Is publishing outside Amazon worth it?

Yes, and the file work is small: a well-made reflowable EPUB can serve as the master file for Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play and the other major stores. Each retailer validates and renders it differently, so the file should still be tested per platform. The market mix varies by country — Amazon's US dominance is strong, and the non-Amazon share is larger elsewhere — but none of it costs exclusivity. Setup per platform is best measured in an afternoon, not minutes, once accounts and tax forms are done.

Should I use an aggregator like Draft2Digital or publish directly?

Both, usually. Direct accounts with Apple Books and Kobo pay better and give you promotional tools; an aggregator covers the long tail of smaller stores and library channels for a share of each sale. Draft2Digital's commission is roughly 10 per cent of the ebook's retail price — leaving about 60 per cent of retail on stores such as Apple, Kobo and B&N — and new accounts currently pay a $20 activation fee plus a $12 annual maintenance fee below $100 of annual earnings. A common pattern: direct for Amazon, Apple and Kobo; an aggregator for the rest.

Publishing beyond Amazon: Apple Books, Kobo, and the rest

Amazon dominates ebook retail in the US — industry estimates generally put its share around 70 to 80 per cent, with the mix varying materially by country. But a substantial market exists beyond Kindle, and it is not one thing: Apple Books carries readers inside whole device ecosystems; Kobo is small in store share and large in libraries; Google Play is the Android world’s bookstore; Barnes & Noble, regional stores and subscription services fill the rest. Outside the US, the non-Amazon share is generally bigger.

The pleasant surprise is how little of it wants a different file: a standards-compliant reflowable EPUB is accepted essentially everywhere, and it is usually the one master file — the file from the formats guide. Each platform then validates and renders it its own way, so the file is built once and tested per store. The real work of going wide is accounts and metadata, not conversions.

Direct: the two accounts that matter

Apple Books — through Apple Books for Authors. Apple takes the EPUB directly and pays a standard 70 per cent royalty regardless of price, with no exclusivity requirement. Its storefront is curated, and the editorial placement is real and reachable — Apple runs an explicit “request a book promotion” route, particularly worth trying for design-forward books. Apple’s reviewer enforces EPUBCheck plus Apple’s own guidelines, and it is strict — but passing Apple does not guarantee every other platform; each store validates and renders the file itself.

Kobo Writing Life — Kobo’s direct portal. Royalty is 70 per cent above local minimum price thresholds (for example $2.99 in the US store) and 45 per cent below them. Direct authors can apply for merchandising promotions — some free, some carrying a fee or a royalty share. The strategic reason to bother sits next door: Kobo and OverDrive are separate companies, but Kobo Writing Life offers a direct route into OverDrive, one of the largest digital-library marketplaces. Authors opt individual ebooks in, set a separate library price, and currently receive 50 per cent of that price when a library buys the title.

Both accounts are free, and both want the same things from the file — EPUB, cover image, description, categories — though each involves account setup, agreements and tax forms before the first upload.

Direct: the rest

Google Play Books accepts EPUB and PDF, prefers the EPUB, and reaches the Android installed base; it behaves more like a marketplace than a curated store. Its royalty is 70 per cent in eligible countries — more than sixty of them — and a lower split elsewhere. Barnes & Noble Press carries the Nook store plus print options, with a flat 70 per cent ebook royalty. Each is worth an account when the back catalogue justifies it; neither is where a first book’s afternoon is best spent.

Aggregators: one upload, many stores

An aggregator — Draft2Digital is the standard, Smashwords now part of it, PublishDrive another — takes the EPUB once and distributes it to a long list of stores and library channels, taking a share of each sale. Draft2Digital’s commission is roughly 10 per cent of the ebook’s retail price, which leaves the author about 60 per cent of retail on stores such as Apple, Kobo and B&N — and as of 2026, new publishing accounts also pay a $20 one-time activation fee plus a $12 annual maintenance fee for active accounts earning under $100 a year. What you buy:

The long tail without maintenance. Stores and channels individually too small for an account and collectively meaningful — tolino in Germany, Vivlio in France, Everand, and the library services: OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Hoopla, BorrowBox.
One dashboard for metadata, pricing and updates across every store it serves.
Library distribution handled as a checkbox rather than a project.

What you give up: margin on every aggregated sale, direct promotional relationships, and some control over timing. Amazon is still normally best handled directly through KDP, which gives the full KDP toolset and avoids an intermediary cut — though Draft2Digital now does offer Amazon ebook distribution, currently by invitation only. The direct-versus-aggregator question for Apple and Kobo is a margin-versus-maintenance trade each author makes per catalogue size.

The ISBN and pricing picture

Ebooks outside Amazon generally do not require an ISBN — retailers assign their own identifiers. An ISBN remains a useful standard identifier for the edition, but it does not combine sales reports across retailers, and different digital versions may require different ISBNs. Print editions require an ISBN, though some distributors can supply one; owning yours is what controls the publisher of record and keeps the edition portable — the reasoning is in the ISBN guide.

Pricing outside Amazon has no single rule either. Apple and B&N pay a flat 70 per cent; Google pays 70 per cent in eligible territories; Kobo pays 70 per cent above its local thresholds; and aggregated sales land nearer 60 per cent of retail. Amazon’s band — 70 per cent from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com since July 2026 — remains the outlier with a cliff in it, so a single global price per currency is still the norm. Watching Amazon’s price stay consistent with everywhere else matters more: Amazon may lower its customer price to match a cheaper edition elsewhere, which carves the royalty from underneath you.

The exclusivity trade, restated

Retail-wide publishing and KDP Select remain mutually exclusive per book. Select buys Kindle Unlimited access and Amazon’s promo tools at the price of exclusivity — but the exclusivity is no longer total: since September 2025, Amazon permits Select ebooks to be distributed through public libraries, so library channels and Select can coexist. Per book, the choice is:

Wide: all the retailers above, no Kindle Unlimited. The right default for backlists, nonfiction with a professional audience, and any book whose readers are not predominantly on Amazon.
Select: exclusive to Amazon for retail and subscription purposes across 90-day terms, enrolment renewable, library distribution now permitted alongside. The right tool when Amazon dominates the book’s audience and Kindle Unlimited’s page-read income outweighs the wide retail channels — a decision made with data, not habit.

The mistake is treating Select as the default. It is a paid trade, and the rest of the market is the payment.

What “wide” costs, in total

For a book already built: an Apple Books account, a Kobo Writing Life account, possibly an aggregator for the tail — each fed with the same EPUB, the same cover image and the same core description, per the metadata guide. Category systems differ — Apple asks for its subject categories, aggregators work in BISAC and map onward — so expect to answer each platform’s forms, not just paste one block. Setup runs in an afternoon per platform once the agreements and tax forms are done, then minutes per new title. The Amazon guide covers the half that makes it all worthwhile: the book has to exist well first.

“Wide” is mostly a mindset correction: the same file, a few more forms, and readers who will never visit Amazon. The platforms differ in curation and reach, not in file format — which is why the EPUB you built carefully for Kindle is already their book too.

Nueel exports that EPUB once, tested and complete, and keeps the book’s core metadata — title, author, series, description and the rest of the publishing details — together, so the same answers are ready for every retailer’s form. Store-specific fields such as categories and pricing still need to be selected per platform.

Sources

Apple Books for Authors, Publish your book from the web, Measure book sales and Promote your books
Kobo Writing Life, What will my earnings be?, Using promotions and OverDrive distribution
Google Play Books Partner Center, How to sell books on Google Play and Revenue split FAQs
Draft2Digital, Partners and Knowledge base
KDP, How to enroll in KDP Select and Digital book pricing page
OverDrive, Libraries break digital lending records in 2025

Common questions

Is publishing outside Amazon worth it?: Yes, and the file work is small: a well-made reflowable EPUB can serve as the master file for Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play and the other major stores. Each retailer validates and renders it differently, so the file should still be tested per platform. The market mix varies by country — Amazon's US dominance is strong, and the non-Amazon share is larger elsewhere — but none of it costs exclusivity. Setup per platform is best measured in an afternoon, not minutes, once accounts and tax forms are done.
Should I use an aggregator like Draft2Digital or publish directly?: Both, usually. Direct accounts with Apple Books and Kobo pay better and give you promotional tools; an aggregator covers the long tail of smaller stores and library channels for a share of each sale. Draft2Digital's commission is roughly 10 per cent of the ebook's retail price — leaving about 60 per cent of retail on stores such as Apple, Kobo and B&N — and new accounts currently pay a $20 activation fee plus a $12 annual maintenance fee below $100 of annual earnings. A common pattern: direct for Amazon, Apple and Kobo; an aggregator for the rest.
Do I need an ISBN to sell an ebook outside Amazon?: Generally no. Most major ebook retailers do not require one — Apple makes it optional, Google issues a GGKEY without it, and an aggregator can supply one. An ISBN is still a useful standard identifier for the edition, but it does not combine sales reports across retailers, and different digital versions may require different ISBNs. Print editions require an ISBN, though some distributors supply one; owning yours gives you control over the publisher of record. The full picture is in the ISBN guide.
What happens to KDP Select if I publish wide?: Retail-wide and Select remain mutually exclusive: during a 90-day term, the ebook cannot be sold or lent on competing retail and subscription services. Since September 2025, however, Amazon explicitly permits Select ebooks to be distributed through public libraries — so library channels can coexist with Select even though Apple Books, Kobo's store, Google Play and B&N cannot. It is one of the decisions in the publishing guide, made per book rather than per career.