How to Publish Your Ebook Beyond Amazon in 2026: Every Store, Aggregator and AI Rule Compared

Amazon sells most of the ebooks indie authors sell, but it is one shop. iPhone readers buy in Apple Books, much of Canada, Europe and Japan reads on Kobo, Android readers have Google Play Books, and libraries buy through OverDrive and Hoopla. Selling on all of them is called going wide, and in 2026 several of its rules changed: Draft2Digital added fees, Barnes & Noble added an AI question, Kobo is turning away a large share of submissions, and Kindle Unlimited became Kindle+.

This guide is the map. It compares every major store, aggregator and library route on what it pays, where it sells, what it takes, and what it says about AI, using each company's own help pages, read on 28 October 2026. For the step-by-step on the three biggest stores, we have separate deep dives: how to publish on Apple Books, how to publish on Kobo and how to publish on Google Play Books.

Disclosure: Inkfluence AI is our product. It writes books, exports the files these stores take, and makes audiobooks, so we have an interest in this topic. We say plainly below what our files can and can't do, and we don't sell, print or distribute books to any of these stores for you.

Published 28 October 2026. Every rate and rule below links to the page it came from in the Sources list at the end. Stores change terms often, so check the live page before you rely on a number.

What changed for wide authors in 2026

The changes that matter if you last read a going-wide guide a year or two ago:

Two threads run through the list: stores are tightening up on mass-produced books, which helps authors who put real work into each title, and an aggregator now costs fixed fees as well as a commission.

Every store and aggregator compared

This is the table to keep open. "What you earn" is the share of the list price (before sales tax or VAT) you receive on an ebook sale. "AI-written books" and "AI narration" summarise each company's written rule; where we found none, we say so.

Two things surprise people. The four big stores pay the same 70% headline rate, so choosing between them is about readers, not royalties. And Draft2Digital pays more than Kobo direct below Kobo's threshold: on a $0.99 ebook Kobo direct pays 45% ($0.45), while Draft2Digital's table lists Kobo at 60% at all prices ($0.59). If your first-in-series is permanently cheap, that is worth knowing.

The four big stores, one by one

Apple Books

Apple's author site puts it in one line: "70% royalties on every ebook, regardless of price," with no file delivery fees and no price matching. You publish from the web through Apple Books for Authors, upload an EPUB that passes the latest EPUBCheck, and choose from 51 countries and regions, with a separate price in each if you like. No ISBN is required, but if you have one, Apple's guide says you can only enter it on the first submission. Apple also has the clearest AI rule of any store: if "a material portion of the content is generated by an AI-based tool", add the "AI Generated by" contributor role and say so in the description. The full walkthrough is in how to publish on Apple Books in 2026.

Kobo Writing Life and Kobo Plus

Kobo pays 70% at or above a threshold in each currency ($2.99, £1.99, €1.99, C$2.99, A$2.99 and so on), 45% below, and 20% on public domain works, with no upper cap and no delivery fee. It pays 45 days after each month once you pass CAD $50, takes EPUB, Word, ODT or MOBI up to 100 MB, and reaches readers in "over 190 countries" through its own stores and partners such as Indigo, FNAC, Bol and Booktopia.

Kobo Plus, its reading subscription, needs no exclusivity: you switch it on per book and choose territories. It runs in 34 territories, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and pays for every minute read, re-reads included. Kobo's worked example divides subscription revenue by total minutes read to get a value per minute, and Kobo Writing Life authors get 60% of that. Kobo is also the strictest big store on AI-written text (see the AI rules). Every setup step is in our Kobo deep dive.

Google Play Books

Google pays 70% of the list price in 60+ countries, "regardless of the book's price", once you accept the updated Partner Center terms; otherwise the default is 52%. A group of Asian markets, including Japan, India and South Korea, keep your existing split. Google pays on list price, not sale price, and charges nothing to sell. Upload an EPUB, a PDF or both. No ISBN is needed, because Google assigns a GGKEY. There is no AI rule in its publisher content policies, only a ban on "gibberish, nonsensical, or repetitive text" and content that "lacks the depth and curation necessary to provide a meaningful reading experience". It is also the friendliest big store for AI audiobooks. Details in how to publish on Google Play Books.

Barnes & Noble Press

B&N Press pays 70% of the retail price on ebooks sold on bn.com, the Barnes & Noble app and NOOK. It is non-exclusive and open to authors in the US and 11 other countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France. Keep the ebook under 20 MB. It sells no audiobooks, and it doesn't put your book in B&N shops. At setup it asks whether AI was used for the cover, manuscript, images or translation, and whether each was AI-Assisted or AI-Created; AI text you then edited still counts as AI-Created. Since 22 April 2026 it refuses public domain titles and requires print books to list at $14.99 or more. Ebook pre-orders can open up to 12 months ahead.

Aggregators: Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, StreetLib

An aggregator (also called a distributor) takes one upload and delivers it to many stores, then collects the money and pays you from one dashboard. You give up part of each sale or pay a subscription in return.

Draft2Digital, including the Smashwords Store

Draft2Digital's commission "equates to approximately 10% of the retail price of every book sale". In its royalty table that becomes 60% of list price at Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Tolino, Gardners and Fable at all prices, 55% at Vivlio, and 75% (at $2.99 and up) or 40% (below) on the Smashwords Store, which became part of Draft2Digital in the 2022 merger and still runs as its own shop. Subscriptions are covered too: Everand pays 60% once a reader passes 20% of the book, and Kobo Plus is included. Amazon distribution is by invitation only, and Google Play is not on the list.

It is the most forgiving way in: upload a Word file and it builds the EPUB, or upload your own. It assigns a free ISBN, pays around the 15th of each month once you pass $10 by direct deposit, and its content guidelines (last updated 27 October 2025) support AI-assisted content but refuse books "generated entirely by AI/LLMs" that have not had "extensive editing from a human". It may ask non-fiction authors for proof of subject expertise.

PublishDrive

PublishDrive turns the model round: you pay a monthly subscription and it takes 0% commission, so you keep the store's full royalty. Its plans, as listed in its help centre on 28 October 2026: Free (1 ebook, to Apple Books, B&N and Kobo only), Starter $16.99 a month or $13.99 a month billed yearly (3 books), Standard $24.99 (6), Plus $49.99 (18) and Pro $99.99 (48). It reaches Google Play, which you connect by opening your own Google Play publisher account and adding PublishDrive as a service provider. A subscription only beats a commission once sales are high enough; with a book or two selling a few copies a month, a 10% commission is usually cheaper. Its AI declaration page is also the most useful single document on AI rules across stores: the declaration is mandatory, and its table says OverDrive accepts AI only for covers, Everand takes no AI-generated content, and Apple and Audible take only their own AI narration.

StreetLib

StreetLib is still operating in 2026: its help centre was updated in July 2026, and it describes distributing "ebooks, audiobooks, and print-on-demand to over 50 bookstores". It is strongest in Italy and the rest of Europe, and runs the German BookRix platform. Its German help page says authors receive a fixed 70% of net revenue, meaning the price after VAT and the store's cut. Its content integrity guidelines say it may block "books created using artificial intelligence (AI) or automated processes that are not correctly categorized". We could not find a current English-language fee schedule, so check the dashboard before you commit.

Libraries: OverDrive and Libby, Hoopla, BorrowBox

Libraries are the part of going wide that Amazon can't offer at all. They pay in two ways: a library buys a copy to lend (one copy, one user), or it pays a small fee each time a reader borrows (cost per checkout). Readers mostly meet these platforms as apps: Libby is the reader app for OverDrive's library catalogue.

Kobo recommends setting the library price "a few dollars higher than your normal USD retail price", because one library copy can be lent many times. Two cautions for AI-assisted books. Kobo does not send AI-narrated audiobooks to library distribution, and PublishDrive's table says OverDrive accepts AI only on covers. If your text is AI-generated, check the route's rule before you count on library income. Draft2Digital also excludes erotica from OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Hoopla and BorrowBox.

Direct or aggregator: how to decide

Going direct keeps about an extra 10% of list price on every sale. The rest is about time and control.

The common answer is a hybrid: direct to Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play and B&N Press, and Draft2Digital only for the stores and libraries you can't reach directly, with the big four switched off in its settings. Never send the same book to one store twice. Kobo declines duplicates, so untick a store in your aggregator and wait for its copy to come down before you upload direct.

Go wide net earnings comparer

Enter your list price (before sales tax or VAT), currency and expected monthly sales per store. The comparer shows each sale direct and through Draft2Digital and totals both routes. The Draft2Digital route keeps Amazon and Google Play direct, since it reaches Amazon only by invitation and Google Play not at all.

A worked example. A $4.99 novel selling 20 copies a month outside Amazon (8 on Apple, 6 on Kobo, 3 on Google Play and 3 on B&N) earns $69.86 a month all direct. Sending Apple, Kobo and B&N through Draft2Digital, with Google Play still direct, earns $61.38. The difference is $8.48 a month, about $102 a year, plus the $20 activation fee for a new Draft2Digital account. Whether that is worth four logins is your call; at 200 sales a month the gap is over $1,000 a year. For Amazon-only maths, our royalty calculator covers KDP, IngramSpark and the other stores per sale, and the ebook income calculator projects a whole catalogue.

ISBNs: free aggregator numbers or your own

None of the big wide stores requires an ISBN for an ebook:

• Apple Books: not required. If you have one, enter it on the first submission, because Apple's guide says you can only add it then.
• Kobo: not required. Kobo issues its own identifier, but that identifier is not accepted by all partner shops (it names Indigo and FNAC), so Kobo recommends an ISBN if you want a partner shop that needs one.
• Google Play: not required. Google assigns a GGKEY, used only inside Google.
• B&N Press: offers a free ISBN for print books, usable only on B&N Press. Its help pages don't say clearly whether an ebook needs one, so check at setup.
• Draft2Digital: assigns a free ISBN automatically and lists itself as vendor of record, but that number "cannot be used outside" its services.

Canadian authors can get their own ISBNs free from ISBN Canada. Since October 2026, registering there declares that a human author wrote the book, with AI only for limited support tasks; ISBN Canada's AI rule explains what that covers.

When to buy your own: if you want one number at every store and through every route, your own imprint shown as publisher, or a print edition through IngramSpark. In the US a single ISBN from Bowker is $125 and ten are $295; in the UK Nielsen charges £93 for one or £174 for ten; Canada and New Zealand issue them free. Each format needs its own: the ebook, the paperback and the hardcover each get a separate number. The full breakdown by country, with a checker, is in do you need an ISBN in 2026, and our copyright page template shows where the number goes.

Keeping metadata consistent

Metadata is everything about the book except the text. Sell in five places and small differences creep in: a series numbered differently in two stores breaks the "next in series" link, an author name spelled two ways splits your author page, and a description updated in one dashboard shows readers elsewhere an old blurb. Keep one master sheet and paste from it into every dashboard:

• Title and subtitle exactly as on the cover. Several stores reject keyword-stuffed titles; Kobo lists "Keyword Stuffing" and "Misleading Metadata" among content it removes.
• Series name and number, identical everywhere, including capitalisation.
• Author name, one spelling, plus any contributor roles. On Apple that includes the "AI Generated by" role where it applies.
• Description, one master version. Our book description generator drafts one to edit.
• Categories: most wide stores use BISAC subject codes, so pick two or three once and reuse them. Our categories guide explains how categories work.
• Prices in each currency you set by hand (see the next section).
• ISBN or store ID per store.
• AI disclosure answers, written once, so you answer each store's question the same honest way.

Keep the cover file the same everywhere too. Our AI book cover generator and the ebook SEO guide cover the two pieces of metadata readers see first: the cover and the words around it.

Pricing in several currencies

Most stores let you set a price per currency or fill them in from a base price. Converted prices land on odd numbers, so set the main currencies by hand.

• Mind the royalty lines. Kobo's 70% starts at $2.99, £1.99, €1.99, C$2.99 and A$2.99, and Amazon's at $2.99 and £1.77. Setting the sterling price at £1.99 keeps 70% on Kobo; £1.49 would drop it to 45%.
• Use local price endings. Readers expect £3.99, €4.99 and A$6.99, not converted fractions.
• Remember VAT. In Europe and Australia the price a reader sees includes tax, and stores pay you on the price after tax. Kobo's rule is the price "the customer pays, not including taxes".

For what to charge in the first place, see how to price an ebook. If you write in more than one language, a translated edition is a separate book with its own metadata and, if you use them, its own ISBN; our AI book translator makes the draft, which you then edit.

Wide or KDP Select after Kindle+

You can't do both with the same ebook. KDP Select requires the digital edition to be exclusive to Amazon in 90-day terms; while it is enrolled, it can't be on Apple, Kobo, Google Play or B&N. In return the book goes into Kindle+ (until 22 October 2026, Kindle Unlimited), where you are paid per page read and, for eligible audiobooks, per page listened.

Kindle+ makes Select a little stronger for genre fiction series, because an eligible audio edition now earns from the same subscription. It changes little for practical non-fiction, picture books and cookbooks. We go through it book type by book type in Kindle+ for authors, and the general trade-off is in KDP Select vs wide distribution.

A sensible way to test it: pick one series or one title, put it wide for at least six months with real effort (a direct account at each store, store promotions, links to every store in your back matter and newsletter), and compare with the same months in Select. Wide income usually builds slowly. Authors who quit after 90 days rarely see what it can do. Is Amazon worth staying on as part of that? Almost always yes: going wide adds stores to Amazon, it doesn't replace it. Our is KDP worth it piece has the numbers.

The AI rules, store by store

This is where the stores differ most. Here is what each has written down. Our can you sell AI-generated books page keeps a dated table for ten platforms, and the KDP AI disclosure guide covers Amazon's questions.

In practice: a book you outlined, drafted with AI, then rewrote, fact-checked and edited line by line is welcome at Apple (labelled if a material part is still AI-generated), Google Play, B&N (disclosed) and Draft2Digital. Kobo is where an AI-drafted book is most likely to be turned away, so send it your most clearly human work. A lightly edited AI draft is the book every store here is trying to keep out, and the book readers return; our guide to making AI-assisted content original is a good self-check.

Audiobooks are the other way round: the wide stores are friendlier to AI narration than Amazon, whose ACX route requires human narrators. Every store's audio rule is in where to sell an AI audiobook, and the ACX detail in Audible and ACX's AI narration policy.

A 30-day go-wide plan

This assumes the book is finished and edited. If it is in KDP Select, turn off auto-renew; the book stays exclusive until the current 90-day term ends, so start week 2 after that date.

Week 1: files and metadata

1. Export a reflowable EPUB with a working table of contents, and run it through EPUBCheck. Apple requires a pass, StreetLib asks for one, and OverDrive through Kobo rejects files with validation errors. Our ebook formats guide explains EPUB, PDF and the rest.
2. Fill in the metadata master sheet: title, series, description, categories, keywords, prices per currency, AI disclosure answers.
3. Decide on ISBNs: free store and aggregator identifiers, or your own block.

Week 2: direct uploads

1. Open accounts with Apple Books for Authors, Kobo Writing Life, the Google Play Books Partner Center and B&N Press. Each needs tax and bank details before it can pay you.
2. Upload to each, pasting from the master sheet. Set up pre-orders if you want a launch date: B&N allows up to 12 months ahead.
3. Turn on Kobo Plus if you want subscription reads (no exclusivity).

Week 3: aggregator and libraries

1. Open a Draft2Digital (or PublishDrive or StreetLib) account and upload the same file, with the four stores you went direct to switched off.
2. Opt in to libraries: OverDrive through Kobo at a library price a few dollars above retail, and Hoopla, BorrowBox and cloudLibrary through Draft2Digital.
3. Search each store for your title and fix any wrong series, name or price.

Week 4: launch and promotion

1. Update your back matter so the "next book" page links to every store, or to a single page on your site that lists them.
2. Tell your newsletter which stores now carry the book.
3. Apply for store promotions where they exist; Kobo's are in the Kobo Writing Life dashboard for direct authors.
4. Set a review date six months out. Our ebook launch checklist covers the rest of launch week, and if you are publishing for Christmas, check the KDP Christmas deadlines for the Amazon side.

Print beyond Amazon

Print beyond Amazon means shops and libraries that won't order from Amazon. Three routes cover most indie authors:

• IngramSpark distributes print books to bookshops and libraries through Ingram's catalogue. You set a wholesale discount (it suggests 53% to 55% with returns in the US and Canada), pay printing per copy and a 1.875% global distribution fee, and file revisions have been free since 1 February 2026. We compare the two in IngramSpark vs KDP, cover its AI rule (significant human review and contribution, credited) in IngramSpark's AI policy, and price a run with the IngramSpark cost calculator and cover calculator.
• B&N Press print pays 55% of list price minus printing, on bn.com only. Since 22 April 2026 print books must list at $14.99 or more, and B&N's free print ISBN only works on B&N Press.
• Draft2Digital Print reaches Amazon and the channels Ingram serves; its FAQ says to expect about 45% of list price minus printing.

Use your own ISBN if you print through more than one of these, and switch off KDP's Expanded Distribution if you use IngramSpark for the same edition. For a print-ready interior and cover, see how to create a print-ready PDF book, and for a single proof copy, how to print one copy of a book.

Where Inkfluence AI fits

Inkfluence AI is a book writer, not a distributor. It doesn't upload to Apple, Kobo, Google Play or B&N, and it doesn't print or ship books. What it does is get one project to the point where every store above can take it:

• Write or import. Draft chapter by chapter from your outline, or import a Word, EPUB, PDF, text or Markdown file.
• Export for every store. From the Export button: PDF, KDP (a print interior plus a full-wrap cover PDF sized to your trim and page count), EPUB, DOCX and audio. The EPUB is reflowable with a table of contents. Run it through EPUBCheck before you upload to Apple, as you would any file. The exporting help lists every option.
• Audiobook files. Chapter MP3s for the stores that accept labelled AI narration, such as Kobo and Google Play. Check the length first with the audiobook length calculator.
• Sell direct. Publish the ebook straight to your own Gumroad or Etsy shop from the Publish menu; see selling ebooks on Gumroad and selling ebooks on Etsy, or the selling help.
• Translate. Make a translated edition to sell in another language's stores, then edit it.

On a paid plan (Creator $9.99 a month, Premium $19.99 a month, or yearly at $89 and $179) you can switch Inkfluence branding off in your exports; free-plan exports include a branding page. Length is set by how many chapters you plan, at roughly 1,000 to 1,500 words a chapter. See pricing for what each plan includes, and the self-publishing guide for the whole path from idea to listing.

Publishing wide: FAQ

Related reading

• Which stores allow AI-written books: every platform's AI rules in one table
• Where to sell ebooks in 2026: stores, marketplaces and your own site
• Ko-fi for authors: selling direct to readers who already follow you
• How to publish on Barnes & Noble Press: royalties, print rules and AI questions
• Draft2Digital review 2026: fees, stores and whether it's worth it
• Draft2Digital vs PublishDrive: fees and AI rules compared
• How to get your ebook into libraries: OverDrive, Hoopla and more
• How to publish on Apple Books in 2026: the step-by-step deep dive
• How to publish on Kobo in 2026: Kobo Writing Life and Kobo Plus
• How to publish on Google Play Books in 2026: Partner Center and audiobooks
• KDP Select vs wide distribution
• Kindle+ for authors: what the Kindle Unlimited change means
• Can you sell AI-generated books? Rules on 10 platforms
• Where to sell an AI audiobook
• Do you need an ISBN in 2026?
• IngramSpark vs KDP
• Ebook export and publishing
• How to sell romance novels: a genre where wide versus Select matters most

Sources

All read on 28 October 2026 unless a date is given.

• Apple Books for Authors: royalties, no delivery fees, no price matching
• Apple Books for Authors: publish your book from the web (EPUBCheck)
• Apple Books Partner: book availability (51 countries and regions)
• Apple Books Formatting and Content Guidelines, sections 1.13, 2.9 and 4.8 (AI-generated content)
• Apple Pages User Guide: publish a book to Apple Books (ISBN not required)
• Apple Books for Authors: get started with digital narration
• Kobo Writing Life: What will my earnings be? (updated 12 Aug 2026)
• Kobo Writing Life: How and when do I get paid? (updated 2 Sep 2026)
• Kobo Writing Life: What is Kobo Plus? (updated 20 Jul 2026) and How does Kobo Plus pay?
• Kobo Writing Life: File types and sizes
• Kobo Writing Life: OverDrive distribution (updated 18 Sep 2026)
• Kobo Writing Life: ISBNs and Kobo Writing Life
• Kobo Writing Life: Why was my book rejected or blocked? (updated 6 May 2026) and What content is not allowed? (updated 26 Mar 2026)
• Kobo Writing Life: AI narration and audiobooks (updated 24 Sep 2026)
• Kobo Writing Life: Publish directly or via aggregator?
• The Next Web: Kobo rejects 45 percent of self-published books, 26 June 2026
• Google Play Books Partner Center: Revenue split FAQs
• Google Play Books Partner Center: How to sell books on Google Play
• Google Play Books Partner Center: ISBNs (GGKEY)
• Publisher Content Policies for Google Play Books
• B&N Press: Royalty and payment terms
• B&N Press: Getting started (countries, no audiobooks, public domain from 22 Apr 2026)
• B&N Press: Use of generative AI in your project (updated 10 Mar 2026)
• B&N Press: ISBN FAQs and Print book pricing ($14.99 minimum)
• B&N Press: Maximum file size
• Draft2Digital: FAQ (commission, stores, ISBN, files, payments)
• Draft2Digital: Ebook royalty rates
• Draft2Digital: Understanding D2D's activation and maintenance fees, 14 April 2026
• Draft2Digital: Content guidelines (last updated 27 Oct 2025)
• PublishDrive: How much does PublishDrive distribution cost?
• PublishDrive: AI-generated, assisted or narrated: what to declare, and how
• PublishDrive: Distribution to Google Play Books
• StreetLib: What you can do with StreetLib, Content integrity guidelines (19 Feb 2025) and Deine eBook-Marge (3 Jul 2026)
• IngramSpark: Pricing and Changes in print cost, market access fee, and more