10 Best Self Publishing Companies

About this video

Dale ranks his ten best self-publishing companies for 2022, explaining that aggregators are middlemen who distribute for a cut of net profits. As he reports their terms: Blurb (100% of net on ebooks after a ~$4.99 conversion fee, excellent print but high base costs); Lulu (90% net ebooks, 80% net print minus print fees, unique formats like spiral-bound and comics, but quarterly payouts); PublishDrive (100% of net but subscription-based, widest reach including China); Draft2Digital/Smashwords (90% net ebooks, 45% minus print costs on paperbacks still in beta, strong support and free formatting); Google Play Books (flat 70%, sample text indexed by Google search, clunky interface); Apple Books (flat 70% across 51 stores, confusing dashboards); Barnes & Noble Press (70% ebooks, 55% minus print fees, US-only print); Kobo Writing Life (70% ebooks, 35%/45% audiobook split at the $2.99 line, non-exclusive Kobo Plus, direct OverDrive access); IngramSpark (widest reach to 40,000+ retailers and libraries, but only 40% net on ebooks, $49 upload fees, bring-your-own ISBN); and Amazon KDP at number one for audience size and ease, despite its pricing penalty and no native audiobook integration.

Key takeaways

• Aggregators trade a cut of net profits for reach — know each one’s split before choosing
• IngramSpark has the widest print reach but poor ebook terms and per-upload fees
• Apple and Google Play pay a flat 70% with no pricing sweet spot
• Kobo Plus gives subscription exposure without exclusivity, unlike Kindle Unlimited
• KDP wins on audience and simplicity, not on terms

Episode details: published April 27, 2022 · 18:05 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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