Should You Sell Books Direct? The Truth About Leaving Amazon Behind

Selling direct to readers can sound like the ultimate author-business upgrade: higher royalties, faster payouts, more control, and a customer list you actually own.

But is it the right move for your book right now?

In this episode, we unpack the real tradeoffs behind selling books from your own website—and why launching a direct-sales store before you have the audience, systems, or offers to support it can become an expensive distraction. Amazon may take a bigger cut, but it also delivers something many authors underestimate: reader trust, familiar checkout, Prime shipping expectations, and an enormous built-in shopping habit.

We break down what direct sales actually require behind the scenes, from inventory, shipping, sales tax, customer service, refunds, and fulfillment to the not-so-small challenge of convincing a reader to pay shipping when Amazon has trained them to expect it fast and free.

Then we get into the more important question: when does selling direct make sense?

You’ll hear what successful direct-selling authors tend to have in place first, why your email list is the real engine behind direct revenue, and which offers give readers a reason to buy from you instead of defaulting to Amazon—think signed books, exclusive editions, bundles, bonuses, and companion products.

We also answer a listener question about beta reader feedback: what you can ethically use, what should stay private, and how to turn powerful reader comments into marketing assets across your Amazon page, website, email newsletter, and social media.

Before you build a store, make sure you understand what will actually move the needle. Listen now, subscribe for more practical book marketing guidance, and share this episode with an author who is wondering whether direct sales are worth the effort.

Preorder Think Local Sell Global and claim your free Local Buzz Blueprint, a customized local visibility plan with personalized outreach ideas, pitch angles, and ready-to-use marketing tools built around your book and community! 

Offer ends July 31.

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Updates

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Office Success Podcast. This is Penny Santay and Amy Cornell. And welcome, welcome, welcome. We're so glad you're here. I'm I'm looking forward to talking about this when we were just in the green room, going over show notes and all the things. I'm really excited about this episode. I'm also very excited. I know I've said this down for a few shows in a row, but think local, sell local hits up on Amazon. Grab your copy today. How to build author buds in your backyard is first in my author visibility series. They are short, very hyper-focused books. Specific areas of marketing. So instead of creating one big book, which I may still do down the road, this series is going to be about really picking a specific area, in this case, obviously local marketing, that I feel authors just aren't spending enough time focused on and really kind of microdosing your marketing, which I which I really love. So I'm very excited about that. As a reminder, we love reviews wherever you listen to podcasts and we love hearing from you. So text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. We get questions all the time. We have some in the queue. If we have time after the show, we'll definitely address

The Real Appeal Of Selling Direct

SPEAKER_01 1:15

those. Part of the reason why I love this topic is so in the show notes, it says, is this a, you know, is this right for you or is it just a shiny object? This shiny object has been around for a long time. Selling selling direct to readers, mostly because Amazon makes you mad and you're like, I just want to make more money. I'm not making enough money. I want to sell direct to, you know, I want to sell off my website. I want to sell direct to readers. And in theory, it sounds like a really good idea, but the execution of it doesn't always make a ton of sense, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Right. No, it's it's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

So here we are, you know, I have to stop you right there because here we are again, like we're totally gonna get a review from somebody saying, Amy and Penny are just a bunch of buzzkills because we're a buzzkill.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I know you totally caught me. I'm like, how to be productive and sound. But it's true. I hope most of you, especially if you've been listening for a while, that is one of the reasons you keep listening, is because if anything, we do not sugarcoat. So here we are, yet again talking about something that continues to be a big conversation in the author space. Ditching Amazon, we get it. We get just as frustrated by Amazon as y'all do. So we can understand where that comes from. But there are a lot of considerations similar to, you know, the recent show we did about charging for a newsletter. Not impossible, but it's not the right fit for everybody for sure. There, there needs to be, and that's why we're here. We want to talk about when it works, when it doesn't. So you can go into this a little more educated on what the options are. And it may be something you can do down the road, but it may not be what's best for you now, right, Penny?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Right. I mean, again, this is not something so kind of like with the with the paid newsletter episode, this is not something that I would lead the parade with, right?

unknown 3:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Yes. I I think that if your goal is to sell direct, I think that then the marketing actions that you take should be focused on my

Trust And Newsletters Come First

SPEAKER_01 3:20

goal is in a year, I want to start selling direct or whatever your timeline is. And that always starts with a newsletter. So go back to our newsletter episode, listen to that, because if you don't have a newsletter, and a lot of times the a lot of authors that I talk to are wanting to sell direct and they have no direct communication with their readers. So I'm like, well, how are you gonna like how's that gonna happen? Where are these people? Right, right. Where are these people at? What's happening? What's happening? What's going on? The other thing is though, too, and I gotta tell you, in an age where, you know, scammers are just like a plenty, right? People are, and I'm not suggesting that you are at all scamming authors, like don't don't don't send us hate mail. We're not suggesting or scamming readers, we're not suggesting that, but consumers are very distrusting. So Amazon is a trusted source, and you, and that's part of the reason why you have to build towards this, you have to become that trusted source. So, you know, getting a random email from an author saying, you know, you can buy my book on my website, it's like where am I going actually? You know what I mean? Like, where's this link really leading? I gotta tell you, when I get emails from people, like, click this link. I rarely click the link anymore just because I you know what I mean? Like it's just it's it's become so again, the first your first piece of this is you gotta start a newsletter, you have to build trust because the higher royalties, faster payouts, customer ownership, all of that is wildly appealing. The biggest piece of this is being less dependent on Amazon. I fully get that, but you gotta be you have to build the trust factor first. And I know I've jumped ahead in the show notes, so I I apologize about that, but I obviously I have strong feelings about this because it's it's been a conversation that authors have had for all I I would say practically as long as we've been in business.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Right. And I can't believe the statistic. Does that that kind of blew my mind about how many indie authors are already selling direct? I guess that doesn't mean successfully. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Right, exactly. I mean, I think what what was it so that's a misleading statistic, I think. 30% of indie authors are already selling direct. But but here's the thing though, and I and I realize that so now we've just let's just throw our show notes out the window because obviously we both have strong feelings about this. I gotta tell you, I think that those authors are probably selling something that they can't get on Amazon. So I've had meaning different editions of the book, right? So uh hardback, for example, like if you the hardback edition is or a special edition or anniversary edition or whatever that they're selling on their website. Secondarily, these indie authors have probably spent a lot of time building their mailing list and their their the you know the right confidence and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Right. And that's a good point. Just because they are selling direct doesn't mean they're also not selling on Amazon and all the other places.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, I'm sure they are. I'm because I I talked to an author, I I think it was two years ago, and I don't know if they ever did it. I mean, I I hope that they did because they actually had they were sitting in a situation where they had a very active mailing list, they had a a a large following on social media, and this was they they were really set up well to do this, but obviously there was a lot of work that went ahead of it. And they wanted to release a special anniversary edition of the book with French flaps and the whole thing, and and they were like, you know, I really just want to sell that on my website. And I'm like, oh, I think that's a uh, you know, I think that's a great idea in that situation. And I'm betting that if they did that, I bet I bet that the book did well for them, you know. But I think the majority of authors that we've talked to over the years, it's very cart before the horse, I think, to try and charge uh to try and sell books on their website. I mean, would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think this similar to a paid newsletter, again, for those of you that listen consistently, that makes sense to you. But, you know, it's something that you do once you're established. You know, and I I I thought this was another totally relevant statistic. You know, data shows that 66% of authors successfully selling direct have more than five books, and 46% have more than 10 books. I mean, that is a big deal. That's a big platform.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, that's that's a that's a big platform. I so I think that, you know, the the moral of the story is that yeah, I mean, if that is part of it's if that's your long-term goal, I think that's great. But there are a lot of steps that, you know, that kind

Shipping Taxes Returns And Headaches

SPEAKER_01 7:55

of precede that. And I know we're gonna break down uh some of those. But the first, the first is you gotta have a you gotta have some kind of a shopping. So there are a couple things to consider. And the one of them is a complete turnoff to the majority of authors that I discuss this with. The first is is you have to have a you have to have a shopping cart. Shopping carts are easy enough. Like you can get something through Shopify if you want, or there are plugins for websites where you can have shopping carts. Like we have a shopping cart on our site. I still don't sell books on our site because I don't want to be shipping books all day. And that's the is authors do not want to be shipping. The majority of authors get turned off by this because they don't want to be shipping their own books.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

That's the thing. Oh, yeah. You know, gosh, there's taxes and customer service and potential refunds. It's like, sorry, clearly I am not the market for this.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Well, but but you know, I mean, uh, you know, the the direct, so whatever your taxes are, as you said, the customer service. Refunds for books are surprisingly and ridiculously high. That is actually book returns, is actually the one thing that will undermine publishing companies more than literally anything else. It is staggering how many people return books. It's actually insulting. That's probably not really the right word, but I don't think it's the right word.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

That is insulting.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

It's it really, it's it's terrible. So I think that you know, you have to kind of I think if you have like a special, again, here we are like buzzkilling, you know, Amy and Penny are just buzzkilling all over the place. I think if you have, as Amy pointed out, if you have enough books, if you have a loyal audience, and you know, if all of this, none of this stuff, you know, taking all this into consideration, you still want to do it, I think that's great. Generally, I think the refunds will go down for like special editions and things like I'm not suggesting that 60% of the books that you sell on your website are gonna come screaming back into your mailbox as you know, wanting a refund necessarily. But I think that all of these do have to be considered for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Right. And even shipping costs. I mean, that's a huge thing, too. That just psychologically, from a buyer perspective, why a lot of people shop on Amazon, because most people nowadays have prime benefits, and they can mostly do their shopping and not worrying about the total going out the door because of shipping fees and all that other stuff. And so that's something else to consider too, is that, you know, all of a sudden your book is now going to be priced what in order for it to really make sense for you and for the cost involved to fulfill these orders. I mean, and at that point, are you actually staying within typical retail expectations for what people pay for books in your genre? You know, that's that's another huge, I think, consideration.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Well, and here's the thing though, too. So not just the fact that you have to fulfill this, you would be amazed how much more people will pay, how much people consumers avoid paying for shipping. Mm-hmm. Amazon Prime, and this is where, again, Amazon is very good news, bad news. This is where Amazon has really kind of killed shipping fees for a lot of people, right? And I've talked to, I've actually talked to consumers who will say, you know what, I would rather add something else to my cart that I don't particularly need to avoid paying for shipping fees. Isn't that wild? Yeah. Yeah, it really, really is. So that's also something to consider. The other piece of it

Pricing Psychology And Prime Shipping

SPEAKER_01 11:35

though, too, and again, I think for the right in the right situation, this can absolutely work, is you you this is a new part of your business. So you want to make sure that you have the bandwidth to run it because the time that you're going to invest in launching your own store is going to take away from something else. So if you have everything else, like if your website is tight, if your all the other your list is taken care of, or you have somebody helping you out, whatever that is, and you have the time to invest in this, then and you have, you know, an active mailing list and a lot of fans, and as Amy pointed out, more than one book out there, right? Then it's definitely something to consider. But it is that there are a lot of pieces to it. I I mean, like with anything. What's interesting is that years ago when Amazon first started, publishers actually publishers waited a while to start this chorus of complaining, but big publishing houses, big publishing houses in New York, I think Amazon was in business for maybe five years or something and selling books. And they were just hating on the idea of like, oh my gosh, and Amazon and blah, blah, blah, and we want to get book sales. So a lot of them opened up stores on their website to try and sell direct to consumers. But again, here's the thing. Even though, like, okay, would I have any hesitation buying something from Simon and Schuster? Probably not. But at the same time, I have an account with Amazon. It's one click, it's easy. Boom, it's in my shopping cart. I get it with breakfast tomorrow. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

And all the other things that you need, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And all the other things that I need. So that's the other thing to consider is that that is what you're and so by the time publishers got around to saying we want to do stores, and many of them did start stores on their website, it was just too late. You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

I think that's very true. I think purchases, I'd be curious. I mean, we will never get this, but I would be really interested to see how many book purchases on Amazon are just the book versus part of a bigger order. And I think that works in author's favor, candidly. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're already shopping, you're building your cart, you're adding stuff that you've been that you need anyway, and then you're like, you know what? I've heard about this author, or I've seen this cover, or I'm ready for a new book, or like I have a vacation coming up. You know what I mean? But they're already doing the shopping. And that's what's psychologically so brilliant about Amazon and where it really serves authors is that you become a part of this like shopping mindset when you're on Amazon versus anywhere else, it has to be such an intentional act to go there to seek out, to buy the book, you know, and that's really hard to keep people's attention that long nowadays, unfortunately. You know?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Right, right, right. And I think, you know, to what we said earlier, I think that if you're going to do this, I mean, I think there are pieces

What To Sell That Amazon Cannot

SPEAKER_01 14:20

that are that you have to have in place, but I think that you have to offer them something that they can't get on Amazon. I think that's kind of that's, you know, and and in some cases, like I've we've worked with authors where they're selling a journal as a companion piece to their book on their website. They've built a mailing list, they have all the things, and now they're selling this journal, right? Which is which is a great companion piece to the that particular book that they're writing. And that tends to work, but it has to be something that also they can't get on Amazon because if the choice is between getting five things I need on Amazon at the same time or buying a book off of the author's website, I'm probably gonna default to Amazon. And in some cases, like authors will offer additional swag, like you get a book and you get some other fun swag stuff, and you get a tote bag. So you really so if you're going to do this, I mean, it really you have to make it appealing. It has to be something they can't get on Amazon and it has to be, but also has to be appealing. In some cases, that is a special edition of a book or an autographed book or something like that, which obviously is not something that they can get on Amazon either.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, I think you can have a lot of fun with this, but I think again, I think your point, Penny, is is this where you need to be focusing your time? I think is huge. Yeah, like is focusing your time on doing this really going to serve your broader goal, long-term goals for your author brand and what you're trying to do? Or are you at a point in your author career where you're really better served to, you know, nose down, get more books out, let Amazon do the work for you for now, and then revisit this when it makes more sense and there's less risk involved for you candidly for the effort that you're gonna have to put in.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, and I've seen authors that also sell their books on Etsy. And I think, I think, in fact, I think I mentioned that one time to Amy in a text. I'm like, oh, maybe I should start selling some of my books on Etsy. I don't even think that she responded to that because she was just like that's just and and for some authors, but you know, in some situations, I think using a portal like that that already gets a lot of traffic can absolutely work for you. But when you think about what people are buying on Etsy, it's probably not a romance novel. You know what I mean? So you also have to make sure that you have an audience match. I think that getting away from Amazon, which is the driving factor behind selling off of your website, is that is a depth, that's if that is your ultimate goal, then I think you have to, you know, kind of consider your options and consider all of the things that that precede that moment where you say,

Etsy Options And Success Stories Request

SPEAKER_01 17:05

all right, now I am selling lots of books and I'm doing really well and I'm circumventing the Amazon ecosystem. And if you're already doing that, you should let us know. Because we really want to, even though we've been super buzzkill in this show, sorry, but we really want to hear from you because this is sometimes how we build, we may do a follow-up show, and this is how we build our stories.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Oh, yeah. Please. I I love, you know, people ask us sometimes too. We get this comment a lot, like, oh, I'd love to hear a success story about this. And I'm totally open to that. If y'all want to send us your success stories too, because, you know, like Penny said, we feel pretty buzzkill most of the time. It's all, you know, with the right intentions. We're here with the best of intentions. We want to, we wanna prep y'all, we want to educate you. We our goal is just to have smarter authors, more savvy authors out there doing the work, right? Because we all benefit from that. Yeah. But highlighting success stories and the unique ways you made something work for you, especially awesome. Please let us know.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yeah, please let us know. Text the word podcast to 888-402-8940 and send us your success story. Tell us why we're wrong. We love your feedback. That's new bun.

unknown 18:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Tell us why we're wrong. We love your feedback. Tell us about something that we totally thought, like we just sort of ranted in this show. I realize. I hope it was helpful. I mean, we always we always want these shows to be helpful, but tell us why we're wrong. We would really love to hear that. Do we have time for a listener

Using Beta Reader Reviews Well

SPEAKER_01 18:35

question? Do you think we should? Let's do it. Okay. I love this one. Can I use my beta reader reviews in my marketing?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

I took the last one, so I think you should take this one.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Okay. I vote yes. I mean, I think that if you're getting reader reviews, then you know if your beta readers are sending you reviews, the first thing I would say is tell them to put it up on Amazon. Like tell them to post it on Amazon. But yeah, you could definitely use your beta reader reviews in in marketing for sure. First and foremost is dress up that Amazon retail page with it.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, I think that's huge. I think beta reviews are awesome, but you need to be able to do something with them. So this is the uncomfy part for a lot of people. You need to stay in touch. If your book's not out yet, especially and they have nowhere to post it, you need to stay in touch with them and send them reminders once the book is up on Amazon and open to reviews, because that is the biggest benefit you could get from that. But, you know, you also, if you have a platform at all, you need to use those as well. So adding them to your website in a dedicated section, highlighting them on social media if you're on social media, highlighting them in your newsletter if you already, and again, we've talked about this. Even if you have five people signed up for your email list, stay in touch with those five people. Don't make them wait around till you feel like there's enough people to make it worth your time. That's not cool, you know. Yeah. But yeah, you need to do something with them that makes sense. But don't just like it feels good to get them, but I think a lot of authors run into that where they put in the work and the energy to get some beta reviews, but then they're like, beta reader reviews, excuse me. And then it's kind of like, now what happens with these? Which is fair. But yeah, you have to, you need to have a plan. You know, like we say it applies to reviews too. Try to use them in three different ways. Anything you do, any win, try to find three different ways to repurpose that win to make it work for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah, exactly. Never let anything go to waste. That is not reviews, they are oftentimes hard to come by. Never ever

Final Takeaways And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 20:35

ever let anything go to waste. And with that, we thank you so much for listening. As I said, send us your show feedback, tell us why we're wrong. We love that. And we will see you next week. Bye bye.