Photo by Mika Baumeister
Most independent authors offer their print books for sale through the major online retail platforms (e.g., Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, etc.), who in turn utilize print-on-demand technology.
The beauty of these platforms lies in the simplicity: both platforms accept orders, print the books on demand, and ship them out for you. This convenient technology eliminates any need for an author to hold inventory of their books and ship books to people manually. They are also QUICK! I can order my book from IngramSpark and get it printed and shipped to me in Canada within a few days. It’s actually mind-boggling.
The convenience comes at a price, and an author who can figure out how to sell their book through their own website has a few advantages:
You keep more of the profit from your book
You can communicate more directly with your readers (e.g., collect their email for your email list)
Assuming you’ve already tackled the big challenge of how to get readers to your site in the first place, how can you get physical books into the hands of your readers?
Here are some ways to sell your physical book to readers from your website.
1) Have a bunch of books printed, add a shopping cart to your website, and then either fulfill the orders yourself or through a fulfillment company
How many books you want to print is up to you, but just make a vow not to end up with a basement full of dusty books.
If you print more than 500 books, you can have them printed in bulk in China (or anywhere) via lithographic offset printing. Even with the freight costs (which you can organize through Freightos), you’ll pay significantly less per book, and get much more fabulous books, potentially with fancy stuff like spot varnish or a ribbon (oh my god don’t get me started!).
Offset printing press. Photo by Bank Phrom
If you want a short print run, get a quote from 48hourbooks or any other book printing vendor in your area.
The warehousing and fulfillment of books can then be either done by you or your team or if your book is just flying off the pallets, you can find a company to do this for you, e.g., ShipMonk. I haven’t used this company myself but I know they warehouse, pick, pack, and ship books to your customers.
2) LuluDirect > Shopify
Lulu, another print-on-demand book publishing platform, has an app called LuluDirect which integrates with Shopify and turns your website into a bookstore.
Lulu only charges production cost – there’s no distribution fee. If you have a shopify site already for some reason, this may be a great option to look into.
3) Use IngramSpark’s aerio.io plugin on your website
If you self-publish via Ingram’s IngramSpark platform, as many authors do, you can try Aero.io, a plugin meant to allow you to sell your physical books (or any books) through it – with IngramSpark super conveniently taking care of the printing (print-on-demand) and distribution.
In theory, this options seems like a dream. Unfortunately, I tried this out and couldn’t make it work. Maybe because I’m based in Canada. It may be worth a shot, especially if IngramSpark has found a way to work out some of the bugs. Be aware that this option will only allow you to sell books to readers based in Canada and the U.S.
There you have it! Good luck, and please let me know in the comments please what other solutions you came up with for the challenge of getting your books into the hands of your readers, through your own website.