How important is amazon.com

I asked about this on another thread, with no reponse, so I'll pose the question again here.

How vital is amazon.com to sales of the kind people on this site are involved in?

Those who've mentioned some numbers of books sold, how many were on amazon compared to what you sold by your efforts?

Does anybody get the feeling that anybody has EVER bought one of their books by happening onto it on the amazon site, rather than being sent there by a link from your promotional efforts?

I must admit, lin, that very few of my books have been bought on amazon (.com or .co.uk) and no matter how much I promote and bring the book to people's attention, they show a great deal of interest but don't buy the book.

This is a post from a thread on a the forum of my local hometown:

Quote :

Hi Shelagh , Yes - please do let us know when it`s availabe. I wouldn`t advertise that it`s on line too much. Just tell people which shops are stocking it

The number of views for this thread that was set up for me on the forum is 7,341 but, as far as I know, only one member of the forum bought the book. Those who read it, requested the book from the local library (there are twelve books in libraries in the area).

It would be hard to pin down. I have had a number of Amazon sales on one book because it comes up as covering the same subject when someone goes to Band of Brothers and several other popular military books.
I get a huge number of website visitors and some sales from Google Images. It amazes me how many people want to see pictures of dead cows.

Not sure I would want to see pics of dead cows Dick, although I do enjoy stories from the war. Occupational hazard that has carried through my life I suppose. My youngest daughter loved Band of Brothers and actually purchased it with her b-day money when she was about 17. You just never know what's going to strike a nerve with someone, do you?
To answer your question Lin, I don't ever promote amazon and so don't expect (or receive) any sales that way. As a Canuck I have the good fortune of being able to shamelessly self promote through chapter.ca (part of indigo) so I stick with them. Truth be told most of my sales have come through me flogging my book to the public through appearances and readings and the like.

I hadn't thought of it, Dick, but I would have predicted that military boks would do better on amazon searches than the average novel.

But overall, the impression I'm coming up with is that it just isn't that important to the small indie publisher, be it author as well or not.
Most people use it as a purchase point... which they can do off their own site by just getting a paypal account. And selling the book cheaper at a greater profit. (55% is a BIG chunk if all they're doing is collecting the money)

I see a lot of very go-getter types on here, and had the feeling that most can sell themselves better than anything drive-bys they get from amazon.

But I'm interested in more experiences on the subject.

Amazon has been vital to me because my book isn't available in stores and THAT site is where "everyone" goes. I doubt too many people stumbled in there and just found the book.

Most sales, other than through me, have come by people finding out about the book on MySpace or in a former blogging community, then going to amazon.

In most cases, people read posts or my comments on posts and then go find out more about "The Sun Singer."

Malcolm

Yeah, Sue, that's one thing about amazon: if people have an account there it's easier to buy it.

But anybody who sells off their own site should be offering deep discounts off the amazon price...and still making more money.

Malcolm, that's just what I'm talking about. They find out about the book from your site, then go where you are pointing them. Which could be amazon... or it could be your own paypal button for MUCH greater profit.


Anybody else have a handle on how much amazon really brings them in?

That's a tough question to answer, Sue.
Sometimes when one makes things too cheap, it is suspect.
Price often indicates value.

Here is a rough idea:

"You can purchase my book (Name of Book) from Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and other popular locations, or you can purchase direct from the author and save. The suggested retail price is: ($......). The price direct from the author is ($.....).
If desired, you may request an autographed copy at no additional charge."

Note: I'm not up-to-date on US tax laws, but my experience in the past was that state tax did not apply for purchases made outside the state.

lin wrote:

I asked about this on another thread, with no reponse, so I'll pose the question again here.

How vital is amazon.com to sales of the kind people on this site are involved in?

Those who've mentioned some numbers of books sold, how many were on amazon compared to what you sold by your efforts?

Does anybody get the feeling that anybody has EVER bought one of their books by happening onto it on the amazon site, rather than being sent there by a link from your promotional efforts?

A large number of book related websites (including ibookdb) get their information from Amazon. BN only gives us their top 500,000 books, powells gets us info on about a million books but no images, descriptions etc. and the information is hard to get as compared to Amazon. In fact there are probably 100s if not 1000s of websites that just run on information provided by Amazon.

So Amazon is important for more than just sales from Amazon itself. If it wasn't for Amazon, sites like ibookdb, bookcrossing and many others would not have cover images, book descriptions etc. Even if someone buys a book from xyz seller after visiting site abc, there would be minimal (if any) information about the book if it wasn't for Amazon.

Lin,

Yes, I could make higher profit with paypal than with my referral fee to amazon and the royalty. But I don't do that because sales have never been high enough for me to justify buying in large enough quantities from iUniverse to make it worth doing.

Plus, it's time consuming when you consider purchasing mailing boxes, wrapping books, driving to the post office. When I consider my time in terms of billable hours, I lose money during the time it takes to send the book out. Seriously, as a freelancer, I can't spend time doing fulfillment. Sad but true.

Malcolm

A large number of book related websites (including ibookdb)


Frankly, that sounds like a problem.

Malcolm:
It's not hard to charge s/h fees or to run filfillment through an outfit that does it, like local "Postal Annex" type outfits.
But I hear what you're saying.


One picture that came from the last couple of posts: even if amazon doesn't bring that many sales, people might feel compelled to be there because of their lock on providing feed to other retailers and ancillary sites.

Abe is correct about pricing and a perfect example is the Auburn automobile. Up until about 1936 they made some of the finest and most attractive cars on the market. Many experts say they didn't sell more of them because their prices were too low. People with money to buy the best wanted to spend more, believing that something priced as low as the Auburn wasn't the best available.

That's what economists call "inferior goods"... something that will only sell at a higher price than the economy would normally dictate.

The classic textbook example is aspirin. When ASA came on the market it wouldn't sell at a fair price (which would have been a couple of cents per bottle) so they kicked it up to a buck a bottle or whatever and it took off.

My own classic experience was a knife I was bringing in from India for an outdoor catalog I was running for my usual psycho employer (I can always find 'em). It cost 50 CENTS. A three inch long "buck knife" lockback with stainless steel blade, brass frame and hardwood handle plates.

So my boss priced it at what we call "keystone"...100% markup. We sold like 4 in six months. When the Christmas catalong came out, I just went to the buyer and said, "Forget what Numbnuts says, put it in the computer at $5.95" We sold over 400 in the next cycle.

HOWEVER when something has an established price (such as the amazon price or what's printed on the cover) and you offer a 30% DISCOUNT it's generally good for sales.

Another I liked was a marketing study done in New York at the turn of the century, when such things were in their infancy.

The study (run for Macy's or some such department store) concluded that an expensive box of chocolates could be packaged for, say, 15 cents, but a cheaper selection would need packaging costing over a dollar.

The reason: the expensive chocolates were picked up by well-off people to whom they were just a product, some candy for the kids or whatever. But the cheap box probably represented a major purchase for some lower class buyer, probably a gift to a girl. So it needed classy branding, foil, ribbon, etc. to qualify as a gift of the heart.

The whole busines of branding and presentation is complex and however much they study it, it's still much more an art tnan a science.

I think that Amazon has just become a status symbol.

Interviewer, "Where can people find your book?"

The answer is always, "Of course, Amazon.com... and other major booksellers..."

I sold more of my own books in three months than Amazon has in three years!

My dad ran a country grocery/hardware store. Local farmers would bring
in their produse as trade. One week in particular we had way too many
bunches of turnip greens that were going to spoil if not sold quickly.
They were priced at ten cents a bunch.

"Watch and learn, son."

He made a sign that said, TURNIP GREENS - 2 FOR A QUARTER

They were all sold within two days.

I think "it's on amazon" has become the current default for "published".

This is one of the things that has blurred a lot of previous distinctions about self-publishing, for one thing. Who is going to quibble about how large your publisher is or what the arrangements were when "the book is on amazon"?

If you are talking about online sales, then I think it is very hard to beat Amazon. However, they only make up a small percentage of potential sales for your book - bookstores, signings, events, etc. all can sell many more books then Amazon. But for online sales I have yet to see a venue that could beat it.

I know what you're saying, but are you talking about generating sales by being there, or just a handy place to collect the money?