Ebook Aggregators

The great thing about ebook aggregators is that they distribute your books to multiple retail platforms, which saves you a lot of time. You don't have to login into each retailer's site, you won't have to learn how to navigate all of the different e-commerce interfaces, and you can manage your books from one point of entry.

The downside to using ebook aggregators is that it costs money. For the most part, there are two basic models--fee based and percentage of sales.

Smashwords is a percentage-based aggregator. If you sell directly through Smashwords, you get 85% of the price you set. If you make sales through the various retail channels, you get 60%, instead of the 70% you'd get by publishing directly with a retailer. They distribute to Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and others. For more insight into Smashwords, read the guest post by its founder  Mark Coker on Joe Konrath's blog. Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath both use Smashwords as an aggregator.

BookBaby is a flat-fee based aggregator. They charge $99 for a one-time setup fee, and then a $19 annual fee for each book. They take no percentage of your sales. They distribute to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Sony. *BookBaby lists their setup fee as $149.00--they're offering $50 off if you sign up now. They may drop that discount. I use BookBaby and have been happy with their service. 

Aggregator and distributor First Edition Design Publishing submits eBooks to over 100,000 distribution points worldwide. Their distribution partners include Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kobo and Diesel. Other outlets include libraries, schools, colleges and universities, thus making their eBooks available to in excess of 1 billion potential end-users. They have packages starting at $149.00. 

Libre Digital distributes to Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony. You receive 55% of the revenue share after the e-tailer takes its cut--typically 30%, unless you price your book less than $2.99.

Lulu distributes your ebooks to Apple. They take 20% of the 70% you will get after Apple takes their 30% cut. If my math is correct, you will be getting 56% of your sale price. 

Here's a link to Apple's site, where you can apply to distribute directly through them. On that page there is also a list of their approved aggregators. Interesting that only a handful of aggregators are listed. And BookBaby isn't one of them. However, I use BookBaby as an aggregator and my books are up on iBooks.

Ingram Digital doesn't have prices listed on its site at this time. I called them, and a gentleman told me that it costs $250 as a one-time fee to distribute to Apple, unless you're submitting 25 or more titles.

If you don't mind uploading your content to each site individually, and managing the administrative functions of each one, then you can do without an aggregator. If you want a time saving option that takes care of that for you--for a price, then using an aggregator makes sense.

Please share your experiences using aggregators in the Forums.