We're continuing in our look at Independent Publishing. So far we've covered the changes in the publishing world, how to format your book for print and for e-publishing, and how to make an eye-catching cover. Today we're going to look at where to sell what you write.
Where to Sell
What You Write
If
you were publishing through the traditional, legacy publishers, this would be
less of an issue. The advantage that the legacy publishers have typically had
over the independent author is the issue of distribution and marketing. That
being said, many legacy and boutique publishers, facing rising costs, have
trimmed down on precisely these two areas, leaving many of the marketing and
even distribution challenges to the authors themselves. Thus, they have
effectively shot themselves in their collective feet.
Along
with the internet revolution has come the ability to sell online from anywhere
in the world to virtually anywhere in the world, and as reader’s buying habits
have shifted away from brick and mortar stores to online, this has opened up
opportunities for the independent author.
Electronic
Retailers
So
what are these electronic retailers? There are many. First among them is Amazon.com. Amazon is the single
largest e-retailer in the world, selling anything and everything—though their
primary emphasis is books.
The
second largest e-book seller is, surprisingly, Apple. They are Amazon’s chief competition, capitalizing on the
strength of their iTunes store to sell similar content to users of Apple’s iPad
and iPhone. Following that is Barnes and
Noble. Like Amazon they also have their own e-Reader and electronic
content. But they differ in being a primarily brick and mortar outfit. Their
online presence has a sliver of market share, barely in the double digits.
After
that, we have the smaller fish: Sony,
who sells e-books for its various e-readers, Kobo books, trying to find their place, Diesel, making negligible headway, and Smashwords.
Smashwords
is different because, though they do sell directly from their site, their
primary business model is in distribution to as many e-selling markets as
possible. This makes them a player, even though they don’t sell that many books
themselves. Smashwords can convert a single Word Document into multiple
e-reader formats at the click of a mouse, and distributes to numerous sellers
as well. Thus, they play a pivotal role for the author.
In
addition to these primary sellers, we also have numerous foreign markets that
are just now opening up to the American author. Amazon distributes to Great
Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, and now Japan as well.
Physical
Retail Options
Selling
online will be the primary way an independent author distributes his or her
books. But it isn’t the only way. Secondary to it is selling via brick and
mortar stores. There are two types of brick and mortar stores where you might
be able to sell your book. Local, privately owned stores (including, but not
limited to, bookstores), and retail chains (bookstores, department stores,
grocery stores, pharmacies and other places where books are sold).
When
it comes to selling in these places, you will need to approach the store owner
or manager with a professional product and agree to sell your book, typically
on consignment, whereby the seller takes anywhere from twenty to fifty percent
of the cover price. Larger box stores are very hard to break into. You have to
be able to demonstrate a pattern of sales before you’ll be able to entice many
retail chains into taking on your material. Some retail chains will stock a
local author, so that can get you a foot in the door.
Be
prepared to come to the store with several books available, a sell sheet that
explains your book and marketing strategy, with contact information so they can
get back in touch with you. The more professionally you present yourself, the
better chance you have. Business cards and so forth should be professionally
printed, rather than produced at home on an inkjet printer.
You
can also distribute your book to local libraries by donating a copy or two, and
by playing up on the fact that you’re a local author. Many libraries have
“author days,” where you can sell your book, do sample readings, and meet
prospective readers.
Selling
Your Own Material
And
we should not overlook the sales you can generate on your own. You can sell
your materials through your own website, often by providing direct links to
either Amazon or to your own sale page (I prefer to use an image of the book’s
cover as the primary link on my website).
If
you are unfamiliar with HTML, I recommend starting with a blog (which you
should have anyway). Blog pages often let you sell through third party widgets
that you can insert into posts or in sidebars. The two most common blog
platforms are Blogger, owned by Google (also redirects from Blogspot), and
Wordpress. I’ve used both, though I’m currently using the Wordpress platform.
Both
let you design a fully functional blog/website that can either be hosted on
their domains, or on a third party site. The platforms come with templates you
can install that make designing your site a breeze, and the blog platform has
the advantage of always giving you a ready excuse and means of updating your
content, thus getting readers to come back again and again.
In
addition to selling online, you can also sell through craft fairs, community
yard sales, public markets, as well as various classes and seminars (this is
especially helpful if your book is either non-fiction, or if it touches on a
non-fiction subject of which you are knowledgeable.). You might have to pay a
small, upfront fee for the table space. It could be anywhere from twenty to
five hundred dollars. I wouldn’t pay more than a hundred bucks for a table
space, and you have to factor that cost into what you hope to sell so that you
don’t lose money in the process.
Pricing
Besides
figuring out where to sell what you write, we also have the challenge of
figuring out the selling price. Cost is not the only consideration in setting a
price, believe it or not (though it is significant).
When
it comes to e-books, the cost per book is effectively nil. Once the book itself
is produced, it can be reproduced endlessly with no additional cost to you or
the distributer besides the pennies required to keep the file intact and
available on its servers.
This
does not mean, however, that e-books should cost nothing. You must factor into
the cost the value the product has for you as an author. After all, your time
and talent went into producing the work in the first place. It may have taken
you months to years to produce the book, and that time is significant. The goal
is to recoup the losses you incurred in terms of the time invested, and even
turn a profit, over the lifetime of the book.
The
price of your book also says something significant to the reader about the
value they are getting for the words they are reading. You want the reader to
believe they are getting something worth investing their time into, and the
best way to do that is to require them to pay for it up front. Your book should
be priced high enough to communicate quality, high enough to allow you to
discount it for sales (and still make money at it) and yet low enough to
actually sell.
In
addition, Amazon has a “sweet spot,” a price range that will allow you to take
advantage of a higher royalty rate. The standard royalty rate for Amazon is
35%. Books that are priced below $2.99 and above $9.99 earn the 35% rate. But
books priced within this range qualify for a 70% royalty rate.
Other
retailers, such as Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Diesel typically offer a
60% royalty rate. Smashwords pays 85%.
For a
full length book, the sweet spot is right around $4.99, though some books sell
for as much as $9.99. Believe it or not, you can actually sell more books
pricing higher than lower, because people expect to pay for their books.
Free
will always sell, but that doesn’t necessarily add up to readers. You can
always use free as a giveaway to entice new readers or reward people for
signing up for your newsletter, for leaving a review, etc.
Smashwords
allows you to set coupon codes that you can give away or email to people so
they can get a discount. At the present time, Amazon doesn’t have this feature
(you’d have to send the mobi file to the customer directly.).
When
it comes to print, you now have to factor in two additional considerations
before determining the price. Printed books have costs built into them that
e-books simply do not have.
The
first cost is the actual printing of the book. You have to factor in the price
of the paper and ink and the process used to develop the book. The printer or
on-demand printer you utilize will tell you this cost at the outset.
Createspace,
for example calculates its prices this way:
|
Calculating Our Share
|
|
Sales Channel Percentage
|
|
+ Fixed Charge
|
|
+ Per-Page Charge
|
|
= Our Share
|
The Sales Channel Percentage is 40% of the
list price for Amazon, 20% for Createspace, and 60% for expanded distribution
(which is a package you can purchase through Createspace).
Fixed Charges are as follows:
|
Amazon.com, CreateSpace
eStore, and Expanded Distribution
|
|
Black and white books with
24-108 pages
|
$2.15 per book
|
|
Black and white books with
110-828 pages
|
$0.85 per book
|
|
Full-color books with
24-40 pages
|
$3.65 per book
|
|
Full-color books with
42-500 pages
|
$0.85 per book
|
|
Amazon Europe
|
|
Books printed in Great
Britain
|
£0.70 per book
|
|
Books printed in
continental Europe
|
€0.60 per book
|
And
then there is the Per Page Charge:
|
Amazon.com, CreateSpace
eStore, and Expanded Distribution
|
|
Black and white books with
24-108 pages
|
None
|
|
Black and white books with
110-828 pages
|
$0.012 per page
|
|
Full-color books with
24-40 pages
|
None
|
|
Full-color books with
42-500 pages
|
$0.07 per page
|
|
Amazon Europe
|
|
Black and white books
printed in Great Britain
|
£0.01 per page
|
|
Full-color books printed
in Great Britain
|
£0.045 per page
|
|
Black and white books
printed in continental Europe
|
€0.012 per page
|
|
Full-color books printed
in continental Europe
|
€0.06 per page
|
All
of this factors into the cost of the book. So for example: for a 184 page black
and white book, you set your USD list price at $8.99. A customer purchases your
book on Amazon.com and a book is printed to fulfill that order.
|
Sales Channel % = $3.60
|
|
Fixed Charge = $0.85
|
|
Per Page Charge = $2.20
|
|
Your Royalty = $2.34
|
The
second cost, and one that is often not factored in on the front end, is the
cost to actually ship the book. This cost may vary due to quantity and desired
delivery date, but it is a cost your readers will incur beyond the purchase
price.
With
Createspace, you can purchase your book at cost and delivery, and have it
shipped to you for your own sales efforts. If you factor in how much the book
and shipping costs are, it will give you an idea of how much you should charge
in order to make a profit and not lose money (especially if you have to then
give 40% of the list price to a store for carrying the book).
NEXT UP: HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK