Distributing directly to amazon, B&N etc.

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aruna

aruna

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I am proceeding with epublishing one of my books with the help of Trident Media's epublishing department. Having once self-pubbed an ebook, I assumed I would do the same thing, ie format the ms for Kindle and Smashwords. This is what my agent replied to my question on formatting:

Also, we do not use Smashwords for e-book distribution. Smashwords is a third party distributor that takes an additional cut of profits for their services. Instead, we distribute directly to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple.
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Can someone please interpret for a tech-dummy? Does "distribute directly" to amazon mean not through Kindle? Will people with Kindles be able to read the book on their e-reader? Are there no additional cuts? The agency will take a 15% and I assumed that this would be in addition to amazon's 30% cut. Is this not the case?
I know I should be asking the agent (ie agent's assistant) these questions but they seem so dumb, I prefer to ask here first!
 
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WriterBN

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If the agent is submitting to Amazon, then the book will definitely be available for Kindle. Basically, the agent is submitting to the same channels that you would submit to yourself if you were self-publishing, but they take an additional cut as you mentioned.
 

Calle Jay

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Exactly.

When I SP I upload to Kindle Direct Publishing myself, and then to Smashwords. In the same manner Trident will yours--except they'll use BN's own self-publishing program, rather than waiting for Smashwords to send it to BN, Kobo, iTunes, etc.

Basically, what Trident is saying, "We do the work and avoid Smashwords, so that Smashwords doesn't get any of the profits."
 

radiocure

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That's a good thing, by the way, but it's also fairly unremarkable. It's actually easier for them NOT to involve SmashWords or any other aggregator, and the only reason they'd want to is to get free ISBNs. If they're an e-publisher they've probably bought those up in bulk under their name, so your book would have them listed as the publisher, which is also to their benefit. Short version: it's a good thing, but it's a mundane one.
 
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