Your print and e-book(s) might be on Amazon for quite a while now, and it is certainly convenient to list books at the worlds’ largest book retailer. However, not everyone has a Kindle, many readers are die-hard Apple iBook fans or they are using a Nook, or order from Kobo. Why lose out on these sales?
Why would you forego on sales from Apple’s iBooks, on Barnes & Noble, and Kobo? Or the many large European bookshops, such as the UK Waterstones, Gardners, Thalia or Weltbild in German countries, or the large Australian e-book store Angus & Robertson?
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Problems With Retailer Amazon
Journalist Douglas Preston explains: “Amazon quietly changed the way it sells books when allowing third-party sellers to trick Amazon’s customers by selling books as “new” that may not come straight from a publisher or its wholesaler. These third-party sellers are now featured atop the primary purchase button for new books. This was always the spot for Amazon’s own inventory, delivered directly from the publishers or indie authors.”
As an author who supplies Amazon with books, you assume that you deal only with Amazon as a seller. But no, not anymore…
Signing up with KDP Select and commit to exclusivity has not paid out for authors – and the marketing method of giving free ebooks away was never a good idea.
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Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket!
For years I wrote in many blogs and in my publishing guidebooks: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Sell your e-books and books on your own website – an alternative to aggregators who don’t reduce your revenues – no matter how many books you sell. How to sell your books from your own website is explained in this article.
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Diversify
Sell your books through distributors worldwide. A former article: Who is the best? Book Distributors compared lists most of the reliable distributors/aggregators in North America and Europe. Draft2Digital is in my experience as a publisher for several authors one of the best distributors.
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Living Outside of the USA?
Another reason to use a distributor: If you are you living outside the USA, as an independent author and you don’t want to go through all the hassle with opening an US branch for your publishing business. Barnes & Noble, for example, doesn’t deal with foreign authors, and they also require US-Bank accounts from their suppliers in order to pay out revenue for books sold.
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Want to Keep 100% Revenue?
Distributors/aggregators will upload your e-book to on- and off-line retailers, libraries and distributors and most important: they do all the “book-keeping” for you. Authors and publisher are charged either a standard annual fee per title – no matter of how many retailers you choose to distribute and sell your books to – or require a commission. Most companies use the commission-model and charge between 10-15% per sale.
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However, if you want to keep (almost) all revenue from your books, then sell from your own website!
It is so easy these days to implement a “turn-key” e-commerce page on your web presence. The greatest benefit for you as the author is that you get the data of your buyers! You will know who reads your books or gives it as a present. Data you would never receive from Amazon or other retailers!
There are several IT companies who are running the sales and payment process for a small fee for you – no matter if e-books, audio-books or the print version. Just to mention a few of the many e-stores available: Shopify, EJunkie, Ganxy, Selz or Gumroad.
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More About Distribution Through Aggregators:
Aggregators handle distribution, sales, accepting payments, and are managing your account with the online retailers. Avoid those who take a 10 or even 15% commission for every book sold.
Read also about the experience of an author, detailed with all his sales numbers, costs associated and a comparison of revenue on several online retailer sites from Amazon, Apple and Kobo to sales on his own website. Distributors connect your books to subscription services, such as Scribd and BookMate and to thousands of libraries through LibraryThing.
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One Last Tip:
Distributors are uploading books, but don’t create an author’s page on Amazon for you. It might be wise to upload to Amazon directly in order to be able to set up an appealing author page.
Give your readers lots of information about you, your writing, and your books, and add attractive images.
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