What are direct sales?
First of all, let me be clear that we are talking about an online store. It usually sells ebooks first but may include audio books, subscriptions, courses, and link with print-on-demand stores to sell print books.
If you have decided to be exclusive to Amazon through their Kindle Unlimited exclusivity programme, you cannot sell ebooks.
If you are traditionally published, then it is unlikely you’d have such a store unless it was for courses (writing craft, marketing …).
Reasons why you might want direct sales
- The royalties are much higher – up to about 85%
- It is an asset that you control
- You can gain subscribers to your newsletter as you sell books
- You receive the royalties much faster than through distributors
- You can design it how you’d like and have more direct contact with your customers
Challenges of running a direct sales store
- Tax issues. This might end up being the thing that decides you not to have a store.
- Working out how to deliver the ebooks/audio … many authors integrate their store with Book Funnel doing the deliveries.
Options for your direct sales store
Do your research and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each. Some stores have a monthly fee (Shopify) and others are free (PayHip, Woocommerce). All take a percentage of sales.
This post gives an excellent comparison of Shopify and Woocommerce.
Key questions to ask yourself:
- How much work am I willing to put in to lead people to buy direct?
- Will you make enough sales to pay for monthly fees? If not, perhaps start with PayHip or Woocommerce.
The story of my PayHip direct sales store
I set up my store as an experiment in June 2019. I only made 6 sales in 2019. It was obvious that I had to come up with ways to help people get used to buying from me. They needed to find it easy and also know that the financial payments were secure.
In early 2020, I set up a four-chapter sample of my first novel and put the link in my newsletter.
2020 – 69 downloads but only 26 were paid. That is, 43 people downloaded the free books. Already it was encouraging to see that sales were coming from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, US, and Australia. I tried my first 10% discount code and it worked.
2021 – I added Stripe (Visa/Mastercard) to PayPal to give more purchasing methods.
I also started using my store to deliver to my advanced readers who would put up reviews. I used a 100% discount coupon.
173 downloads and 43 sales. By October, I had switched Grace in Strange Disguise to free for subscribers (using a 100% discount code so I wasn’t violating the terms of service with other distributors which state that ebooks must be the same price in all stores).
2022 – 262 downloads and 22 sales
Buyers were now coming from Canada, UK, and Nigeria as well as the original countries. This breadth of sales is really encouraging.
In October, I added a storewide 10% discount code which made all my books cheapest from my own store.
I am not sure why sales were lower but perhaps the huge increase in 2021 was due to Covid and people reading more or perhaps I mentioned my store more that year.
2023 – 519 downloads and 75 sales
This was also the year that I switched my book launch method. My new books will all be available first on my own store and only once those sales end (usually in about 5 days) will the books be launched elsewhere. This tactic has been effective in moving people to my store.
I’ve also added a gifting ability from the store but no one has yet attempted this. At least half my customers don’t bother to take the 10% discount. Whether this is due to generosity or simply that they can’t be bothered, I’m grateful.
2024 – 54 downloads to mid-February and 47 sales.
Print book sales
One of the chief reasons that people have been switching to Shopify recently is the integration with the print-on-demand company BookVault. BV is currently most useful for UK (its base) and the US. It also integrates directly with Woocommerce.
Those of us with PayHip stores have waited with some frustration for a direct integration with BV. The problem is on the PH end not BV. Print sales from a website remain rather difficult if you’re not in the US or UK. Some people input their sales manually. I sell plenty of print books but they are not through my direct sales website but rather face to face.
Thanks for sharing your experience Christine. It’s definitely something I’m interested in, but there’s so much to learn I’ve put it off, especially given the challenges of being an Aussie author with paperback delivery issues for international customers.
you can start with ebook sales. I do my print sales only in Australia and outside anything online.
Hi Christine, Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences with selling direct. I’m not currently selling direct from my website, mainly because the large majority of my ebooks are in Kindle Unlimited. I’m looking to move my Australian setting books ‘wide’ at some stage and I’m currently researching the best way to do that with an online store as part of the mix.
My conclusion is that authors who are committed to primarily selling their ebooks wide are missing out if they haven’t already dived into the world of direct sales via an online store. I’m not a fan of long preorders and I love the idea of releasing a book early via direct store sales before it releases at the other retailers. The 100% discounting in your store is a great way to offer free books without having to deal with any price matching drama.
I joined Morgana Best’s Facebook Group and she runs a comprehensive course on how to use Shopify. I’ve discovered the taxation implications are important and complicated – which is why I’d invest in a course that’s recommended by trusted people if I decided to go down the Shopify road. I’ve heard about Book Vault but I don’t know a lot about it.
For authors who don’t live in the US or UK, is there a viable solution for selling paperbacks direct internationally via an author’s online store? Would Book Vault be an option?
I’ve seen more authors selling audiobooks direct, which makes sense in light of recent events eg. Spotify and Findaway Voices situation.
Yes, I’ve given up on preorders for more than a few days. I don’t think there is a good fit for those of us outside the UK/US to sell print books except in those countries. I’m waiting to things to settle down with Book Vault.
That makes sense. This morning I preordered my paperback copy of Jennifer Mistmorgan’s March release from her direct sales online store. Jennifer has PayHip set up and it was an easy ordering process.
I haven’t bought from an authors website partly cos most books I would want are USA authors. Most of the aussie ones I will get via Amazon au as I tend to have a credit there. With the overseas ones I don’t like using paypal because there is a fee to buy overseas (even if they say there isn’t but I find there is always a conversion fee of some sort) and the Aussie dollar isn’t the best.
I also like Narelle am not a fan of pre-orders I will pre-order if there is a discount but normally not that long before the book releases.
Hi Jenny, I’ve always use Google Pay options for my credit card when I’m buying direct from author stores. But, I’ve only bought physical books from authors who I know personally. I’ve found that PayPal exchange rates are more expensive than paying direct via Google Pay. The buying process is easy when the ebooks are delivered via BookFunnel. From a reader perspective, I’ll get frustrated if I’m not told before I buy that I’ll have to jump through hoops to side load ebooks to my Kindle Paperwhite where I do all my reading to minimise migraine triggers.
will have to check out Google Pay. As I mostly read on the computer the side loading isn’t a big issue but sometimes its hard to find the book on the kindle app.