The Top 5 Online Publishing Websites to Publish eBooks FREE

There are a number of online publishing websites to publish and sell your books to audiences around the world, regardless of your location but, some of these platforms are a total waste of time.

As an aspiring self published author, one of the first things to do before publishing a book online is to sift through the myriads of digital publishing websites and choose a particular platform that will not only publish your book but bring in a good ROI, in terms of visibility and sales.

Understandably, a lot of people automatically choose Amazon as their preferred platform for digital publishing.

But outside Amazon, there are many other digital platforms you can publish your books and push it out to readers around the world.

Now before we proceed, keep in mind, it is completely wrong to publish your book on just about any website because that platforms is available for publishing.

Before you embark on using any online publishing platform, get some background understanding of all your options and then choose the ones you want to publish on, based on your goals and target audience.

This is crucial because at Win Media Publishing, we’ve had situations where authors reach out to us after getting their books on some of these websites, especially where the books fail to deliver on expected outcomes.

That said, in the next paragraphs, I’ll be listing out some of the top online platforms you can publish your book as a self published author and why you should consider using or not using them…

Top Online Publishing Platforms

The following are the top digital publishing platform you can publish and distribute your books…

• Amazon.
• Smashword.
• Lulu.
• Okadabooks.

Before we proceed to discuss about these platforms individually, I want you to know that beyond learning about the platform you plan to publish your books, you want to work on using only platforms with a decent number of your target audience.

That said, let’s get over to discuss on these platforms individually…

Amazon – Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon is by far the first among leading online publishing websites around the world. With a very diverse audience, spread across almost all regions of the world, controlling more than 90 percent of all self published books in the United States, as at 2018, according to stats.

Publishing on Amazon gives you the chance to leverage on a very wide and diverse global audience.

Beyond publishing your book on their platforms, Amazon also distributes and sales your book on third party stores, under the expanded distribution option, when you publish with them.

Besides these benefits, publishing on Amazon gives you the chance to leverage their well established audience, when it comes to book promotion and sales.

Also, being a big player in digital publishing, Amazon is one of the go-to places people go to buy books. Getting your book on this platform automatically gives you access to a wider global reach which might be difficult to get on other platforms.

Cons of Publishing via Amazon KDP

But, regardless of its huge advantages, choosing amazon as your preferred online publishing website is not always a guarantee that Amazon is the best option to go for.

You must always work with your publisher to consider your best options, based on your goals because Amazon KDP like other platforms do also have their own policies which might not necessarily favor you.

For instance, if you get to join the KDP Select program, with your ebook, you’re not allowed to publish your book elsewhere until you opt out of the program after 90 days.

Within this period, Amazon can promote your book to more readers, enroll your book in the Kindle Unlimited programs and ensure you’re paid for these on a monthly basis, depending on how many pages of your books are being read.

Again, if you’re a non US citizen or you’re publishing from a country that has not entered into a tax agreement with the US, 30 percent of your profit will be withheld as tax by Amazon.

Also, depending on a buyer’s location it might take a number of days for paperback copies of your book to be shipped to some countries. And with extra charges in most cases.

These are some of the drawbacks you should consider while choosing Amazon

Above all, one of the important thing you should remember is that your target audience may not even be available on Amazon. So, watch out for this before making a final decision.

Especially if you’re writing a book that’s specifically targeted at a particular geographic area with very little coverage on Amazon, that book might not sell very well on Amazon without external promotion.

If you’re writing about such book, it would be best you also publish on other online publishers with your specific target audience instead of using Amazon exclusively.

Smashwords

Smashwords is another one of the top online publishing websites with a very decent audience.

Although Smashwords cannot be compared to Amazon Kindle, in terms of audience size and reach… It is still a good alternative platform to publish your book.

One of the major advantages of Smashwords is that publishing on its platform allows your book to be distributed to many other digital publishing platforms like Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple books, Page Foundry, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, Blio, txtr, Library Direct, Baker-Taylor, Axis360, OverDrive, Scribd, Bibliotheca, CloudLibrary etc.

Just like KDP, this extended distribution may not necessarily translate to a higher collective sales for your book but it will definitely boost the exposure for your book, including search engine spread.

With this in place, your book will also be indexed on the search engine via the individual websites of these platforms.

Cons of Publishing on Smashwords

Notwithstanding its many advantages, one of the drawbacks of publishing on Smashwords is that your book will have to go through a rigorous review process before it can be approved for distribution across other major publishing platforms.

Another thing you will notice about Smashwords is that it hardly competes with Amazon in terms of overall sales volume. In most cases, you may not sell as much on Smashwords as you would, on Amazon.

Although a handful of authors have reported a larger sales volume on Smashwords, compared to other platforms in some cases, that’s more of an exception than the norm.

LuLu

Like Amazon, Lulu, is one of the leading online publishing websites you can publish your books, free. Publishing on Lulu allows you to reach out to a global audience.

Lulu happens to be one of my personal favorite publishing websites from way back. I stumbled on it years back when I was about publishing my first book online. But a lot has changed since that time.

Although at some point, Lulu was one of the leading online publishing platforms competing fiercely with Amazon; right now, setting up and publishing your book on Lulu is quite different from Amazon.

The process over at Lulu can be somewhat technical and demanding but it is still doable when you understand how to work around it.

Publishing your book on Lulu automatically allows you to sell on other third party book stores as it reaches about 40,000 book stores globally.

However, what you want to keep in mind is that these other platforms will take their own cuts from all sales you make via their publishing stores.

To avoid this, you can publish your book exclusively on the Lulu stores but, to make some decent sales here, you will have to put in some extra effort to get your book, in front of your audience.

Cons of Publishing on Lulu

While publishing on Lulu comes with a lot of advantages, using the platform might also be a bit challenging for first time authors (especially at the start) although it gets easier when you get a hang of it.

Again, to get some decent royalty, your listing price will have to be far higher than what you’d have set on Amazon. This might affect your overall sales in the long run.

So considering the list price, you might only want to proceed with Lulu where you’re sure your audience is well able to afford the cost

Okadabooks

Besides being considered as the top digital publishing website for African Authors, Okadabooks was the most popular indigenous online publishing website in Nigeria.

As Nigeria’s leading publishing website, Okadabooks publishes and distributes content mostly targeted at African audiences within and outside Africa.

Okadabooks claims to have an audience that’s over 500 thousand users, spread across Africa which gives its publishers leverage to target an entirely young and geographically focused set of readers.

One of the advantages of publishing on Okadabooks is it’s popularity for fiction books. It commands a large fanbase for fiction and story books.

Another notable advantage of Okadabooks is that its audience is highly targeted and regional. This can be a great advantage for authors with African targeted audience.

Cons of Publishing on Okadabooks

Although its large fan base might be a great advantage for fiction authors, some non fiction authors might consider it a disadvantage.

One notable thing about Okadabooks is that its books are very affordable. This means that the list price is very low and this will subsequently lead to a lower royalty for authors.

One thing to note about Okadabooks is that it pays out only when your sales must have reached about 10,000 NGN. You might have issues getting royalty where your books do not earn up to that.

Also, some of the books published there are relatively cheaper when compared to the other platforms listed here.

Overall, the platform is quite popular around Nigeria and some other African countries.

If your book is primarily targeted at a Nigerian audience or African audience, you might want to consider publishing on Okadabooks. Outside that, you might want to have a rethink.

Draft2Digital, Apple Books

Draf2Digital and Apple Books are two other top online publishing websites with a very decent audience and author ROI.

Some of the notable things about these platforms is that while Draft2Digital has a very easy to use interface and publishing process for authors as its top advantages…

Apple Books has as its advantages, a premium high end audience and a global distribution network alongside a very intuitive user interface.

As part of the drawbacks, these two platforms are not as popular as compared to the others.

Another notable cons associated with these other publishing websites is that Draft2Digital offers authors less control over pricing settings while Apple Books is limited mostly to Apple devices thus reducing the potential reach of your book.

Final Words

As you can see, there are a lot of online publishing websites to choose from when you are all set to publish your book. But, each of these websites has their on pros and cons.

You want to consider your goals and expected outcomes for your book, before settling for any of them. Also, where you are not sure of what’s best for you, you can always work with experienced digital publishers to get your way around what works.

And of course, you can check out our online publishing options and also reach out to our team here to get your books the publicity and reach it deserves.

Now, it’s your turn! which of this is your preferred Online Publishing Platform? Drop your comments below.