Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
And why would authors do that? What's the foot traffic? SEO? What's their upside? Compared to paying a relatively nominal fee to Amazon, B&N, Kobo, etc.--with millions and millions of people browsing for books--for hosting their books?
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If you can lure millions of people to your Co-op bookstore, great. Otherwise, you're not doing much for those authors. It's just another website and there are already thousands--thousands--of small online bookstores, all trying to do basically what you're talking about.
At how many of them, how many of those small, less-well-known eBook stores, exactly, do YOU shop for eBooks????? Where the authors earn more? How many of those eBooks, at those stores, have YOU bought? And if you don't, and you haven't, why would anyone else?
Hitch
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Exactly. All true and you only pay a fee to Amazon, Smashwords, Google Playstore, Apple, Scribd, Barnes & Noble, Tolino, Kobo and others
if they make a sale. Unless you are madly popular, any site with a model like Etsy will make you a loss. If you are madly popular then Amazon, Smashwords, Google Playstore are sufficient.
Also a paper edition needs to retail at about 3x or 4x the price for same per sale return if SP. A paper edition by a major publisher returns less in royalty than ebook sales. Publisher advances are only significant to Politicians, Celebrities or already famous authors.
Two uploads, Amazon & Smashwords (who add Apple, Scribd, Barnes & Noble, Tolino, Kobo and others) gives about 100% of the eBook selling market. We upload to Google Playstore Books too because it's less than 10 minutes work, once per title, and costs nothing. The exact same epub to Amazon, Smashwords (who add Apple, Scribd, Barnes & Noble, Tolino, Kobo and others) and Google.
There is no point to uploading to any other website or paying a listing fee.