What Every Indie Author Needs to Know About E-Books

The first major choice a self-published author makes is which major retailers (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble Nook Press, Kobo, Apple iBookstore) and distributors (Smashwords, BookBaby, Blurb) to use to publish his or her e-book. These services are for the most part nonexclusive, so an author holds on to her rights and can use any or all of them simultaneously%u2014making revisions, price changes, or removing the work altogether, whenever she chooses. This makes it desirable for an author to distribute across as many platforms as possible, typically publishing with Amazon and then using Smashwords or BookBaby to distribute to all other major retailers.