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I have published a few collection Kindle eBooks, and am planning on publishing at least 3 more in the not-too-distant future. While my experience with the Kindle marketplace has been mostly positive, I have been wondering about the other options out there (such as Nook, Lulu, Google Books).

Has anyone published using multiple platforms and seen a decent amount of increase in their sales to warrant the (admittedly small) amount of effort it would take to publish to those other marketplaces?

Would an independent writer be better off locking in to only the Kindle marketplace, given the tools available to the writer through Amazon?

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  • Personally, I think the more important thing is format, rather than vendor (although the tend to correlate to an extent). If people have a kindle, then they want to be able to get your book easily onto a kindle. But if they have a Nook and you only have it available on Amazon, they obviously aren't going to buy it. Personally, I wrote my book in EPUB, and converted it to Mobi, so it was pretty easy to publish to both platforms (I haven't marketted my book at all, so I don't have sales on either platform). I haven't attempted iBook yet, but that would probably be a logical third step.
    – brianmearns
    Jun 7, 2013 at 15:05

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I think that there is definitely an advantage to publishing to other venues/formats. From a simplicity standpoint, I use Smashwords to distribute my e-books to other markets, such as B&N, Kobo, and Apple. They don't pay as frequently (once per quarter), but they do make it a lot easier to get into more markets. I also like having the ability to generate coupons so that I can offer certain titles for free to selected individuals. This comes in handy if you want to offer a copy to a reviewer, especially since they can go there and choose whatever format they prefer.

As to whether or not the sales warrant it, that answer depends on your book(s). Some titles may do well while others struggle to find an audience. It all depends on what you do to promote on that platform. I have several titles that I have published under a pen name, and I find that they do very well with B&N (Nook). To give you a point of comparison, I sold over 60 copies of one title last week on Kindle, and 36 copies of the same title at B&N.

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  • This was my thinking all along, and I don't know why I shouldn't go ahead and put my stuff out there as much as possible.
    – Strozykowski
    Jan 30, 2012 at 15:30
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    @Strozykowski - the only really good reason NOT to publish on other platforms is if it's too difficult to convert, or if your contract prevents you. With Nook, etc I don't expect either of those is true.
    – Michael Kohne
    Feb 1, 2012 at 12:33
  • @Strozykowski, Steven Drennon, you can publish on Amazon kindle and Nook simultaneously?
    – Vass
    Apr 3, 2013 at 16:13
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    @Vass, yes you can. They each have their own processes and require a different format, but they are both available. You can go to pubit.com to create an account to manage your books through B&N. Kobo (Sony) and Apple also have their own programs now, but I haven't created accounts with them yet.
    – Steven Drennon
    Apr 3, 2013 at 23:12
  • @Vass, the only difficulty would be if the text is enrolled in the KDP Select program, which requires Amazon exclusivity. I would avoid that program, based on personal anecdotal experience.
    – Strozykowski
    May 6, 2013 at 14:38
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Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: See what author Dean Wesley Smith has to say about this. ("Sorry, I just don’t understand the business thinking of limiting your sales. As a business person, it makes no sense at all to me.")

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