Hi, I've only just discovered about self-publishing ebooks, after finding a link to smashwords. I'm based in the UK and the tax form that I need to fill in for smashwords seems a bit daunting. Does anyone know of a good but cheap UK distributor? If needed I can produce/convert my own ebook. So far I've only come across a few places that do the conversion and distribute for you at prices that range ~£250 to close on £1000, which is pretty much out of the question at the moment. Any recommendations greatly appreciated!
self-publishing usually means you have to do all your own promotion, marketing and distribution... i don't see it being fiscally feasible to pay a distribution company to do it for you, when you can do it yourself with a webpage, social media and an amazon listing... 'good' and 'cheap' seldom go together in any product or service... i seriously doubt you'll find a distribution firm that will be both... just finding 'good' alone is hard enough these days...
I would never recommend paying for an eBook "distributor". It's free and relatively easy to do, so you might as well do it yourself and put the money towards marketing or something similar. There are no UK-based sites I know of that are equivalent to Smashwords. You can still use Smashwords, and simply allow them to keep a portion of your earnings for tax purposes. In fact, I think they recommend that you do this, unless you plan to be earning in excess of several thousand dollars from your eBook. No need to fill in the complicated form, or to be put off working with Smashwords altogether.
Why would you want/need a UK one, if they're ebooks? For myself, if wanting to self-publish, I would look very seriously at draft2digtal.com and not touch Smashwords under any circumstances. Personal opinion only (but after much research!).
