Book Distributors for Overlooked Book Markets

Hi everyone!

I’m getting ready to do a final round of edits and purchase ISBNs for my debut sci-fi thriller, and I need some mentorship regarding overlooked book markets.

Some background: I currently have an international audience of 163 followers and 53 subscribers on Substack, ranging from the premium markets of the United States and Germany to lesser-served markets like India and South Africa. Because of this, I want to make sure each and every one of my followers and subscribers has the option to purchase either physical or digital copies in their home country, but I understand some of these may be hard to service due to a lack of information about these markets.

As a result, I have done some research, combining past searches with regularly using AI Thomas when it was free. Since then, I’ve narrowed it down to a few different services, and I’m hoping some of you can contribute some advice. Also, if you’ve used any of the services I’ve listed, please leave a comment and DM me, as I’d like to talk more about your experiences.

PublishDrive: The primary competitor to Draft2Digital. I am a devoted user of D2D, but PublishDrive services more countries and booksellers, which could make it useful for hard-to-access markets, specifically China and South Asia. I understand it’s a subscription service, so I’d appreciate some advice as to when I should use this to access the Chinese market once I start selling books.

ITAN: A self publishing platform specifically focused on selling to African markets and introducing the literature of the continent to the world. This one looks like it’s free, but I’m not sure.

SABO: A South African self publishing platform designed to promote literature domestically and abroad by both South African and international authors. The service fee ranges from $12-30 USD based on the exchange rates as of this post, so it’s definitely more expensive than alternative services.

Notion Press: India’s largest book distribution platform. It looks like indie authors can use it, but I’m not sure. I’d really like to use it because I believe they offer translation services too, and I learned the hard way it’s not a bad idea to have backups for distributors for particular regions. I believe this one is free.

LitRes: A self-publishing platform that services the Russian market. I have had previous dialogue with this company a few years ago, and the process seemed easy. I currently have CEFR level B2 for Russian, so communicating with them about issues that arise shouldn’t be too hard. However, I do not have a Russian translation for my book queued for release, so I anticipate this one would be a few years down the road since I would need to find a translator first, and I don’t know how well a book published only in English would do over there. If anyone has experience with this company, or the Russian literature market in general, I’d appreciate it!

If you know of any alternatives to these services that accomplish the goals I wish to reach, I’d also appreciate your inputs. If it helps, my target markets are Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Egypt, China, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Thanks!