Indie authors hoping to take their books to international markets need look no further than self-publishing platform EBL, a joint venture of Grupo Planeta, among the largest publishing company in the world, and Lantia, one of the world’s largest self-publishing operations, which has served more than 68,000 authors, with a focus on American markets.

Actively seeking everything from commercial fiction to children’s books and memoirs, EBL is a launching pad for books, with a stable of more than 400 artists and illustrators across the world. Offering a range of services and plans—and giving authors a whopping 80% of net publishing profits—EBL boasts the experience, versatility, and reach that indie authors need to succeed.

PW sat down with Lantia CEO Enrique Parrilla to talk about the EBL platform’s nuts and bolts, book distribution, what makes the company stand out from the pack, and a whole lot more.

There are many self-publishing houses. What makes EBL stand out from the competition?

The companies behind it and the quality and purpose of the service, which truly is a point of entry for being traditionally published. Planeta is actively seeking new authors in the self-publishing scene. Lantia is the professional services company that runs the largest self-publishing operation in Europe and has already brought dozens of first-time self-published titles into traditionally published book form with PRH, Planeta, and other imprints. The editors, illustrators, designers, and binders who finish the books are the same professionals who participate in traditionally published titles. You get the same level of service every step of the way.

EBL offers three different plans at different price points. How can authors best determine which plan to choose?

EBL has always had a one-price no-haggle policy. We allow the author to decide how involved he wants to be in the project. If he wants to get his feet wet and just try for the lowest common denominator that is required for a book to have a chance to succeed, we are happy to provide that level of support by offering the basic package. However, if you want to go full throttle from the beginning, get a personalized marketing campaign going, etc., they can choose the higher-level programs and have an equal footing when it comes to competing with the traditionally published guys. We can even offer additional services like arranging an audiobook version of the title. We really emphasize the personal needs of the author and try to tailor to them.

Can you talk about EBL’s English-language program, which launched in February 2020?

We went to New York to meet with several writers’ organizations, such as the National Writers Union and many others, prior to our launch. A big party was announced for March, and then, of course, our flight out of New York was literally the last one before the world shut down. We decided to continue with the project and do a soft launch instead, which yielded several very exciting projects, but the Covid-19 situation generated so much uncertainty that most people chose, wisely, to wait and see. This pause turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The extra time gave us an opportunity to reinforce our infrastructure and distribution channels. The layoffs that the industry suffered allowed us to hire new support personnel we otherwise would not have had access to. Now that the world seems to be reopening, we are in a much better position. EBL uses the Lantia platform to manage its self-published titles, and although it does not yet release its numbers, I can share that EBL titles represent the majority of the books in English in the platform, which right now holds 87,000 books and works with more than 60,000 authors.

Can you tell us a little about how EBL books are distributed?

EBL uses every major channel in the U.S., including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, and all the academic providers through partners like Lectorum or Cauce. Additionally, all the books are available in the Spanish, Central, and South American markets through the strength of our unparalleled channel network of more than 4,200 points of sale and access to more than 3,000 libraries. We distribute printed books, e-books, and audiobooks to all markets across all continents. You will not find a better distribution operation than ours. In fact, due to our strength in Latin America and Spain, we have recently launched the service of translating books, which have already enjoyed success in English, into Spanish, so that they can have access to that growing international market.