You did the hard part already. You wrote the book.

Now the question is not "Is my book good enough" but "Can readers actually find it where they like to shop." That is the entire point of book distribution services. They exist to move your book from "file on your laptop" or "box in your garage" into real systems, stores and platforms where readers can click buy without you hand delivering every copy.

Here is the problem most indie authors face: you upload to Amazon and think you are done. Your book is "out there." But being on Amazon is not the same thing as being distributed. Amazon is one store. It is a big one, sure, but it is still just one. Your book sits there invisibly unless someone already knows your name and searches for you by title.

Meanwhile, the reader who loves your genre is browsing at an indie bookstore and your book is not there. The librarian who would stock you cannot find you in her ordering system. The reader in the UK would prefer to buy local but has no easy way to do that. These are not hypothetical lost sales. They are real readers and real money you are leaving on the table because you did not set up distribution beyond your first upload.

Book distribution services solve this. They are the infrastructure that puts your book into the ordering systems bookstores use, the platforms libraries search, the retailers across continents. You upload once. The distributor handles getting it everywhere.

The gap between available and discoverable

There is a crucial difference most authors do not think about until it costs them.

Being available means your book exists somewhere. Being discoverable means the right readers and the right buying channels can actually find it.

When you self publish on Amazon KDP alone, your book is available. But you are not discoverable to bookstores, libraries or readers who prefer to buy elsewhere. A librarian cannot order your print book through Ingram. A bookstore buyer cannot find you in their wholesale system. A reader in Australia who wants to support local retailers has to jump through hoops or just give up and go back to something easier.

This is where distribution services come in. They bridge that gap. They take your book and plug it into the systems that bookstores, libraries and retailers already use to find books and order inventory. Suddenly you are not just available. You are discoverable within the channels that drive a huge portion of book sales, especially if you want to be taken seriously as an author or ever make it into a bookstore.

Why this matters more than you think

You might be thinking, "Okay, but I mostly sell online anyway. Why should I care if bookstores can order me."

Fair question. But here is what changes when distribution is real:

First, your author credibility shifts. When someone Googles your name and sees that your book is in library systems and indie bookstores across the country, you look professional. You look real. You look like an actual author, not someone who self published on a whim. That perception matters to readers, to media, to people who might invite you to speak or interview you.

Second, bookstore placement, even in small indie stores, still drives sales. Not all your sales. Not most of your sales, maybe. But enough. A single shelf placement in a local independent bookstore can lead to thirty, fifty, even a hundred sales over time. Multiply that by five, ten, twenty bookstores and suddenly you have meaningful revenue from an audience you never directly marketed to. They just found you because you were there.

Third, libraries are a huge hidden pipeline. A lot of authors ignore library reach because librarians do not buy books the way retail readers do. But libraries order books in bulk. A library system might order fifty copies of a title that fits their collection. That is fifty copies. And it leads to hundreds of borrows. Every borrow is a reader experiencing your book who might then buy your next one, leave a review or recommend you. Libraries are not a fast sale. They are a slow, steady, powerful channel that builds your author platform over time.

Fourth, going wide to multiple retailers gives you real flexibility. If Amazon changes their algorithm or their terms tomorrow, you are not sunk. Your sales are not all dependent on one platform that can change the rules anytime. Spread across multiple channels, your business is more resilient.

What actually happens when you use a distribution service

Let's talk about the real mechanics so this is not abstract.

When you sign up with a distribution service, whether it is an aggregator for ebooks or a print distributor, you are essentially handing off the logistics. You upload your files, metadata, cover and description once. The distributor takes that and replicates it across multiple retailers, wholesalers and platforms.

For ebooks, this might mean your title shows up simultaneously on Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Amazon (if you want), libraries through Overdrive or Libby, international retailers and more. One upload. Everywhere.

For print books, distribution gets more complex because physical books need to be ordered, stored and shipped. Print on demand services like Amazon handle printing individual copies as they are ordered. But true wholesale distribution plugs you into systems like Ingram, which are how bookstores and libraries actually order. A bookstore owner does not call you. They log into their Ingram account and order your book just like they order every other title they stock. The book prints, ships to them, and they sell it. You get paid.

The distributor handles all of that. You do not manage ten different accounts. You do not upload metadata ten times. You do not wait for payments from ten different retailers. You have a single dashboard, better reporting and one payment.

This seems like a small thing until you have been doing it manually. Then it feels like magic.

The real cost of distribution

You need to understand the trade off before you commit.

Nothing is free. Distribution services make money one of two ways: fees or revenue share.

Some charge a flat annual fee or a fee per title. Some take a percentage of your sales. Some do both. When you are comparing options, you need to understand what you are actually paying and whether it makes sense for your sales volume.

The mistake authors make is fixating on the fee or percentage instead of asking the actual question: "Will this channel generate enough sales to make the cost worthwhile?"

If you publish a niche book that sells fifty copies a year, paying a hundred dollars annually to distribute to ten extra channels might not move the needle. If you publish a book that sells five hundred copies a year, suddenly that distribution fee is twenty cents per sale, and the extra channel reach might bring in two hundred additional sales, netting you five times the cost back.

Do the math for your situation. Do not just assume distribution is always worth it or never worth it. It depends entirely on your book, your readers and what channels they already use.

The distribution choice that actually matters

Here is where a lot of advice gets fuzzy: authors get told to pick a distribution strategy and stick with it. Exclusive to Amazon. Wide everywhere. Print focused. Ebook only.

In reality, you do not have to choose one path for all time. You can mix and match.

You might go exclusive to Amazon for your first month to get the perks of their program. Then release wide. You might distribute ebooks globally but keep print on demand only in certain regions. You might use one distributor for ebooks and a different one for print. You might update your distribution every few months as you learn what actually works for your readers.

The key is being intentional about it. Understand what each choice gives you and what it costs. Then decide based on your goals, not based on what someone else says you should do.

A lot of authors freeze up here because they think they are making a permanent decision. You are not. Your distribution setup is a tool. You can adjust it as your author business grows and as you get better data on where your readers actually shop.

The distribution setup that actually works

After years of watching indie authors build their careers, there is one setup that keeps showing up for authors who think long term:

Print on demand for print copies, paired with wide ebook distribution.

Here is why: Print on demand means no inventory risk. You do not print five hundred copies and hope they sell. Each book prints when someone orders it. Wide ebook distribution means readers can buy your ebook wherever they prefer. Amazon, Apple, Kobo, libraries, wherever.

This combination gives you the least headache and the most reach. You are not managing inventory. You are not locked into one retailer. You are not paying huge upfront distribution fees. And your readers can find and buy your book in almost any format and place they prefer.

Is it the only way to do it? No. But it is simple enough that you can actually execute it while you are also writing your next book, not getting lost in distribution strategy.

What happens next

Distribution is not a set it and forget it situation. Once your book is distributed, your job is to actually tell people where to buy it.

Link from your website to the retailers that matter. Tell local readers they can request your book at their library or order it at their indie bookstore. Update your social profiles with links to multiple retailers so different readers can buy where they prefer. When you do press or interviews, mention all the places people can find you, not just Amazon.

The distributor built the roads. You still have to drive traffic down them. Distribution handles the infrastructure. You handle the marketing.

When you treat them as two separate jobs instead of one, everything clicks. Distribution becomes what it should be: boring infrastructure that just works so you can focus on the part that actually matters, which is writing books people want to read.