Pros and Cons of Different Self-Publishing Websites

As you begin the self-publishing process, one of your biggest questions will be “which self-publishing company is the best?” With such a wide array of self-publishing websites on the Internet, it can be difficult to decide which one will best suit your needs.

As a self-published author who has published on two different writing platforms and researched a ton more, I can share what I’ve learned to help you through your own self-publishing process. Here are the pros and cons of different self-publishing websites.

Amazon KDP

E-commerce giant Amazon is the world’s largest retailer of books, and now Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is one of the biggest self-publishing companies out there. If you have a finished, polished manuscript, Amazon KDP could be a good way to go.

Pros

• Exposure to a wide audience

• Amazon only takes 30-70% of your royalties (traditional publishers take 80-90%)

• The site will market your book for you, recommending it on the site and in promotional emails

• If you sign up for KDP Select, you can run promotions to make your book free or discounted for a limited time

Cons

• It’s a very popular self-publishing site with a ton of self-published authors fighting for attention, so it’s hard to get noticed

• Book cover design and formatting can get expensive

• If you sign up for KDP Select, you have to exclusively publish your book on Amazon and nowhere else

Kindle Vella

Amazon launched Kindle Vella in spring 2021. It’s a platform for serial fiction where authors publish their stories one “episode” at a time.

Pros

• You don’t have to fuss with getting a fancy cover designed—you just need a striking image you can easily find online for free

• No worries about finishing your story before you post. Here you can post as you write

• You earn royalties when readers purchase tokens to find out what happens next in your story

• Readers can follow your story so they receive a notification whenever you update

Cons

• Even though the platform is fairly new, it is already crowded with self-published authors so it’s hard to get noticed

• It can be difficult to make much money

• Kindle Vella is only available in the United States

Smashwords

Established in 2008, Smashwords is a very popular self-publishing website. Genres like romance, erotica, and nonfiction do well on the site. This is another platform that is best suited to completed, polished books.

Pros

• Offers easy ebook distribution to most of the world’s largest ebook retailers

• Makes major ebooks formats available like Kindle, iBook, Nook, and Kobo for readers to download to their laptops or tablets

• Smashwords will promote your book on the site

• You get aggregated sales reports, which are useful for taxes

Cons

• It can be tricky to navigate formatting your manuscript

• You need to upload your book separately at KDP if you want an Amazon page for your book

• It can be difficult to make much money, especially when you’re first starting out

Wattpad

If you’ve done much research on self-publishing websites, Wattpad was probably one of the first sites to show up in your search results. It launched in 2006 and has since become one of the most popular online publishing platforms for self-published authors. It is best suited to authors who publish their stories chapter by chapter

Pros

• The publishing process is very straightforward

• Wattpad makes Canva’s free book cover maker available for you to create your book cover without having to leave the site

• Exposure to a large audience

• Readers can comment not only on each chapter but on each paragraph, which provides you with a ton of useful feedback

Cons

• It can be hard to get noticed in a pool full of so many talented authors

• It is notoriously difficult to make money on the site

• You’ll be largely on your own when it comes to marketing your book

Royal Road

Royal Road is a popular self-publishing website that caters to authors of serialized stories that they post chapter by chapter. The genres that tend to do best on the site are litRPG, fantasy, and science fiction.

Pros

• Exposure to a large audience

• You can link to your Patreon account to earn money

• Lists like Best Rated and Trending will help top-rated stories find more readers

• Readers can comment and provide helpful feedback

Cons

• It can be hard to get noticed in such a large pool of talented writers

• If your story isn’t fantasy or science fiction, it’s not likely to find an audience

• It can be difficult to attract Patreon subscribers

Neovel

Neovel is a self-publishing website best suited to authors of serial novels. The site’s most popular genres include romance, fantasy, and action.

Pros

• The site has 31k monthly users and 1.7k active users

• You make money based on how many views your story gets

• It’s very simple and straightforward to post a story

• The site has an aesthetically pleasing and simple to navigate interface

Cons

• It can be difficult to make much money off views

• Not the same level of exposure as a site like Amazon KDP or Wattpad

• Not ideal for authors with completed, polished manuscripts

Fictionate.Me

Fictionate.Me is a newer self-publishing website that will allow you to get in on the ground floor. Serial novels tend to do better on the site and while you can publish several genres, the ones that tend to do the best fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction—fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.

Pros

• A smaller pool of authors means you get a better chance of getting noticed

• Lists like Trending and Consistent Writers will give your story more exposure

• The online reader is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing

• You can opt for AI Narration so your book can be available as an audiobook

Cons

• You won’t have exposure to a large audience

• If your story isn’t in a speculative genre, it’s less likely to find an audience

• You can’t comment on each chapter of a story

Author’s Bio: Jillian Karger was born in Ohio but has lived in and around New York City for over a decade. Since graduating from NYU in 2009, Jillian has had a long string of jobs doing things like scouting books to be adapted for film and researching trivia questions for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”.

She has done freelance writing as well for sites like Cracked.com and had her Twitter jokes featured on BuzzFeed and funnyordie.com. Jillian has also self-published two novels on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Jillian-Karger/e/B07B894DNW).

Follow her blog posts about books and writing advice, read books and publish them for free at: https://www.fictionate.me.