Amazon Salon » When

Make More Money When You Sell Your Book on Amazon!

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:04:36 +0000

“Amazon charges 55% for it’s Amazon Advantage Program because that is what self-publishing authors are used to paying distributors.” This came directly from the lips of an Amazon.com employee at a recent publishing conference. Since Amazon is acting in the capacity of a distributor when an author participates in their Amazon Advantage program, they feel 55% is fair. Unfortunately for their customers, they are not taking into account their computerized processes and lower overhead (nor their $29.95 yearly fee).

First of all, what is Amazon Advantage? In a nutshell, it is a sales program offered by the largest on-line retailer that allows independent writers and publishers the ability to list individual books on the Amazon.com website, thereby reaping the rewards offered by worldwide distribution and a gigantic brand name. Amazon’s Advantage program is clearly advantageous but is it really all its cracked up to be? Let us investigate the potential earnings a little closer…

For our example, we will take a 250 page book with a retail price of $14.95, an average figure on Amazon. If your book’s retail price is higher or lower, you will have to adjust the numbers in this example accordingly. Amazon takes 55% of your retail price right off the top, leaving an amount of $6.73. In order for them to sell your book, they need to have access to it, which means you will need to mail it to them. On average, Amazon requests 2-3 books at a time (“3 weeks worth of inventory” according to this Amazon source.) Never mind that mailing 2 books to Amazon costs approximately the same as mailing 6; you will be investing the time and postage to conduct three different mailings, each of them eating into your profit margin.

Let’s be fair and say the shipping and handling cost per book is $2. In actuality, it is probably higher if you factor in your hourly rate for taping up the box and traveling to the post office. That leaves you with $4.73 for each book. Now let’s factor in the printing cost. How much did that book cost to print with an off-set printer? It depends on your print-run, naturally, but let’s be generous and say it only cost $1.50, not including the shipping costs to you. Yes, this method has you paying for shipping twice, which is not unlike paying taxes twice. And who wants to do that?

In this generous scenario you are left with $3.23 of profit, plus the headache of shipping books, managing inventory, and accounting costs. You would like to list your book with Barnes & Noble.com, Powells.com, BAMM.com, and elsewhere, but who has the time? Amazon is already taking too much away from time better spent writing and promoting. Introducing 20% Amazon Listings With On-Demand Technology

What if an on-demand edition of your book could generate more profit with less work?

Thanks to new printing technology and inventory management software, custom on-demand publisher Outskirts Press can publish an on-demand edition of your book and make it available on Amazon for just 20%. Inventory, shipping, billing, and production are all handled by Outskirts Press and its wholesale partners. Let’s take the same 250 page paperback book with a retail price of $14.95. A 20% discount leaves you with $11.96 (instead of $6.73 with Amazon’s Advantage program). Granted, the on-demand production cost is higher (costing $6.65 per book with Outskirts Press’ Diamond Package). $11.96 minus $6.65 leaves you with $5.31 of profit. There’s no additional out of pocket printing or shipping costs since all of that is handled behind the scenes by Outskirts Press and its partners. You are making $5.31 for each book you sell on Amazon, rather than $3.23. Plus you are saved the hassles of inventory, shipping, billing, estimating print-runs, and paying interest and overhead. More profit. Less risk. How does Outskirts Press do it? Through an inventory management system known as EDI.

What is EDI?

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. The transfer of data between different companies using networks and the Internet. As more and more companies get connected to the Internet, EDI is becoming increasingly important as an easy mechanism for companies to buy, sell, and trade information. Amazon’s computerized system can manage sales and inventory with very little human involvement, particularly if one computer speaks to another. How does it work?

When an Amazon order is placed, EDI communicates the order through Outskirts Press wholesale partners and the book is produced. Turnaround time according to Amazon’s own website is 24 hours. Why does EDI drop the discount so substantially? Amazon would rather deal with 1 wholesaler via EDI handling thousands of books than with thousands of authors via email handling 1-2 books. They make their profit in volume, and hence the considerably lower discount.

Any other advantages? Yes.

All that time and effort involved in listing your self-published book independently with Amazon’s Advantage program has probably prevented you from listing it with Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books-A-Million and countless other online retailers. Each online retailer you pursue independently multiplies your time expenditure, and therefore further decreases your profit margin.

On the other hand, with Outskirts Press and EDI, the same 20% discount can be applied across the board, resulting in automatic distribution and listing with all participating online retailers simultaneously. Even if you have already printed a book off-set or have published a book elsewhere, you owe it to yourself and your profit margin to explore adding an on-demand version of your book to take advantage of this win-win opportunity.

People who looked at this item also looked at…

What Are The Top Mistakes Made When Shopping Online?

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:04:42 +0000

The Internet has changed the way that the world does its shopping. You can buy just about anything that you can think of with the click of a mouse these days: clothes, jewelry, electronics, flowers, food – even cars. Shopping online is quicker and easier than the conventional method of acquiring things and you can do it without leaving your house, heck you can do it without changing out of your pajamas if you want.

The ability to do much of your shopping from home stems from incredible advancements in technology but despite some vast improvements in internet security during recent years internet shopping still has some very real dangers for shoppers who aren’t careful.

Here are some things to look out for and some of the biggest mistakes the internet shoppers can make:

Not Purchasing over Secure Servers

This simple mistake can cause online shoppers major headaches because sending your information over a connection that isn’t secure can leave it open for anyone to see, this information will include your method of payment (credit card number complete with expiration date and security code or your bank account and routing number) along with your name and your address. If this information falls into the wrong hands you could find yourself in a world of financial trouble.

Some of the charges to your credit cards could probably be written off by the credit card companies once the charges are proven to be someone else’s and not yours leaving you with little in the way of direct financial damage, but removing the fraudulent charges could take a good deal of time which could wreak havoc with your credit rating and cause problems if you try to get a loan or apply for a new job before the situation gets rectified.

The best way to avoid a situation like this is to look for a secure method of checkout like Google checkout or PayPal so you are one hundred percent certain that your information is going through a trustworthy source.

You may be able to find a price that seems too good to be true on some random website that has no secure checkout method, but before you proceed ask yourself if it will be worth the months and months of aggravation trying to recover from identity theft to save a few dollars.

Not Shopping Around

The beauty of online shopping is that we are no longer limited by distance – you can literally buy whatever you want from where ever it happens to be – across the country or across the continent, you can compare prices and products from all over the world and buy from the source that has what you want for the price that you want to pay.

Some people make the mistake of purchasing the item they are looking for from the first online store they stumble upon that has it. This is a fine method for shopping if you have a ton of disposable income, but for people who are on a budget – there is truly no better way available to shop around for the best price than online shopping.

Find the item(s) that you want, and then search all of the reputable outlets you can think of for a price comparison. Online retailers are competing for your business just like traditional retailers do – the difference is that with traditional shopping you would have had to spend your entire day driving all over creation to find out who had the best price, with online shopping you can finds the best deals in a matter of minutes without even getting up from your chair.

Not Taking Everything into Account

If you’re new to online shopping, be wary that you may incur charges beyond just what the virtual “price tag” says. You may or may not have to pay shipping for the item you purchase; you may or may not have to pay extra handling charges and depending on where the online retailer is and where you live you may or may not be responsible for sales tax as well. You have to take all of these things into account before you make your purchase to ensure that you are getting the best deal possible.

Online shopping can change the way you do all of your shopping for the better, but you need to keep your eyes open to several things to be a successful online shopper – be safe, shop around and watch the fine print to make sure that your online shopping experiences are safe and positive ones.

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Useful Tips When Shopping Online for Plus Size Pieces

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:03:09 +0000

If you prefer to shop online locally, finding plus size clothing could be a challenging ordeal. Particularly if you are residing in the smaller towns and cities, plus size apparel could be hard to buy locally.

A lot of the local department stores carry a couple of plus size pieces, but they are not usually new stock and therefore, not very stylish and up-to-date. Sometimes, they are not very flattering and have poor quality. So, how would you be able to successfully find plus size items online?

With a search engine, try to do an online search for plus size clothing. You could also try plus size apparel. You would surely be generating thousand and thousands of results that you would need to sort through. You could just end up frustrated and not able to find what you need. It could be a waste of time especially if you are just looking for a simple black dress to purchase. So here are some tips to make your online shopping experience somehow easier.

Make sure that you are as specific as possible as you search online. Try to search for black dress plus size or plus size discount swimsuits.

You might also want to do an advanced search and place the search terms or words in quotes like “plus size swimsuits”. With the use of quotes in your online search, the search engine would be able to filter through the results and give you exactly what you want and need.

Also if you want an item in a specific color, try to include that in the search term that you would be typing. That would also be able to narrow down the results and make your shopping a lot easier.

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Things to Remember When you Shop Online

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:03:12 +0000

As the 21st century progresses, more and more people prefer buying online. There has been no better time for those that sell advertising and for online merchants. However, online shopping could be a bit of a nightmare for inexperience online buyers. After all, you as an online shopper would not have the ability to talk with the other clients of a company that is selling the products you are interested in. This would mean that you have to rely on the information provided by the seller’s website and their advertising.

Given this, how would you be able to protect yourself from being a victim of fraudulent advertising? How would you verify the accuracy of the information you have? A lot of online stores have their own brick and mortar stores. If they are a company doing legitimate business, you should be able to verify the reputation that they have with the complaint agencies that also deal with the regular local stores. You could also check their reputation through the company that handles their advertising – a lot of reputable advertisers would not agree to place advertisements for those companies that they believe to be fraudulent as they would be risking their reputation as well.

One more technique to avoid being scammed as you buy online would be choosing to deal with those retailers who have been doing business for a while. You could usually get this piece of information on the company’s FAQs or “About Us” page. Also, their website also has a copyright date, which is typically the date when the website was launched. If you do choose to do business with a retailer who has not been in the industry that long, make sure that you practice caution.

Lastly, make sure that you are not easily swayed by flashy advertisements. Learning to distinguish the advertisements that give correct product information and the ones that are pure fluff would be able to make your online shopping experience much more pleasant.

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Being Safe When Shopping Online

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:03:02 +0000

The online shopping industry continues to grow. A lot have been turning towards shopping online instead of the conventional way. Because of this, the number and variety of products that can be bought online have also grown. You can shop for items ranging from fruits to CD’s to clothes, and the items, which you want, could be bought and delivered in literally one click. Now that is convenient and hassle-free shopping.

However, you would need to consider a couple of pointers if you are planning to land the greatest deals and find the best online stores. You would also have to be extremely cautious when doing business online due to the issues concerning security. Here are some fairly simple tips in order to make your overall shopping experience online fun, practical and safe.

First, you would need to purchase from a reputable company whose online business has been experienced by a substantial number of people. A lot of the larger companies have also begun selling their products online, and so if you would be purchasing from these bigger companies, the risks for fraud or receiving items of poor quality are definitely lower.

You might also want to opt for a secure server as you shop online using your credit card. Make sure that you are using an updated version of your internet browser, as this would also increase security. Also, a lot of shopping websites already use encrypted information so hackers are prevented from stealing personal details.

Make use of an online directory in finding the best shopping websites and deals. Shopping directories are also great when you are searching for shopping websites since the stores are categorized, making it easy to locate the kinds of stores you are looking for. Sometimes these stores also have store reviews that would also be very helpful for online shoppers.

Also make sure that you shop around first so that you will be certain that you will be making the best purchases available. There are a lot of special offers and discounts online – you would just have to look for them.

Finally, remember to read the company’s return policy and privacy policy so that you would know exactly what to expect. If you could, try to print the page for future reference.

Amazon Salon » When

Make More Money When You Sell Your Book on Amazon!

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

What Are The Top Mistakes Made When Shopping Online?

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

Useful Tips When Shopping Online for Plus Size Pieces

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

Things to Remember When you Shop Online

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

Being Safe When Shopping Online

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items