Books On Demand, and Inscribe Digital. Each has a fee system, but be prepared to give up 10% to 15% of your royalties for their services. While the pro-of an E-Book aggregator is they can simplify and maybe expedite the roll out of your novel or book, using these providers will mean your potential income is lower.
DIY Book Sales
Of course, you don't have to go to a publishing platform in order to make money from book sales. If you already have a following of some sort that you can speak directly to, such as a social media audience (Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) you have the option of setting up your site and keeping nearly the full amount of each sale. Find other ways to make money on social media.
The most direct option is to get a site of their own and set up an e-commerce shopping cart for direct sales. You'll have to pay for the hosting, shopping cart software from providers such as Shopify or Wordpress. You will also need to pay any fees for credit card transactions and you may also have to pay for web design if you don't want to DIY. Those are all possible expenses that you may incur from your E-Book sales.
All of that combined could end up being significantly less than what you would lose in royalties if you expect direct sales from your existing following to be brisk, however. This means while you will have expense, your net income may be higher self-publishing.
Another option is to go to a more general e-product platform like Gumroad or Clickbank. The fees are much lower on these platforms. Gumroad charges 8.5% plus a flat fee of 30 cents per sale unless you sign up for their $10/month subscription package, in which case that drops to 3.5%. ClickBank charges 7.5% plus a flat fee of $1. Integrating your listings on these sites with your own personal or business site is simple, and the platform handles the payments.
This option comes down to your ability to get people to discover you outside of the places where bibliophiles frequently browse. If you already have a following or have a robust platform to advertise on, you might be able to sidestep the royalty system by going this way.
Paper Publishing
Want to sell hard copies of your book? Amazon can do that for you through their Print on Demand (formerly known as CreateSpace service), which also operates on a royalty system, although it's more complicated than Kindle. Print on Demand is also know part of the Amazon KDP program.
Your royalties will depend on interior color, trim size and number of pages. For example, a 5" x 8" 300-page book with plain black and white coloration will get you a little below 50% of your list price for sales in the United States, and about 25% to 35% for sales through Amazon's expanded network and on their sites outside the country.
The other prominent platforms don't yet offer large-scale print-on-demand services as Amazon does. Some smaller publishers provide this service, however. These include:
•AuthorHouse
•Booklocker
•Bookstand Publishing
•Dog Ear Self Publishing
•Llumina Press
•Lulu
•Outskirts Press
•PublishAmerica
•Wordclay
•Xlibris
These platforms vary in their fee structure. Some will ask for money up front to cover publishing costs. If they don't ask you to pay, expect them to take a significant cut of each sale. Print books also need ISBNs, which are not cheap. If your publisher does not provide one, expect to pay $125 for one, $295 for a pack of 10 or 1,000 for $1,500.
Which Option Is Best To Make Money From E-Books?
It boils down to how many sales you realistically expect from your existing following and how much risk you want to take. As self-publishing say using your own website to drive sales to it, that will come with some out of pocket costs you need to pay – those more risk if you do not generate any sales of your book.
If you have a catalog of books or a popular web presence, direct sales may be a viable option that puts more money in your pocket and ensures you don't get into any entanglements with expanded rights if it takes off. Most new authors will want to go straight to Amazon for visibility and to make as much money as simply/quickly as possible, however, and from there it's just a question of whether you want to focus on topping their charts or spread your E-book or print version around to increase your income.
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