Top 10 Self-Publishing Companies of 2020

In recent years, the e-book market has been growing at an exponential rate, and in 2020, it accounts for almost 50% of all the books being sold. And interestingly, almost 30%–40% of all e-books sold are self-published. Naturally, almost all big-shot publishing companies are now busy in launching their self-publishing portals. This, frankly, is a boon for first-time authors who have very limited knowledge about how to publish a book.

However, before you commit to self-publishing, you should be aware of the good, the bad, and the unknown facts of self-publishing.

Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

While researching about how to publish a book written by you, you must have stumbled upon the idea of self-publishing. Like everything else, this too has some pros and cons. So, being aware of these facts will help you make an informed decision.

Pros:

• Easy to publish:

Obviously, for first-time authors, the biggest advantage of self-publishing is that there’s no fear of rejection.

• Better royalty:

Self-publishing platforms offer 35% to 70% royalty to authors, whereas traditional publishing companies offer their writers an average of 10% to 15% royalty.

• More creative freedom:

When you publish your book with conventional publishing companies, you generally don’t get to enjoy a lot of creative freedom in the designing and editing processes of the book. However, in the case of self-publishing, your choice is supreme.

• No ‘expiration date’:

Traditional publishers and booksellers generally promote your product for a short time and display your newly published books only for a few months in their store. If it doesn’t gain enough popularity in the first few months, it is shelved. But this is not the case in self-publishing, especially with e-books, which don’t come with an ‘expiration date’.

Cons:

• Marketing:

You don’t get the publishing company’s marketing support in self-publishing. This is especially challenging for first-time authors.

• Less acclaimed:

As is well known, as almost anybody can self-publish a book, the quality of such books is questionable; hence, these books are generally less acclaimed.

So, just like everything else, self-publishing too has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. But honestly, we feel that the pros are way more powerful to be overshadowed by the cons.

How to choose a self-publishing company?

Now that you have decided to embark on your self-publishing journey, the next thing you need to know about is the types of self-publishing companies that exist in the market right now. Generally, a self-publishing company falls under one of the two below-mentioned categories:

• Retailer

They are publishers who let you publish your books on their own platforms. Buyers can find your self-published books only from their retail stores (online and offline).

• Aggregator

Aggregators publish your books but don’t restrict them to a single platform. Rather, they distribute your books to multiple retailing platforms and help you gain more exposure.

Top 10 Self-Publishing Companies of 2020

And now, here’s our list of top 10 self-publishing companies of 2020.

1. Amazon KDP

Amazon Kindle is the most popular ebook platform without a doubt, accounting for over 3/4th of all ebooks sold worldwide. A majority of first-time authors prefer the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform because of the vast market it offers them. Moreover, Amazon KDP offers a 70% royalty to the author if the book price is between $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% royalty if the price is below $2.99.

2. Apple Books (formerly iBooks)

The one self-publishing platform that gives Amazon KDP some serious competition is Apple Books. They also offer authors up to 70% of royalty, and because of their popularity, first-time authors can gain pretty good visibility on this platform. iBooks Author, their self-publishing software, is very easy to use and allows authors to upload books free of cost.

3. Barnes & Noble Press

Barnes & Noble Press is another very popular self-publishing platform where you can publish both e-books and printed versions (similar to Amazon and Apple). The royalty offered is also pretty good, standing at 65% for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and 40% for books costing less than $2.99. Furthermore, they are always striving to improve their features; they recently added an advertising portal, making marketing easier for self-publishing authors.

4. Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital is an aggregator self-publisher that distributes your ebook to a number of retailers such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play Books, and more. It charges a certain amount (10% per copy) for each e-book sold. Draft2Digital also offers a bunch of other useful features such as:

• They do the book formatting for you
• Offer you a Universal Book Link to make your sold books discoverable
• Automated back matter that allows any new publishing from you appear as “Also by this author” in every retailing platform

5. Smashwords

Smashwords is also an aggregator publisher that distributes your books to retailers including Apple Books, Barnes & Nobles, Scribd, Kobo, and more. They have their own retailing platform too. They charge 10% per copy for every ebook sold on the Smashwords platform, and 15% per copy for other platforms.

6. BookBaby

Another aggregator in our list, BookBaby publishes both ebooks and printed books, and distributes them to retailers including Amazon, Apple, Google Play Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and more.

7. StreetLib

StreetLib is yet another aggregator that deals with ebooks only. It charges 10% per copy and distributes to all leading retailers including Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, and more. StreetLib is especially effective for authors whose target audience is the European and American population.

8. Kobo

Rakuten Kobo is one of the most popular retailers that only deals with self-published printed books. It has a strong presence in the international market and offers first-time authors fairly good promotion opportunities. As a retailer, Kobo offers a royalty of 70% per copy on books priced higher than $2.99, and 45% for books priced lower than $2.99.

9. IngramSpark

Ingram, the biggest book wholesaler in the world, has its own self-publishing platform, IngramSpark. They publish both ebooks and printed books, and distribute them to some of the most popular retailers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Kobo, and more.

10. PublishDrive

And finally, our last selection is PublishDrive, one of the newest and fastest-growing self-publishing aggregators in the market. They only publish ebooks and distribute self-published titles to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, and more. Like most of the other aggregators, PublishDrive also charges 10% per copy sold on these retailer platforms.

So, these are our top-10 selections for the best self-publishing platforms of 2020. Each of them has its own advantages and drawbacks. All you have to do is be informed and make the right decision for yourself.

Happy publishing!