Should I sell books on my author website?
Have a question you’d like answered? Email me: katie@designforauthors.com
Whether or not an author should sell books on their own website is a question I get asked all the time as a web designer.
The answer depends on how much time you have and your overall marketing and sales strategy.
I’ve listed the pros and cons of selling books on your author website vs. linking out to retailers below.
Selling books on your author website
PROS
You’ll make a higher profit per book sold
You have the ability to add more goodies to your orders, like stickers, personal handwritten notes, or other promotional merchandise
You’ll have your reader’s contact information and potential opt-in to your mailing list, which is a huge part of growing your brand and author platform
You can offer promotions like free shipping or 20% off whenever you’d like
CONS
Your book sales won’t be counted towards charts like Amazon
You miss out on earning reviews on other platforms, which can be a vital selling tool for organic discovery
Packing up orders and dropping them off at USPS can be time consuming
You’ll have to pay for shipping yourself by working it into the price of your book, or charge customers a shipping fee they’re not accustomed to paying on most major websites
Linking out to retailers
PROS
The retailer fulfills all orders
You can earn reviews on their platforms which will help your organic performance in their algorithms
You can run ads for your book on sites like Amazon to quickly reach more readers
Your book has more of a good chance to rank favorably on Amazon’s diverse genre and sub-genre charts
Customers are already used to buying books from their preferred retailers
CONS
You make less profit per book
Amazon can change the price of your book at any moment
You aren’t gathering your readers’ contact information
You can’t add any other promotional materials to their orders
Basically what it comes down to is your overall marketing strategy for your book, and the time you have to fulfill orders on your own.
Whatever you decide, take a minute to think about your overall marketing strategy for your book launch.
Do you want to build steady reviews on Amazon and run ads to ride the charts?
Or are you envisioning more of a grassroots approach by selling your books directly to readers through outreach of your own, like speaking events and book fairs?
Remember: You can always do both!
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