Are you having a lot of questions in your mind regarding publishing your book in different areas? Check this out and you will definitely know what are the pros and cons of publishing on all platforms | SELF-PUBLISHING.
Today's article has three points and you're going to want to stick around. Because the third point is a secret as to the one thing you can do to make the whole publishing ultra-wide a lot less painful.
So let's get into it. Today's topic is on the pros and cons of publishing on all platforms | SELF-PUBLISHING. This is something that many people, many of my students have asked a lot of questions about.
The thing is that you've probably got your book already on Amazon. Some people are trying to figure out, maybe I shouldn't go for Amazon. Just put it on my website or Fiverr or someplace, one of the other major distribution channels, but trying to figure it out.
In this case, we're looking at the question of you have it on Amazon. Do you want to take your book to the next level? Do you want to make more sales?
But then the question is do you put it on other platforms? Do we take the book and go wide? If you're in KDP Select, you're not allowed to do this with your eBook but you can do it with your paper books.
If your eBook is not on KDP Select, then you're free even on the eBook to put different versions of it on other sites. The result being is that we're bringing a lot of traffic and sales from other locations than just the Amazon platform.
But then you're sort of wondering "why would I bother to do that if I already have an eBook, a paperback, and an audiobook?" What is the point of putting it on other sites? That is what I want to address in today's topic.
Grab a copy of my Self-Publishing Checklist. Because it's going to help you avoid making the mistakes that I made, so many of my students are regularly making. So just grab yourself a free copy of that.
And we'll be moving right along when I first got started. I started with Amazon Kindle, getting the book into Kindle format and I can tell you it was very frustrating. Trying to figure out how to do the formatting and how to get everything placed correctly?
Check out this related article: How Many Books Should I Self-Publish?
I hired somebody else on Fiverr to do the initial creation of the book. It was absolutely awful so I ended up figuring that out and moving over to doing paperbacks and audiobooks through Amazon. At that point, I felt I am finished and I don't need to do anything else.
I've got it all figured out right because people could manage to find my book if it were there. The thing is I discovered a treasure trove of sales I was missing by not selling on the other platforms. And particularly hardback books I learned to do through Lulu.
Amazon is rolling out a way to do hardbacks on but again would you want all your eggs in one basket? I started putting them on Lulu and even other eBook versions. Because I started removing books that were not selling as well from KDP Select and moving them over to other platforms like Smashwords and even Ingram Spark.
There were a lot of different options. The thing is that it's not just a matter of the different formats. It's also the people who are on those other sites.
Having Multiple Platforms
The result was I did have a ton of frustration figuring out how to get specifically the cover on those other sites. Using Jutoh which I have my affiliate link in the description of all of my Youtube videos. There was no issue with the formatting of the books.
But in terms of getting the covers correctly, that was quite a challenge. The thing is that I started seeing regular royalties coming through tons of different sites. They continue even to this day so that my royalties are not dependent upon just one site like Amazon to do it.
Because they can change the deals on the royalty rates and all sorts of stuff. Do I want to be subjected to the possibility that I start losing money? As a result of them changing their rules as opposed to being on multiple sites.
Let's get into it, the pros and cons of publishing on all platforms | SELF-PUBLISHING. So the first point I want to hit are the pros. More people will see your books in more formats and more locations.
This directly will translate to more sales and a safety net. If Amazon decides to freeze your account and as many people have commented to me the problem is that even doing innocent things. Like just using your promo codes on audible ACX.
Suddenly, they came to some authors and said you're abusing the system, we're going to freeze your account. It's just amazing other friends of mine had tried shifting prices on their paperback books. Only to discover Amazon then threatening their account.
Check out this related article: Worried Companies Will Sue You For Your Book?
Because you're changing your prices too often now they of course could have put something in place on their platform to stop making it. How often you can change your information on the platform? However they chose not to, they let you change the price.
The problem is there's a lag. So if your price is going up super fast, they will pay higher royalties. They actually can lose money on the sales that you're driving to your paperback books so they threaten your account. As opposed to informing you of that, I love Amazon so don't get me wrong.
It's just that why would you want to take the chance of getting frozen out when you can be on multiple platforms? If things go wrong on Amazon, you're set on these other platforms. The money's going to keep going in.
But let's hit the cons now. The thing is you're going to have a lot of receipts coming through these other platforms. And you're going to have to report this in your taxes so your tax work is going to go up as you have these additional royalties.
Amazon is annoying in the sense that you're getting receipts for every region. As opposed to them just putting it all together and paying you. That's one reason I like Smashwords.
It's because they will pull together all the sites that you're putting your eBooks through and just send you the receipt. They will take their cut, they will give you the rest single dashboard. It makes it very painless.
The other thing is you have to learn how to publish on these different platforms. That's another issue when it comes to like the covers and things along those lines. I've already discussed some sites that require ISBNs.
Like if you're going to publish on Ingram Spark, you have to bring your ISBN and now that's changing for the United States. But for a lot of others that can be $150 per ISBN unless you're buying them in bulk.
Jutoh Is Just Amazing
Another is review fees, this would be back again to Ingram Spark. Charging you $50 to look at your manuscript, your eBook, and your print version. At least do them together for $50 with promo codes you can get around it as I've discussed earlier.
In addition, a site like Lulu requires you to order a proof copy. So we start putting together these requirements, they can be a little bit of a pain but in reality, how much is your time worth when it comes to getting royalties regularly?
Because once the books have been posted correctly onto these sites, they don't have to review again. You don't have to get another ISBN and you don't have to order more proofs. The book is for sale and it will just keep doing its magic returning your money month over month.
This is something you're going to need to consider. But let's move on to the secret point of the day. This is one that I'm always very very excited about when I discovered this.
It was that using Jutoh which is the software I use for doing all of my book formattings, that ensures that when you put your document from Word over into Jutoh, you don't have to do it multiple times. You do it one time and then it will manage to magically take your book and show it to you.
It'll get it into all of the formats for all of these sites. As you go ultra-wide, it will just ensure that all the formats are perfect. But there was one secret additional tip I wanted to give you today.
Even if you're going to go ultra-wide on your distribution to all of the distribution channels, do not do them all at the same time. This blog is dedicated to trying to help yourself not break a key rule which is keeping things easy. If it becomes painful, you will become demotivated and stop doing it.
Choose the next natural platform, for me it would be probably today. I would recommend going with Ingram Spark since I make more money on it than I do on Amazon at least with the paperback sales. Lulu with your hardcover books.
So maybe you're doing better on a different site. I just continue seeing you know the money is coming in month over month. Choose one of these sites, I would recommend going with Ingram Spark.
Check out this related article: IngramSpark vs. Amazon KDP: Can You Publish On Both?
I like them a lot. They do not pay me to promote them but the fact is that I do like what they have. I don't like their dashboards, Amazon's the winner with that but I would go with that.
And then slowly learn the process of going about doing it. You can always ask questions. I will tell you exactly how to do it. You can hire me for Coaching if you want more details.
Or take my Book Formatting Course if you would like to figure out how to do this easily. Figure out what works best for you or just read my articles and watch my videos and you can figure them out as well. Tell me have you considered going ultra-wide distribution?
If you have, write "Yes" below in the comments, and if you've never considered it, write "No" below in the comments. Because I need to know where you're coming from. So that I'm making videos that are geared exactly towards you.
As we reach our 300th article today, I'm very excited. Check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.