So I wrote a book (actually, I’ve written four now).  You would think that would be the hard part.  

It’s not.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, editing is no piece of cake either.

It turns out, however, that the really hard part is figuring out the in’s and out’s of publishing.  It would be enough if that was all there is to it, but with everything I learn, I have to ask myself, but how does that apply to a Canadian?  Sometimes, the answer is easy, it’s the same.  But more often than not, it seems, as usual, Canadians are the forgotten bastard stepchildren of the U.S.

For example, I want my book on Amazon.  Who wouldn’t?  They are one of the biggest booksellers in the world. But luckily, they offer two platforms for getting your book on their site.  Createspace for print on demand (POD) books and KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) for your ebook.

But wait a minute…What do you mean that only ensures my book will be listed on Amazon.com?  How will my Canadian fans buy my books?  

What’s that you say?  You have Expanded Distribution to cover the rest of the world.  Sure, it means you’ll take another huge chunk of my profits (to the point that I will earn next to nothing for books sold through expanded distribution) but at least my book will be available on Amazon.au, Amazon.uk, and Amazon.eu.

Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t hear you say Amazon.ca.

Turns out even with selecting expanded distribution, there is no guarantee your book will ever be listed on Amazon.ca.  The only way to guarantee it is to use a third-party distributor.  There are several out there, but I’ll discuss this option in an upcoming post.

Happy Canada Day!

Lisa