: Distribution, a competition with myself Distribution sales make much less profit than regular sales. This way distribution creates a competition with myself. This is especially important when advertising

Vote Up Vote Down

You're assuming that the choice is between "sell a book through a channel where I make per copy" versus "sell a book through a channel where I make per copy" (or whatever the numbers are). But unless you are a very famous author, the choice is almost ALWAYS between, "sell a book for per copy" versus "not sell a book to that potential customer".

Realistically: Say you put an ad on the radio. A customer hears the title of your book and goes to Amazon or a bookstore to find it. You make a sale for a small amount of money. You would have preferred if they had gone to your personal web site where you could make more money. But if you don't put the ad on the radio, will that person hear of your book at all? How many people who hear your radio ad would have found your book in some other advertising?

If you're JK Rowlings or Stephen King, maybe steering people to channels where you make the most unit profit is important. For 99.9% of the world's authors, getting sales at all is struggle. The thing to worry about is really not, Which sales channel gets me the most royalty per book?, but really, Which sales channel gets me any sales at all?

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

One of the most difficult challenges of being a self-published writer is having to do the self-promoting and the self-distributing that comes along with it. There are so many different options to consider and so many different factors to take into consideration, and I can guarantee these questions have been asked at least a thousand times on a thousand forums by thousands of writers. There is no easy answer, and certainly not one that fits every writer. You just have to look at all your options and decide which ones are worth your time and efforts.

When I hear you asking about distribution, I assume you really mean advertising. When you mention advertising on radio or TV compared to advertising on the internet, I would agree that there is an advantage with the internet in that you can provide your URL. However, I would first wonder why you are spending money on advertising at all? There are so many other ways to promote your work without spending any money at all, and I would recommend exploring those first.

Over the last three years, I have seen my income from my self-published books double each year, and this year I expect it to be enough for me to be able to take early retirement if I choose to do so. I have never spent a single penny on advertising, and except for the first few months after I wrote my first book, I have spent very little time promoting. What I have done instead is keep writing more books across multiple genres until I found something that sells, and then I kept giving the readers what they wanted.

I would recommend spending more time in writer's forums asking for advice from other self-published authors to see what has worked for them. (My personal favorite is the Writer's Cafe at the Kindle Boards forum. They aren't exclusive to just writers on the kindle platform.) Writers in these types of forums will be able to tell you about blog tours and pricing and promos, they will be able to offer advice on writing a series, and you may even be able to find beta readers to help critique your book before you publish. All of these things will help improve your chances of selling your book and won't cost you anything. Just spend more time doing your research up front rather than spending your money.

From what I've seen in this post and some of your others, you seem to have a real aversion to selling through someone like Amazon, and I just don't get it. They pay 70% royalties, which is really pretty darned good. I consider the 30% they take as fair exchange for a sales portal that is always available, not to mention the visibility. You need to look at your total cost of ownership and see if your model is really worth it after you factor in the cost of web hosting, advertising, and the time you spend promoting yourself and/or your book.

Also, keep in mind that even if you do catch someone's attention with a radio or television ad, it is highly unlikely they will stop what they are doing to go to your web site to check out your book. With most advertising, less than 3% of exposures result in sales. With book sales, you'll be fortunate if they remember your name, and doubly so if they remember your book. Then in all likeliness they are going to decide later to go to Amazon to look for you or your book, and now you've alienated them by not being available there. You really can't afford to NOT include them in your business model.

From a business perspective, you need to cast your net as wide as you can, but start out by exploring the shallows first. Do what you can with as little as you can and then decide where it makes sense to spend your money. I honestly believe you will find that there are MUCH better things to do with your time AND money than to go spending it on advertising.

(0)