Quote:
Originally Posted by jhowell
Sorry, I don't have an answer to your question.
I would like to point out that Amazon pays a higher royalty for most books: eBook Royalty Options.
Also I think you may be seriously underestimating the cost of running an online book store, especially support. You will need to be an expert in all of the e-reader devices that your customers may want to use. Amazon's customers are used to buying a book and having it just appear on their Kindle. You will have to guide them through the process of making that happen manually instead. |
I have an article on my site, which talks about selling books from your own website; it touches on DRM, digital watermarking and all that, but the biggest thing I say, to everyone, is simply this:
Unless and until you have experience guiding the AVERAGE person, in putting a file on their eReader, you have no idea, NO IDEA, what the tech support--the unpaid tech support, mind you--will be. People do not realize that for people like me, it's the 2nd-largest expense that my business pays. (The first being the crew/bookmakers). I pay slightly over $30K/annum, just for UNPAID tech support which, by the way,
we flatly state, over and over, that we do not provide. This is STILL how much it runs.
Imagine what it would cost me if I did provide it! And my biz is a teeny, weeny, TINY business!
Unless you're prepared to answer emails, provide guidance on getting files onto Kindles, onto tablets, yadda, or answer the phone and do the same, I cannot in good conscience recommend selling from your own website.
Every single customer I'e had--every single one--that tried it, gave it up, due to the above-stated reasons. Even customers with staff; they got tired of their receptionists and secretaries having to answer calls demanding tech support. I mean....consider that.
Also, I gotta say--I don't think I understand how you envision a 2000-page PDF working on a Kindle. People can't just send it to their Kindles and open it as a PDF; it will be automatically converted. If they don't have a jailbroken Kindle...well. Yes, some tablets, like iPads, have PDF readers (Books, f/k/a iBooks,does), but...you're still going to run into massive issues with the SIZE of the thing! There are still readers that have file-size limitations and 450mb is WAAAY outside of that.
Lastly--you're worried about piracy, but you're proposing to sell a very, very expensive file. The more expensive it is, the greater the odds and chances for piracy. Honestly....with a file like that, and what you're proposing--to sell it, unprotected, from your own website, I think you're kinda asking to be pirated. People are less inclined to pirate a $0.99 file; for $35...well.
If it were me, I'd consider breaking it into...let's say...8 parts? Or hell, 5? Each one 400 pages long, give or take? Call them Volumes I, II, III, etc. and then I'd sell each one on Amazon for $9.99. You could make it fixed-layout, and you'd get what, nearly $7.00/sale, x 5, = $35.00, give or take AND you'd have DRM and you'd let Amazon deal with the tech support. That's what I'd do. If you broke it into even more parts and sold it at $9.99, you could pocket even more (although, this file sounds as though the images are exceedingly large and completely unoptimized, so the delivery fees might eat you alive, too.)
Just my $.02.
Hitch