On Writing : Curious about something! by Fonda J Kerr

They're both good, I plan on using both. If I may, I suggest you purchase your own ISBN number through Bowker.com and not use the ones that come bundled in the packages.

I second that. It's an expense, but you can buy a package and have them for your future work.

I used CreateSpace (don't know anything about IngramSpark) and was very happy with it. I, too, used my own ISBN.

I've used Createspace for all but my first book. It's okay - and free - but you need to ensure your manuscript and cover (which can only be in PDF format) is absolutely correct. Createspace will enable you to convert your book to Kindle formats once created too, which could save some work, though I've not bothered with my last couple of releases as I've done it directly through KDP.

Smashwords and KDP are for eBooks only. Createspace is for physical books.

Just FYI, much of what Smashwords offers is pornographic, not evident unless one turns off the search filters. Wish I'd noticed that before I used SW to publish my harmless beekeeping ebook. I'm using BookBaby for my next book.

I've been using Smashwords for several years - never noticed any pornographic material on there. However, I use them to facilitate getting my eBook into various stores, which saves me a lot of work in having to go to multiple outlets. For that, they're brilliant. There's a lot of adult erotica on the Amazon sites for the Kindle - a lot of it free and as terrible as Fifty Shades, though not by much from what I hear about how awful that book is. It's likely most sites have an adult section. The erotica sections were certainly boosted by the success of Fifty Shades, which probably accounts for the multitude you see on there. Also, Bookbaby isn't free like Smashwords is - they charge $150.00 and upwards for "self-publishing" - not quite sure what they do for their money, because they expect you to get all the files to a certain specification before submission etc.

Every site will insist on you using their unique ISBN if you're not providing your own. Smashwords do distribute to Amazon, though I never had to utilise that as I'd already done it via KDP/Createspace directly. Not sure if there's something wrong with the process that occurs to get it on there via them, but they do have it as a channel for distribution. If someone wants to pirate your work, as an ePub document it's very easy to remove DRM. I followed the Smashwords word-to-ebook compiler. I learnt very quickly the settings required and when I went through the process a second time, the only thing that was needed was a contents list which I managed to set up very quickly. I would say it's actually easier than the formatting required for Kindle etc. Their guide on how to set up the formatting is very concise and straightforward. Took me a couple of attempts first time, but second publication was a breeze. Like anything like this, there's a learning curve. Smashwords also lets you have short and long book descriptions, contributors and listing keywords. Maybe you had a bad experience with your first effort, or maybe you work for Bookbaby. But, seriously, Smashwords saved me a ton of time and a ton of money. Bookbaby's prices are considerably more if you want to do eBook and physical book ($780!! for a 200-page book, $178 for an eBook only I found). And yet you STILL need to get it formatted anyway, so why bother? Yes, you can pay for the service but I'd rather put that money to better use elsewhere.

80% is still a lot more than Apple or Amazon give. In fact, it's double!