eBook Distribution

Just because a book has been published years ago doesn’t mean that authors can’t still garner some publicity for it. So what’s one easy way to give an older release a new push? Run an eBook promo.

“For authors who are less inclined to do a second PR push, eBook price promos have proved to be a great way to boost discovery, word of mouth and reviews,” said Tanya Hall, who directs marketing and business development for Greenleaf Book Group.

She recommends dropping the book price down to $.99 for a month or another low price, which can aid in getting more units sold. She also uses social media ads to build brand awareness. “Obviously, this is more about building awareness and recommendations than revenue, but in a time when discovery is an author’s biggest challenge, those aren’t insignificant advantages,” she explained.

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BookBaby announced Thursday that they now have now 3 new retail partners. Baker & Taylor, Gardners, and eBookPie have each agreed to add titles distributed via BookBaby to their catalogs.

For a self-pubbed author, this is a fairly important piece of news. BookBaby is now the most widely distributed self-pub service. They’ve even passed Smashwords in terms of the number of channels. Baker & Taylor is a name all should recognize. They’re a major book and media distributors in the US, with over 1.5 million eBook titles in their catalog.

Gardners is one of the larger retail distributors in the UK, and BookBaby’s 8 thousand current titles will be available to Gardners’ partners via the Gardners Hive, their web-retailing platform. BookBaby will be joining the Google eBookstore and other distributors carried by Gardners in their catalog of over 150,000 eBook titles.

eBookPie is an innovative eBookstore startup that is experimenting with selling eBooks by the chapter and section. They currently stock over 300,000 titles.

The self-publishing distributor Smashwords hit a new milestone earlier this week, just in time for its fourth anniversary. The world’s largest indie ebook distributor is now handling 100,000 eBooks from over 36,000 authors and publishers.

This four-year-old company is far and above the competition, and it handles more self-published titles than anyone short of Amazon (and possibly B&N PubIt!). Smashwords distributes to the Kindle Store, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and it sells DRM-free eBooks in multiple formats direct from its website to anyone, anywhere in the world (via).

Nintendo is working on an app store, but according to reports the company may also be working on an eBook platform.

Nintendo would use the platform to sell gaming guides and digital magazines about video games, as well as to sell more general eBooks on the Nintendo’s 3DS handheld device.

SlashGear has more: “The company has already approached publishers and developers about the Wii U ereader store, ForgetTheBox‘s source claims, and is considering offering its back-catalog of out of print ‘Players Guides’ for titles like Super Mario World free to download to Wii U gamers.”

Ireland-based eBook distributor ePub Direct announced today that they have secured €1.3 million in funding, and they plan to grow their business supplying eBooks to digital retailers.

ePub Direct, which was launched in 2009 by Gareth Cuddy, supplies content to 116 stores including Amazon Apple, and Waterstones and to over 15,000 online libraries. ePub Direct says that it wants to become Europe’s leading eBook distributor.

Commenting on the announcement Gareth Cuddy, CEO of ePub Direct, said: “We’re delighted to secure this investment which will allow us to expand and strengthen our team and help us realize our ambition of becoming the leading eBook distributor in Europe. In addition to the actual funding, the combined expertise and contact network of NCB and Enterprise Ireland will be invaluable to our business as we embark on the next exciting phase of our growth and development strategy.”

The funding round was led by The Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, a €75 million targeting companies in Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland, and is managed by NCB Ventures. Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund’s Will Prendergast is joining ePub’s board.

 

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