Today, I was comparing the potential return on selling my book via Amazon and Ingram Spark, or making a shop and using Lulu Direct to fulfill my print orders. Turns out the difference in what returns to me as the author is very little between the two routes.
Am I wasting my time?
Probably, if I want to sell more than a few books. It’s way easier to forget building a shop on your website and just go all in with the main distributors of the day.
Not if casting a vote for my creative independence is important to me.
When I set up my own shop, no matter how many people show up—to browse or to buy—I’ve created a little space where it’s possible to connect with others.
Am I wasting my time?
You can be the judge of that.
For those interested, this appears to be the simplest and most efficient way to deliver my book, at least to begin with:
For Digital Products (Ebook + Audiobook):
- Payment: Payhip
- Delivery: BookFunnel (Already using BookFunnel to deliver Advanced Reader Copies, so it makes sense to use it again here)
- Cost: Just transaction fees, no upfront investment
For Print Books:
- Start: Manually input Lulu orders
- Scale Later: Add automation when volume justifies it
For Audio Distribution:
- Retailers: Findaway Voices (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
- Direct Sales: BookFunnel
Update:
Here’s what I settled on in the end: https://store.simonharling.blog/
What changed:
The Payhip, Lulu, and WooCommerce axes proved way too inflexible and complicated for what I need.
Selling through Shopify (Starter Plan is $5 a month, simple to use, and likely as much as I need—I’m a first-time author), holding stock, and dealing with postage and packaging is actually very simple.
I hold 50 books at any one time, printed through IngramSpark.
The Munbyn thermal printer is brilliantly easy to use. I use the Click and Drop app through Shopify to manage postage, and my A194 packages are from Lili packaging.
It takes less than 10 minutes a day to print labels, walk to the post box, and deal with new orders.
Note: There are no affiliate links in this post, just my experience and notes. I hope it helps.