Book Retailers vs Book Aggregators vs Full Service
First, understand that there are three major types of companies: Book Retailers, Book Aggregators, and Full-Service Providers. Each has a different role to play in the process of publishing, meeting various needs of authors.
Book Retailers include websites where you can sell your book directly. You simply upload your manuscript as an author, set a price for it, and voilà, it’s on sale to readers. These platforms are simple and cut directly to how to get your book into the hands of your audience. Among well-known book retailers are Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo. Each of these different platforms has its own audience and reach, and you may publish exclusively on one or across several of them.
Aggregators make for a wider approach to distribution. Instead of uploading your book to each retailer individually, you can submit to an aggregator, who in turn distributes to a wide range of retailers and libraries all over the world. This saves much time and trouble, especially when you would like your book available to as many platforms as possible. Services such as popular book aggregators, including Draft2Digital and PublishDrive, enable you to reach over 40 retailers and platforms by uploading a single copy of your book.
Full-Service Providers offer a magnified self-publishing experience: they guide you through everything you need to make your book and get it into the readers’ hands-be it editing and formatting or cover design, publishing, and even marketing and promotion. These are perfect for authors who would rather take a hands-off approach or even would like professional help to ensure their book is polished and market-ready. Full-service providers can take care of all the technical details so that authors may focus on their best attribute: writing.
