Ok writers, I have a question for you. Where is the best place for me to buy your book? It's not that I can't find it, it's that I want to make sure you get as much of the cash I fork over as possible.
I'm not a big technology guy, so I don't have any kindles or e-readers of any kind, so we're talking physical, tangible books that I can hold in my hands. I just want to make sure you get money out of this transaction, seeing as how you have provided me with a product to consume.
I liken it to seeing a band and buying their stuff. I'd rather buy their music directly from them, because then I know that money goes into their pockets, as opposed to buying it through a distributor who may or may not take out a huge chunk for themselves.
So, published friends, if I was going to buy your book, how should I go about it?
ready, set, go...
Being as you are in the US, mine woud be form amazon, Barns & Noble etc.
Hey - thanks man. Still freaks me out that folks have read it!
I always tell people that Amazon is fine, because I figure they're like me and bundle books together to get free shipping (plus, it's available in their European storefronts, too). But they do take a considerable cut, and CreateSpace pays me way more per unit at the same cover price.
Thanks for asking!
Thank you, by the way.
CreateSpace works well, if you already know what you're doing as far as laying out and designing your own books. They'll walk you through the steps, but someone still has to do all that stuff. It doesn't really cost anything, and they handle all the e-commerce aspects. And being print-on-demand, it means you're not saddled with warehousing your inventory of printed books, then hoping they sell, and being responsible for shipping them out. Quality seems great to me, too. It's invisible on the customer's end, because they're printed right away and ship out like any other order.
A lot of people use Lightning Source as a printer, get an ISBN, and then manually set up accounts with the various sellers. I chose CreateSpace (for both of my novels) mainly because they're directly tied in to Amazon.
Go to an independently owned bookstore if you have one in your town. They usually support local authors. Besides we need to also support tem to help with diversity .
Amazon.
For other authors, directly through the publisher if that's possible (my primary publisher doesn't do that).
Bookstores usually take a bigger cut than Amazon, but supporting a bookstore is always a nice thing.