Found this outlet for new authors (again) - original works can publish on Feedbooks
Strictly speaking, it looks like almost anyone can publish there, since I see that there are many public domain books published at various prices.
Why don't I use it?
You can't upload the entire book as an epub. You have to put the book as a block of text using their interface. Details are at http://www.feedbooks.com/help/self-publishing
A fuller description of the publishing process is found at http://www.feedbooks.com/help/public-domain
I "roll my own" and then upload everywhere. Simpler, faster.
One possible point would be to use them first, then take that epub to use elsewhere, like Leanpub. Practically, you'll get some of Feedbooks formatting (and branding) with that, so you're better off simply copying and pasting the content from LibreOffice while you have it open.
The biggest drawback is that I can't find out anywhere how to get paid. One review says they don't - it's only for free work. This is confirmed with other research. The paid books they have are from large publishing houses, probably the way they stay afloat.
Not a great deal of support on that site for this, so this is perhaps why they aren't better promoted for self-publishing. I found some tests I'd done earlier, and played around some more. Results: while fairly simple to add content, links don't show up in an epub or PDF by any other color - so it's a crap-shoot for people to find your link as promo. (You'd have to specifically tell people they were links.)
Pros:
- Get published quickly, in all ebook formats.
- Promote your book as a free sample to get more discovery.
Cons:
- Proprietary interface.
- It's not an income source (don't know why some books are for sale there).
Recommend?
Would I recommend Feedbooks for authors? As much as I just did. Promote your book here, if you can find the time. You'll be reaching the freebie seekers, mostly.Practically, it's easier to jump through Leanpub's hoops, and they are designed for actual sales.
If you're self publishing, and have an original book, you might as well add this distributor to the mix. I plan to come back and try this out with one of my original books, just to see how their scene rolls out.
With public domain, they have to verify the author, and some of my recent authors can take some verifying - the common ones are already available there.
Essentially, if you have a book ready to publish on Feedbooks, then you'd be as well off publishing through Lulu, Nook, Google Play/Books, and iTunes.
If they'd update their interface to enable epub upload (like Smashwords and Leanpub) then I'd include them in a flash.
But that, and their lack of obvious support tells me why I never included them to begin with.
Again - when I have the time, I'll do some tests and report on them.
For now, you can try them if you want.
PS. Another place for actual sales (but, like Leanpub, are mostly unknown) is BookieJar. I won't be trying them. Discovery is poor, you do get paid (70/30 split) but they don't accept public domain.
