Online Distribution

Getting your book out into the world is an important leap of faith all writers must take to become authors.

What is online distribution?

Instead of approaching individual bookstores and asking if they will stock your book yourself, you can take advantage of online distribution. Online distributers have pre-established connections with a number of book retailers, meaning they can easily connect you with online retailers who can sell your book for you.

This also means that you aren’t limited by how far you can personally travel to self-sell your book. Online distributors can get your book out into the global market, significantly improving your chance at reaching your target audience and making sales.

Why you need online distribution as a self-published author

There are a number of reasons as to why online distribution is essential for any author, but for self-published authors specifically it boils down to three main points:

• Global reach with minimal effort: All you need to do is upload your files and input the details and metadata and the online distributor takes it from there. There is no need for you to fulfil orders or customer payments, or even bulk-buy your books and ship individual copies to buyers when you use online distribution. These companies have their own staff and processes to handle orders for you. They will also take care of any customer queries, issues, or returns, so you can have peace of mind and focus on the creative side of things.
• Cost efficiency: You can avoid the high-cost of bulk printing for self-selling by using online distributors who offer in Print-on-Demand (POD) services.
• Data analytics: Whether it’s quarterly reports or a live dashboard you can check at your leisure, online distributors offer you analytics on your sales and book performance direct to you without needing to go through a middleman such as a publisher.

What online distribution options are available to self-published authors?

There are many online distributors available for every kind of book format (paperback, hardcover, eBook, audiobook, and more). These distributors include:

• Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
• IngramSpark
• Smashwords
• Barnes & Noble Press
• Amazon Audible

But the main online distributors in the market are Amazon KDP and IngramSpark because of each of their reaches in the book retail market.

Amazon KDP

One of the largest online retailers globally, Amazon’s self-publishing branch Amazon KDP has all three things a self-publisher needs to distribute: printing, a retail store, and shipping capabilities. Publishing on Amazon means your book is exclusive to Amazon unless you sign up for extended online distribution.

IngramSpark

Online distributing through IngramSpark will give you a printer and someone to ship your books to the retailers once an order comes through, but they aren’t themselves a retailer. However, in place of this, IngramSpark has connected with thousands of online book retailers to give your book the chance at a global reach in numerous non-exclusive stores.

How Green Hill helps our authors with online distribution

As the process of uploading your book on these online distributors can get a little complex, your Green Hill project manager will help you upload your Print-ready Files on either or both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark at the end of the publishing process.

We also offer Amazon KDP consultancy in our 12 hour marketing package to help your book marketing efforts and refine your Amazon strategy to target your primary audience as best as you can.