Smashwords vs Lulu vs Ebookit

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NewPub

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Have you had good or bad experiences with any of the above?

Smashwords, Lulu, Ebookit?

Have you used more than one with your own Compare & Contrast to report, and or found that one clearly excelled above the other?

Thanks in advance.
 

Old Hack

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I'm not entirely convinced that this requires a separate thread to your other thread, NewPub, but why don't we ride with it for a while and see how it goes? If the two threads converge I'll merge them.
 

Polenth

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This does seem like a continuation of the other thread. Though on this question, it is hard to answer, as it's a lot like asking whether we prefer cats, roses or bread. Those companies all do different things, and they each have their own competitors. They don't really compete with each other.

Your categories here are...

POD/Print books: Lulu and CreateSpace are the big ones. CreateSpace is generally cheaper (in terms of the price customers pay for the book). Lulu does some other formats, like hardbacks. You're not tied to a particularly company, so if you need hardbacks, you could use Lulu for those and print paperbacks with CreateSpace.

Service to send out books to places: Smashwords and D2D. Note these take a percentage of each sale, but you have full control over book setup and there are no fees for that. You can update your book when you want, remove/add it to sales channels at will, and basically you're in charge.

Service that uploads the book for a fee, often as part of a bigger package with formatting, etc.: Places like Ebookit. Not a good idea for self-publishing. It might look on the surface as though it'll save time and money, but what it really does is remove your control. Only they can update your book, for example. So you have to pay them even for tiny changes. Ultimately, you'll end up paying more by going through this route.
 

ScribeLady

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Polenth is correct about Ebookit. I published my e-novel, BAD DAD, on Amazon, etc., through them but now that I want to make changes, it's going to cost me. I also keep putting off experimenting with price, etc. However, I didn't have the skills or self-confidence to do it all myself. Now, I'm feeling frustrated that I don't have more control.

At this juncture, I'm going to publish a print version of my novel
but I'm going to do it myself.


Scribelady
 

girlyswot

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If you feel like you don't have the skills to do everything yourself, there are still better options than ebookit. I'd try somewhere like Formatting Fairies, where you pay for specific services but retain the control over your book in the future (so you can do things like change pricing very easily without paying for additional services).
 

NewPub

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Settled on D2D and KDP

As the title says I chose to go with Draft2Digital and KDP

What impressed me about D2D most was how incredibly friendly and helpful they were, how easy it was to get someone on the phone, and how they really seem like they are fighting on behalf of the authors. They also have no set up fee, no charge for changes, and their royalty of 10% is one of the lowest. But their excellent customer service is what swayed my decision.

I then addressed KDP directly.
Just fyi.
 

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Thanks for the update, NewPub, but you've already said that in another thread. In future, please don't make duplicate posts. AW is huge as it is: if we all said the same thing more than once we'd make it collapse!

Thanks.
 
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