A lot of creators use Fourthwall to sell goods, but what about posting your own printed book? As an author, Fourthwall has a lot of potential, especially if you want some of your designs on other merch. And listing your book next to them is relatively easy.
The only thing you have to worry about is shipping the book yourself. That means paying close attention to your email should someone buy it. Also, keep in mind any taxes for your region as well as import/export fees if you’re shipping out of the country.
Note: this tutorial is for selling printed copies of your books. You can also list digital products on Fourthwall if you want to sell eBooks.
How to List Your Printed Book in Fourthwall
I’m going to assume you already have an account at Fourthwall and are ready to go. If not, the process is relatively easy. The longest part is simply customizing your storefront.
Step 1: Create a New Product
From your Fourthwall dashboard, click the “Create new product” button.
Select the option for “Sell something I have.”
Step 2: Enter the Book Details
On this next screen, you’ll enter all of the details about your book.
Product Details
This is where you’ll put the book’s title and the description. I suggest using the same blurb that’s on the back of the book or the one you have on Amazon (should you use KDP).
You can add any other details you’d like, such as whether the book is autographed or if it’s part of a charity collection. I state how the book is a matte finish.
Also, you can use the “Edit additional sections” option under the description if you need to go into further details about the book.
NOTE: If you use the “Edit additional sections” option without saving, you’ll lose everything from the product page you just entered. The save button is at the top right.
Selling Price
Set the price of your book. This is completely up to you as every author has a different idea of what their books are worth.
The average cost of a 200-page paperback book can range anywhere from $10 to $19, depending on the author. So, it’s truly up to you and what your financial goals are as an author.
You can also use the “Add compare-at price” option which will display the other price with a line through it. This is useful if you’re giving your Fourthwall users a discount because they are buying directly from you and not Amazon.
Shipping
When selling your own products on Fourthwall, you need to address shipping. Here is where you would put the item’s weight in pounds, ounces, grams, or kilograms.
Before you can sell your own goods, you have to set up your shipping location. Click the “Settings” link to set all of that up, but make sure you save the book’s changes thus far as you don’t want to lose everything you just entered.
This weight will adjust how much someone is paying for shipping. I usually try to use a product’s precise weight including the packaging. But that’s because I don’t try to screw people out of a few more bucks for “shipping costs.”
Product Category
The category helps both you and Fourthwall track popular items being sold on the platform. It also makes it easier for consumers to find specific goods. Unfortunately, Fourthwall doesn’t have a product category for books.
I’m using the “Poster, Picture, Print” category as it’s the closest. Hopefully, a Book category will be listed in the future.
Country product was manufactured in
As this option is used for calculating sales tax, it may be better to think of it as the country of origin.
For example, I am in the United States and the books are sitting next to me for shipping. So, I’m selecting “United States.” But also keep in mind state and city taxes, should you have any. Every city is different, and you’ll need to keep track of that information for tax season.
Photography and design
When posting your book to Fourthwall, you want to use the best pictures possible. It is recommended you use a 3:4 aspect ratio and at least a 600-pixel-wide image.
This is roughly a landscape-style image. If your image is 600 pixels wide, it would have a height of 450. If you’re not sure, you can always use an aspect ratio calculator to figure out the dimensions.
For books, you’d want images of the front and back as well as anything else that might tempt the consumer to buy it.
Inventory
By default, Fourthwall has the inventory set as unlimited. You can change this to reflect how many printed copies you have on hand. Just make sure to adjust this number if you sell any outside of Fourthwall.
You can also include variants of the book. I was attempting to add a signed copy as a variant and add $2 to the total. However, I haven’t been able to figure out how to add pricing differences. As soon as I can get it to work, I’ll update this post.
In any case, you’re apparently able to add different sizes and colors, probably more for clothing merch. It probably doesn’t mean much for a printed copy of your book.
Step 3: Set the Book to Public
Once you’ve made all of your adjustments, make sure you save the changes.
Scroll to the top of the product screen. Click the yellow “Hidden” button to open the item’s status window. Select “Public” and click the save button.
Your book is now live on your Fourthwall store page. Click the link of the product to check how it appears. It’s always a good idea to verify how it will look before someone stumbles across the product.
NOTE: If you need to adjust the quantity for any reason, just go back into the book’s settings page and click the number of them you have in stock. Then, make adjustments as needed.
Why Use Fourthwall to Sell Books?
Fourthwall gives you the ability to run a store without spending the money on creating an eCommerce powerhouse. While there’s nothing wrong with doing it yourself on an author blog using something like WooCommerce for free, Fourthwall also gives you print-on-demand merch to expand your offerings.
However, it goes a bit further than just slapping a quote from your book on a shirt or printing a tote bag with your book’s cover.
Using Amazon Author Copies
Author copies from Amazon only require printing costs and shipping fees. This means you can get them relatively cheap and in virtually any quantity you need. And yes, you can resell author copies from Amazon.
Why does this matter? Because you’ll make more in sales than you will in Amazon “royalties.”
For instance, the hardcover of my book, Kingmaker, generates around $2.10 per sale on Amazon while selling for $17.99. That means I only make around 11.7% of the sale.
If I sell the same book through Fourthwall for the same price, I’ll make $9.29 per sale (cost – printing fee). That means I make about 52% of the sale. That’s a bit of a rough estimate as I would need to include the shipping cost from Amazon per copy. Still, I would stand to make four times more even with the shipping fees using Fourthwall than Amazon.
The caveat is that I would have to market the hell out of my book. Of course, all self-published authors need to do that anyway. So, it’s not adding anything more to my plate. I just have to use the Fourthwall link instead of Amazon.
One-Stop Shop for Your Merch
Adding your book is just the tip of the iceberg for Fourthwall. There are so many print-on-demand products that can tempt fans of all kinds.
In the beginning, my store featured whiskey tumblers and coffee mugs. But that’s because I collect such things and want them with my book covers.
In any case, there are a lot of things you can sell on the platform. All it takes is a couple of good ideas regarding your books and a lot of marketing.
Fourthwall Doesn’t Take Fees
The only fees Fourthwall takes are those for digital products and memberships. So, when you sell a book on Fourthwall, all of the money is yours to keep. That is, outside of shipping costs. But even then, Fourthwall charges shipping on your behalf using the book’s weight and your physical location.
However, you still have to cover the payment processing fees, which is the 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. That’s a standard if you accept credit cards or online transactions, such as PayPal or Shopify.
No matter how you slice it, though, you’re still making more money selling printed books on Fourthwall than you will on Amazon.
Marketing Is Still a Priority
Regardless of where you want to sell your books, marketing will always be a vital part of success. No one will buy your book if they don’t know it exists.
Luckily, Fourthwall can be integrated with a lot of different platforms, including YouTube. In fact, my merch shelf appears in all of my videos.
Marketing is probably one of the most difficult, time-consuming, expensive pains you’ll have as an indie author. It’s something that will be ongoing for as long as you want to sell copies of your book.
If you use KDP, your first move would be to use the Fourthwall link instead of your Amazon page for promotional material. You’ll still want your book available on Amazon for Kindle users and customers. But it’s a good idea to use your Fourthwall link in as many places as you can.
For instance, why not use a free QR code to send users to the Fourthwall store instead of Amazon when you’re at an author event? You might tempt a consumer with a matching coffee mug.
Sell Your Book Everywhere!
It’s always a good idea to get your book in as many venues as possible. This is why a lot of services like Draft2Digital connect you with many distributors. Not everyone uses the same platforms.
Fourthwall is just another eCommerce outlet to help you sell the book and possibly a few other bits of merchandise.
Just make sure you’re marketing yourself well enough. Your number one fan probably doesn’t know you exist yet.
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