How to sell a book on Google Play: a checklist
Step 1. Create an account
Quick steps
- If you don't already have one, create a new account.
- Agree to the Terms and Conditions.
Detailed steps
- Create a new account. Either sign in using your Google Account or create a new account.
- Provide account details and contact information.
- Click Continue.
- Review the Terms and Conditions.
Note: The Google Books and Google Play Agreement may be presented to you in a single combined document. If you accept these terms, indicate this with the appropriate selections. - Click Continue.
Step 2. Set up your payment profile
Quick steps
Add a new payment profile.
You must have a payment profile in order to sell books on Google Play. The country listed in this payment profile will determine the currency you're paid in.
Detailed steps
- You'll be asked to set up a payment profile in a pop-up box when you sign up for a new account and agree to the terms. If you skipped this step, go to the Payment Center, and under Payment profiles, click Add a Payment Profile.
- Enter your business name, contact name, address, and phone number.
- Click the Submit button.
- If you clicked Add a Payment Profile in the first step: Edit your sales territory (or create a new one) and select the new payment profile from the Payment profile drop-down, then click Save Changes.
Step 3. Add sales territories
Quick steps
Add a territory.
Sales territories indicate the countries where your books can be sold, as well as which payment profile should be used to collect revenue from sales in those countries. A sales territory can include several countries if they share the same configuration. For different configurations, create separate sales territories.
Detailed steps
- On your computer, sign in to the Payment Center.
- Under "Sales Territories," click Add a territory or Edit.
- Select an existing payment profile. If the payment profile has been recently created and doesn't display in the drop-down list, try to reload the page.
- Enter the list of countries or regions that this configuration should apply to. Read our formatting guidelines.
- If you're ready to activate this sales territory, check the box next to "Enable this region configuration."
- Click Create Territory.
A same country or region should be listed in only one sales territory. If you choose to use WORLD
or ECZ
, it will automatically exclude countries listed in other active sales territories.
Step 4. Tell us about your book
Quick steps
- Add the book to your Book Catalog.
- Enter bibliographic information for the book.
In this step, you need to provide general bibliographic details for the book. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or other identifier, genre, and title are required, but you should complete as many fields as possible, as richer data could help readers discover your books. You will provide additional settings specific to Google Books or Google Play in the next steps.
Detailed steps
- Sign in to the Partner Center.
- On the left, click Book Catalog Add Book.
- Enter the book's ISBN (either the 10-digit or 13-digit ISBN is fine) or European Article Number (EAN). If you don't have an ISBN or EAN for this book, check the box next to "This book doesn't have an ISBN or other identifier," and a Google-specific identifier (prefixed with
GGKEY
) will be assigned to your book. Learn more about how to change a book identifier. - If you have multiple templates in your account, select the template with the default settings you'd like to apply to this book.
- On the "Metadata" page, provide as much info as possible about the book.
Learn more
Step 5. Upload content
Quick steps
Under "Content," upload the book content and cover files.
Google accepts eBook files in .pdf or .epub format. If possible, we recommend that you submit both in order to provide buyers with more reading choices.
Detailed steps
- Sign in to the Partner Center.
- Under "Content," click Upload content.
- Click Choose files and select the files for this book from your computer. You can upload multiple files at one time. Follow our filename guidelines.
- Successfully uploaded and processed files will be listed on this tab, although there may be a process delay before they appear.
Step 6. Provide prices
Quick steps
- On the book's "Prices" tab, add a new price.
- Enter the currency, value, and the applicable countries for the price.
We require a price in order to list your book on Google Play. If you wish to make your book available at no charge, please enter zero as the price. Google will calculate your revenue share based on the list price you provide. There are 3 required components for a price:
- Currency,
- Numeric amount
- Countries where the price applies
Google needs a price in the local currency for each country where you want to sell the book. For example, to sell in the US, you must either:
- Directly provide a price in US dollars.
- Enable conversion (Accounts created after July 2014 have this option turned on by default), and include the US in the list of countries where a price in another country should be applied.
You can provide multiple prices with different settings, such as different currencies if necessary.
Detailed steps
- Sign in to the Partner Center.
- Go to the Prices tab for the book.
- Click Add a new price Currency. Enter the currency formatted as a 3-letter ISO 4217 code, such as
USD
for US dollars. - To enter the numeric price, click Amount.
-
If you don't want this price to apply to all possible countries, click World and enter the list of countries where you'd like this price to apply, formatted according to our guidelines.
- If currency conversion is enabled (for accounts created after July 2014, this option is on by default), you can list countries that use a different currency than the one you specified or use the keyword
World
to indicate all your sales territories. Your converted prices will be based on your list price. - If you're not using the currency conversion tool, you should provide separate list prices in the local currency for each country where you wish to sell the book.
Learn more
Step 7. Configure additional settings
Quick steps
Under "Settings," configure distribution and Google Search preview settings.
Additional settings allow you to customize how your book is displayed and distributed.
Detailed steps
- Configure Google Play distribution settings
- If you want to apply Digital Rights Management (DRM) to your book, check the box next to "DRM enabled."
- If you have the rights to include images in the eBook, check the box next to "Show photos in eBook." If a book contains a significant number of images, we can sell it only if this box is checked or if we receive an .epub file.
- Google has converted selected books into .epub format. Check the box next to "Only display flowing text from an EPUB I provided" if you would prefer to sell this book in .epub format only if you provided the .epub file.
- If you wish to sell the book in .pdf format, check the box next to "Include scanned pages."
- Do not change “Reading order except for EPUBs” from "Default" unless the pages of this book appear in reverse order. This Reading Order setting is valid for non-.epub files only. For .epub files, the reading order should be set explicitly inside of the .epub.
- If content includes explicit sexual behavior, graphic violence, profanity, or drug use/abuse, check the box next to "For mature audiences."
- Select the maximum allowable percentage of the book that buyers can copy and paste in the "Copy/paste percentage" field.
- Configure your Google Search preview settings
- You can change the percentage of the book that can be previewed on Google Books with the "Preview-type" drop-down.
- Make sure your preview territories are formatted correctly and include any sales territories (see Step 4).
- If you sell your book directly on your own website, you may want to include a Buy link. The Buy link text should be the name of your website and the Buy link should be the URL for purchasing this specific book.
- Enter your website homepage URL as the publisher website.
- If you have a logo, you can upload it as the publisher logo.
- If you have the rights to show images in the book preview, check the box next to "Show photos in preview."
- If you set the preview percentage to 100% and you wish to make the book downloadable on Google Books, check the box next to "PDF download allowed."
- If you set a future On-Sale Date in the previous step, in the distribution settings, and you don't want this book to be previewable before that date, check the box next to "No preview before on sale date."
Learn more
Step 8. Publish the book
Quick steps
- Click the Publish tab.
- Publish the book on Google Play.
Once your files are uploaded and you're satisfied with your book's settings, you're ready to make your book available for sale.
Detailed steps
- Sign in to the Partner Center.
- Click Publish. If you've previously changed this book's status, the tab may be called "Summary."
- In the upper right corner, click Ready to publish if this is a new book.
- Click Publish to Google Play and Google Books.
Note: For some books, the button may have a different label, such as "Enable for Google Books" or "Activate and enable for Google Play." If none of the options mention "publishing to" or "enabling" for Google Play, your book is already published and you can just save instead. - Congratulations! Your book should be available for sale within a day. You can see your book on Google Play when you click Content Google Play link.
Learn more
Step 9. Specify a bank account and provide tax information
Quick steps
- In the Payment Center, edit your payment profile.
- Add a payment method.
- If you plan to sell books in the US, submit tax information.
- If your bank account is in Europe, verify your business information.
In order for Google to pay you for your book sales, you'll need to provide details about your bank account. You can start selling books without providing details about your bank account. Google will hold accrued funds from any sales.
Detailed steps
All Play Books publishers must submit tax information to Google, regardless of whether they earn revenue from sales in the US or not. Otherwise, your revenue earnings may be held.
- Go to the Payment Center.
- Next to the payment profile, click Edit.
- In the "How you get paid" box, click Add payment method.
- Enter your bank account information.
- Click Save.
All Play Books publishers must submit tax information to Google, regardless of whether they earn revenue from sales in the US or not. Otherwise, your revenue earnings may be held.
- On the "Edit Payment Profile" screen, in the "Settings" box, click Manage settings.
- Next to "United States tax info," click Edit .
- You'll be asked a series of questions in order to direct you to the appropriate tax form, which you should fill out.
- Click Submit.
For bank accounts in the following countries, please verify your business information:
|
|
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- Visit our Merchant identity and verification for payments page and select your business type.
- Fill out the form on the next page. You can find your Payments profile ID listed in the Payment Center of your Partner Center account
- Click Submit.
Checklist complete
You've completed the steps necessary to sell a book on Google Play. Your settings should take effect within a day.
Additional things to do once your book is available for sale
- Verify your bank account in order to receive payments. (This isn't necessary for countries paid via wire transfer.)
- Check your sales reports.
- If you change your mind about having this book available for sale on Google Play, learn how to remove a book.
- To make bulk changes to a large number of books, you can use a spreadsheet.
If your book still isn't available for sale after going through this checklist, please try our troubleshooting tool.