Episode 85: Streetlib
In this show I continue my exploration of the world of eBook aggregators with an interview with the head of the US branch of Streetlib, Giacomo D’Angelo. It turns out that Streetlib has actually been around for almost 10 years and I’d never heard of them until joining the International Indie Authors Facebook Group. They are Italy-based and, like PublishDrive, have a connection to a whole load of e-Book stores that are very regional,specialised and unique to Streetlib. They also, unlike PublishDrive, do a lot of other things as well.
Can you select which stores to submit books to on Streetlib?
You can choose stores (including Amazon) without any constraints.
Which eBook stores do Streetlib alone distribute to?
As well as the normal companies (Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo etc) they also integrate with lots of regional companies, for example in South American and Italy.
You can find the list here.
Can you explain what the Streetlib Write editor allows an author to do?
The Streetlib Writer is an online editor that lets an author write (or import their book) online and then select from a variety of templates to format their book for eBook (and newly for print-ready PDF). Of course as Streetlib also allows you to then submit the document to the eBook stores directly. According to Giacomo, it also lets you create the cover of a print book as well.
You support Print Book distribution, how does that work?
They allow you to distribute print books via Amazon and via the Streetlib site. They can print the books as they are demanded, like with Createspace. At the moment they don’t have connection to any bookstore distribution networks like Ingram Spark though.
There is an option to directly sell your books from Streetlib. Can you explain that?
What this allows you to do is to create a book store for selling books from the web. In just 5 minutes, Giacomo claims you can create a book store and embed it on your web-site. There is no exclusivity obligation. You upload your book to their system and create this direct-selling portal which you can then add to your own website. When you sell a book from this they take 15% of the sales. Giacomo claims that they take care of technology, billing and taxation of these stores.
Where can people find out about Streetlib and the things you do?
You can find them at streetlib.com and they publish articles about publishing on Medium.com. You can e-mail Giacomo directly at giac@streetlib.com.
If you liked this show then you might like PublishDrive with Kinga Jentetics, EBook Discovery Services with John Doppler and The World outside Amazon.
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