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Why not sell direct from author's website?
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Selling on your own site is fine, but most authors (that I talk with at least) I know that making sales on your personal website won't help your ranking/view count at places like Amazon. Amazon sees millions of users per day (probably per hour honestly) looking at books. Book buyers will sometimes search deeply into a genre to find what they are looking for, but I think most browse the Top 100 lists or such. Plus there's the 'customers who bought this also bought' part of Amazon's page. And the 'customers who viewed this item also viewed these items' part. For an author with a backlist, this is important. Sometimes it is important just because your book could be on that list of books that other customers bought, so even more customers have a chance to see your offerings.
If you have a heavily-traveled website with a ton of fans, then it probably would be easy to cut out Amazon or Smashwords or whoever you publish through normally. But unless you are a top name that people get into arguments over when your next book is coming out, it would limit your much-needed exposure.
Even if Amazon allowed you to post on their pages containing your product(s) that you have the same item for sale on your own personal website, customers will still prefer to purchase through Amazon or other established commerce sites. They know Amazon is safe with their order, they know if there's a problem with the order or the product that Amazon will eat it to keep customers happy, things like that.
I say Amazon a lot, but you can include Apple and other retailers/e-tailers in there.
I would also question making 3x or 4x from selling off your own site when you remember that Amazon pays 70% royalties on titles over $2.99. If you were selling a lot of books/stories for under $2.99, then yes, you can make almost 3x as much with the 35% royalty. If I remember correctly, the places that Smashwords distributes to pay fairly similar royalties.
Basically for a 30% cut of a $2.99+ book, you are getting much more exposure as an author from their site(s) than you could ever hope for from your own.
Travis wrote: "Selling on your own site is fine, but most authors (that I talk with at least) I know that making sales on your personal website won't help your ranking/view count at places like Amazon. Amazon see..."Thank you, Travis, for such an in-depth response. Now that we've built our online bookstore just for our one little book I have to agree that we've probably invested too much time for too little benefit.
On the other hand, my marketing philosophy is to cover all the bases. Yes, we may only sell a few books to our insider friends, but we can use the author's website to offer special deals, promotions and such that might sell a few extra books.
My only quarrel with anything you had to say is in regard to the compensation you get from Amazon etc. While you can earn 70 percent royalties on ebooks, selling pbooks through the booksellers hardly leaves you enough to cover pre-publication and print costs. When all is said and done, I'm hoping for a buck or two profit.
Of course, many people advise indie publishers to forget printing their books, but it is still about 50 percent of the market. That's a big base to cover, and I already told you my marketing strategy. :)
Would I recommend selling on the author's website? Well, we are not up and running yet, but based on my (and your) expectations, I would say not. But let's see how the thing works. I'm a newbie at self-publishing, and so I'm like a 74-year-old teenager; I gotta try it anyway.
Give it your Best Shot Jerry! Anything to keep you alive and kicking. Love your passion and attitude.
I heartily agree to cover all bases. I'm sure I'll put links on my own site at some point, though personally, I'd rather just put a 'donate' button up and if someone wants to donate for a copy of the book, they can, if they don't, well...that's perfectly fine by me as well, the more people reading my nonsense, the better. As for selling printed books...one day I suppose that I'll put something up on CreateSpace for anyone wanting an actual physical book, but my major interest is in e-books. I'm 40 but have been a tech guy for the last two decades, so I'm always advocating for evolution with technology (unlike the traditional publishing houses that haven't been able to correctly grasp this modern e-reader technology well enough to keep midlist authors around).
So I definitely don't know about the profit margin from a printed book. But with 70% royalties on e-books and the speed at which e-books are catching up to printed books, I'm okay with limiting my potential audience for a bit until I can get around to print versions. If the margins are that low, then as long as I'm not losing money, I'll accept a few pennies of profit to get my work into more readers' hands (the word that gets spread will definitely get spread to Kindle/Nook/Sony/smartphone users).
Investing a lot for a storefront on your own website will probably not be a profitable thing, but then again, how the heck would I (or anyone) know for sure? Whatever it takes to get your name and your product into consumer hands, right?
Always good to make sure your bases are all covered ;)
Looks like we're learning a bit from each other. I'm all in favor of epublishing, although I do think the technology is quite primitive as far as graphics is concerned. Especially mobi/kindle which doesn't worry too much about the look -- just words in pixels period. I'm liking epub much better as far as appearance is concerned. If books are going to go completely digital, then I sure hope digital learns how to make ebooks look good with a little more attention to readability.
I hate tablets and computer screens for reading, but I absolutely love my Kindle (the e-ink ones). To me, they are the same as reading a printed book. I can imagine writers who make graphic novels or non-fiction books that have a lot of art/pictures/illustrations wouldn't find the e-ink Kindles very flattering to their work (have you ever tried to look at a pdf or picture on a non-tablet Kindle? it's horrible).
I have to sell through my own website. I can't afford to sell paperbacks on Amazon and haven't the technology to sell ebooks there. Also I have sold far more paperbacks than ebooks - which I sell through Blurb.com and Apple. Check out my website which has links to every sales site I possess. www.treasurechestbooks.co.uk
Why can't you afford to sell paperbacks on Amazon? CreateSpace is Print On Demand that really caters to self-publishers like us. As for technology...you do have a computer? If yes, then you have the technology to sell ebooks on Amazon (as well as every other publishing site like Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, etc.).
If you have sold more paperbacks than ebooks, it probably is from the fact that you think you don't have the technology to sell ebooks at Amazon or anywhere else. (see my point about owning a computer above)
Okay, so I just got my novella put into CreateSpace (need to fix the cover as it was only for ebook version, my artist will give me a print version sometime today).
Cost out of my pocket = $0.00
Minimum Price (meaning the minimum I can charge for the book) = $3.69
Royalty @ $4.99 sale price = $.78 (Amazon) and $1.78 (CreateSpace eSTore)
Royalty @ $5.99 = $1.38 (Amazon) and $2.38 (eStore)
(will continue to edit this post as I get through the process)
Travis wrote: "Why can't you afford to sell paperbacks on Amazon? CreateSpace is Print On Demand that really caters to self-publishers like us. As for technology...you do have a computer? If yes, then you have ..."
I simply don't understand the instructions on how to submit in a format acceptable to Amazon, Smashwords, et al. Yes I have the technology in equipment, but not the technological understanding required. And don't know anyone who would be able to teach me. I have ME so can't go to classes, as I am not well enough. I am largely self taught, and have picked a bit up as I go along. With Blurb it is very easy to create high quality books, without having any technical expertise, and they convert to e and ibooks for me. I am in a bit of a cleft stick. Also the ME doesn't allow me the energy to sit for too long at a computer, so it's difficult to learn, even if I had someone to teach me. I am pretty determined otherwise I wouldn't have got this far, but this next step seems to be beyond me. My books are poetry, which seems to require a different format from novels as the layout is different, which only adds to the complexities for me.
I know your story, Loretta. Thank god for my dear wife who doesn't know everything but she can't stand NOT knowing and so she researches, learns and fights her way through the technological maze. That's why I call her aMAZEing.Oh, and she has MS. Never has a "good day" but does have the courage to press onward. You too are my hero.
Jerry wrote: "I know your story, Loretta. Thank god for my dear wife who doesn't know everything but she can't stand NOT knowing and so she researches, learns and fights her way through the technological maze. T..."That's wonderful to hear, Jerry, and so encouraging. I have, myself, fought throguh many technical mazes because I couldn't stand not knowing (I reckon your wife and I would get on well :) ) but the one above makes me hit a blank wall every time. Never mind. Thanks for your cheering words. Best wishes to you and your aMAZEing wife.
Travis wrote: "I heartily agree to cover all bases. I'm sure I'll put links on my own site at some point, though personally, I'd rather just put a 'donate' button up and if someone wants to donate for a copy of t..."Fulfillment and shipping are a pain in the neck. Plus you also have to do the taxes differently (perhaps) with a schedule C, but that does allow business deductions... Like the cost of travel from your bedroom to your home office. (:- You have to have a means of handling money securely -- my IP sells a whole business package that looks good -- shopping cart, everything. As for p-book profit margins, the production cost is the big thing. Then your distributor (=your print on demand service?) will include its fulfillment and shipping costs. For me it costs $11-$15 to produce a 300 page POD, so that's a profit of $10 on a copy. BUT the book has to be ordered directly from the distributor. If it's bought from Amazon or like that, there's another slice, plus if you've offered the industry standard discount of 20-40% so it can be stocked in bookstores (also need an ISBN for that) your profit is down to maybe $4 on a $25 book. That's 16%. Very good, actually. You'd make $8000 on a typical commercial sale of a novel at 2000 copies.
Charles wrote: "Travis wrote: "I heartily agree to cover all bases. I'm sure I'll put links on my own site at some point, though personally, I'd rather just put a 'donate' button up and if someone wants to donate ..."You've got an interesting bookstore there Charles. And interesting products too.
As for fulfillment, I'm getting a big kick out of it now, just sending requested ARCs to book reviewers. Being a newbie, it's fun! But I've anticipated it becoming a chore and I can fall back on my on-demand printer to take over in the event the chore gets out of hand. Which, I might add, would be a happy problem, right?
Your production costs may be higher than mine because of all the artwork. My 308-page paperback (all text except the cover) is costing me around $4.00 each for the first 500. Which will probably be all I print that way for direct sales only. I'm going to use the on-demand print services of Amazon etc. for sales through the online booksellers. Using Amazon, etc. as the printer cuts down on my bulk shipping costs and is truly print-on-demand with no need for warehousing either.
My wife manages another online store for a client, and we have a PayPal setup leftover from an online business we used to have. So selling online, handling money online is not new to us. Nevertheless, collecting tax is a new experience. But she has found an automatic calculator (point of sale) for sales tax collection that appears to be helpful.
Now I'm getting into details I don't really have a good handle on. I'll see if I can get Michele to provide more intelligent input to this discussion.
If your print run is on the order of 500 copies then your unit cost would be lower, yes. With the POD print run=1 people I would think the major factor would be paper, so it's hard to understand why it's so high. Of course you can find a POD with a lower production cost than I quoted but I don't think the quality is so good. If you're storing inventory you need to take that into account, and you can no longer deduct inventory costs from year to year as you once could. One of the factors leading to shorter print runs.
Jerry wrote: "Travis wrote: "Selling on your own site is fine, but most authors (that I talk with at least) I know that making sales on your personal website won't help your ranking/view count at places like Ama..."
Definitely go for it, Jerry! As long as you can 1) fulfill the orders through your personal site without too much of a headache and 2) not be discouraged that the majority of your sales likely won't come from this route, I think it's a great idea.
"I'm a newbie at self-publishing, and so I'm like a 74-year-old teenager; I gotta try it anyway." I love it! Keep up the attitude and always be curious-- self-publishing is a risk in itself so there is no reason not to explore every avenue. Best of luck!
Definitely go for it, Jerry! As long as you can 1) fulfill the orders through your personal site without too much of a headache and 2) not be discouraged that the majority of your sales likely won't come from this route, I think it's a great idea.
"I'm a newbie at self-publishing, and so I'm like a 74-year-old teenager; I gotta try it anyway." I love it! Keep up the attitude and always be curious-- self-publishing is a risk in itself so there is no reason not to explore every avenue. Best of luck!
I agree with Garrett. I had to learn a lot of stuff and the results have been miserable but I felt I owed it to the books as well as myself. One of the most disappointing things was about how blog visits don't translate to the web site and so forth. So much for surfers. People are really siloed, which is why you have to do the publicity thing everywhere.
Loretta wrote: "Travis wrote: "Why can't you afford to sell paperbacks on Amazon? CreateSpace is Print On Demand that really caters to self-publishers like us. As for technology...you do have a computer? If yes,..."
There are a couple great books sold very cheaply on Amazon that detail how to format print books. For ebooks, your best bet is to follow the Smashwords guide free on their website. You use Microsoft Word.
The most basic things is to remove headers and footers, don't use tabs (use indents), don't have a lot of blank lines, and don't go too crazy with your fonts and font sizes. That's pretty much it. Amazon converts your Word document into mobi. Smashwords can convert it into every conceivable format. Barnes and Nobel also converts Word docs into epub. I never mess with HTML or anything else.
Garrett wrote: "Jerry wrote: "Travis wrote: "Selling on your own site is fine, but most authors (that I talk with at least) I know that making sales on your personal website won't help your ranking/view count at p..."What an upbeat post. I needed that! Thanks.
Great post that brings up some interesting points. As an author you are striving to build your brand while at the same time you are hoping the the retailers are providing you that all important marketing exposure. At Autography (www.autography.com) we enable authors to personalize and sign their eBooks in much the same way as they would a physical book. The major difference is that for every signed eBook the author is collecting an email address and creating that all important author-reader connection. Why not sell signed eBooks directly from the author website as a 'value add'. Each recipient of the signed eBook provides their email address and has the option to immediately share the signed page from the eBook on his/her social networks creating a powerful secondary marketing activity. This will result in more sales through the conventional eBookstore platforms.Check out Romance Author Stephanie Laurens signing eBooks during a recent online event.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32641745/Step...
For further information call 619.921.4949 or email garry@autography.com
Garry wrote: "Great post that brings up some interesting points. As an author you are striving to build your brand while at the same time you are hoping the the retailers are providing you that all important mar..."Very interesting service you offer. Given my view of the typical ebook reader, however, I wonder how much interest they will have in having "autographed" ebooks. That's kind of old fashioned.
The most read ebooks come as mobi/kindle and those don't even open up to show the cover! The layout and typography is primitive and so how a book appears does not seem to be an issue with ereaders. So, it amounts to simply words in pixels. Very untraditional. So, what's your experience so far? Do these ereaders care about autographed copies?
Now please don't get upset with me, ereaders. I'm one. Carry my tablet or kindle around with me everywhere. Doesn't mean I don't miss the beauty of a printed book or one autographed by the author. But given the limitation of ebooks, I'm just wondering if eautographs will catch on.
Jerry wonders whether autographed e-books will catch on. I think not -- as a squint at the way people use e-books on Goodreads discussions. There is no carriage trade in e-books.Re a previous thread, I don't actually sell books on my site. I provide a quick link to someone who does -- preferably Smashwords or my POD distributor, where I get the best profits. Hasn't worked, but it's an idea, and one-stop shopping sure makes posts easier.
If I understand correctly, you have to price match if you publish through Amazon. Meaning if you offer a lower price elsewhere, Amazon will lower your price on Amazon to match.If I understand correctly...
Hi Jerry, it is already catching on. Last week at one 45 minute book signing 20 HarperCollins authors signed over 500 eBooks for their readers/fans. See this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBgAyE...
We have over 200 authors using the platform and in a recent survey of our users 100% of the respondents said they would recommend Autography to other authors.
Try it, setup online book tours, offer signed eBooks to whoever attends. Send personalized and signed eBooks to reviewers, you will be amazed how that is perceived. Remember these are not stamped digitized signatures, every eBook is personally signed by you utilizing a stylus and an iPad application specifically customized for the author.
Garry wrote: "Hi Jerry, it is already catching on. Last week at one 45 minute book signing 20 HarperCollins authors signed over 500 eBooks for their readers/fans. See this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB..."
Well, well. I would'na thunk. The stylus is a good touch (! literally)
I sell both through my own site and through amazon. I use flying cart which has an advantage of a "fan club." I was able to notify members immediately when a book went live on amazon and got them to post reviews.
Garry wrote: "Hi Jerry, it is already catching on. Last week at one 45 minute book signing 20 HarperCollins authors signed over 500 eBooks for their readers/fans. See this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB..."
One thing I forgot to mention on this thread dah!! With Autography, unlike physical book signings, each eBook signing collects an email address, GPS location of signing, file type distributed (mobi or ePub), number of times the signature page was shared on social networks be type. Creating significant value for the author.
good idea looking forward to your rsults
Selling directly from author site could only be as successful as the amount of traffic. What percentage of website visits do you expect to result in a sale?Direct from author site sales from high traffic sites are improved if there is something unique or limited edition. Promotions offering ARC of next in series, with a coupon discount for current or next purchase, etc.
For hardcover sales, that could be an autographed book, a limited edition (perhaps sized differently or unique cover or interior graphics), bonus material (sometimes a background or POV short of a secondary character, deleted scenes, etc.). Discount code or coupon for current or next sale. Bundled/omnibus or boxed sets.
Ebooks the same except for possibly the autographing. Offering a huge list of file types as download options is a big plus. For example, I still go back to publisher Baen ebooks to download because I can download/transfer to whichever ereader I am carrying at the time even though they've now repaired/re-negotiated their relationship with amazon— still get my kindle files from Baen rather than amazon.
(Nothing against autography, but if I'm on a site where I can get author's autograph on either ebook or hardcover, I am getting the hardcover. Data files, with or without autographs, are just not collectible to me.)
Would I buy the same ebook from author's site that I would from amazon, Baen, smashwords, ibooks, kobo, Barnes and Noble or other booksellers? Absolutely not. I would not trust the author's site to store my purchase to re-download whenever I did something goofy on my ereader; the "cloud" aspect of the booksellers listed always keeping my purchase safe for me. The author website, assuming it even stuck around versus author changing blogs or host sites, might not. History says that with my family's ereader history -- we need the cloud purchase protections.
As previous poster mentioned, amazon has odd price match rules that are best to just avoid (just ebooks I believe and you set minimum price on createspace paperbacks but always subject to change or to get into some other fine print loophole plus killing any paperback sales on amazon with reviewers saying "overpriced compared to price of books on other websites" that don't mention your website but do send frustrated potential buyers googling for those cheaper hardcovers.) Codes and coupons for ebooks, never show a lower price that amazon will match.
Hi Debbie,Its not about a collectible, it's about creating a connection between the author and reader. Then its all about maintaining that relationship and helping the author sell more books.
On the collectible topic. We recently surveyed a group of 16-25 year olds and asked them if they could collect and hold their author, music artist or sports star autographs on their smart phone (and cloud) instead of a physical memorabilia, would the 'signings' still have value to them personally? Almost 100% said they would prefer to have their signed content immediately available and be able to share their signatures on FB etc. letting their 'friends' know they just received a signed image, eBook from whoever..
Imagine this scenario....
You attend a signing or receive an eBook signed by an author. You then immediately share that signed page throughout your social networks... result the eBook title and the author have just been exposed to many potential readers.
In the meantime the author receives your email address + a monthly report that details social share statistics and other key reader metrics, type of device etc..
The goal of Autography is to create author-reader connections. In the same way as MP3's replaced CD's, physical books will be replaced by eBooks. Physical autographs will remain collectible but authenticated unique digital signings create far more value for the originator and are more fun for the recipient :)
I certainly did not mean to make this a thread about autography or to attack your product. I just wanted to suggest that if an author wanted to make direct sales on their website that something to make purchasing on their site "unique" or "value added" would be a good idea. That could, of course, include an ebook autograph using your system for all I know. Garry wrote: "...create far more value for the originator..."
I suspect that depends on the originator, particularly if the author/originator even has facebook or other social media accounts. Some of my favorite authors are very active in social media, personal blogs, goodreads, etc.—others could care less and don't even have a facebook page.
I'm also not 16-25 and the only autographs I have ever shared on facebook or other websites were deliberately blurred or chopped into to avoid forgeries (my weird paranoid mindset but when ebay came out all kinds of crap went on with hardcopies — very different from the authentications Autography is doing on ebooks but experiences that make me never share signatures.)
Given a choice of a digital autograph or no autograph because author would not be making a personal appearance any location I could visit -- I'd take the digital autograph. (And we all know how bookstores with author appearances are sadly dwindling.) At an author's appearance, I'd try for both hardcopy and ebook signing.
Given a choice to buy a non-personalized autographed hardcopy for sure from author's website or off a bookstore shelf versus waiting in a long line at a convention or bookstore appearance where I may or may not get an autograph ... my sore feet are waiting in line.
An autograph, no matter how collectible or not, just doesn't mean as much to me if I'm not there to hear the author and see the signing (exception if a dear friend obtained for me).
I am aware though, that 16-25's in general do a lot more online or digital than my age group.
I cannot imagine trading the experience of a little ukulele performance by John Scalzi and Jim C. Hines last year or Isaac Asimov's appearance in Finland when he was still alive (boy was it difficult finding a reason convincing enough for your parents to let you go out of the country for that one) … too many adventures, too many fascinating speeches and joking back and forth, too much standing in line with other fans finding more stuff for the TBR — just not going to convince me receiving a digital signature is a trade for any of my face-to-face booksignings. Okay, I'm old and weird and even went to Brandon Sanderson Memory of Light signing straight from surgery in a wheelchair...
Loretta wrote: "Jerry wrote: "I know your story, Loretta. Thank god for my dear wife who doesn't know everything but she can't stand NOT knowing and so she researches, learns and fights her way through the technol..."Loretta, I have a formatter I use to get it right for Amazon and Createspace and she did it for $15. I'd be happy to send you the info if you want. All I did was send her my Word document and she made it pretty and functional for me. I'm not sure if this would solve your cover issue, as this was done for me as well by a professional graphic designer.
I have it available on my website,with the link to amazon and others to purchase my book. I had someone make it for me, I have a blog area on the website as well. I'm actually getting more emails through Wordpress and not the website. I don't understand it.
THE Group for Authors!
Authors mentioned in this topic
Brandon Sanderson (other topics)John Scalzi (other topics)
Jim C. Hines (other topics)
Considering the large chunk booksellers take from the price of a book, I decided to create an online bookstore for my book "Hellraiser—Mother Jones: An Historical Novel". Of course, the book will be sold through the booksellers as well.
It's a little complicated to do, using PayPal and of course there is the fulfillment process, but I'm giving it a try. If there's some interest shown in this topic, I will be glad to share this experience with my fellow goodread authors.
Take a look at my Hellraiser website: jerry ash.com
The book does not go on sale until September 22, and so the bookstore is not yet active although ready. What you can see is the first page of the store. It will go live sometime between now and launch day. I'm thinking about opening the store for pre-launch sales!