
The past year has given us plenty to think (and worry) about, but I’ve seen one topic gain significant popularity among authors. I’m talking about something that would greatly affect your author business now and in the future: selling direct.
So, what is selling direct?
Many indie authors currently rely on retailers (Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.) to do the selling* for them. After all, it’s the simplest way to get started.
*Of course, retailers don’t typically do anything with the marketing or advertising required for authors to sell their books, so let’s not get confused here. I’m talking about the “exchanging money for goods” definition of selling.
Most of us are selling books via retailers right now.
We’re selling indirectly, and technically, we’re not even selling. We just earn royalties.
The retailers deal with the sales and associated details like the hassle of collecting taxes (and remitting them to various levels of governments), delivering the goods, handling returns, offering customer service, gaining access to precious customer data, etc.
Many successful authors have realized that they could keep a larger chunk of money (and see that money faster, without having to wait 45-60 days to get it) if they were to sell their books directly to their readers on their own site (bypassing the retailers).