Every author would love to see their work in a bookstore of some kind. Although most of us get excited when we see our titles on Amazon, it’s not the only way to sell books online. In fact, a lot of authors set up bookstores in their blogs.
However, doing so doesn’t guarantee your book will sell. There is still quite a bit of marketing that goes into promoting your site.
You can’t just create a website, add eCommerce, and hope someone will stumble across your book and buy it.
It’s Easy for an Author to Set Up a Bookstore
In 2023, more than 767 million printed books were sold in the United States. This includes both indie and trad published authors.
Also, keep in mind that eBooks generated more than $1 billion in 2023.
Why wouldn’t you want a slice of that pie?
There are all kinds of ways you can create an online bookstore. From Shopify to self-hosted WordPress, a lot of available options are relatively cheap to start and maintain.
In fact, you can literally set up and start selling books inside the hour if you choose. And a lot of these systems are both automated and codeless, meaning anyone at any skill level can start selling virtually immediately.
The most difficult part of creating a store for your books is the marketing. No one is going to buy the book if they don’t know it exists. Of course, that’s true whether you’re creating your own bookstore or just using Amazon.
10 Pros and Cons of Creating an Online Bookstore
Creating an online bookstore isn’t for everyone. You have to accept the good with the bad when setting up eCommerce. But that’s true with just about anything online.
What are some pros and cons of setting up a bookstore as an author?
PROS
- You Control the Store
- Expanding Your Market
- Running it From Home
- More Money in Your Pocket
- Lots of Monetization Methods
CONS
- Marketing Expenses
- Upfront Costs
- Investing a Lot of Time
- Market Saturation
- Learning Taxes and Fees
You Control the Store
When you create your own online store, you control every aspect of running it. This is especially true if you use self-hosted WordPress and install WooCommerce or one of many book-selling plugins.
Design, pricing, content, ads…everything is essentially at your command. Although some of it requires a bit of programming and design knowledge, there are a slew of tools online that streamline the process.
Expanding Your Market
There is nothing wrong with selling books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a long list of eBook platforms in addition to your bookstore. Think of it as expanding your market to specifically engage your readers.
You can keep fans who follow your blog in the loop when you’re working on a new book and when it’ll be released. That can lead to more pre-orders, that is as long as you work toward building an audience.
Running it From Home
Like any other online business, you can set up your bookstore from the comfort of your own home. In fact, about 50% of all small businesses in the United States are home-based. To put that into perspective, we’re talking roughly about 19 million businesses.
Most of that has to do with lowering overhead and the automated tools that are available to business owners today. As an author with an online bookstore, the overhead costs would be nominal outside of inventory compared to a brick-and-mortar store.
More Money in Your Pocket
If you sell a printed copy of your book on Amazon at a price of $12.99 and the printing costs $4.84, you could make $2.95 in royalties. That’s if you select the 60% margin, which is not what you receive after all things are paid.
If you can keep the printing costs roughly the same and sell books directly from your website, you’ll make around $8.15 per book, or 63% of the sale price.
This translates to 2.8x what you would make selling the book directly on Amazon.
This is just one example of how much more money you could make per sale by cutting out some of the middlemen. But then the argument of marketing costs could be made, which I’ll go over in a minute.
Lots of Monetization Methods
If you use self-hosted WordPress, there are very few limits to how you can monetize your author blog outside of a bookstore. Affiliate marketing, Google ads, Buy Me a Coffee links, and more can help generate a bit of revenue.
While some platforms like Wix and Shopify limit monetization methods, you can still generate a bit of cash in more than just book sales. And the more people who visit your site, the more money you’ll wind up making.
Marketing Expenses
One of the biggest drawbacks to having your own online store, or even selling books as an author, is marketing. As I said before, no one will buy your book if they don’t know it exists. And some marketing methods can get a bit expensive.
There’s nothing wrong with utilizing as many free methods as possible, such as promoting the links on social media. But the more effective methods to sell your books are always going to cost a bit of money to get going.
Upfront Costs
Marketing isn’t the only upfront cost you’ll have to consider. To set up a blog for the next three years, you’ll need hosting. That is as long as you want to have the utmost flexibility on your platform.
Free hosts and websites can only do so much.
At GreenGeeks, it could cost as little as $2.95 per month if you pay three years in advance. Install WordPress on the account, and you can do some great things.
But then you also might want to consider paying for premium themes and plugins to get the most out of your sales platform.
Also, you’ll have to pay for printing copies of your book should you decide to sell paperback and hardcover versions.
Investing a Lot of Time
Aside from marketing, time is perhaps the greatest investment you’ll have in setting up an author bookstore. Marketing, maintenance, content, shipping, and more can quickly tap your time throughout the day.
To add insult to injury, it could then take anywhere from six months to two years before your website generates a meaningful amount of money. In this case, I’m talking about $1,000 or more per month.
This means you have to be resilient and keep investing time if you want to replace a full-time income from your website.
Market Saturation
Again, like all things online, the market for bookstores is quite saturated. Take a look at the sheer volume of book titles on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. There is a LOT of competition.
If you’re not putting in maximum effort, it can feel like you’re trudging uphill just to pay for hosting expenses. However, a good marketing strategy can make a world of difference to keep your books on top.
Learning Taxes and Fees
Lastly, when running an online store of any kind, you’ll need to learn the sales taxes and fees for your region. Every state and every country has differing codes that you’ll need to learn. Then, you’ll have to pay those taxes in a timely manner.
Depending on where you live, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Most areas have all of that information available online and it just comes down to keeping track of the numbers. And most sales platforms like WooCommerce keep track of tax information.
8 Realistic Ideas for an Author to Market a Bookstore
In case you haven’t noticed, I talk a lot about marketing. That’s because it’s perhaps the number one vital element for succeeding online in any capacity. And since there are so many people vying for the attention of others, your input could get buried in the algorithms.
Nonetheless, there are some practical and realistic methods you can start using today to help shine a light on your website. Just keep in mind that there are no guarantees when it comes to marketing. What works for one may not work for another.
What are some ideas for marketing your bookstore as an author?
- Share on Social Media
This one is pretty obvious, but you can get quite a few followers if you consistently interact on social apps. Although you probably won’t generate a lot of sales, it’s free, quick, and easy. - SEO Content
Search engine optimization can do wonders for attracting an audience. As an author, you want to make sure those articles are relevant to your readers. - PPC Campaigns
Facebook and Google have easy-to-use pay-per-click advertisement platforms that won’t cost an arm and a leg. I know of one author, Andy Maslan, who generates a lot of sales from Facebook itself. - Other Paid Advertising
PPC campaigns aren’t the only ads you can use online. There are several that will have varying degrees of success, such as using book influencers, paid spots on podcasts, and more. - In-Person Events
Author events, book fairs, and conventions help you spread the word about your book and your name. They can also be used to promote your online bookstore. - Email Lists and Newsletters
Email is still one of the most cost-efficient forms of advertising with the highest ROI. Statistically speaking, you can make $36 for every $1 you spend on email marketing. - YouTube and TikTok Channels
Video marketing is incredibly effective. In fact, about 64% of people will buy a product after seeing a video about it. Host a YouTube or TikTok video channel tailored to your target reader while promoting the bookstore. - Offer Discounts, Freebies, and Coupons
People love getting free stuff or saving money on goods they want to buy. It’s all about tempting the visitor to buy your book. Announcing these in advertisements will help bring people to your site.
This is just a very small list of the many ways an author can promote an online bookstore. Success mostly comes down to creativity and how much money you can throw at marketing.
Traffic, Traffic, and More Traffic
At the end of the day, any website’s success boils down to one inescapable truth: you need A LOT of traffic to the site. Whether you’re blogging or hosting a multi-vendor bookstore, you need to capture the attention of others.
You’re capable of doing some things for free while others might cost several hundred dollars. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you’ll get your money back from any method you choose.
Perhaps one of the best things you can do is to learn every marketing method inside and out. It’s time-consuming, but it will greatly reduce the financial risks if it doesn’t work out.
Or, there is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring a marketing or PR person. Some are exceptionally good at their jobs and could turn that book into a bestseller on Amazon. However, these professionals usually charge quite a bit upfront. And some will also claim a slice of the sales.
When you don’t have a lot of time available, hiring professionals may be one of the best uses for your marketing budget.
As an author, you need to get as many eyes on your book, name, and online bookstore as possible. Just bear in mind the saturation of the market. People may not even see your ads simply because of the sheer volume of other authors’ ads.
When it comes to building a successful blog or online store, it’s all about playing the long game. Remember, it can take a couple of years before your site generates a meaningful amount of money. It’s not going to happen overnight, in 99.999% of cases.
But the more work you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it down the road.
What About the Use of Free ISBNs?
When you sell books through Amazon’s KDP program, you have the option to use a free ISBN for printed copies. Ebooks don’t technically need ISBNs on the platform.
Free ISBNs from Amazon tie the book directly to that publishing platform. That means you can’t use the ISBN on another publishing system, such as Barnes & Noble Press.
However, you can resell author copies with that free ISBN at author events, book fairs, conventions, or through your online bookstore.
It’s always better to purchase your own ISBNs as it gives you more flexibility regarding where you want your book sold, tracking, and control. The problem is that they can get expensive unless you buy them in bulk.
Will I Ever Build a Bookstore for My Work?
As an author, I’m quite interested in setting up a bookstore for my work. In reality, I already have a book-selling plugin installed at MichaelBrockbank.com. Instead of visitors buying the book from me directly, though, the “buy now” button links to my Amazon listing.
Currently, I’m working on a few eBooks that will be available directly from my personal blog. But at the moment, I just haven’t had the time to create and promote the online store.
Not to mention that I don’t have the money to buy physical inventory. I suppose I could offer the eBook versions directly from my site. It would cut out having to share anything with Amazon.
As I pointed out earlier, though, maintaining a good online store requires quite a bit of time. And right now, I just don’t have a lot of it at my disposal.
Rest assured, I will have an online bookstore at some point. I just don’t know when.
What Kind of Books Would You Sell?
Setting up an online bookstore as an author is relatively simple. The hardest part is finding the time to market your site and get it in front of as many people as possible.
One of my end-game goals is to build a store where I host books from myself as well as other authors. But I don’t want to get into setting all of that up until I have a bit more available time.
In any case, having your own bookstore as an author is just another outlet that may help you sell a few more copies each month. All it takes is a web host, a bit of starting cash, and making sure you’re spending adequate time managing the bookstore.
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