I provide an ethical self-publishing service at Essential Self Publishing that allows people to bypass the complicated self-publishing process by having me do it for them. Before I publish the book for someone, however, I often encourage tech-savvy clients to give it a go themselves. The digital publication process isn’t tremendously difficult.

Of course, if the client doesn’t want to get bogged down in the details and just wants to see their book published, I’ll definitely do that. I create the accounts, publish the book digitally on the platforms below as well as in print, and then hand all the accounts back without breaking the bank or holding copyright.

Here are the three digital platforms that I use to have a client’s book out everywhere (called ‘Going Wide’):

Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital is a friendly, easy-to-use platform that will publish your ebook nearly everywhere. You can upload your word document, and Draft2Digital will reformat it and create ebooks that you can download to read on both Kindle and iPad. If you choose, you can have D2D publish your book through to Amazon, and you don’t need to publish it on Amazon as well.

Advantages of D2D are:

• The platform is easy to use, robust and intuitive. I encourage clients who approach me to have a try at D2D before engaging my services, because it is very easy.
• They send your book through to all digital platforms, including Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble, as well as libraries world-wide. The only outlet they don’t publish to is GooglePlay.
• D2D will reformat your book to make it not only standardised, but they can add thematic flourishes to make it look even more professional.
• You can download your finished, formatted ebook as an .epub (for tablets), .mobi (for Kindles), and .pdf (for everything else).

Disadvantages of Draft2Digital:

• They don’t have a cover design wizard, you’ll have to either buy or create a cover yourself.
• Their formats can seem restrictive if you want to tailor your book.
• They take a cut of 10% of your recommended retail price as a fee for publishing your book.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

The Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform is as easy to use as Draft2Digital. You upload your word document of the book’s content and a cover file if you have one. If you don’t have a cover, KDP has a wizard to help you to create one.

Advantages of KDP are:

• If you fulfil some easy conditions, you can earn a higher rate of royalties.
• If you choose to only publish on Amazon, you can join their Kindle Unlimited subscription service.

Disadvantages of KDP are:

• If you try to publish on both Draft2Digital for Amazon, and Amazon itself, you will break your book. Only choose one.
• If you do a pre-order for your book then change the release date, it will be permanently broken and Amazon may ban you.
• If you publish on KDP only, the book is only available on the Amazon store.
• They don’t reformat your book to a standard format, they publish it as-is.
• They will reduce the price of your book if they feel like it, and you have no control.

GooglePlay Books Partner Centre

GooglePlay has a similar interface to KDP, with a few more payment forms to fill in. Publishing your book on GooglePlay Books is the only way for it to be seen in the Google store.

Advantages of GooglePlay are:

• It’s the only way for your book to be on the GooglePlay store.

Disadvantages of GooglePlay are:

• GooglePlay won’t accept Word documents, it will only accept .epub or .pdf files (which you can create with Draft2Digital).
• It doesn’t have a cover wizard like KDP.

When I publish a book for a client, I usually do all three: Amazon KDP for Amazon, GooglePlay books for the GooglePlay store, and Draft2Digital for everywhere else. The only thing you need to be careful about, is ensuring that your book is not distributing to Amazon from Draft2Digital. You even have to email D2D to confirm that you aren’t attempting to distribute through to Amazon if your book is published there.
If you want, however, you can just start out with either Kindle Direct Publishing or Draft2Digital. Have a try at the interface – you may find it’s easier than you think!

Kylie Chan runs Essential Self Publishing and you can contact her at [email protected]