A Nitty-Gritty List of Ebook and Print Book Distributors

So this is my world right now: slogging through ebook distributor and print on demand websites to see who has what kind of distribution, how much they charge, and how much they pay. Seems simple enough, but there's quite a few distributors out there, all with different distribution channels, different royalty payout rates, and some that charge for the service. So, to keep things simple I ended up making an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the info. Then I thought (or actually Anders thought, so credit goes to him), that it would be cool to share the info with the world. Yay!

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of distributors. These are really only the ones I've heard about and/or been considering using. Also, they keyword here is distributor. There are a lot of retailers like Amazon, Kobo, Apple, etc. that you can distribute your ebooks to directly and effectively cut out any middlemen and their notorious sticky fingers. However, my goal is to get my book into as many retail outlets as possible, and I really don't want to mess with having a bazillion different accounts to do so. So, for me, I need that middleman. Also, some retailers just won't do business with indie authors/publishers, so for those a distributor is necessary.

Because there is so much information out there about who does what and for how much, I tried to keep the information in this list bare-bones so it's easy to read/understand. I've listed only the points that I found to be most important in order make a decision on who to go with. Each company logo will take you to their webpage, so if you'd like more information, just click on the logo and check it out. I've tried to be as accurate as humanly possible, but if you notice an error, let me know and I'll fix it. Also, if you know of a company that you think should be on the list, let me know and I'll look into adding it. Enjoy!

Fun fact: Katie Cross has a great list on her blog of ebook marketing websites. Kind of similar to this one, and there is some overlap, but she also includes retailers you can distribute to directly, as well as nifty organizations that can help you get your book seen, reviewed, etc. Check it out!