I am looking for advice in finding a simpler way than this to publish a book. Specifically, I am hoping readers have some advice about self-publishing services. The question is prompted by a discussion this afternoon with a group of friends who are writers.

Some have self-published books through KDP, a service provided by Amazon. It is a user friendly app that most anyone can learn to navigate and with no up front cost. It is a print on demand service, so that a writer does not have to order a thousand copies of a book and then find a place to store the 900 that did not sell. The downside of KDP is that no bookstore wants to sell a book that comes from Amazon. That would be putting money into the pocket of the behemoth that has forced many bookstores to close.

What are the alternatives?

There are many self-publishing services out there that offer professional editing, formatting and marketing, for an outrageous upfront fee. That may be a way to go for someone who can reasonably expect to sell several thousand books, but in most cases the printer is the only one who makes money on the deal.

Ingram Spark is another print on demand service that does have connections to retailers. It is probably a better choice than KDP. Are there any others that are worth consideration?

Draft2Digital and Smashwords (they are now the same company) may be one. I have read some negative reviews of them online, but those who complained all seemed to have about the same axe to grind: their book was abruptly removed from sale and they are not satisfied with the explanation given. Did the company discover some objectionable content in the books? After all, they are in business to sell books. I doubt they would refuse to sell a book unless they believed it was going to hurt their business in some way.

Is their anyone out there who has used Ingram Spark or Draft2Digital, or any other print on demand service, who would be willing to share their experience?