Which self-publishing service?

Social Media Refusenik's Guide to Book Marketing No.11

(Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay)

This post is one of my writerly business posts for paid subscribers. You can always come back to it by using the links on the Social Media Refusenik’s Guide to Book Marketing.

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There are multiple self-publishing services available to authors and writers, and they broadly offer similar royalty and distribution options, depending on the level or type of service you purchase or choose.

Most print or publish-on-demand services are free at the point of creation, but you may need to pay for proof copies or pay a one-time publishing fee before completing a distribution agreement. An additional fee may be levied on each copy sold and on your payment processor. For example, Draft to Digital now charges a fee for paying author royalties by PayPal or by cheque.

You retain all rights to your work when you self-publish, which means you can use multiple services if you wish, although you may need multiple ISBN numbers to do so.

You can use the following brief checklist to determine if a service could meet your needs:

1. What costs are applied for publication?

2. What cost is applied to each sale?

3. How are author royalties paid?

4. Is there a fee to receive monies into an account?

5. Does the provider offer print and ebook files?

6. What copyright arrangements are enforced?

7. Can you publish on multiple platforms?

8. Do you provide the ISBN, or is this provided?

9. What tax arrangements are between the country you pay tax in, and the country you are publishing in?

10. Which booksellers does your service distribute to?

Automated book publication services:

1. BookVault is a UK-based print-on-demand service with its own bookshop, and books can be distributed globally to almost every continent. However, I use this service primarily to print books ordered on demand through my websites and to manage bulk orders.