Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: One Publishing Platform vs. Many Publishing Platforms

The benefits of publishing on many platforms may seem obvious: more platforms means greater reach and discoverability.

When you self-publish a book, one important strategic question you will be faced with is:

Should I publish my book on many platforms, or on just one platform?

The benefits of publishing on many platforms may seem obvious: more platforms means greater reach and discoverability.

There are drawbacks to publishing on multiple platforms, however.

For example, if all your book's sales are on one platform (i.e. an online bookstore), then you may go up higher on their bestseller lists, which has a self-reinforcing  feedback effect that boosts your sales.

On Leanpub, our advice is to do whatever makes sense to you, but in general we recommend you try selling on multiple platforms.

On balance, we believe that the increased reach should be beneficial.

Since you will almost certainly make more money per sale on Leanpub, we do recommend that if you are personally promoting your book, you send readers to Leanpub.

Authors earn [up to 80% royalties when they self-publish their books and online courses on Leanpub - learn more here.)

But having your book published on other platforms at the same time can get you the most obvious benefit the bigger platforms have: more eyeballs, as they say in the industry.

At Leanpub, unlike on some other platforms, we place no restrictions on what you can do with your pricing etc. if you also publish your book on other self-publishing platforms.

Interested in getting started on your own book? You can create one and start writing for free in our Browser writing mode any time:

https://leanpub.com/create/book


Publish Early, Publish Often