Top 10 Self-Publishing Publisher
We rated over 50 academic platform publishers on eight factor-weighted dimensions: academic prestige (most weight), publication output, scholarly influence, subject-matter specialization, royalties, worldwide reach, author services, and editorial quality. Search strategy We searched for sources which were Scopus indexed, Web of Science indexed, indexed in JSTOR, Google Scholar, WorldCat, Library of Congress catalogs, university reading / resource lists, and academic prizes (PROSE Awards). Each publisher was given scores between 1 and 10 in each of the categories, with academic quality being the most important factor, including citations, presence in university syllabi, and reputation in the research community. Expert review by professionals in other fields confirmed our judgment. The top 10 publishers scored highest on five dimensions of scholarly publishing.
The Top 10 Self-Publishing Publishers for Scholarly and Academic Authors
According to such a comprehensive multi-factor assessment with 8 publishing standards, the following self-publishing publishers are rated in order to help academic researchers. The endnote method took into account academic prestige, editorial quality, and dissemination power, as well as influence in citations and academic record. Here are the top ten reputable platforms for self-publishing for researchers, educators, academic writers.
Amazon KDP is considered the best for its unparalleled reach, discoverability and budget-friendly distribution. Through ScholarOne, academic authors will receive immediate access to Amazon’s vast community of customers, integration with Amazon Author Central to help them claim and update their profile pages and tools to monitor citations, reviews, and metadata. Although KDP lacks traditional peer-review, its speed, scale, and ease-of-use combined with relatively low costs confer on it the dominant position in textbook, academic essay, and reference work self-publishing. Authors retain all rights and receive high royalties, 70 percent of digital sales.
IngramSpark is the next best thing, your one-stop site if you want libraries, institutional setup, and bookstore distribution. A member of the Ingram Content Group, it’s easy to list your titles in WorldCat, the Library of Congress, university libraries, and the lists of independent bestsellers worldwide. IngramSpark is particularly good when it comes to managing academic metadata, print-on-demand, and holding our own ISBN. Its strong back-end integration with academic distribution channels is a good choice for academics hoping to attract academic and commercial readers.
BookBaby is known for its full service offering that includes academic-level editing, formatting, indexing, and cover design. Authors have the freedom to publish under their own imprint but still gain access to broad ebook and print distribution. Quote-friendly formatting is available through BookBaby, and the company has transparent royalty rates. With U.S. based printing and direct-to-library distribution options available, BookBaby is the proven partner for academics of all types.
Blurb does well for its design flexibility, suitable for research that involves visual data, graphs or images. It’s the perfect tool for academics turning out design-heavy monographs, academic catalogs or qualitative research with ample visual material. With the distribution relationships we have with Ingram and Amazon, Blurb makes books available in both academic and retail environments. One of the biggest selling points of blub is its alignment with Adobe InDesign, which makes it appealing to academics with advanced publishing requirements.
Lulu is a well-known academic-friendly platform which provides press on demand, open access publication and academic fortification. Academic publishes dissertations, conference proceedings, or textbook easily. Lulu allows authors to apply a Creative Commons license to their work. Its dissemination through libraries and academic bookstores is facilitated by varied pricing, copyright control, and the structuring of metadata.
Xlibris brings in customized publishing with expert editing, indexing and citation formatting for academic writers. It is little more expensive than other platforms, in return for paywalled articles, copy editing, and promotional support, but its publishing fees encourage rather than simply enable academic rigor. The platform supports academic market specific publishing as well, for law, theology, education, etc.
Archway, which is supported by Simon & Schuster, offers traditional credibility with the flexibility of self-publishing. It provides a range of editorial levels to choose from. The company offers three tiers of service, including with peer review, and uses experienced academic editors. Academics gain properly credentialed views of S&S thanks to its branded connections to scholarship. Archway also helps in the promotion to libraries and educational institutions
iUniverse has a strong editorial foundation and a unique recognition-based publishing system. Novelists who are chosen for our “Editor’s Choice” or “Rising Star” distinction also get extra credibility and marketing. This is a space for faculty and professional writers to publish scholarly memoir, interdisciplinary research, and hybrid academic/non-academic texts
Balboa Press, a division of Hay House that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. It works for qualitative, narrative and conceptually oriented work — and in areas such as psychology, education and wellness studies to name a few. &R authors receive white-glove editorial shaping, and our platform distributes through both Amazon and Ingram, providing an author-friendly way to manage the trade-off between access and impact.
Newgen is an internationally rising academic self-publishing studio that collaborates with university presses and global academics. It provides services such as XML tagging, subject-specific indexing, peer-review assistance and multilingual publication. Headquartered in Asia, Europe and North America Newgen offers an international publishing platform that supports interdisciplinary research.
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