5-STAR Fantasy / Sci-Fi

Sunday, February 16, 2014

How to Sell Your Books Directly to Your Readers - the Easy Way!


Author Tip
In the olden days of being an author, you would write a bazillion manuscripts, mail them with love to a bazillion publishers, and have one in a bazillion chances of getting a contract, becoming the next Danielle Steel, and retiring on the French Riviera.

That was the olden days.

Today, we have something called the Internet, and a revolution called self-publishing. But you already know that.

You’re not interested in sending Random House yet another manuscript. And, to be brutally honest with you, the editors at Random House aren’t interested in reading your manuscript. You’re interested in getting published, getting noticed by the people who really matter (readers), and making a living doing what you love.

The Key to Self-Publishing
That’s why I’m writing this article. The key to self-publishing is finding a way to deliver your product reliably, and then get paid in return.

That’s easier said than done. One of the most crucial elements of self-publishing is finding the best way to sell. You can sell your rights to Amazon, and let them walk away with vast amounts of your earnings. Or, you can find a platform that requires a coder to install, a lawyer to advise, and a full-time web admin to monitor.

But you’re a writer. You want to write awesome stuff, not wrangle with code and mess around with author rights.

And you want to live in a villa on the French Riviera.

Writer, Meet Sellfy.
Sell Your Books Directly to Your Readers
Thankfully, there’s a miracle called Sellfy that is quickly becoming the go-to spot for authors to self-publish their best sellers.

Sellfy was born in the mind of start-up entrepreneur Maris Dagis as a way to let people sell digital products, plain and simple. Dagis is a creator himself, and he invented Sellfy to meet his own need for an easy, online shopping cart. “We thought there should be a better way to sell,” said Dagis, remembering in horror the limited options for selling his WordPress themes.

His creation, Sellfy, turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to the self-publishing community.

Sellfy is the Writer’s Best Friend
As a self-publishing payment platform come true, here’s the skinny on how it can turn you into the Stephen King.

1. Sellfy is easy.
Let me just say it. Most writers are not coders. That’s a polite way of saying, that you can care jack what HTML means or does. Thankfully, Sellfy makes the process extremely simple. When I first created a Sellfy account — no angst-inducing forms, thank you very much — I was shocked at how easy it was. Surely, self-publishing couldn’t be this easy. Yes. Yes it was. And it is. And all I had to do was upload my PDF, set my price, get my link, and walk away.

Ordering a latte is more complicated than setting up on Sellfy.

Let’s turn things around, though. What about the buyer? What about shopping cart abandonment? With Sellfy, it’s not going to happen. Making the purchase is a breeze for buyer and seller.

2. Sellfy is inexpensive.
Another huge plus of Sellfy is the cost.

Before you cover your ears and walk away at the word “cost,” let me tell you something. Any worthy platform is going to cost. The variations in cost are what differentiate selling platforms.

Sellfy is rock-bottom cheap. The required fee is only 5% of the price of your product. Let’s just compare that with Amazon — 35% or 70%! Plus, Sellfy doesn’t charge a penny for subscription costs, shop setup, preliminary fees, or other crap. The fee is only discounted from your sales price when you actually make a sale.

3. Sellfy is Internet ubiquitous.
One gargantuan limitation of some self-publishing platforms is that you can only sell your product in their store, or your online shop. That’s ridiculous. I’m not on a hate campaign against Amazon Kindle Direct, but it is very difficult to get top-selling status if you can only sell there. I’ve had two books listed there for two years, and have made a whopping zero sales.

The upside of Sellfy is that all you need is a little link to sell your book anywhere. In a Twitter message, a Facebook post, an Instagram profile, an email, a QR code — you name it. You can sell it. Anywhere.

4. Sellfy is convenient.
This platform meets you where you’re at, and helps you to sell your stuff. Most self-publishing writers that I know are using PayPal to receive money. Sellfy works with PayPal, Stripe, or Paymill, which translates into überconvenience for you.

Another nice thing is the instant transfer. You never have to wait for a royalty check or monthly payouts. When a fan buys a book, you get your cash instantly.

It’s fun to watch. You can do a major marketing push or Twitter shoutout, and watch the money trickle in instantly as buyers purchase your book. (Go buy something expensive. Celebrate.)

These benefits are the proverbial surface scratch of Sellfy’s myriad advantages. There are hurdles in the way of self-publishing today. It’s senseless to make selling one of those hurdles. If you write a book, you want to sell it.

Sellfy wants you to sell it, too. And, thank goodness, you can do so easily, cheaply, ubiquitously, and conveniently.

See you on the French Riviera. Maybe we can be villa neighbors.

- Daniel Threlfall



Click here to check out Sellfy -
The easy way to sell your books directly to your Readers, Followers, and Fans!



3 comments:

Sahara Foley said...

Sounds interesting. Do you also make money from referrals? How long have you been using it? Thank you for this helpful tip.

TRAVELS WITH MY HAT said...

Excellent post thank you. I shall investigate Selfy at once and hope they are paying you a royalty for your confidence in them.

Van Mayhall Jr. said...

I have self-published through iUniverse, but I must say it is very difficult getting your book out there as an indie author. Any suggestions?

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