Even if you do almost everything else yourself or with the help of freelance publishing services folks, you will likely use an institution for printing and distribution.
But first, know that you don’t have to make a deal with any distribution outlet to sell your books. You can get an independent printer to print your books and then deliver the number of copies you order to your house. You can then sell them via your website, for example, and perform the packaging and shipping yourself. Your profit will be the simple difference between your retail price and the costs of printing, packaging, and shipping.
You can also offer an electronic version of your book in PDF form that customers can download from your site (so, no printing, packaging, or shipping costs). You can also sell ebooks independently, although you may still have to go through Amazon to get them onto Kindle devices. There are a number of other ebook reading apps, though (like iBooks on a Mac or iPad).
I’ve worked with three book distributors so far: Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ingram Spark, and BookBaby (more on those below). Other printers or printer/distributors include Lulu.com, Blurb, and Draft2Digital (primarily for ebooks).
Print on Demand (POD)
This process saves you the trouble of having book inventory in your garage or at a bookseller’s warehouse or store; you pay for printing and whatever cut the POD distributor takes when a book is ordered. Your retail price is under your control as long as these costs are covered. All the printer/distributors allow you to order printed “author” copies to sell yourself (although restrictions can apply if you use a “free” ISBN).
Print and Distribution to Booksellers
You can also opt to distribute your books more widely to brick-and-mortar booksellers and libraries. They will also want a wholesale discount on the retail price of your book (makes sense). When you set up book distribution with an entity like Ingram Spark or BookBaby, they will give you a choice of discount percentages you can give to print booksellers. The discount can range from 40 to 60 percent. If you choose a smaller discount, the bookseller will, of course, be less likely to stock your book, but the retail price is up to you, so it will be your call on balancing a reasonable retail price with how much you expect to add in sales from these sources.
There’s another complication with brick-and-mortar retailers; your sales may depend on whether or not you give them the traditional right to return books that don’t sell. Publishing is the only retail operation I can think of where the retailer can return merchandise in this way. It’s been a tradition in the business for many years. You don’t have to allow returns (you’d have to pay the printing and shipping cost for all of them!), but of course those booksellers may be less likely to buy your books if you don’t allow returns.
Most distributors (not just Amazon) also distribute ebooks to entities who sell them (normally POD-style sellers, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble).
And you don’t have to distribute through Amazon’s KDP to get your book on Amazon for sale; I don’t know if Amazon gives preference to KDP books over others, though.
Here are the distributors I’ve worked with so far and my review of the experience. I can definitely help you navigate their various processes for the most efficient results.