Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital are undoubtedly the leading service providers for ebook self-publishing and distribution. But Google Play Books and the Android platform must surely be worth consideration.
Google’s Android platform has a massive mobile device market share and user base in smartphones and tablets.
You would think that there should be almost unlimited potential to sell ebooks on its ebook reader app.
However, the truth is that it’s still a minor player. Amazon dominates the ebook market, with Apple in second place but far behind.
Google Play as a publishing option
With all that should be going for it, Google Play Books can disappoint when it comes to ebook sales.
Perhaps fewer people read ebooks on Android smartphones compared to Apple.
Over the years, I have published many ebooks on Google Play.
In my experience, it failed to deliver a steady stream of ebook sales. That’s not to say that I didn’t sell any. Yes, I sold some, but not as many as I expected.
Maybe Android users don’t buy or read ebooks in the same quantity as Kindle and Apple users.
However, that shouldn’t deter you from investigating the platform.
If you are open-publishing, which means that you haven’t given Amazon exclusivity, it’s an option.
In this case, you probably use an aggregator to make your ebooks available on many online ebook retailers and libraries.
The most popular is Draft2Digital, but it doesn’t have an option to publish to Google.
The only way to publish is to do it directly with the Google Book Partner Center.
The new and improved interface
If you published ebooks on Google Play before 2020 or so, you will remember how horrid the interface used to be.
It was difficult to navigate, understand, and use.
At the time, I wrote a review that said, “Quite honestly, publishing with chisels on stone tablets would offer more joy than doing so on Google Play Books.”
Luckily, however, Google upped its game a few years ago, and the new interface and process of self-publishing an ebook is much easier now.
If you have self-published with Amazon KDP or Draft2Digital, you will now find a similar experience and publishing process with Google Play.
All the options you need are available from the sidebar to add a new ebook or check your sales reports.
Another crucial improvement is that Google no longer automatically discounts ebooks.
This was a big annoyance for self-publishers for many years.
The problem was that when Google lowered the price of an ebook that was also available on Amazon, Amazon would attempt to price match.
As you can imagine, this practice led a lot of self-publishers to remove their ebooks from Google Play.
But now you can be assured that publishing on Google will not affect your ebook price on Amazon.
However, one element that hasn’t changed is the accepted file formats for ebook manuscripts.
You can only use PDF or EPUB files. There is no option to publish using a .docx word processor file. But you can use Calibre to convert .docx to EPUB.
Generous royalties
One of the attractions is that Google pays a 70% royalty on all ebook sales, regardless of your list price or where your ebook is sold.
Currently, Google Play Books is available in 60+ countries, whereas the Amazon 70% royalty is only available for sales from 41 countries. All other countries are 35%.
Amazon KDP only pays 70% for ebooks priced at $2.99 or higher. But below this price, it is only 35%.
Another benefit is that Google does not charge you a downloading fee, which Amazon does.
But like Amazon, Google will pay you monthly by bank transfer, with a minimum payment of $1.00.
However, if you elect for a wire transfer, the minimum is $100.00.
Is Google Play Books worth the effort?
Oddly enough, yes, it is.
Well, only for the Google part and not so much the Play and Books elements.
You will need to invest some time in self-publishing ebooks on Google Play. But once you do that, there is one huge benefit.
When your ebooks are available, Google Search indexes and displays your book titles and author name a little more prominently.
It’s not only your book listings on Google Play Books, either.
When I published with Google Play Books, my search results expanded.
It included my YouTube book trailers that I had forgotten about, my Goodreads book listings, and several book retailers I had never heard of or realized carried my ebooks.
Okay, I didn’t get as many ebook sales as I had hoped for.
But getting a little extra Google Search indexing can be extremely valuable in helping boost your author brand and book sales on other retailers.
Conclusion
While many self-published authors work hard every day trying to improve the SEO on their blogs and websites to enhance search results on Google, perhaps this is an easier way to achieve the same aim.
If you are only interested in direct ebook sales and perhaps Kindle Unlimited subscription readers, then Amazon KDP is the best choice.
However, if you want to offer your ebooks to a wider readership, then Draft2Digital is the ideal service to use.
But you could improve your Google search indexing by investing a little time in publishing on Google Play.
It can help potential readers and book buyers find your site and books and perhaps help you sell more ebooks.
At the same time, having your titles on Google Play gives you an extra avenue to sell your ebooks.
It is especially true if you have already aggregated your ebooks with other retailers and libraries. One more sales outlet can only be a benefit.
Just one last note. If you think Google Play Books might be an option for you, make sure that your ebooks are not enrolled in Amazon KDP Select.
If they are, you will need to wait until your period of exclusivity to Amazon expires.
Related Reading: What Are The Best Ways To Sell Books Online?
Thanks for the helpful article!
I’m getting ready to publish my first eBook and have a question about the benefits of Google Books…
Since Google Books indexes the book (if I understand that correctly), does that have the same benefits as getting a web-page indexed through Google’s search console?
For example, will the content of the book be protected from online duplication in the same way that indexed web pages are?
I wouldn’t want someone stealing the content and writing blog posts with it or something, so I’m wondering about that.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Yes, there is a small benefit with Google Books that your ebook may be indexed by Google. But it won’t appear in Search Console.
As for content theft, there is no protection at all. Ebook piracy and content scraping are very common.
In my experience, many of my books and a lot of my content have been pirated very quickly. There’s not much you can do about it.
Hello Derek
Your helpful article helped me publish my book on Google Play and contrary to Fern’s experience, I wasn’t asked for any proof of identity.
Naturally, an address was asked for, but that’s it.
I would suggest that Fern tries again because it’s possible that the system has been updated since she last tried.
All the best
Marc
Making my book ‘discoverable’ is like trying to get blood from a stone. After a week ‘live’ on Google Books and Play Books, my book is still non-existent in a general search.
A search for the term ‘truth’ which is in the title, and the author’s surname fails to show up in both a non-filtered search and ‘sorted by date’ filter. Part of the title “Made manifest” in quotes also failed. Search terms ‘potter’ ‘truth’ in Google Books with filters ‘free Google Ebooks’, ’21st century’, ‘books’ returned five results… and my book wasn’t among them. Truth, god, spiritual, potter – all keywords – and all of which are either in the title or description of my book make no difference.
99% of folk search with general search terms, yet the only way to see my book in a search is by searching for the FULL title or the author’s FULL name. So, for me, it’s a complete waste of time publishing on Google Books and Play Books.
Yes, it can be frustrating, Jason. But it does take time for sites to index entries. I’m not sure about Google Books, but a good guide is that Google can take weeks or even months to index a web page. Maybe give it some time and check again in a week or two.
Thank you very much for explaining the steps in a format that was easy to follow. If only my experience with Google Play Books was as positive!
A few minutes ago today (05 February 2021) I created an account there, (even reluctantly supplying my mobile phone number to Google), and only got as far as the name and address entry screen, because after I’d pressed ‘submit’ it returned an error message, telling me that my account is suspended (yes, this new account that I was still in the process of setting up!) and that Google requires some verification documents, such as a photo of my passport/driving licence, etc, plus a utility bill with my address on. All this sounds too excessive and I really am not comfortable with giving that kind of information to Google.
I have self-published via Amazon, Smashwords and Draft2Digital and none of them asked for that kind of information! Even my country’s tax office (HMRC) has never asked for these things, and the cynic in me wonders whether this is simply Google’s way of coercing people into handing over their sensitive data, disguised as ‘verification’.
I had assumed the process of opening a publishing account on Google would be similar to the others and as straightforward, but I’m seriously considering just deleting the entire account now. In fact, I think I’m going to do that after I finish writing this comment. I had read a few articles about publishing via Google but none mentioned any similar experiences to mine, so I thought I’d share this here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Google Play, Fern. I must admit I haven’t heard of the issues you faced before. It’s a long time since I registered, so it’s impossible for me to check. But maybe other readers can share their experience.
Just a quick follow-up – I did go ahead and delete the entire account. That may seem a bit drastic, but handing over such sensitive information to Google was a request too far for me. From what I’ve read, it seems the entire interface for Google Play Books has been changed, so you may well have been one of the lucky ones by registering before that happened.
I forgot to clarify that the error message appeared when attempting to submit my name and address details in the Payments Profile section of the Partner Centre.
Best wishes and thanks once again for all your excellent articles :)
I just got an email from Draft2Digital, saying they are adding Google Play Books to their distribution network. Draft2Digital is a dream to work with. However, to your point about having our books on Google Play Books could increase our Google juice, do you think that would happen even if we go through Draft2Digital?
Yes, I’m sure it will work exactly the same for SEO benefits. But without the hassle of using Google Play’s awful publishing platform. I might change over myself. :)
Had to laugh at your writing – especially as a Douglas Adams fan!
I had no trouble at all setting my book up just now and had a few sales within a couple of days. the royalties, however, did not make sense at all. (And yes that hideous spreadsheet for download that masks as a sales report is a joke.) I thought royalties are 70%, but wasn’t so in the lovely spreadsheet. Any idea why?
Unfortunately, I forgot to add an ebook ISBN and figured after some research that it would be good to add it, so I had to do it all over again. Arrgh.
It is a sad experience, Diane. But you really made me laugh as well with your comparison of the Google Play sales report to a pregnancy!
Laughed a lot with the GoolgePlayBook description. Truly loved it! I just went through that hell myself and I am still trying to figure out how to use it. The process is disastrous and the limited options increase the likelihood of authors making tons of rookie mistakes when publishing their work. Waiting for a report feels more like a pregnancy.
Thank you for this post. You guys are amazing, always posting consistently reliable sources and resources. Very good article. Super helpful, as always.
but how to increase sale of google play books
Am câteva cărți publicate de ceva timp, dar nu am scos nici un ban. Oare merită să mai rămân pe acolo?
Translation.
I have some books published for some time, but I have not made any money. Does it deserve to stay there?