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Selling on Kindle vs Selling on your own site?

by Joshua Rigley Banned
9 replies
I have a piece of short fiction that I'd like to sell. But, I'm wondering if it would be a better idea to sell on my own site rather than kindle. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) Most fiction sells for $0.99 on kindle, particularly short fiction. On top of that Amazon pays a 35% royalty rate.
2) Amazon doesn't provide any statistics on where your sales come from.

On the other hand, Amazon does have credibility and a large audience to sell to.

Which option would you go with, and why?
#kindle #selling #site
  • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
    How about selling on your own site and kindle? That's the best way and gets you most amount of profit!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joshua Rigley
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Ben Gordon View Post

      How about selling on your own site and kindle? That's the best way and gets you most amount of profit!
      There's a slight problem with that, and that is that amazon tends to price match products. So if I listed said fiction for $5 on my own site, Amazon would match that price, and it can be hard to sell for that high of a price on amazon. Plus I'd rather focus my marketing efforts on one sales channel, rather than several.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
        You could make a different version to sell on your own site. With a different title.

        A lot of the marketing on Amazon is done by Amazon (not all of it for sure, but a lot of it) so you could concentrate your attention on the version you have on your own site.

        If you wanted you could even offer the Kindle versions as a downsell from your site.
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        • Profile picture of the author Joshua Rigley
          Banned
          Originally Posted by JMichaelZ View Post

          You could make a different version to sell on your own site. With a different title.

          A lot of the marketing on Amazon is done by Amazon (not all of it for sure, but a lot of it) so you could concentrate your attention on the version you have on your own site.

          If you wanted you could even offer the Kindle versions as a downsell from your site.
          That would be pointless and unethical.

          Amazon does very little actual marketing. Not enough to bring significant results at any rate. If you want your ebook to sell, then you need to do most of the marketing yourself.

          And like I said, I'd rather focus on one or the other, not both at the same time.
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          • Profile picture of the author roypreece
            Originally Posted by Joshua Rigley View Post


            Amazon does very little actual marketing. Not enough to bring significant results at any rate. If you want your ebook to sell, then you need to do most of the marketing yourself.
            I think you just answered your own question. If you have to do all the work yourself, and Amazon restricts your profits, why put them first?

            The 'kudos' and exposure on Amazon doesn't make you the profits which you'll make with your own site and marketing efforts
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  • Profile picture of the author herb44
    If you can afford to make your own website plus hosting plus costs of credit card processor! I like the kindle concept because it is seemless and the market you would reach would be endless. Overall way cheaper than on your own! . You will just to sell a gang of books to make a helluva profit at least until you can pay for it on your own!
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  • Profile picture of the author mavmav
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
      I think pdfs are better than Kindle so I would sell the pdf version from or on your site at a higher price than the Kindle version
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  • Profile picture of the author PhilJenkins
    Unless you are have a long list of subscribers who have bought from you in the past and preferably a website which is already generating loads of traffic, you are better off focusing on Amazon and promoting it from there. Tonnes of people are already there looking to buy books. If not, you will have to build a site, attract traffic, and convince them to buy from your site.

    While promoting and selling your book on Amazon, you start to build a reputation for yourself and build your list. Books do sell for more than $0.99 on Amazon, you know. So whatever you sell it for you, you then have people who are already aware of your as an author and are more open to buying from you.
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  • Profile picture of the author pmbrent
    If you are trying to avoid price comparison then I would sell exclusively on Amazon. Because they are the "go to" place for people looking to buy books. Whereas you would have to generate "new" traffic to go to your site and hope for sales.
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