The “Amazon of Social Media”

Aerbook

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Ever wondered how you can manage to sell your print books worldwide, maybe even selling books of your writer friends, or those that you reviewed and titles you are passionate about?  Maybe you even tried to get into book stores and libraries with your ebooks or to sell as an affiliate of Amazon?  A lot of time and work effort and often only a few bucks at the end – despite being on Social Media and having thousands of followers.
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There is a Solution:
Aer.io combines the simplicity and zero risk of an affiliate program with the earnings potential and email relationships of a full eCommerce investment – without you the author or publisher having to stock or ship anything!
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Joel Friedlaender
“Even before their acquisition by Ingram, I would have said the big news for 2016 is the evolution of Ron Martinez’s retailing tools at Aer.io, which, for the first time starts to address the problem of distribution for indie authors – especially those who publish print books.  Aer.io allows authors to sell direct to readers on their own site or through the social web.”
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Social Media and Author Websites as “Point of Sale”.
Aerbook, now a venture of Ingram that creates retail opportunities in social media for publishers and authors.  It allows (self) publishers to connect with their readers via the social streams through their timeline, news feed, and boards—on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook and similar applications, offering product information, sample chapters, social sharing, and use of the “buy” buttons.

It’s a shift from just advertising to commerce, available to any book via interactive social content and links to purchasing opportunities that can be sent down the social streams of targeted consumers, alongside their posts, RTs, and social chit chat.

The service is focused on selling digital books as well as print books.  Unlike on the traditional Web, where the user “visits” various URLs, or social media sites, content comes to the user via a news feed or on their social media timeline.  The ability to sell directly to consumers via social media is key to Aerbook’s utility.
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This is How it Works:
When a Twitter or Facebook user clicks on an Aerbook link in his or her timeline, the Aerbook Cloud Reader opens, which can be used to read a sample chapter (or the entire book if the publisher chooses), share the excerpt, download it, or buy the book outright.

The Aerbook Cloud Reader can be viewed on laptops and mobile devices, and publishers can use it to sell print or digital books.  The service allows publishers to push books periodically into the social stream.

Publishers and authors can upload conventional epub files or PDF of their e-books to Aerbook and convert them into its format, adding keywords and metadata.  The company offers three product plans, one of them is book retail sales:
Aerbook Retail, which is free, includes a product page with a book sample, social sharing, and buy buttons to sell directly from the social stream. Aerbook fulfills the orders, and the publisher gets 85% of NET sales.  The plan also includes metrics, usage, and best of all: buyer data – well, if the buyer agrees.
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A Turn-Key Solution. Set up in Minutes.
Start selling in a day. Storefront, social marketing tools, mobile-optimized cart and checkout, and fulfillment for both print and eBooks, even audio or games.
Reliable consumer direct fulfillment for print books by Ingram Content Group – you don’t need to ship anything.  Aerbook multi-format ebook fulfillment in ePub and Kindle formats.
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Try it for Free.
There’s no upfront or ongoing cost to set up an embeddable Aer.io storefront, curating from their extended catalog of 14 million books, DVDs and Blu-Rays, Graphic Novels, Games, and more.
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Upload Your Own eBooks.
…and offer them alongside print editions drawn from the millions of books in Ingram Content Group’s warehouse. Then brand your offerings and sell on your site and on the social web. There’s no setup or annual fee for your Aer.io Retail page. Aer.io earns 10% of the selling price on each sale, and handles fulfillment, support, stats and more.  Plus ask for and get user email from within the sample.  In addition to selling directly, add links to retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.
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See an Example of a Book Sales Page.
Embed a storefront with a line of code, or commerce-enable an existing website and book pages.  Aer.io requires no code development.  All you need is an empty web or blog page, and your books will be presented in a mobile, responsive storefront, full of rich product detail.

If you already have a fully developed website with detailed book pages, you can add the Aer.io “Buy” and “Preview” buttons without ever using their storefront.  The choice, and the power to retain the value of your investment, is yours.  Preview and sell in social streams and native apps, desktop and mobile.
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What’s the Deal?
Aer.io combines the simplicity and zero risk of an affiliate program with the earnings potential and email relationships of a full eCommerce investment. Authors cannot only sell their own books, but also any book, available from the largest wholesale company Ingram which represents 28,000 publishers.
See an example economics for a hardcover book on their website.

Exclusivity: You can opt for the ability to make your own or other books “private” to your Aer.io Store, to make it unavailable for sale via any third party Aer.io Store Partner, so that you sell it exclusively.
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The Small Print: 
Currently this program seems to be best suited to US-authors and national publishers: You will need to have access to a U.S. bank account in order to receive Referral Fees under this agreement.  Aer.io will not transfer your commissions in any amount to any non-U.S. bank account or entity, and you will be required to provide a U.S. Social Security number or Tax ID when setting up your account.
Good: Referral fees will be payable on demand when Referral Fees earned by you are in excess of ten dollars ($10.00).  In order to initiate payment, you will use the interface in the Aer.io dashboard.  You can download a sales report that lists books sold, date and time, that includes the email address (where provided with permission to contact) for each sale. The report format is a CSV file that can be opened or imported into Excel or other financial software.
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Aerbook / Aer.io has been described as “Amazon for Twitter,” but one should also add Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and other social media applications.  The good thing is, you can send a sample of your book around the world, not just have it displayed in one online bookstore.
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Conclusion:
If you want to sell ebooks via your website (provided you are not in KDP Select) get all the information from a former article here: SavvyBookWriters How to Set-up Your Online Bookstore.  The eCommerce platforms described there charge only very small fees per month, this way your revenue will be likely over 90%.

However, if you would prefer to extend the reach of your digital AND your print book version tremendously, and stock your own virtual bookstore with an almost unlimited amount of books – plus a very sophisticated marketing system that is included – then Aerbook  is for you.  Their referral payments are approx. five times higher than those from affiliate programs for books at online retailers.

A third possibility is to sell your ebooks on both: your website and through Aerbook.  Your print version is best suited to sell via their app to worldwide retailers, bookstores and libraries thanks to the Ingram Content Group ownership of Aerbook / Aer.io and their distribution services across the world.

You as an Indie author can also use Aerbook  to achieve the same goals as those of traditionally published writers. ~ Socialmediajustforwriters.com

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More About Aerbook:

Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpmg3m1TnC8

http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/when-you-are-destination-aerbooks-native-commerce-publishing

http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/harpercollins-now-selling-ebooks-on-social-networks/97667

http://socialmediajustforwriters.com/mobile-web-for-authors/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/the-best-place-to-find-your-readers/

 

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