Q: Is Amazon really the best way to sell and distribute my books?
A: It depends on who you ask.
All of my books except for one are on Amazon, but I am truly leaning towards not publishing on Amazon in the future.
I know that will seem crazy to most people, but I suggest that you read this article:
It will give you insights into the world of publishing and protecting your e-books in particular.
In the meantime, let’s return to my blog title. I know it probably sounds dramatic, but it will probably be the title of an upcoming book of mine so don’t steal it!
So … I have removed my latest book, my second poetry collection Nect-HER, from Amazon. That was a personal decision because it is a very personal collection, but I have been thinking for a while about selling my books directly from my site only.
Why? There are a number of reasons, but Amazon can in essence change the book price so for example one of my hardback journals has been selling for about $4.32. My list price is $30. Clearly, no one is wanting to buy it directly from me at that price. Indeed, I think you can purchase it on Amazon for less than the author copy that I have available. How can Amazon afford that? Well, they are a monolith with more money than most countries. While you get paid a royalty on your list price, and you in theory don’t get any less than you would have on a sale, it’s in essence cannibalizing your market.
What Amazon does really well, like McDonald’s back in the day, is basically convince you that there is one only one show in town. When people think of ordering books, they more than likely think of Amazon. So if you are not on Amazon, it feels like you are nowhere. Indeed, I have heard people say they will just wait to purchase it until it’s on Amazon. Even when you explain that you can have it shipped directly to them, the same as Amazon, they often just opt to order directly from Amazon because they are more confident in that and if they have Prime can get it faster.
Another thing most people don’t realize is when you get a sale from Amazon, you have no access to that customer information. That person is not your customer; They are Amazon’s. That of course means you cannot market to them in the future.
When you have a minute, definitely check out the statistics on the self-publishing market:
It's eye-opening!!!
So, I definitely have a lot to think about going forward … I should share that I am thankful that Amazon gives authors a turnkey way to produce books for free basically, but seemingly that price may be a little bit too high as the main entity winning in the book game is Amazon.