Publishing Database
What each publishing service actually does, on what terms, and where those terms are written down. Royalties, fees, exclusivity, ISBN handling and rights — every claim traced to the service’s own documentation, with the date an editor last checked it.
No rankings, no scores, no affiliate placement. Services appear in alphabetical order.
8 of 8 services
Publishing Platform · Print-on-Demand
Amazon KDP
Amazon's self-publishing platform for Kindle ebooks, paperback and hardcover, selling into Amazon's own stores.
- No exclusivity
- Free ISBN
Verified 4 September 2026
Publishing Platform · Distributor / Aggregator
Apple Books
Apple sells ebooks as the author’s agent rather than as a reseller, taking a flat 30% commission at every price — but the agreement carries parity obligations that quietly constrain how you price and release everywhere else.
- No exclusivity
Verified 4 September 2026
Distributor / Aggregator · Formatting
Draft2Digital
An ebook and print aggregator that formats a manuscript and distributes it to retailers and libraries on an opt-in, non-exclusive basis.
- No exclusivity
- Free ISBN
Verified 4 September 2026
Audiobook Platform
Draft2Digital Digital Narration
Draft2Digital turns an existing ebook into an audiobook using Apple Books text-to-speech, currently free. Apple Books becomes the exclusive shop for it, and you cannot pull it for six months after release.
- Exclusivity required
Verified 4 September 2026
Audiobook Platform
Google Auto-Narrated Audiobooks
Google generates a machine-narrated audiobook from an ebook already in Play Books, free during Beta and paying 52%. The catch is on the way out: withdraw it and you may never sell that audiobook anywhere, ever.
- No exclusivity
- Terms permit AI training
Verified 4 September 2026
Publishing Platform · Distributor / Aggregator
Google Play Books
Google’s Partner Center publishes ebooks into the Play Books store at no cost and with no ISBN requirement — but Google sets the final customer price, and the agreement makes 52% the standard split rather than the 70% the help pages advertise.
Verified 4 September 2026
Print-on-Demand · Distributor / Aggregator
IngramSpark
Ingram's self-publishing arm, offering print-on-demand and ebook distribution into the wholesale channel that bookshops and libraries order from.
- No exclusivity
- Free ISBN
Verified 4 September 2026
Publishing Platform · Distributor / Aggregator · Audiobook Platform
Kobo Writing Life
Rakuten Kobo’s self-publishing portal: free ebook and audiobook publishing into the Kobo store, its partner retailers, Kobo Plus and OverDrive libraries, with no exclusivity and no upper cap on the 70% royalty band.
- No exclusivity
- No AI training
Verified 4 September 2026
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Publishing terms change without announcement. If a fact here no longer matches the service’s own documentation, send the current source and it will be corrected.
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