Buy at Amazon.com
The conversation also turns to being able to share electronic versions, and the difference between buying from publishers/bookstores and buying direct from the author.
The Library: Nebula Showcase 2010, Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong; Cirrus Flux by Matthew Skelton; Mind Games by Carolyn Crane; The Long Man by Steve Englehart; The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin; My Double Life by Janette Rallison; Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo; Web of Titan by Dom Testa; Red Hood's Revenge by Jim C. Hines; The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett; Starfinder by John Marco
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!
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As an indie author I disagree with selling directly off my own website. And that's mainly because if everybody that hears about my book decides to come buy it off my website, it's not a self-feeding system. If you have a giant platform, that's one thing. But if you've yet to build that giant platform, how are you sustaining traffic to keep sales coming in? You aren't.
Let's say I've priced a book at $2.99, through Amazon Kindle starting in July when they hike their royalty rates up, I'll make $2.09 per copy. If i sold directly off my site, I'd make $2.99.
But... I run into problems there...
1. I'm suddenly responsible legally for paying sales tax on those copies I just sold retail. As an indie author selling through stores and distributors they are responsible for collecting sales tax, not me. That's a much better business model for me, as it cuts down on my hassle and red tape for doing business.
And secondly, it's not worth 90 more cents to me to have everybody buy directly from me, because... when someone buys from me off the kindle for example, that increases my sales rank, and it increases my exposure. I am very sure that I would sell much more off the Kindle this way, than through people stumbling upon my website. Enough that the overall money I'm making is much greater than it would be if everybody bought directly from me on my website.
True, someone could find me on the Kindle and then purchase directly off my site, but, if they choose to do that, they are one less person contributing to my kindle sales ranking.
So I disagree very strongly with the idea that any author should be doing most of their business off their own website. Sure, capture information through a newsletter, be plugged in directly to as many of your readers as possible, but buy off Amazon or somewhere where it's going to help my sales rank and help more people who wouldn't have heard about me otherwise, to hear about me.
Ugh, that last sentence of mine was rather convoluted. The first part I was speaking of what authors should (IMO) do to keep direct contact with their reader base, and the second part was addressed to readers directly. I hit the submit button before I realized how messed up that sentence was. Hopefully people can separate it out and get my meaning.
Good points, Zoe. I lean toward giving away freebies on your site and selling via retailers like Kindle, Smashwords, and POD printers. JA Konrath actually gives away free ebooks on his site, yet has excellent e-sales of those very same titles via Kindle.
Thank you for featuring my book in your podcast!