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Founder at SODP
You’ve poured your heart into writing a book, not just to see it gather dust in the shadows of a crowded market. You are here to connect with readers, make profits, and leave a mark.
Self-publishing is the key to making that happen, but with the number of self-published books increasing by 264% in the last five years (and only 300 million books sold annually), the competition is fierce.
How do you ensure your story doesn’t get lost? It starts with choosing a self-publishing platform you can trust.
The right platform doesn’t just print your book. It empowers you with high-quality printing, marketing solutions, wide distribution services, and fair pricing so your work shines in the whopping $151.9 billion book industry.
The wrong one? It can bury you under fees, restrictions, and limited reach.
Your books deserve better than that. So, how do you choose a partner that has got your back? In this guide, we will walk you through what to look for and share the top self-publishing companies to bring your book to life with confidence.
Let’s dive in!
As an aspiring author, self-publishing gives you the freedom to share your story on your terms, unlike traditional publishing, where gatekeepers often call the shots. But with countless self-publishing companies out there, how do you make the right choice for print books or ebook publishing?
We have narrowed it down to the must-have features for a flawless self-publishing process. Here’s what you should look for in a self-publishing platform or company:
The best self-publishing companies or platforms make publishing effortless, not a tech nightmare. Here’s what to look for:
The top self-publishing companies maximize your book’s visibility by connecting it to the right readers, everywhere. Here’s what to prioritize:
The platform should have a diverse distribution network with all the major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble Press, Apple Books, and Kobo Plus. If you restrict your print or ebook sales to Amazon (the world’s largest retailer), you are missing out on about 40% of potential royalties (as 40% of total book sales occur outside of Amazon).
While Amazon leads the way, channels like Kobo Plus and Google Play Books have also seen an increase in their book sales volume, year over year.
Other than distribution channels, you should also look for the print formats the platform supports to accommodate different readers’ preferences. Some popular ones include paperback, hardcover, audiobook, and ebook publishing.
It is a plus if the self-publishing platform integrates with audiobook platforms such as Audible and iTunes to help you capitalize on the growing audiobook market, which is expected to reach USD 9.84 billion in 2025. This rapid growth is driven by consumer demand for convenient storytelling.
What’s more? Certain self-publishing companies offer extended reach to libraries and schools, which hit a record high of 605 million digital book borrows in 2023. Extending distribution to these channels can help independent authors like you widen readership.
The best self-publishing companies offer higher royalty rates (35%-70%) than traditional publishing (10%-15%) because self-published authors get a larger portion of the sales revenue.
However, your book’s earnings shouldn’t be a mystery. Ensure the company you choose pays you fairly and fast.
The percentage of royalties offered per book sale also differs based on book formats, pricing, distribution channels, and exclusive agreements.
Also, factor in the payment frequency of your royalties to manage your income streams effectively. Does the platform pay you monthly or quarterly?
Examine the minimum payout thresholds and methods since they vary based on each platform’s policy. For example, Amazon KDP requires a minimum of $100 for wire transfers and checks.
Look for any fees or charges for publishing, distribution, or marketing services. Though many platforms have no upfront fees, there could be potential costs for optional author services like marketing or print-on-demand.
The pricing flexibility self-publishing companies offer directly affects your profitability and market reach. Ask yourself if the platform you are choosing gives you:
The best self-publishing companies give access to marketing tools such as email newsletters, paid ads, and featured listings to help your books reach the right hands.
Even better if the platform provides a centralized hub, such as a custom author website or a landing page to run promotions. You can use it to offer important information about you and your self-published book to potential readers.
Check if the platform has partnerships with external marketing platforms such as BookBub or Goodreads. It could let independent authors like you tap into new, avid readers.
What’s more? Some self-publishing companies let you create and manage discounts, giveaways, and promotions to boost your sales.
When appraising POD options, examine if your potential self-publishing arm:
Your book needs to look as good as it reads to appeal to potential readers. Pick a self-publishing platform that nails the design game with these essentials:
When an unexpected obstacle occur in publishing, you need publishing companies that don’t leave you hanging. Here’s what a top self-publishing platform should deliver:
Knowledge is power; especially when it comes to your book’s success. The best self-publishing companies arm you with these essential analytics:
Your book is your creation. Don’t let a platform take major advantage over your revenue potential. The points below are crucial when evaluating potential self-publishing companies:
While some platforms charge upfront fees for book setup and distribution services, others charge you on commission basis. Some also charge setup fees and conversion fees separately.
The bottom line is to understand each platform’s fee model, including charges for optional services like cover design, professional editing, international distribution, or marketing services.
Check for hidden costs such as per-book distribution fees, listing fees, and platform commission cuts per sale, which may significantly impact your profits.
Platform reputation in the self-publishing industry is important. The platform you choose should have a solid track record, positive author reviews, and a history of successful book launches.
Check for platform reviews and testimonials from other self-published authors on forums like Goodreads, Reddit, or KBoards. These, along side well-known authors who made it big through the platform can vouch for its effectiveness in supporting your self-publishing journey.
Publishing is just the start. Top self-publishing companies or platforms help you connect with peers and potential readers. Look for platforms that offer access to:
Your book deserves a platform that is built to last, not one that might vanish mid-journey. Assess the platform has financial strength and a proven, sustainable business model for long-term reliability.
A strong track record of helping authors and positive reviews reflect consistent service quality. It is also important to find out if there have been any major issues or service disruptions in the past that could derail your book publishing process or delay royalty payouts.
We have been in your shoes; trying to help independent authors and publishers make a mark in the industry. So, which platform won’t let you down?
After digging deep and testing the waters ourselves, we have rated the major self-publishing companies based on what truly matters: ease of use, distribution network, royalty payouts, analytics, promo tools, and more.
These aren’t just boring details; they impact your book publishing process and sales revenue. Below, you’ll find our no-nonsense reviews of the 7 self-publishing companies that stood out, packed with insights you won’t get from a generic rundown.
Before that, here is how we rated each platform for different parameters out of 5:
| Platform | Ease of Use | Distribution Reach | Royalties & Payment Structure | Pricing Flexibility | Marketing & Promotional Tools | Print-on-Demand Options | Formatting & Design Tools | Customer Support | Analytics & Reporting Tools | Copyright & IP Control | Cost & Fee Structure | Reviews & Reputation | Self-Promotion & Networking | Platform Stability & Longevity | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draft2Digital | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4.3 |
| Amazon KDP | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4.1 |
| Lulu | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3.8 |
| Apple Books | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3.4 |
| Google Play Books | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3.4 |
| KITABOO | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3.3 |
| Spines | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2.6 |
Let’s learn more about each of these self-publishing companies in detail to ensure you make an informed choice.
Draft2Digital is a self-publishing platform designed for efficiency. It automates formatting, metadata management, and distribution, making it an excellent choice for publishers looking to expand their book’s reach.
One of Draft2Digital’s strengths is its wide distribution channel with major retailers like Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.
Besides, you don’t pay any upfront fees to publish your book. And the best part? You can opt-in or opt-out of any storefront at any time.
Its automated, free-to-use conversion and layout templates let you edit your book to match your style.
Don’t have a website? Draft2Digital’s B2R Author Pages and B2R Book Tabs offer a place to send readers to purchase your book. Another major plus is its promotional tools that let you funnel more readers, hence generate greater revenue.
You aren’t kept in the dark. The sales-tracking tool shows you the storefront selling your book, the number of books sold, and your projected royalties. The beauty of this feature is that you can customize your sales chart to align with your needs. You also get relevant data to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
The highlight? You are free to set your ebook price or create coupon discounts.
You can also price your ebook for free at every store except Amazon ($0.99, with the price varying per file size).
Draft2Digital slashes 10% of your book’s retail price for every sale. You get paid once a month via the channels and minimum thresholds shown below:
Our rating: 4.3 stars ★★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
As one of the most popular book publishing platforms, Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) doesn’t disappoint with its author services. It makes self-publishing a book hassle-free, even for beginners. The platform guides you through the entire process 一 from uploading your manuscript to designing a cover, and setting up your book.
If you choose Amazon KDP, you can reach millions of readers on Amazon’s vast marketplace, including Kindle devices and apps.
It offers two royalty options for ebooks: 35% and 70%.
For printed books, you can get a royalty rate of 60% for standard distribution (both paperbacks and hardcovers) and 40% for expanded distribution (only paperbacks). The platform deducts the printing costs from these royalties.
Royalty = (Royalty rate x Tax exclusive book list price) – Printing costs
The royalty rates are good. Being a trustworthy company, they pay royalties in time, at the end of every month, but after 60 days of when the book was sold (as shown below)
Payment methods include bank transfers, checks, and wire transfers. Currently, it doesn’t offer payments via Amazon Pay or PayPal.
You have full control over your book’s pricing and can adjust it anytime.
And the best part? You get access to robust marketing tools to boost sales. Create an author page on Author Central or amplify reach via KDP Select.
Of course, you can also leverage Amazon Ads if you have the budget.
As an environmentally conscious company, Amazon only prints books on demand. You can customize your book’s cover design, format, and ink used.
Lastly, and most importantly, you can use Amazon’s vast and flexible shipping options, from same-day delivery to Prime-day delivery.
Overall, we found it to be a great self-publishing platform to maximize your earning potential without any upfront costs.
Our rating: 4.1 stars ★★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
Lulu is a flexible self-publishing platform with a wide distribution network. Its integration with Wix, Shopify, and WooCommerce makes it easy to sell books directly to your customers.
The company offer access to over 3,000 book format combinations, including print books, photo books, magazines, journals, and more. You have the freedom to design your book cover PDFs and interior pages.
To top it off, customers buy the book directly from you while Lulu handles printing and shipping.
Your book reaches over 40,000 broad audiences through major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Ingram.
What’s more? You have full control over your book’s pricing. Lulu’s book pricing calculator allows you to set your book price. No upfront costs.
Lulu’s Order Import tool lets you collect pre-orders for your book via your online store or in person, upload them in bulk using a CSV file, and fulfill all orders at once.
You get to retain 100% of your sales revenue. You only pay the platform for printing and shipping costs while enjoying white-label fulfillment for each order.
Lulu pays via:
You can also split earnings among multiple contributors by defining percentages of share in the Lulu dashboard.
Our rating: 3.8 stars ★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
Apple Books is a publishing platform for ebooks and audiobooks accessible on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. No publishing intermediaries, meaning you retain full control over pricing, distribution, and promotion.
Your book taps into a global reach and premium audience across 51 countries. More reach means extra revenue potential.
Want to turn your book’s cover page into a showstopper? Apple Books lets you do that. You can create a captivating cover, appealing page layouts, and well-formatted file.
You can convert and publish your book as an EPUB file, Microsoft Word, or PDF. But that’s not all. It also lets you create product pages to inform your customers where to read your book.
The beauty of this platform is that you can capitalize on promotional tools and expert tips to generate buzz for your book. Share it using badges, logos, and QR codes.
Besides, you can track your book sales with daily reports and charts. You can also modify prices anytime to test various price points.
You earn 70% royalties on all your titles regardless of price point. Payments are made through EFT, no more than 45 days after the first Friday of every month.
Their minimum payout threshold varies based on country and currency, starting at USD 0.02 in Andorra and Austria and going up to USD 100 in Colombia. You can check out the full list of minimum payout thresholds here.
Our rating: 3.4 stars ★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
Google Play Books is Google’s digital publishing device, offering ebooks to an international audience via the Google Play Store. This means over 3 billion devices in over 75 countries. A massive reach for publishers!
Adding your book to the Play Books Partner Center is straightforward. You can easily set your book prices for different regions to make the most of their global distribution network.
Promote your book by linking to the Google Play Books Store in your promotions. With promo codes, you can also offer free or discounted ebooks and audiobooks under the below terms:
Of course, publishing your book on Google Play is free of upfront charges. The platform also supports EPUB and PDF files.
You earn a 70% revenue split for sales in 60+ countries, regardless of the list price on your ebook. Here is the list of eligible countries:
Please note: Google pays the revenue split on the list price, so your book price doesn’t affect your revenue split. The revenue split starts within 2 days of accepting the updated TOS.
Here are the conditions for receiving payment:
Payments are initiated on the 15th of every month or the next business day if the 15th falls on a weekend or a bank holiday. They are made through:
Our rating: 3.4 stars ★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
KITABOO, a cloud-based digital publishing channel, lets you create, publish, and distribute interactive ebooks across devices and operating systems. It is a highly scalable platform operating in over 20 countries, with over 4 million users and over 1 million ebooks delivered.
You can effortlessly add cover design, images, videos, graphics, gamification, and simulations, making your book rich and engaging.
What’s more? Accessibility features like text-to-speech increase your ebook’s reach. You get to capture readers with different learning styles and abilities, promoting inclusivity.
Its integrated Digital Rights Management (DRM) system protects your published work from unauthorized distribution or piracy.
It supports all key ebook formats like MOBI, AZW, KDP, and ePub3.
You can track average content consumption time and preferred content among users.
Although KITABOO doesn’t clearly state its publisher royalty rates, you can contact them for a custom quote.
Our rating: 3.3 stars ★★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
Spines is a self-publishing platform that offers publishers a unique, frictionless experience. It focuses on automation and smooth integration.
Its swift turnaround time lets you transition your manuscript to a published book in less than 30 days. The process is even easier with a personal production manager to guide you until you publish your book.
Spines support most book formats, including ebooks, audiobooks, and print-on-demand. They collaborate with all major retailers, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, to ensure your book reaches a wide audience.
Let’s not forget its user-friendly dashboard that makes your publishing process seamless regardless of your tech experience.
And the intuitive cover design? With Spines’ AI-powered cover generator, you can design a cover that appeals to your readers.
Beyond that, you get 100% of the net sales royalties (less taxes) from your book sales. Track your earnings in one dashboard and withdraw them to your PayPal or bank account any time.
Remember that your sales must exceed $25 before you start earning royalties. You get paid weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on your subscription plan.
Our rating: 2.6 stars ★★☆
Features
Pros
Cons
The cost largely depends on editing, cover design, marketing services, genre, and quality. On average, it ranges between $100 and $5,000.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a better publisher for first-time authors. It is easy to use, has a global reach, and has no upfront cost. Other beginner-friendly options are Draft2Digital and Lulu.
Based on our evaluation of the best book self-publishing companies, Draft2Digital tops the ratings chart with 4.3 stars. Thanks to its wide distribution network, copyright control, reputation, and platform stability and longevity.
Amazon KDP is the most popular due to its market dominance and royalty structure, while Lulu is preferred for print books.
Even so, the best self-publishing companies vary based on an author’s specific needs.
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