Is listing your ebook on Google Play worth it?

[Pierre Lawrence]

I am using Draft2Digital to distribute my ebooks (a novella and short story so far) to retailers, including Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and several others, but not Google Play, which, by providing access to Android devices, would appear to expand the potential market beyond dedicated readers, laptops and the like. However, my impression is Google Play is an insignificant factor in the digital market place, i. e. for ebooks, and would not be worth jumping through the hoops required to list on its site. (I am also suspicious of a company that has as its corporate credo “do no evil.”) Anyone have a contrary opinion/experience?

Pierre Lawrence

[Quoth]

There are no "hoops". We upload the exact same cover, metadata and epub to Amazon, Google and Smashwords (now part of D2D). D2D customers are to get all Smashwords features and when that's working all D2D and Smashwords account will be unified/migrated.
Smashwords redistributes to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple and others.

We also upload a "dual mobi" for Kindles to Smashwords (not redistributed).

We sell nearly as many on Smashwords as Amazon. Some via Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo etc.

Note Android can use Kindle App, Kobo App, a wide variety of epub apps. We've never sold any via Google Play Store Books, but like Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Amazon, etc it costs nothing.

Maybe more than half of eBooks are read on iOS and Android. Apple doesn't have a great share and Google seems miniscule, despite Playstore popularity and Worldwide about 80% is Android, more if you leave out USA, where Apple is similar iOS to Android share.

[Pierre Lawrence]

By hoops I meant the hassle of setting up an account, which in this case would entail providing banking and tax information (ID or SS number) I would prefer to limit online whenever possible. With D2D you provide that information only once, not individually to each retailer, a definite plus.

I looked at a competing aggregator, Publish Drive, which does include Google Play as one of the retailers it distributes to, but going through the procedure for adding it to the list suggests that the account basically remains with Google Play, while Publish Drive adds bells and whistles such as sales reports and marketing support.

Hard to believe that you have not had a single sale on Google Play, which confirms my judgment that listing on it is not worth the hassle I referred to above.

Pierre Lawrence

[Quoth]

Once to Amazon, once to Smashwords (or D2D, same company now), once to Google.

1) They have to know who you are, maybe you put up pirate content.
2) USA companies required by USA law to have tax details of even of foreign resident non-citizens (USA calls them aliens).
3) They have to know where to send the money.

The tax info needs reconfirmed every few years.

Amazon is so big it's best to have your own KDP account. Same applies to Google (though more important for apps).

It's not onerous.

[Luffy]

I intend to put up a book of my own on Amazon, as a free e-book. What will that entail, please?

I am from Mauritius, and do not pay tax and I am single.

[Quoth]

Nearly impossible unless you give Amazon exclusivity. Put it 99c on Amazon.
Then upload to Smashwords and Google play books and list free. Smashwords will send it also to Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Libraries at price Free.

Then try invoking Amazon price match.

You will STILL have to fill out Amazon, Google and Smashwords USA tax declarations using your Mauritian tax registration (or equivalent) and address. It's a USA law and applies even if you pay no tax, are not American and never have been to the USA, even if you list at Free.

Giving Amazon Exclusivity via KDP Select rather than regular KDP reduces potential market to 1/2 if you use Smashwords (free) Premium Distribution.

[Luffy]

Thank you. I have yet to unpack the info you gave me. Will discuss this with relevant people I know offline.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Nearly impossible unless you give Amazon exclusivity. Put it 99c on Amazon.
Then upload to Smashwords and Google play books and list free. Smashwords will send it also to Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Libraries at price Free.

Then try invoking Amazon price match.

You will STILL have to fill out Amazon, Google and Smashwords USA tax declarations using your Mauritian tax registration (or equivalent) and address. It's a USA law and applies even if you pay no tax, are not American and never have been to the USA, even if you list at Free.

Giving Amazon Exclusivity via KDP Select rather than regular KDP reduces potential market to 1/2 if you use Smashwords (free) Premium Distribution.

Well, the Olden Days when Amazon would price-match free--those are pretty largely gone.

Hitch

[Quoth]

I agree, price match didn't work last time I tried, hence "try".

[Luffy]

Understood.

[Quoth]

Free is not the same as Public Domain.
If you want everyone to have it free, without limitation, forever, you can state on the "copyright" page that it's not any longer copyright but placed in the Public Domain. Then you can upload it to Gutenberg.org and the library here.
Gutenberg is the most popular source of PD ebooks since even before websites and ereaders. The Internet pre-dates websites and before that there was dialup direct to servers.

[Luffy]

So I cannot at the same time place the book at Kobo, Amazon etc and also on Gutenberg?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Luffy

So I cannot at the same time place the book at Kobo, Amazon etc and also on Gutenberg?

Well, if you put it on Gutenberg, isn't that for PD only? If you publish it as PD, then you have other issues with Amazon.

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Pierre Lawrence

I am using Draft2Digital to distribute my ebooks (a novella and short story so far) to retailers, [...]

Great. Personally, I'm a fan of "going wide".

You want the book in as many formats and as many stores as possible, especially with a growing minority avoiding Amazon.

(Personally, I refuse to buy ebooks from Amazon, because I hate the proprietary format. I only buy EPUB.)

Originally Posted by Pierre Lawrence

However, my impression is Google Play is an insignificant factor in the digital market place, i. e. for ebooks, and would not be worth jumping through the hoops required to list on its site.

Up to you.

I haven't seen updated statistics in a long time, but from what I last recall, the US ebook market was something like:

• 75% Amazon
• 25% split between the rest of the stores
  
  • Apple (~10%)
    
  • B&N (~7%)
    
  • Kobo (~5%)
    
  • Google Play (~1%)
    
  • [...]
    

With Amazon dropping slightly each year.

Although those stats were years ago... (nowadays, I'm betting Kobo + B&N have flipped.)

I know Hitch chimed in with a few posts over the years saying many of her self-published authors don't even get a single sale on Apple. (I assume Apple's sales are more Fixed-Layout textbooks + sales to K-12 schools and things like that.)

Probably heavily depends on your genre and types of books you're selling too.

Originally Posted by Quoth

If you want everyone to have it free, without limitation, forever, you can state on the "copyright" page that it's not any longer copyright but placed in the Public Domain. Then you can upload it to Gutenberg.org and the library here.

No. You cannot publish new works as Public Domain.

Copyright, since the Berne Convention, is automatic + "very sticky".

Closest you can get is releasing under a very permissive Creative Commons license, like CC BY 4.0.

(See my Side Note, about 3/4 of the way down, in 2021: "Problems with page breaks/blank pages/line spaces".)

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, the Olden Days when Amazon would price-match free--those are pretty largely gone.

Thanks for that info.

Originally Posted by Luffy

So I cannot at the same time place the book at Kobo, Amazon etc and also on Gutenberg?

You can sell your books or put it up on whatever stores you want. (Although I'm not sure how taxes or anything works in Mauritius. There would probably be some sort of self-employment income/taxes you'd have to report.)

- - - - -

And Gutenberg only accepts Public Domain works.

See their "Public Domain Ebook Submission" page:

What types of eBooks may be submitted to Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg only accepts works that are in the public domain in the United States. Generally, new submissions to Project Gutenberg are digitized versions of printed books, most of which were published at least 95 years ago [...]

[...]

Project Gutenberg does not accept copyrighted or other contemporary items, even if copyright or licensing permission would be granted (this includes the various “open” licenses).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

No. You cannot publish new works as Public Domain.

Copyright, since the Berne Convention, is automatic + "very sticky".

Closest you can get is releasing under a very permissive Creative Commons license, like CC BY 4.0.

And Gutenberg only accepts Public Domain works.

See their "Public Domain Ebook Submission" page:

CC has no independent existence. It relies purely on copyright law in each country.
Berne Convention is fragmented due to USA and lobbying from Corps like Disney and Google.
The USA has different laws to many other places. The USA is actually attempting to insist copyright holders must register.

Legal citation for claiming the owner of copyright (which IS automatic in most countries without any registration) can't give up the rights?

No-one needs any variation of CC, even CC-0. It has no independent existence, depending purely on local copyright laws.