Top 5 Free Publishing Sites for Independent Publishing [2024]

Written By   Mike Harman | May 3, 2024 | Last edited on: June 17, 2024 | Blog

Writing, editing, and designing an eBook is a tedious task. You need to invest your efforts to bring your dreams to reality – which is turning an idea into an eBook. 

So, you have your eBook ready and have prepared a detailed marketing plan to promote your eBook. But there is one factor that will decide the success of your eBook. 

Publishing.

The success and longevity of your eBook depend on how you publish it and where you publish it. Without publishing your eBook, you cannot get started with marketing; this is how crucial the publishing process is. 

Luckily, multiple eBook publications and distributors can help take your eBook to your intended audience. But at the same time, some publications could make a mockery of your hard efforts. 

This post will help you avoid vanity publications by showing you the top free publishing sites where you can publish your eBook without spending a dime.

So, if you have an eBook, dive into this article to learn how to publish it yourself. 

Top 5 Publishing Sites Available right now –

  1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
  2. Apple Books
  3. KITABOO
  4. Barnes & Noble Press
  5. Smashwords

1. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon KDP, popularly known as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, is one of the popular self-publishing platforms. Statistics show that almost 74% of eBooks in the US were published using Amazon KDP. 

Amazon KDP is the go-to free publishing site for every author. The reason for its popularity is that it has a wide range of audiences. An eBook published through KDP will have higher traffic than any other publishing platform. 

You may need to convert your eBook to Amazon’s proprietary format before uploading it onto the site. Amazon automatically converts DOC, PDF, HTML, and ePub files to Kindle’s specific format.

The only downside is that Amazon sets an exclusivity limit for a certain time period (90 days). This means that once you’ve published on Kindle, you cannot publish your eBook on any other free publishing sites. But this is a limited-time exclusive. 

Price – Free

Support formats – DOC, PDF, HTML, Kindle Package Format, OBI, and ePUB.

Royalty – The author receives a royalty of 70% for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and 35% for books priced less than $2.99.

2. Apple Books

Apple’s iBook store and iTunes U are two free publishing sites that will give your eBook maximum exposure. It is also a huge publishing service and ranks 2nd as the largest online book retailer. 

It has millions of users on its specialized mobile app. Consider how much traffic your eBook could receive by putting it in the iBook store.

To publish your eBook on iBooks, you must first convert it to ePub or iBooks format. Many free tools are available to help convert your docs to ePub format. 

You will maintain total rights to your eBook once it has been published on Apple’s store. However, sharing your eBooks in iBooks format will have certain accessibility restrictions. 

Price – Free

Support formats – ePub and iBooks format

Royalty – The author receives a royalty of 70% for books, irrespective of the book’s price. 

3. KITABOO

Kitaboo is an award-winning digital publishing platform that lets you publish your eBooks for free. The best thing about Kitaboo is that it is not just a free publishing site like the ones above.

It is an all-in-one platform that lets you build an eBook from scratch, add interactiveness to it, and enables you to publish and share it with your audience. 

It doesn’t matter if your readers are using a PC, tablet, or smartphone; Kitaboo will deliver your eBook to all these platforms hassle-free. It supports multiple operating systems like iOS, Android, and Windows. 

What makes Kitaboo interesting is its encryption capabilities. As it offers a secured cloud-based distribution system, your eBooks are DRM encrypted, which means they can be accessed only using access codes. 

Kitaboo has its own reader app, so your readers can download the app and access your eBook through it. Since it is DRM protected, your eBook content cannot be copied or manipulated when it is shared with many users. 

Price – Flexible

Supported formats – PDF, DOC, ePub3, KDP, MOBI, etc.

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4. Barnes and Noble Press

Barnes & Noble Press is a self-publishing platform that allows authors to publish and sell books straight to readers. It is quick, free, and simple to use. It is so popular that it is considered a direct competitor to Amazon KDP.

According to experts, Barnes & Noble covers the readers not covered by KDP, which is why it is so popular. KDP and B&N are the two sides of the digital publishing coin. 

If you have a finished book that has been edited and is ready for publication within 72 hours, you can set up an account and have your book appear in B&N’s bookstore for your readers to purchase.

Price – Free

Support formats – HTML, DOC, DOCX, TXT, or EPUB.

Royalty –  70% royalty for self-published eBooks. 

5. Smashwords

One of the pioneers in the eBook publishing industry. Smashwords is one of the popular free publishing sites with one of the largest collections of eBooks of more than 120000+ authors. 

Smashwords lets you publish and sell your eBooks directly on the platform. Another aspect is that it enables you to sell your eBook on other free publishing sites like Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, etc. There is no exclusivity limit on Smashwords.

Price – Free

Support formats – HTML, DOC, DOCX, TXT, iBooks, ePUB, etc.

Royalty –  Authors receive an 80% royalty if they sell the eBook directly on Smashwords. 

Conclusion

If you don’t choose the right publishing platforms, all your efforts will go in vain. A publishing platform can make or break your eBook’s success, so you must be careful when choosing the platform. 

There are multiple free publishing sites for you to choose from; we’ve listed some of the best in this article. Amazon KDP and Apple books might seem the right fit, but we highly recommend Kitaboo. It has a relatively new set of audiences; instead of selling to the same audience as KDP, your eBook will have a breath of fresh air. 

A new audience will likely increase word of mouth about your eBooks and make them more successful. Remember, you cannot promote your eBook unless you publish it. So, choose the right platform that’ll fit your eBook and target audience.

Contact our expert team now and get started!

To know more, please write to us at kitaboo@hurix.com

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Mike Harman

Mike Harman

Mike is the SVP Business Development at KITABOO. He has over 30 years experience in achieving consistent top-line revenue growth and building mutually beneficial relationships. More posts by Mike Harman