How Many Books Can You Upload to Google Play Books

Google is the earth's leading search engine, as you probably already know. A lesser-known part of Google is its very own online bookstore — Google Play Books — which is integrated within the broader Google Play shop.

If you're one of the 2.5 billion people who own an Android device, you'll know what we're talking about. Google Play is the place to download or purchase apps, games, music, movies, and, well, books to use on your Android devices.

And that'southward exactly why Google Play Books is such an of import place for whatever writer to exist nowadays: it allows you to hands accomplish those billions of people in the world who own Android devices.

A cursory history of Google Play Books

That said, Google Play wasn't always a great place for indie authors. Upward until early on 2020, yous couldn't really get your books into the Google Play Books shop without offset going through an "approval period" and (sometimes) a waiting listing.

More than than that, the lucky authors who did manage to get into the store would often see their titles go automatically discounted by Google Play, without prior alarm. This move would trigger cost-matching from Amazon (and other retailers), oft without the writer realizing it in the showtime place.

Of course, many indie authors found workarounds to avoid any such discount. They used complicated formulas to effigy out how that auto-discounting worked and priced their book higher on Google Play to brand up for it. Overall, though, the clunkiness of the organization outweighed its benefits for most authors.

Enter 2020. The year will probably be remembered for other somber things, but information technology likewise marks the moment that Google Play Books finally opened its doors, in a big way, to indie authors.

At present, it's easier than e'er to create a new publisher account. No approval periods anymore: you lot tin merely create your account, gear up your book, and upload it to the store — with just a few easy clicks.

Gone are the times of the widespread motorcar-discounting as well. As of October 2020, Google Play Books volition "unilaterally follow the listing price that you provide for an ebook on sales to customers in the U.s. and Canada," no affair the toll of the ebook.

Note: Google Play obviously still reserves the right to "price-friction match" your book if they run across a lower toll available elsewhere, only similar virtually other retailers.

All in all, this means that (unless you're sectional to Amazon through KDP Select) there is no reason anymore not to have your books on Google Play. On the contrary, you take everything to gain: Google Play even offers better royalties than Amazon (70% vs 35%), and charges no delivery fees, on books priced below $2.99 or above $9.99!

And then let'southward see exactly how yous can achieve that!

How to publish your book on Google Play in 7 easy steps

As we mentioned, Google Play has removed their indeterminate "approval periods" and waiting lists for creating new publisher accounts. But here'south what yous can also go excited about: they've besides redesigned their whole publishing system, and fabricated it easier than always to publish on Google Play Books.

Equally with whatsoever other publishing platform, it all starts with:

Pace ane: Create your Google Play Partner account

Google Play at present has a simple landing folio for authors looking to publish their books on the platform: g.co/play/publish. Only click on "Go Started" and fill in your details to create your account.

Notation that you'll need an associated Google account. If you utilize Gmail, you're golden. If not, yous'll accept to create a Google business relationship.

Pace 2: Enter your financial information

Simple: you'll want Google Play to be able to pay you lot your royalties. And so the first thing you'll need to do is enter your payment and tax information, and link your banking company account.

Note: it can take upward to 12 days for Google to review and activate your account. To avoid thwarting, be sure to gear up your book at least 2 weeks in advance.

Step 3: Create your commencement book

Next, click on "Add your first book" in the dashboard. The decision that yous'll face up now is:

Whether you want to actually publish your ebook and get in available for sale on Google Play, or
Whether you just want to offer a preview of it on Google Books.

Information technology'south worth noting this stardom because Google Books is often confused with Google Play — and they are actually pretty different. Google Play is, as nosotros mentioned, an online shop, while Google Books is not. Instead, information technology's one of the earth's biggest online index of total-text books, equally Google has digitized millions of print and electronic books to make them "searchable" and indexable on search engines. More about that initiative hither.

If yous publish on Google Play, your volume volition automatically go a page with a preview on Google Books, and so you should only select "Offering a preview on Google Books merely" if yous do non desire to publish and sell your book on the Google Play store. (For example, if you're in KDP Select but still want your volume to be indexed in the Google Books library, picking that option wouldn't break KDP Select's terms.)

Once you click on "Sell ebook on Google Play," you'll be prompted to select your book's "ID," i.eastward. ISBN number. If you have an ISBN, you tin can enter it. If you don't, just select the "Get a Google Book ID" option — information technology'southward free.

Stride 4: Fill in your books' metadata

The metadata procedure on Google Play Books is divided into four steps:

Near the volume
Genres
Contributors
Settings

Let's go through them in order.

Nigh the volume
If you've already published your book elsewhere, then this part should be pretty quick! You can just paste in your title, subtitle, volume description, series title, etc.

If it's the offset time that you're publishing the volume and you haven't written the description (or blurb) nonetheless, so make sure yous read our post on how to write a volume blurb. As you'll shortly see, the search on the Google Play shop works in a way that gives particular importance to titles, subtitles, and descriptions — and then you might want to optimize those specifically for Google Play.

If you want your book to be published immediately, leave the "On-sale date" field bare. If you're publishing a pre-order, and then make sure to fill it in with the appointment on which your volume volition launch.

One terminal affair on the "About the volume" page: Google gives you the opportunity to "add a related book" at the lesser. This is a slap-up chance to link your volume with other ones, even if they're non in the serial (i.e. an anthology, a box prepare, or another series in the same universe).

Genres
This is where Google Play is very different from other stores. First, it doesn't limit you in the number of genre categories you can select. Moreover, information technology lets you select whatever category from the BISAC (Northward America) or BIC (U.k. and Australia) systems:

And then you should spend a practiced amount of time to make sure you detect and select all the categories that are relevant to your book. Categories play an important role in Google's search algorithms, and then this will be fourth dimension well-spent.

Contributors
The adjacent page is pretty straightforward: this is where you can put in your author proper noun and writer bio. Yous tin can as well add in other contributors to your volume, such as editors, illustrators, translators, ghostwriters, etc.

Preview settings
Here's another identify where Google gives yous more command than its peers. You tin can select how much of the book readers will be able to preview using Google Play's "Wait Within" feature (note, though, that 20% is the minimum):

You lot tin can also choose the amount of text that they tin copy-paste (or set information technology to 0%), as well equally opt in/out of DRM encryption.

If 1 of your goals is to optimize your book's presence on Google Books' search (the index we mentioned in step three), then make sure to click on "Prove avant-garde settings" and fill those fields in.

Footstep 5: Upload your volume and cover files

This part should be pretty straightforward. You'll only need to have your files on hand, specifically:

Your front cover image
Your EPUB or PDF
Your dorsum cover image (optional)

To acquire more than well-nigh Google Play'due south expected file types and specs, read this support article.

At present, a really cool thing almost Google Play is that, in one case your files have been processed and accustomed, you tin can add together in "Content Reviewers" simply by inbound their email addresses. Doing this will basically grant early access to your book for complimentary, which makes this a dandy way to share ARC copies with beta readers or reviewers.

This is something y'all tin can do even after you've finished this setup, and while there are some requirements for Content Reviewers (e.1000. they must accept a Google account), about people should meet them. You lot can learn more well-nigh this handy feature here.

Step 6: Set your book's cost

Google Play Books gives you the opportunity to set different prices for dissimilar regions — and in different currencies. To make sure your book is attractively priced in each currency, you should definitely take advantage of this feature.

For example, the beneath setup volition price your book at £0.99 in the UK & Ireland, at €0.99 in the Eurozone, and at $0.99 everywhere else.

Note that the "additional settings" let you to make these prices temporary — which can exist handy if you desire to offering promotional pricing at launch.

Footstep 7: Review and publish

You lot're almost there! The just affair left to do is to make sure you've entered everything correctly, swallow that fear and anticipation, and striking that magical "Publish" push.

This is also a skilful moment to go back to step 5 — your files should exist processed by at present — and add together in your "Content Reviewers" just before y'all publish.

6 tips to boost your Google Play sales

Of course, publishing the book is the piece of cake bit. Getting it to sell — now, that's another story. So nosotros decided to reach out to the Google Play Books squad itself, likewise as two high-selling authors on the Google Play store, to get some marketing tips directly from them.

Notation that most of these tips are exclusive to the Google Play platform, and then they don't constitute a proper, cross-retailer marketing plan.

Instead, our aim is to aid you understand how the Google Play store and its algorithms work, so that y'all tin leverage their specificities to boost your sales on that platform.

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1. Don't jump in and out of exclusivity

This is the very first thing that both the Google Play Books team and the authors we consulted told the states (and this tip can really exist applied to pretty much whatsoever non-Amazon retailer). If you're constantly opting in and out of KDP Select — and taking your books in and out from wide retailers — yous seriously harm your chances of getting any sales on these wide retailers.

Note: if you don't know what we mean past "exclusivity" and "wide," you need to read this article on KDP Select.

Merely information technology goes even deeper in the case of Google Play. In the words of the Google Play Books team:

"Nearly all of Google Play Books' merchandising is driven by an algorithm. Every bit a result, every reader sees a dissimilar personalized bookstore. If books are removed from the store, it disrupts the algorithm'south learning nearly those titles and eliminates the opportunity for those titles to be recommended. More fourth dimension in the store and more lifetime sales translates to higher discoverability."

two. Leverage metadata intelligently

If you're familiar with other publishing platforms, you'll probably have spotted the i thing that seems to be missing from Google Play's process: keywords.

At no betoken does Google Play ask you for meta keywords to describe your book. On the other hand, Google Play lets you select as many categories as you desire. So you lot need to leverage the categories to replace the keywords you lot would use on other stores.

For instance, permit's say yous apply the keywords "vampire," "19th century," and "gaslamp" on Amazon. You can get your book to testify up for these keywords on Google Play by selecting the post-obit BISAC categories:

Young Adult Fiction / Vampires
Young Developed Fiction / Historical / United States / 19th Century
Fiction / Fantasy / Gaslamp

Of course, this isn't always going to be possible, equally some niche keywords won't have an associated category. Equally an example, "weird west" (or "western fantasy") is a reasonably popular keyword that doesn't have a defended BISAC category.

In such cases, y'all take two options:

If you lot absolutely want your book to be amidst the very first to show up for that keyword, try working it into your subtitle: due east.thou. "A Weird W Fantasy Adventure"; or
If you desire the book to evidence up in the search, merely don't want to involve your subtitle, you can include it in the book description.

If yous do work in keywords into your book description, brand sure to do so in a natural way. In other words, don't keyword-dump! This might injure the conversion of your volume page more than it volition augment its visibility.

three. Run a discount promotion

This is naturally a tip that volition work for whatsoever book on whatever shop. Just it tends to be even more effective on Google Play (a less crowded shop than Amazon).

Beginning, Google makes information technology extra easy to schedule a cost promotion in advance via the "Promotions" section of the Partner Center. If you have advantage of that — instead of just manually lowering a volume'southward list price in the metadata — it volition trigger a strikethrough of your championship'due south list prices in the store.

More than importantly, discounted books tend to go extra visibility on the Google Play store, every bit the shop homepage (customized to every reader based on their previous activity) tends to feature several sections specifically for discounted books. Hither'due south an case:

In the words of the Google Play team:

"When a publisher discounts their book on Google Play Books, the book becomes eligible for additional in-shop merchandising and customer notifications. This doesn't hateful that every volume will receive every promotion, but this disbelieve significantly increases the book's likelihood of receiving more than promotion in the storefront.

These discount promotions are driven past our algorithm and can include:

Appearance in a drove highlighting discounted titles, including relevant genre collections

Targeted in-app notifications and emails to customers that have wishlisted or sampled that title"

four. Leverage Google Play promo codes

On meridian of running a discount promotion, you can as well employ Google Play's "promo codes" characteristic to offer ansectional special deal to some of your readers.

At that place are three types of promo codes you can generate for Google Play:

Free allows customers to redeem the volume at no cost.
Percentage off (ebooks but) allows customers to receive a percentage discount off the book's list price.
Fixed price promotion allows customers to purchase the book for a lower fixed toll.

Now, the free codes will obviously not brand you any money if they're redeemed. But for the percentage off and stock-still cost promotion codes, the author will earn the usual seventy% royalty on the final price of the ebook (later discount). And so if y'all run a fixed price promo lawmaking entrada where readers tin grab the ebook at $0.50, you'd earn $0.35 by promo lawmaking redeem.

More importantly, promo code redeems on Google Play have a direct impact on rank algorithms. Every bit confirmed to me by the Google Play team via email:

"Percent and fixed toll promo code redemptions are sales as the customer purchases the book. They are treated like any other book sale in our store, which always impacts our algorithm. Free promo code redemptions are treated the aforementioned as free downloads in our store. They accept a small affect on our algorithm."

This makes Google Play promo codes extremely attractive, and a great tool to boost your sales on the shop.

v. Use a free series starter

Speaking of sections that tend to be prominently featured on homepages, here's one that you won't detect on any other store:

Spoiler alarm: it presents a huge opportunity for serial authors. In the words of Charlotte Byrd, 1 of the authors nosotros consulted for this post:

"The one matter that I recently did that I have never done before was take three of my first-in-serial gratis. I got a Bookbub, which I never got before, I decided to make two others serial starters free along with it during this hard fourth dimension. I have seen my sales increase significantly as a result (not simply as a event of the Bookbub, fifty-fifty before that promotion went through). I have very strong read through and with having the starting time book costless, I am seeing a number of my books in the itemize appear on Google Play charts and stay there. That's another thing that I really like about Google Play: the books have a lot more stickability on the charts than on other platforms."

Another bonus of using free books as "loss leaders" for a series? Free downloads actually count towards the Google Play charts and algorithms — granting them a lot more than visibility than on Amazon.

6. Sign up for the Google Play affiliate program

Want to make an additional 7% commission on ebooks and audiobooks sold on Google Play? Just sign upwardly for the Google Play Books affiliate program. It's free to join and currently available for active partners. If your Google Play Books partner account is eligible, you'll find a link to the affiliate sign-upwards form on the homepage of your Partner Center.

This is not only a way to make a few extra bucks, information technology's also corking for advertizing! If y'all run Facebook ads targeting Google Play readers (yes, that's possible), you tin use chapter links to your books and know exactly how many sales your ads are generating.

If you follow all the steps in this mail service and take advantage of these Google Play-specific marketing tips, you should be well on your fashion to turning your Google Play sales into a solid income stream. The redesign of Google Play Books shows that Google is finally placing some existent importance on book sales, which means that it might exist ready to abound plenty to exist a real challenger to Amazon. Getting in early on (correct now!) might exist a smart move for your writing career!

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Source: https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-publish-a-book-on-google-play/