Tim Trott compares six self-publishing platforms by their royalty rates, fees, and restrictions. Amazon KDP offers the fastest payouts but locks you into exclusivity; IngramSpark reaches bookstores but takes a wholesale cut. The best strategy combines platforms: start on KDP, then go wide with an aggregator for ebooks and add print distribution separately.
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Welcome to Author to Author. This is Author to Author, and I'm Tim Trott. I meet authors who ask, "Where should I publish my book?" The truth is there's not one right answer. Whether it's Amazon KDP or one of the others, each platform does a different job. In a moment, I'll show you 6 platforms, what they do, what they cost, and how to decide on a self-publishing strategy. Check the description below for a link to some handy resources. The ins and outs of self-publishing in this chapter of Author2Author, presented by Cybershoot Hosting, the place for your author website.
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If you were an author weighing where to publish a book, self-publishing looks fairly simple. Upload a file, set a price, collect royalties. But every platform hides the real economics—delivery fees, wholesale discounts, payout thresholds. Return risk, and distribution reach. Let's consider those details across 6 main platforms: Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Barnes Noble Press, Google Play Books, and Apple Books. These are not the only options, but they are a good representation. The goal is to help you match a platform or platforms to your situation. The good news is that you don't have to master all the platforms. Successful independent authors use just 2 or 3. We'll review what each platform does so that you can choose the combination that's right for you. Before comparing brands, ask 6 questions that establish your costs and return. First, charges and fees. Not just the setup cost, but per-copy print costs, ebook delivery fees, and platform commissions. Then there are the restrictions: exclusivity clauses that lock you into one store, ISBN options, and content or pricing limits. Next, the payment minimum—the amount you must accrue before any money is released. After that, the payment delay—the gap between a sale and the money in your account—which could be 60 or 90 days. Then the returns and refunds—whether refunds, chargebacks, or physical store returns can claw back money that you thought you'd earned. And last, the distribution reach—which retailers, libraries, and countries your book can actually reach. Every platform answers these 6 questions differently. Hang on, it could be a rough ride. Here's the big picture. 4 of the 6 are marketplaces—stores you sell through directly. Amazon KDP is the giant, the largest bookstore on earth and where most authors start. Barnes Noble Press sells on bn.com and in physical B&N stores. Google Play Books reaches every Android device worldwide. Apple Books is one of the largest ebook stores built into every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The other two aren't stores at all. Draft2Digital is an ebook aggregator. A single upload sends your book to more than three dozen or so retailers and library systems. IngramSpark is a print distributor. The Ingram Trade Network supplies paperbacks and hardback books to bookstores and libraries. Notice the headline royalties already diverge: a clean 70% flat at Apple, 70% or 35% at Amazon, and a net figure around 63% for Draft2Digital once the pass-through math is done. So how does it work out? It will all start to make more sense once you see the two fundamental paths from author to readers. The first is selling direct through a marketplace. You open an account with Amazon KDP, Barnes Noble Press, Google Play, or Apple Books, upload your files and set your price, and their storefront sells the book. You get the most control and the full advertised royalty, but you're managing each account, each upload, and each separate payout. The second route is distributing wide, through an aggregator or distributor. Here a single upload reaches many channels all at once. Draft2Digital is an ebook aggregator. It pushes your book to dozens of outlets and keeps roughly 10% of the royalties for the service. IngramSpark is the print distributor. It plugs your paperback and hardcover into the Ingram trade network that bookstores and libraries actually order from. You trade a slice of revenue and a middleman relationship for dramatically less work and a far wider reach. IngramSpark IngramSpark also distributes ebooks, and Draft2Digital also handles paperback and hardcover books. In practice, most successful indie authors use both routes together, and by the end of this presentation you'll see how they fit. By the way, IngramSpark will even help you promote your book for $200 for each book. Amazon KDP is where most first-time authors begin, and for good reason. It's free and fast and tied to the largest online bookstore on earth. But the royalty rules reward precision. E-books earn 70% only when priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Outside that band, you drop to 35%. And even at 70%, Amazon deducts a delivery fee of 15 cents per megabyte of file size, so a large image-heavy e-book can quietly bleed royalty. And the effective rate may be substantially reduced on image-heavy e-books. Paperbacks pay 60% of list minus the printing cost, which runs about 85 cents, plus a bit over a penny per page. Price a print book below regional floors and your print royalty falls to 50%. Setup is free and the free Amazon ISBN is fine if you only sell on Amazon. ISBN, by the way, stands for International Standard Book Number. Think of it as a product identifier for a specific edition of a book, much like the UPC barcode identifies a specific product in a store. It's a better idea to buy your ISBNs from Bowker.com. Finally, KDP Select, Amazon's exclusivity program, locks your ebook to Amazon for 90 days in exchange for Kindle Unlimited page read income. Longer if you forget to turn it off before it renews. On payout, expect royalties about 60 days after the month's end, and 90 for expanded distribution. Independent bookstores generally avoid ordering through Amazon because Amazon is not a traditional wholesaler. On the other side, KDP Select also provides for free days and countdown specials. IngramSpark is the professionals' print engine, the platform that gets your paperback and hardcover into the same trade network that supplies most physical bookstores and libraries worldwide. It works very differently from KDP. IngramSpark revisions made after the free window can cost you, so proof your work meticulously before uploading. Don't be in a hurry. Print costs run slightly higher than Amazon. The number that trips up beginners is the wholesale or trade discount. You choose somewhere between 30% and 55%, and Ingram subtracts it from your list price before calculating what you earn, so per-copy earnings are lower than KDP's. Most bookstores expect a wholesale discount of 53% to 55% and returnability. Use your own ISBN. In exchange, you reach thousands of retailers and libraries across 195 countries. This is the platform for hardcovers and paperbacks, bookstore placement, and libraries. But you still have to motivate those stores and libraries to stock your book. Draft2Digital is the shortcut to wide distribution with your ebook. Instead of opening and managing separate accounts at every store, you upload once and D2D pushes your book to over 3 dozen retailers and library systems. Everywhere except Amazon, where you should still publish direct through KDP. The pricing model is a pass-through. D2D pays you 90% of whatever the end retailer paid them. That sounds generous, but read it carefully. On Apple Books, for example, it's 90% of Apple's 70%, so your effective take is closer to 63% of retail rather than 90%. The trade-off is convenience: free formatting tools, free previews, universal book links, and one dashboard for dozens of channels. There was an important change in 2026. For the first time in the company's 14-year history, D2D introduced a $20 one-time activation charge for new accounts. For library reach, D2D uses two models: one copy, one user, which mirrors lending a physical book, and cost per checkout. If you value your time over squeezing out every last percent, D2D earns its cut. Barnes Noble Press is the way onto BN.com and increasingly into physical Barnes Noble stores, which matters more now that the chain is in its most aggressive expansion in 15 years. The economics are straightforward and friendly: a flat 70% royalty on ebooks at any eligible price, and 55% of list minus printing cost on print, meaning B&N keeps 45% of each print sale. It's free to publish. On payment, B&N is actually the fastest paying platform. You need just $25 accrued across ebook and print combined, and you're paid by electronic transfer about 30 days after the month's end. Net 30 rather than net 60. But note the policy changes because they're significant for beginners. The platform raised its minimum print price to $14.99 to cover rising print and shipping costs. It banned public domain content and rebuilt its website. And like most platforms, B&N reserves the right to change the royalty terms on 30 days' notice, so don't be too fast to delete the emails. For convenience, you can distribute to Barnes Noble through Draft2Digital, minus their fee. Google Play Books is another major ebook storefront reaching readers on every Android device worldwide, and it's the one authors most often forget to set up. Its headline is a 70% revenue split, but there's a catch that costs the inattentive authors real money. You only get 70% if you have accepted the updated terms of service that Google introduced in 2019. If you haven't done that, or if you're selling into certain countries, you default to just 52%. So the very first thing to do in the Partner Center is accept the current terms. The higher rate kicks in a couple of days later. To its credit, Google does not gatekeep that rate behind any exclusivity clause. Payment is refreshingly predictable: monthly, usually landing between the 10th and the 15th, by electronic transfer or wire, once you clear a minimum balance. Refunds and chargebacks are netted out of future payouts. Two practical hurdles for beginners: you need a legal address and a bank account in a supported country to get paid, and Google can't offer pre-orders in India for regulatory reasons. Set it up once, accept the terms, and it becomes a steady, low-maintenance channel. Apple Books is built into more than 1.5 billion iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and for authors it's essential, not optional. The royalty structure is the most author-friendly of marketplaces—a flat 70% at any price with none of Amazon's 35% penalty band for cheap or premium titles. That makes Apple especially attractive for 99-cent loss leaders and for books priced above $10 where Amazon would cut you to 35% You can publish two ways: directly through Apple Books Connect, which is free but needs an Apple ID, or hands-off through an aggregator like Draft2Digital, which nets you around 63% after their cut. Apple's standout feature is its pre-order system. Readers can pre-order ahead of release. The orders accumulate and charge on launch day, concentrating your sales into a single spike that lifts chart ranking and visibility. Apple is strongest in the United States, Canada, and Australia, And if you're going wide, Apple belongs in your plan from day one. If you have an iPhone or Mac computer, go to Apple Books and search for Tim Trott. This table shows what actually happens with a $5 ebook. Apple and Barnes Noble are the cleanest with a flat 70%, which puts about $3.49 in your pocket. Google makes that 70%, but only if you've accepted the terms. Otherwise, you're at 52%. Amazon's 70% looks identical on paper, but the 15-cent-per-megabyte delivery fee drags down the effective rate, so a typical ebook nets closer to 272%. And Draft2Digital's much-advertised 90% is 90% of what the retailer paid to Draft2Digital, not 90% of your cover price. So on most platforms you net around 63%. The lesson here is not that any platform is dishonest, it's that The headline number and the money in the bank number are different animals. When you gauge your income, always use the effective after-fee rate. Try to end up inside the 70% bands whenever you can. Print is where beginners most often lose money without realizing it. The printing cost is a deduction taken from every copy sold. Amazon KDP Print pays 60% of retail minus that cost, which runs about 85 cents plus a little over a penny per page, roughly $4.45 for a 300-page paperback. IngramSpark charges a bit more, around $4.80 for the same book, and its royalty is your retail price minus the trade discount minus the print cost. So per copy earnings are lower, but IngramSpark is the only one of the three that's truly bookstore ready. It supports returnability and the 53 to 55 wholesale discount most bookstores expect. KDP's expanded distribution has no returnability, which is precisely why most indie bookstores won't stock it. Barnes Noble pays 55% minus cost with a $14.95 list floor. The takeaway on the right says it all. Two authors can price identical $20 books, and the one who actually understands page count, trim size, and discount is the one who profits. The lesson is: figure in your print costs before you set your list price. Never after. We'll get to returns a little later. Here's the realistic answer to "What does it cost to start?" And the answer is that most upfront costs are zero, but the real costs are hidden inside. 4 of the 6 platforms charge nothing to publish: Amazon, Barnes Noble, Google, and Apple. Amazon's cost is buried in their per-megabyte ebook delivery fee. Barnes Noble is free, but enforces a $14.99 print price floor. Google is free but needs an address and a bank account. Apple is free through Apple Books Connect. You just need an Apple ID. The one that does charge upfront is the wide distribution channel. Draft2Digital now charges a $20 one-time new account activation fee and a $12 maintenance fee for accounts earning under $100 a year. IngramSpark charges revision fees if you change files after the 90-day free window closes. So the sticker price of entry is low almost everywhere, but you need to account for the delivery fees, the commissions, and the revision charges that don't show up until later. We mentioned formatting tools a while back. You still need to format your books and covers or hire somebody to do it. Writing tools like Atticus and Vellum do all or most of the print and ebook formatting for you. Cash flow surprises new authors more than anything else, so let's be precise about when the money actually arrives. Amazon has no minimum if you take direct deposit—they'll pay any amount—but a $100 threshold applies to checks and wire transfers. And the real friction is the timing—royalties land about 60 days after the end of the sale month, and closer to 90 for expanded distribution. Barnes Noble is the standout for speed and low barrier—just $25 accrued and you're paid about 30 days after the month end. Google Play Books pays monthly once your account reaches the payment threshold, which varies by country, currency, and payment method. Apple pays monthly once you hit their threshold. The two aggregate routes, Draft2Digital and IngramSpark, pay out monthly, but their timing comes after retailers. The bottom line is a sale you make today may not become spendable money for 2 or 3 months. Barnes Noble's net 30 is the friendly exception. Money you've earned isn't always money that you keep, and returns are what takes it back. There are 3 flavors to understand. First, ebook refunds and chargebacks. Platforms like Amazon and Google let readers return eBooks, and when they do, that royalty is deducted from your next payout. Readers can return eBooks within Amazon's return policy. There's nothing you can do except expect a small ongoing trickle of clawbacks. Second, physical bookstore returns are the print world's version. IngramSpark's returnability feature lets stores send unsold stock back to the distributor, and enabling it is a precondition for bookstores ordering your books at all. And you, the author, absorb the cost of those returned copies. That can sting if a store overorders. Third, there are no return channels. KDP's expanded distribution has no returnability, which protects you from return losses, but it's exactly why most independent bookstores won't stock it in the first place. That makes returnability a double-edged sword. It's the key that opens the bookstore shelf, but it hands the risk of unsold inventory back to you. You have to decide if the trade-off is worth it. Distribution reach is where the platforms differ most dramatically, and it's the reason serious authors use several at once. Amazon KDP is still the largest bookstore on earth, but expanded distribution meant to reach beyond Amazon is weak and largely ignored by bookstores. After all, Amazon is a competitor. IngramSpark is the reach champion for print—more than 40,000 retailers, independent bookstores, and libraries across 195 countries. It rides the same Ingram network the trade already orders from. Draft2Digital handles eBooks wide—over 3 dozen stores plus library systems—through the 1 copy/1 user and cost-per-checkout modes, all from a single upload. Barnes Noble features BN.com in its growing base of physical stores. Google Play connects to every Android device globally, and Apple Books reaches over 1.5 billion Apple devices. Strongest in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Notice the pattern: no single platform does it all. Amazon owns the search and buy marketplace, IngramSpark owns the physical trade and library shelf, and aggregators fill in the wide ebook stores. Reach is built by selecting a combination, not by picking just one. Every platform has strings attached, and the biggest one is exclusivity. KDP Select, the gateway to Kindle Unlimited page read income, requires your ebook to be exclusive to Amazon for 90 days at a time. Enroll and you legally cannot sell that ebook anywhere else during that window. It's a genuine fork in the road between an Amazon-only strategy and going wide. Second, ISBNs. Amazon hands you a free ISBN, but it identifies Amazon as the publisher, and it is not suitable for publishing the same edition elsewhere. Professional-wide print publishing generally benefits from owning your own ISBN, so if you plan to go beyond Amazon, buy your own from the start and keep the identities consistent. Third, content and pricing limits. Barnes Noble now bans public domain titles and enforces that $14.99 print floor, runs quality reviews that can reject a poorly formatted file. Fourth, geographic and account rules. Google requires a legal address and a bank account in a supported country and can't offer pre-orders in India. None of these are deal-breakers, but each one shapes your strategy, and in particular, you should make the exclusivity decision consciously rather than by accident. Let's turn all of this into a concrete plan for your first book. Step 1: Start on Amazon KDP. It's free, it's fast, and it's the largest market. Publish both your ebook and paperback there first and learn the ropes. Step 2: This is the pivotal decision: exclusive or wide. If you want to sell everywhere, skip KDP Select and keep your ebook free to travel. Only enroll in Select if you're committing to an Amazon-only strategy for the page read income. Step 3: Go wide for the ebook. Reach Apple, Google, and Barnes Noble. Publish direct to each for the full royalty if you don't mind the extra accounts, or use Draft2Digital for one-upload convenience at a modest cut. Step 4: Add IngramSpark for print. Enable returnability and use your own ISBN so bookstores and libraries can actually order, and so you can offer hardcover. Step 5: The discipline that protects your income—price for the bands. Keep ebooks between $2.99 and $9.99 to stay at 70%, and always model your print cost against your list price before you finalize it. Follow those 5 steps and you'll avoid the mistakes that quietly cost beginners the most. Let's round out with 4 takeaways to take into your publishing decisions. First, there is no single winner. Amazon gives you reach, IngramSpark gives you the physical trade and library shelf, and aggregators give you wide coverage. The strongest strategy combines them rather than betting on just one. Second, always read past the headline. A 70% or 90% number is a starting point, not a promise. Delivery fees, wholesale discounts, and pass-throughs turn it into a smaller figure, so you need to know the effective rate. Third, plan for the lag. Most royalties reach your bank 60 to 90 days after the sale, and only Barnes Noble pays close to net 30. So don't budget for instant income. And fourth, own your ISBN if you're going wide. Keep your ebooks priced in the $2.99 to $9.99 band for that 70%, and always model your print cost against average retail before you publish. One closing caution: these platforms change their terms constantly, so Before you price a book, confirm the current numbers in each platform's own dashboard. Let me leave you with one last thought. What is the difference between a writer and an author? Think about it. The author needs marketing. A writer does not. Writing is an art, while publishing is a business. This has been an Author2Author presentation. Thank you for joining me for this chapter of Author2Author. 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