Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
We believe self-publishers should personally manage their ebook sales and not use third party services to “publish” their ebooks.
Why? Because the ebook market is matured to a point where self-management is easy and there are no downsides or costs. Since Amazon represents the lions share of the market and their account setup is FREE, it is only logical that self-publishers establish their own Kindle account. Aside from detailed sales data (by week), authors should not have to pay any annual fees to ”catalog” their titles. In addition, the royalty management of publishing is quite complex and the tax reporting component is crucial. Due to Amazon’s size, these components are streamlined. Be very weary of just how diligent an ebook publishing company is going to properly manage sales and report taxes, if they do not make any percent on your sales. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
By controlling and managing your own Kindle Direct Publishing account, you get expanded visibility to sales around the globe. For most genres, Amazon now accounts for 65-75% of the market. Although you might be initially forsaking a few sales from other resellers, you get to initially focus on marketing your book. As your ebook sales increase, you can certainly begin adding additional marketplaces and have more granular sales visibility to each marketplace. With the Apple iBookstore representing close to 20% of the ebook market, a combination of both would realistically cover the majority of viable ebook marketplaces.
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