Entrepreneurial Lessons From Amazon, It’s Not About The Drones And Future-Proofing

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• I'm not sure if I'm being overly pedantic or missing something here, but services like Gumroad and Payhip don't seem, to me, to be selling direct. You're selling via Gumroad/Payhip. They host the files, if their servers go down you can't sell. Beyond the fact that they take a smaller cut, is there really any difference between selling via them and directing people to Kobo/Amazon/wherever to buy your book?

  There are shopping cart plugins for WordPress, which will allow you to host your own files, so you only rely on your own server and whatever payment provider you use. Personally, I use Easy Digital Downloads, which I'm very happy with.

  • Hi Russ, I use e-junkie right now, but the problem is that you can only set one currency - so I use USD as most of my sales are from there. But with Payhip, you can do separate files with different currencies, which is what I want to do. In terms of the 'difference', it will offer another revenue stream option - some people prefer to buy from the author, some people don't want to pay Amazon specifically.

    • I hadn't thought of the currency issue, I'll admit (EDD only lets me set one currency).

      I understand that you've got another revenue stream, and that some people don't like Amazon. I have readers that prefer to buy from me. I sell direct partly for those reasons, partly because I can offer Mobi, ePub and PDF files (and others, in a couple of cases).

      Using e-junkie or Payhip still doesn't seem "direct" to me, but that's probably just semantics, so I suggest we just agree to disagree. I don't think it's worth spending hours debating it :)

      • For what it's worth, maybe this will clear things up for others who have questions about "selling direct".

        Selling via Amazon is selling retail, just like through a department store. Those customers are not your customers, you don't have their info on file, Amazon does for example as does a department or bookstore. Your product is in their store.

        Selling via your own website is selling direct, as is selling in person at an art show. You are selling your wares directly to the purchaser. You have their credit card info on file, you may collect their email directly by asking for it and create your own data base.

        Things like Gumroad are not stores, they jut consolidate what you're doing, hosting your own files and using a shopping cart connected to a payment system which are 3 separate items. In theory, a small payment processor could go out of business.

        But again, a key difference between retail and direct is, if Amazon stopped selling tomorrow, you would likely have little info about your customers who have only bought through Amazon, because they are not yours, unless you've enticed to your own site to sign up for your email list. If your payment processor goes out of business, you just find a new way to take payment. Hope that helps.

• @Russell: The reality for writers right now is that Amazon has the most useful estore platform, the most reliable servers (and they're fast), and the biggest customer base. I'm not sure what Gumroad or Payhip are about, but anything that isn't Amazon or Kobo right now would mean less sales overall. Hosting books on a Wordpress or other personal site means you will reach only people who accidentally find your site or already your fans and miss everyone who could be a potential buyers who are already on and already trust Amazon and Kobo and personal sites are much more likely to be down for longer periods throughout the years since you aren't paying a huge amount for server backups and redundancies when you buy $10-$100 hosting services.

  The more places you sell the more sales, so selling only via your personal site means way less exposure (plus buyers would have to "sideload" your book onto their devices, so you would be forcing them to take an extra step that the middlemen already skip with, say, Whispersync updates (direct-to-kindle purchase)).

  @Joanna: Amazon might be the "big player" these days so indie bookstores and the like will feel threatened, but I don't understand why they would be mad at Amazon or be negative about them. Indie authors being mad at Amazon, a platform that has given indies more success than any other outlet, just for being successful over the years is like a brick and mortar store being mad at the brick masons who built their buildings because the masons also built a corporate tower downtown. It's not competition if a corporation is helping the little guy make millions, it's cooperation. Frankly people should be grateful for the opportunity to so freely and easily leech such a huge SEO and marketing base. It's a good thing :)

  Now if only we could get bookstores to sell our CreateSpace books on the shelves.

  • I'm not only selling on my own website, but I do sell there, as well as at Amazon, Kobo, Apple, etc. Some of my readers prefer to buy direct, and I'm happy to provide that facility for them.

    You might not understand why indie book shops and indie authors would be mad at Amazon, but it happens. Last month the BBC reported on anger at the Amazon Source programme, and in June, The Bookseller hosted a blog post by an owner of two independent bookshops that was angry at authors and publishers linking to Amazon. Indie authors periodically complain about changes that Amazon makes (eg when the effectiveness of free was reduced some time back), and some erotica authors are currently angry that it's getting harder for people to find their books.

• Hi Jo
  I'm with you on being both supported and inspired by Amazon. I think the long-term profit model is key to remaining positive and energised as a writer, and the focus, always, on the customer, is of course, a must.
  I also like the Amazon break-even model. As an author, recognising that things like KDP select, Goodreads giveaways etc have value is essential. Stephen King may not have given his books away, but we publish in a very different market, one where our relationship with the reader is key, and can be degraded just as easily as it can be built.
  I'm also surprised at how many authors moan about Amazon, when they provide such an outstanding platform for us!
  Having said all that, I also have a great deal of sympathy for high street book sellers. It's easy to say the future is happening to them, but the future is still being driven, as it always has been, by big industry. Such industries can follow the break even model and survive, whilst book stores simply don't have the luxury. So yes, those stores have to modernise, stretch themselves, and find new ways to make a profit, but as the route through which we find out entertainment changes, so we lose something that may be missed fully only once it's gone. I'm not sure I'm that fussed about having things delivered in half an hour, if it means I can no longer browse in Waterstones...
  Perhaps, as Sam eluded to, a partnership between Createspace and physical stores could create a synergy that supports the physical browsing experience whilst still supporting the online shop, and Amazon.
  Great post, thanks
  Mike

  • Yes, I would love to see CS books enabled more easily to be in bookstores. I am looking for a London based small print run publisher in order to do some books for stores ... but costly! I am still hoping the Espresso Book Machine will take off outside the US, it is big in the academic space and some bookstores. That would be a way to get print on demand books into stores more easily, BUT, the customer would still need to ask for the book ... I think that indie bookstores will survive as people want community. They will shop mostly online but will head down the bookstore for gifts and a coffee shop, for arty meetings, and the indie bookstores that are surviving are the ones that offer more than book-sales. I hope they want to partner with indie authors along the way ... but to be honest, I have been met with mostly negative energy, so partnering seems difficult. Hopefully, that will change with time ....

    • I have very little sympathy for those book stores. It strikes me as odd, because indie stores are usually run by enthusiasts (or strange, elderly men:), who one would expect to be up for getting involved. I would agree though, it'll either change with time, or the stores will close!
      I agree with the social aspect, although I can't think of any stores near me that offer that sort of arrangement. It's more the local coffee shops, that have a couple of novels on a shelf somewhere, but maybe I just need to look harder. Alas, my time is precious, so it's off to Amazon for me :)

• I still consider this site required reading for all burgeoning writers. I didn't know it was possible to sell on multiple sites beyond Amazon; I was (falsely, it appears) laboring under the idea that once you committed to Amazon, you couldn't sell direct, much less on Kobo or other distributors.

  What I'm really curious on, something you've touched on, is distributing to global markets such as India. You make it look very easy, but the idea of currency conversion, accounting for international rates, is daunting. Forgive me if this goes off topic, but it's something I saw mentioned in a previous post and I wanted to touch on it.

  • If you're enrolled into KDP Select, you can't sell your ebook anywhere else. I suspect that's where the confusion has come from. If you don't enroll your ebook into KDP Select, you can sell it anywhere you like.

    Most ebookstores will distribute globally, including to India. Some allow you to set different prices for different territories, some just convert the price you set into the local currency. Joanna's podcast talked about this recently, I suggest you have a listen to that - it explains this far better than I can: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/12/06/market-focus-india/

    • Thanks, Russell.

  • Hi Avery, I'm so glad you commented with what is unclear for you. As I move into this next phase on the blog, I want to encourage people to ask questions about this more detailed stuff.

    If you commit to Amazon KDP Select, then you have to be exclusive, but that is an opt-in checkbox when you publish, and not mandatory. Many pro indies are not exclusive anymore, but it is a choice, and you can make that choice per book. I've done it for my recent box-set for example.

    In terms of India and other markets, Amazon and Kobo have multi-currency pricing on their self-publishing platforms. So you can price in USD and GBP and EUR and other currencies like INR (Indian Rupees) and now Brazilian Reals, Mexican Pesos and more ... this is important as the USD price converts too high for books to sell in this market. It's not complicated to change your pricing, you just do that in the back end of these systems, but many distributors e.g. Smashwords, BookBaby, Nook, don't allow it, which means books priced only in USD convert too high and will never sell.

    I hope that explains what I mean, but please do let me know if you need more explanation. Thanks, Joanna

    • Actually, it explains it very well, Joanna. Thank you for replying!

• Joanna

  What an outstanding article!

  I TOTALLY agree with what you say about wonderful, disruptive Amazon, so this will make you laugh: A local big name accountant here suggested yesterday that all such online enterprises should be taxed heavily by the customs department to allow 'fair play' so NZ bricks and mortar stores could 'catch up'... as if they hadn't seen it coming for the last 20 years. At this point I commented that he was a myopic Luddite, blind to the massive benefits of disruptive change for customers, and that new businesses always rise to replace the dinosaurs. He reacted furiously to being told he was fundamentally wrong, at which point about 300 further commentators let him know that he could always join the tax department if he didn't like the realities of life Anno Domini 2013. Hilarious! But ... I guess I could have been a little more diplomatic. Actually, nah.

  Plus agree as well re time frames. This weird authoring' thing we do is a very long term business, just as you say, with a time frame of at least 5 years to see any significant results. I'm working on a series of iPad / iPhone / Android story apps for kids, with some very unusual features, along with print versions, and versions for many other channels. All this fits the minimum time frame of 5 years before I can expect results of any scale, no question, with room to adapt to changing technologies.

  Thing is, patience and hard work are not popular concepts these days, but the upside is that those of us who DO knuckle down for the duration have a massive advantage eventually. Definitely a case of the Hare and the Tortoise.

  Jonathan

  PS. Let me know when you get your first 'brainwave device' for writing. I'll get one too, and then we might care to exchange ideas - virtually speaking.

  • Thanks Jonathan - I continue to be amazed at how people want things to remain the same, when 5 years ago, we couldn't even sell on the Kindle and ebook sales were pretty much nowhere. We have to ride this wave - and that's frightening, as well as exhilarating :)

    Patience and hard work do seem to be unpopular, but that's a good thing for those of us who are in it for the long term, right? I saw Gary Vaynerchuk live the other night, SO impressed and will be blogging about it soon. He talks about this too. I'm fired up and ready to go!

• That 60 minutes report was very intriguing. I have to admit that I'm an Amazon fanboy myself, and spend most of my money there. I put a lot of faith in them, but I realize that one day they will be disrupted.

  For authors and content creators relying on other platforms, we definitely have to stray from putting all our eggs in one basket, because once that basket breaks you'll have yolk everywhere.

  Just look at what's going on with youtube and all of the copyright controversy. Some of the top content creators on youtube are now questioning whether they can continue to make a living from the platform, after putting so much faith in it for so many years.

  Joanna and every writer I've spoken to have stressed time and time again that we need our own platforms. And this report made the point very clear.

• I like what you said about thinking long-term. If you try to cut corners, you'll end up with the corners looking cut.

• I'll be launching my author website in a month or two and already decided I wanted to be able to sell my own also. I'm glad you and Avery mentioned the KDP because I didn't know it was exclusive and might have checked the box! I'm looking forward to your future posts.

• This is not to complain, but just a way to let others know what I am doing, and maybe some other older writers who may think like I do may be doing with their writing.

  At my age (77) I don’t plan to become an entrepreneur. I am not on Twitter or Facebook and have no desire to be. I have a haiku book available on Kindle and gave away 23 free copies, but have had no sales or reviews. I plan to do a short-story collection of previously published stories and will probably get the same results. I have a haiku blog with 62 followers, but that hasn’t helped generate sales for my haiku book. I also have a new writing blog with only three followers after six weeks. I post comments on other writing blogs in the hopes that this will generate some traffic to my blog. I have also written a novel and am looking for a print publisher. If I don’t find one I will probably put that on Kindle.

  I agree that it takes years to gather a following, and I expect I will never have a following with readers clamoring for my books. I’m sure all you energetic writers think I am a dinosaur. I’m sure you’re right. I am a non-technical person in a technical age, an age in which there is instant communication, which, I’m sure, results in name recognition. Perhaps in five years, or more likely ten since I’m not doing all that you say I should be doing, I’ll have a following and a recognized name. I may be the oldest first time author of a novel ever to hit the publishing world.

  Adelaide B. Shaw