Top Book Distribution Companies
Like most tasks in self-publishing, authors are in charge of distributing their own books. The process can take a lot of time and be comprised of things like: researching and eventually reaching out to book distributors, wholesalers, book vendors, and more.
No worries, here’s a list of the best book distribution companies to know and the fastest way to reach them all at once.
Book Distribution Companies to Know
To begin, let’s look at the differences between a distributor and a wholesaler:
“A wholesaler buys a book from a publisher and supplies it to bookstores, libraries, or whoever else may want your book. A distributor does similar tasks but works for the publisher. In addition, a distributor provides many services a wholesaler doesn’t.”
A wholesaler is a middleman between you (the author or publisher) and the major book retailers. Although you may be listed with a wholesaler, they don’t pitch or advertise your book(s) to retailers. They buy your books from you and pay you when they get sold.
On the other hand, a book distributor wants to get as many books as possible out to the marketplace. Since they work for the publishers, they provide customer service, sales, marketing, warehousing, and shipping.
This list includes top book distributors and wholesalers for ebooks, audiobooks, and print-on-demand books. We will also cover a variety of other channels you want to keep on your radar, such as: libraries, subscription platforms, and even foreign book distributors.
Note: As an indie, you want to maximize your revenue streams. That means tapping into most, if not all, the book distribution services you can get into. A self-publishing platform like PublishDrive helps distribute your book to all major bookstores as well as niche spaces – with just a few clicks. More on this later.
Distribute your book to Amazon, Apple, Google Books, and hundreds of other bookstores via PublishDrive. It’s free to get started:
Without further ado, the best book distributors, retailers, and more to know –
Ingram
Generally regarded as the largest book distributor in the world, Ingram specializes in print books and reaches more than 39,000 stores. Ingram is also one of the largest and best-known wholesalers in the world.
Baker & Taylor
Another top wholesaler, Baker and Taylor (B&T) has the widest network of libraries, schools, book labels, and more. They handle more than 1.5 million titles for suppliers and customers.
Gardners
This major wholesaler of books, eBooks, music, and film to retailers around the world commands a strong presence in the U.K. and German markets.
CNPeReading
Targeting one of the world’s fastest-growing markets, CNPeReading reaches three major online retailers for books in China: DangDang, JD.com, and TMall. It also provides content to thousands of libraries in China and in the East Asian region.
Audible
Audible is the world's largest producer and retailer of digital audiobooks. It also has radio, TV programs, and podcasts.
Kobo
Owned by the Japanese technology conglomerate Rakuten, Kobo is an e-reading company and the number one ebook store in Canada and India, reaching over 12 million readers.
OverDrive
This is the largest book distributor of digital content for 43,000 libraries and schools across 75 countries.
Voxa
Romania’s subscription mobile reading app for ebooks and audiobooks features both English and Romanian content.
Empik
Poland’s biggest book retailer captures more than 61% of sales in the Polish market. Empik is among the top book distributors of digital content.
Scribd
One of the world’s largest reading-focused subscription services, Scribd is well known and serves more than one million active subscribers.
Storytel
Storytel is the leading audiobook and ebook subscription streaming service in Northern Europe, offering over 400 books to over 1.1M customers.
Dreame
A rising reading app in the South Asian market that also is known for serialization, Dreame is especially popular with the romance, sci-fi, and fantasy genres.
24symbols
Spanish-speaking markets are covered with 24symbols, an E-reading subscription service with more than 500,000 ebooks.
Hoopla
Hoopla is another entry serving the library market. They reach more than 5M registered users, serving more than 2,000 library partners.
Odilo
One of the largest library book distributors, Odilo provides content to more than 4,500 institutions in 43 countries.
Bibliotheca
Another top book vendor, Bibliotheca, provides content to more than 30,000 libraries in 70 countries.
Tolino
A cooperative of various bookselling platforms with its own dedicated ebook reader, Tolino ranks as the second-largest sales channel for books in Germany.
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How to Reach All These Book Distribution Companies
At this point, you’re probably thinking: there are a lot of book distributors and wholesalers. As a self-published author who needs to handle everything from writing to publishing and distribution, you might think that getting your book into all of them is a head-scratcher. But that shouldn’t be the case.
You only need an aggregator to reach the best book distributors out there, and PublishDrive is one of them.
Let’s walk through the simple process.
1. Sign in to your PublishDrive account.
2. From the dashboard, go to My Books, and upload your files.
3. Fill out all the details: creators, metadata, categories, price, and rights.
With PublishDrive, you can tap into top book distributors in the UK, Europe, China, India, South Africa, Canada, the US, and many more.
Choose the book distribution companies you want to send your book to and start earning royalties in no time. This also gives you the great opportunity to self-publish internationally with just a few clicks.
PublishDrive makes reaching all of the major distributors simple and effective. Many of these retailers have in-house promotions, which you can apply for through PublishDrive’s merchandising programs. And with PublishDrive’s free trial, it costs nothing to try their platform–which gives you the opportunity to see how easy it is to reach more readers in more formats in more countries around the world. Are you ready to sell your books through the most channels possible in a one-click fashion?