Ebook readers: Support your independent publishers March 31 2025
It may come as no surprise that Amazon’s Kindle ebooks completely dominate the market, making upwards of over 90% of our ebook sales. Well aware of their virtual monopoly, Amazon takes advantage of this by offering only half of the royalties to authors and publishers compared to other distributors like Apple and Google.
While readers with Kindle ebook devices are limited to titles purchased through Amazon, we at Greg Kofford Books recommend using Google Play Books for your ebook reading for these four reasons:
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They can be read on virtually any phone, tablet, or computer regardless of operating system using the Google Play Books app (iOS, Android) or any browser.
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For most titles, readers get access to both the standard ebook with flowing resizable text AND the digital print version (similar to a pdf) with the text as it appears on the printed page. The latter is great for books with tables and other complex formatting that do not work well with standard ebooks, as well as for scholars who prefer to cite a printed page rather than a complicated Kindle location. Importantly, readers are able to seamlessly switch between the two, and any highlight or notation made on one is automatically made on the other (and across devices as well).
(Right: standard ebook with flowable text and highlighted passage; left: digital print version with same passage automatically highlighted)
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On phones and tablets, the Google Play Books app has an exceptional “Read aloud” tool that can turn your ebook to an audiobook, even while your device screen is off. It still sounds a little robotic and cannot properly pronounce “Nauvoo” or “Nephi,” but it’s great for continuing your reading while driving, relaxing, or going on a walk, and it also seamlessly resumes from wherever you were at on the ebook.
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Finally, as mentioned above, Google (as well as the other ebook distributors we sell through, Apple and Kobo) gives authors and publishers twice the royalties offered by Amazon. For small and independent authors and publishers pinching every penny in a niche market, the importance of this can hardly be overstated.
To provide you with an example of what Google Play Books has to offer, for one week (ending April 8th) we are making the first volume of Brant Gardner’s Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon available for free on the Google Play Books store, which you can acquire here.
For those of you who prefer the feel and smell of a printed book in your hand, you can further support your independent publishers by purchasing through them directly. We are working to improve the gregkofford.com experience and currently offer free shipping for orders over $40. And, of course, we encourage you to also purchase books through independent bricks and mortar stores, like our friends at Benchmark Books who sell our entire library–including some hard-to-find quality hardcover editions.