This Google Play Books article is part of my Beginner’s Guide to Self-publishing direct with ebook Retailers series.

Do you want to self-publish your ebook directly on Google Play and make your book available to read on your android advice or any other ereader or ebook reader? Here’s the information you need to create a direct relationship with them to publish your ebook.

About Google Play Books

Google Play is one of the biggest worldwide book retailers, selling in 72 countries. The application is loaded on all smartphones or tablets with the Android operating system, and when you consider that around 80% of the phones bought last year are running on Android (and that doesn’t include tablets), it would be remiss of you not to publish your ebook on their platform. 

Unfortunately, Google Play closed its doors to new authors in 2015 because of content piracy issues. Existing authors can still publish books directly with them and there’s a process for new authors to request access.

• Google Play Books Retail Store: bit.ly/H2-gbooks

Google Play Author Interface

Any new authors currently have to request access to publish direct with Google Play by adding their name to a waiting list. You can express your interest in distributing directly through Google Play Books Partner Program by filling in their Partner form.

• Google Play Request Form: bit.ly/H2-GPform
• Google Play Partner Program: bit.ly/H2-GPpart
• Google Play Checklist: bit.ly/H2-GPcheck

When I submitted my request in May 2018, it only took two weeks to hear back from Google Play to confirm I’d been accepted into their Partner Program.

If you don’t want to wait to get accepted for a direct relationship into the Program, the only viable path is through an approved aggregator.

Google Play Author Pages

Google Play doesn’t feature author pages as standard, but authors with several books on Google Play Books could be eligible for an author page.

Google Play Publication Timeline

When you hit the publish button, it takes 24 hours to list your ebook in Google Play and Google Books.

Google Play File Requirements

Google accepts PDF or EPUB format. They recommend you submit both in order to provide buyers with multiple reading choices, but you can just upload one file type.

• File types accepted: EPUB and PDF
• File type read: EPUB and PDF
• File size limit: 2GB

Google Play ISBN Requirements

Enter the book’s ISBN (either the 10-digit or 13-digit ISBN is fine). If you don’t have an ISBN, check the box labeled This book doesn’t have an ISBN or other identifier, and a Google-specific identifier (prefixed with GGKEY) will be assigned to your ebook.

Google Play Upfront Costs

Google Play doesn’t charge an upfront fee for distributing your ebooks. 

Google Play Author Royalties

Google Play uses a wholesale pricing model, meaning that authors can set a recommended list price and Google may discount it at their discretion. They have a standard practice of discounting your book without notice, and this can trigger a price match by Amazon. In order to avoid Google’s arbitrary discounting, which is around 20%, many authors opt to access Google Play Books via an aggregator who automatically adjusts the Google Play Books list price.

Google Play will pay you royalties based on the list price you set, and not the discounted price they offer it at. You earn up to a 60% royalty of your list price.

Here’s how this would be calculated for a $2.99 book, based on Google Play taking 40%:

• A 20%* mark up to counteract the discounting on your $2.99 book would increase the list price to $3.49
• Going direct you would receive a 60% royalty rate on $3.49 ($2.09)

*Bear in mind that there isn’t a single discounting rate, it varies by currency and your price point, so I’ve used 20% as a guide to show you how the royalties could be calculated.

Google Play Going Direct Alternative:

You can distribute to Google Play via Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, eBook Partnership, and StreetLib:

• Draft2Digital: No upfront costs / royalties are 44% of the wholesale price of your book. If you use the Recommended Wholesale Price recommended by Draft2Digital, this will generally be about the same as the royalty you’d expect if a list price calculation was used.
• PublishDrive: No upfront costs / Royalty Rate 60% of list price
• eBook Partnership: $99 upfront cost / Royalty Rate 100% of net (which is after Google Play Books have taken their percentage)
• StreetLib: No upfront costs / Royalty Rate 42% of list price

Smashwords doesn’t distribute via Google Play Books.

Google Play Additional Distribution Benefits

Google Play lets authors send out free review copies to their favorite bloggers and reviewers, free of charge. When setting up your book details, add any quality reviewers with a Gmail account and they can read the book on any supported device without having to purchase it. You can even grant access to reviewers before it’s available for sale.

Your Google Play Profile

• Add quality reviewers using their Google email account in your Content tab and they will receive a free copy of your book in their personal Google Play Books library.
• In the Settings tab you can control a variety of elements:
• Google has converted selected books into EPUB format. Check the Only Display Flowing Text From an ePub I Provided box if you only want your version of the EPUB file to be made available.
• Check Include Scanned Pages box if you want the book to be available in PDF format (in addition to EPUB) on Google Play Books.
• Set the Copy/Paste Percentage between 5-100%, which controls how much of your book can be copied and pasted by buyers.
• Set the Preview Type value between 20-100%, which controls how much of your book can be previewed on Google Books. Options start at 20%, which is the default setting, and increase in increments of 10%. There’s a check box where you can choose to show or hide photos in your preview. There’s also a check box that allows readers to download a free PDF of your book, but only if you’ve set your preview percentage to 100%.
• You can add a Buy Link and text indicating where Google Books customers can purchase your book directly from you. This needs to be the name of your site.
• You can add your publisher website and logo.

Read more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series

I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.

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