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Old 02-07-2020, 11:27 PM   #9
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
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Posts: 11,447
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by kayvon View Post
Hello, Thank you in advance for your time. I have written a 1200 page ebook on how oriental rugs are woven and how to identify them (full of pictures). Amazon takes 65% of the retail price forcing me to raise my price to make any money. I want to get it off Amazon and start selling it off my own website.
bofandeh.com
I need help (please) trying to figure out:
1)what formats to make available on the site to cover most eBook Readers
2)where to get sample "download" instructions for the potential customers.
3)the best way to figure out how to charge taxes

where would you suggest I start looking? Thank you.

size: 270M
1200 pages
format: epub ( I have used InDesign so I can make other formats)
If you care about DRM, the only format you CAN use is ePUB, with Adobe Content Server to apply it. There isn't any available MOBI DRM on the market; it's proprietary to Amazon. The ACS software, last time I looked, was $7200 and you need someone trained to use it, which is another $2600/month or so.

You should write your own instructions for downloading and I'll tell you RIGHT NOW that you should plan to be able to answer calls and emails from people who can't follow them. At my company, my second-largest expense category, after the direct costs of making eBooks, is unpaid Tech Support. You're going to be shocked to find out how many people know nothing about downloading files, how to sideload a file, etc. You won't be able to solve people's issues, if you borrow someone else's instructions.

Vis: taxes--simply, you need a dedicated digital products cart and you or your webguy will have to set it up with an appropriate tax table. That's what you do.

And I'll tell you this for nothing--of all the customers I've had that insisted that they were going to sell eBooks from their own website--individuals, lawfirms, doctor's offices, corporations, and so on--not ONE that started it is still doing it. After a few months, they all decided that the endless customer service issues around the tech support was so onerous that they'd rather pay Amazon.

Using FXL ePUB, you cannot build an FXL MOBI file, by the way. Doesn't work that way--you can only build one through the Amazon publishing workflow, and those files only work AFTER they've been through the PW--and you can't download those. That's kinda killing your ENTIRE Amazon market.

Which means...that you are back to having to make a reflowable eBook. You might want to investigate the realities around the formats as well as what it takes to service eBook buyers from your own website, before you decide to leave Amazon and other vendors that are set up to do what you're trying to do. Perhaps you should divide your book into 3 books, instead?

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

Last edited by Hitch; 02-07-2020 at 11:28 PM. Reason: Added sentence about Mobi DRM.
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