Glossary
Distributor
Also called aggregator, ebook distributor
A distributor, often called an aggregator for ebooks, sends your book to many stores and libraries from one upload, then collects your earnings and pays you, usually for a share of each sale.
What it means
Instead of uploading your ebook to twenty stores, you upload it once to a distributor. It sends the book and its details to the stores and library services it works with, gathers your earnings and pays you. Draft2Digital, PublishDrive and StreetLib are well-known ebook distributors. For print, IngramSpark sends your paperback to bookstores, libraries and online shops.
A thriller author might upload directly to Amazon, Apple and Kobo, and use a distributor for everything else. A nonfiction author might use a print distributor so independent bookshops and libraries can order the book. A children’s author might use one to reach school library suppliers.
Distributors take a share of each sale, or charge per title or per year.
Why it matters when you sell direct
A distributor gets your book onto other people’s shelves. Selling direct is the opposite: the reader buys from you. The two work well together. You reach many stores through the distributor and keep your own store for your newsletter readers, bundles and special editions.
Your own store does not use a distributor. You set the price, you are the seller, and you are paid straight away by your payment provider.
How Lanternbee handles it
Lanternbee is not a distributor. It does not send your books to other stores. It is your own store, and print orders from it will go to BookVault or Lulu to be printed and shipped (that hand-off is being built now).