Why should you want to have an online bookstore?
First off, I’m not talking about offering signed copies of books through your website. What I mean is; being able to offer ebooks through an online store that’s yours.
Why do that? You won’t have the reach of Amazon or its competitors.
For one thing, it’s ideal to have as many distribution channels as possible. It’s why I advocate for going wide. That not only means going through all the online stores but also having your own store. For another thing, you want to have your own distribution channel. One that you control that won’t have you fretting about algorithms. One that you can’t lose because a corporation decides to kill your account for reasons beyond your ability to deal with.
Right now your two main choices are Shopify and Gumroad. Shopify has a service cost in addition to taking a percentage of items you sell there. Unless you’re selling lots of books a month you should probably hold off on creating an account there. Gumroad is plain but costs nothing beyond taking a small percentage from sales. Gumroad is what I use for my ebooks.
At my Gumroad store, I offer ebooks that I’m not offering elsewhere, like some of my series collections. This is another benefit of having your own online store, you can offer products and deals there that aren’t in any other store. Nor are you limited to ebooks; it’s possible to offer other digital goods like audiobooks or art (as long as you have the right to sell them). y
These perks are chances for you to drive traffic to your online store. If you drive enough of your readers to that store, you can keep more of what you earn for yourself. They become accustomed to buying direct than through a retailer. And the prospect of offering perks can get you thinking about what else you can do for your readers.
The more books you publish, the more you should consider having your own online bookstore. While it might add a little to your workload, it can benefit your writing career.
