One of the first basic lessons that’s taught in Entrepreneur 101 is that you don’t want to build your entire business on someone else’s platform. What does this mean? It means that if a tool you use to promote or service your business, for example Amazon, goes away tomorrow, how would readers buy your books? How would you still be able to sell your book to hungry readers?
It’s a scary question and one that many authors were faced with when All Romance Ebooks closed abruptly at the end of 2016. Though ARE wasn’t the main source of distribution for independently published authors, or at least I hope it wasn’t, it still represented a large chunk of income for those authors. With it gone, there’s a vacuum and retailers, new and established, are picking up the slack or at least attempting to.
Authors are wary these days about committing to a new vendor or distributor relationship. And who can blame them? These days, it’s easy for someone without real live bonafides to set themselves up as a “retailer” or “publisher” and reap the financial rewards of other people’s hard work. Instead, it’s time for authors to take back their platform and their books.
One of the best tools to do this is an author webstore. No, it won’t fully replace Amazon or any other vendor; it doesn’t have to. What your webstore will do is provide a showcase for you to display your books and links to the vendors you prefer your readers buy from. It also aids you in your marketing by providing a way for you to distribute free books and utilize coupons so you know exactly what promotional efforts are driving traffic.
There are many good things about having your own webstore, and setting one up doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, if you don’t want to handle it, then that’s what I do. I’m a technical goddess who also just happens to be an author, so I know exactly what you’re struggling with and how best to fix it.
It’s my opinion that every author needs a webstore. The benefits are too great, and in today’s marketplace it’s simply too risky to rely solely on platforms that you cannot control.
About The Author:
Mary Caelsto has been published since her first book released in December 2002 (as Mary Winter). Since then she’s written more than fifty books and worked with many publishers. When she’s not writing romance or trying her hand at urban fantasy about magical chickens, she’s helping authors unscramble technology so they can stay writing. She’s been doing technical support for over a decade and founded Unscramblet Author Solutions in 2015 with one goal: to unscramble technology for authors to keep them sane. She runs My Author Home, a site offering free websites and support services for authors (with lots of promotional opportunities) and wants to see you succeed by leveraging technology to help you write and sell more books. Listen to her podcast Unscrambled Authors where she interviews authors and shares news and information to help you!
Website: http://unscramblet.com and http://myauthorhome.com
Podcast: http://unscramblet.com/unscrambled-authors
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1197925320
Twitter: http://twitter.com/myauthorhome
Facebook: http://facebook.com/myauthorhome
About The Book:
From Blog To Bookstore: The Ultimate Guide to Selling Direct to Readers From Your Website
Release Date: 2/18/17
Pre-order/Purchase link: http://unscramblet.com/shop/from-blog-to-bookstore-ebook/
Tired of relying on paid services to deliver your free book? Thinking there has to be a way to sell books to avoid costly vendor discounts and hassles with returns?
When you sell your books directly from your website, you take control of the distribution process. Sure, you won’t be able to eliminate outside vendors like Amazon, and you don’t want to! What you do want is an easy to set up, simple to maintain system for selling books direct to your readers and offering free downloads and gifts.
Your own webstore provides this. This book discusses the ins and outs of setting up your own webstore complete with step-by-step tutorials. Written by an author who has worked in IT for over a decade, you’ll find rock solid, real-world proven knowledge to start selling your books directly. Today!
Best of all, it’s cheaper than you think to set up your webstore, and with the information provided in this book, you can be up and running for just a few dollars and a bit of time. Why place yourself at the whims of vendors who don’t care about you and your book? Take control of your career by serving your readers directly from your website. You’ll earn more per book and have more marketing tools at your disposal.
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