Top Best Sites to Publish your eBooks for Free
The popularity of eBooks is increasing by the day. During the last 10 years, demand for print books has waned while demand for ebooks and audiobooks has skyrocketed. The market for eBooks is growing at a rapid pace and this has led to an increased interest by writers and authors to make their works available in this form. eBooks have a lot of advantages when compared to hard copy books, among which are portability, accessibility, interactivity, shareability, and general ease of use which gives wonderful user experience. These websites make is possible for aspiring writers to realize and materialize their dream of having their works published for the world to see. Publishers of eBook are now making it easier for all budding writers to get their works published. Also several websites for publishing eBooks are now available which means anyone can easily publish their books without stress. All you need to do is to create an eBook and know learn how to publish it free online. Here are five very reliable websites where you can publish your eBook for free.
1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a free e-publishing site that gives you the opportunity to publish your eBook without making any payment to the publisher. To upload the eBook to the site, you may have to convert it to Amazon’s proprietary format. The website automatically converts word (Doc), Pdf, Html, and ePub format to Kindle’s proprietary format. After publishing the eBook, you have the option of making it exclusive to Amazon’s Kindle for a limited time period. By doing this your eBook will be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library making it possible for you to earn a certain percentage on sales. Find out more about the KDP Select program here. This is opportunity for you to publish your first eBook.
2. Barnes & Noble Press™
Barnes & Noble Press™ emerged as a part of the bookseller company’s offering in 2018 after it was re-launched and rebranded. It was previously known as Nook Press. The website has features that make it more approachable for self-publishing authors with simplified user experiences. The B&N Press website has grown to become a popular brand as it covers 3% of eBook sales in the U.S. Anyone with a complete manuscript, edited and ready for the world, can set up an account and have the book show up in B&N’s online bookstore in less than 72 hours. The platform is fast and free to use, competing with KDP. The website also provides printing services which creates opportunity for customers to order hardcover or paperback versions of your eBook. This makes Barnes & Noble Press™ a good option for writers and authors across the world.
3. Smashwords
Smashwords is another very popular website for publishing eBooks with a large selection of published books containing works of more than 40,000 authors. Publishing your eBook on this website is completely free. This online platform gives you the opportunity to to quickly publish your eBook to a wide variety of online stores in no time. Publishing your eBook at Smashwords is more of a DIY task. You have to first upload your eBook and a cover image using the ‘Metagrinder’ tool on the site. The online tool will create an eBook in the required format within just a few minutes. You can sell and promote the eBook directly on the self-publishing platform. Additionally, you have the option of selling the eBook to Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore, Baker & Taylor’s Bilo, Kobo, and many other major online publishing platforms. Presently, Smashwords does not support publishing the eBook to Amazon’s KDP and might not change anytime soon. Amazon does not allow automatic upload of Smashwords titles. It then means the best option for you is to either upload the eBook directly to KDP or use another third-party publishing platform. You can check out the Smashwords website foe more on how to publish your eBook and get it across to the world.
4. Apple eBook Store
Apple’s iBook store and iTunes U are two free self-publishing platforms that provide opportunity for you to maximize exposure of your eBook. These two online stores have different requirements for uploading digital books. For authors to get their eBook published to iBooks Store or iTunes U, the file has to first be converted to either ePub or iBooks format. There are free conversion tools mentioned previously that you can use to convert the books. For publishing in iTunes U, the file must be saved as either an.ePub file or as an .ibook.
You can publish your eBook to the iBook Store for free through iTunes Connect. This requires you to complete an online application. Once you have successfully registered to the site, you can download iTunes producer to sell the eBook on the iBook store. You can make your digital work available at the store for free or set a specific price for the eBook.
In order to publish your eBook on iTunes U, you should create an iTunes U site. To create the website you should just visit this site here and then follow the onscreen instructions. After publishing the eBook on Apple’s store, you will retain complete rights to the eBook content. However, if you distribute the eBook in the iBooks format, the digital work will be subject to certain restrictions that are mentioned in the terms of the agreement. You can find more about Apple’s iBook store and iTunes U self-publishing platforms by clicking here.
5. Rakuten Kobo Writing Life
Rakuten Kobo Writing Life is the free self-publishing portal that provides opportunity for authors and publishers create, edit, and upload eBooks to Kobo. The website has one of the top websites for showcasing your eBook for prospective readers to find. This website competes with Amazon’s Kindle and has its own e-reader tablet and its own library. The platform gives you access to millions of readers. It provides a platform for authors to make their works available to millions of readers in over 200 countries. Anyone who chooses this website is taking advantage of Kobo’s strong retail partners around the world as they power the eBook side of many of the world’s most renowned bookstores. What are simply required to do is set up your account, describe your eBook, upload the content, choose relevant publishing rights, and choose a price. If your book is professionally proofread, the platform will do the rest for you and will come out in the right (ePub) format in a matter of seconds. And there you have your eBook for everyone to read. One of the unique advantages Kobo offers users in the land of eBooks is exposure to Canadian readers. The accounts for 25% of eBook sales up north in Canada which means your eBook will be very visible to readers in Canada. This is a platform aspiring authors should check out to achieve their dream of getting their books across to readers across the world.
