Marketing Monday: Make up to 5.5X more per book by selling direct.

Many authors have turned to selling directly to readers and it’s no wonder why. When you cut out the middleman you keep all royalties for yourself, which can generate 5.5X more per book. Yep, you read that right—5.5X, which is huge!

Remember the example we looked at with an $18 paperback book of average length (285-300 pages)? When a bookstore purchases this book through IngramSpark, the author would receive $2.60 per book after the wholesale discount and splitting royalties. Which is a major bummer.

Now if you sold this book directly to readers you would keep all the profit. But how do you best maximize that profit? By finding a printer that will give you dynamic wholesale pricing, while printing high-quality books.

I’ve used Amazon KDP to print author copies of my book that I’ve then sold directly to readers at events. However the quality is iffy at best and I’ve had multiple books damaged in transit. They overload the boxes and with any given order I’ve had to return a significant amount because of the quality (check out the ripped cover below).

I continued to use KDP because I was unable to find a printer that could beat the print cost, which was around $5.05 per book when you factor in shipping. Another downside to KDP is that they don’t offer a wholesale price per book so if you’re ordering 100 or 500 books the print price is the same.

However, ordering a higher quantity of books at once drives down the overall cost per book when shipping is factored in, but after a certain quantity that savings flattens out. Still for the quantities I was ordering KDP was far and away cheaper than many printers.

As luck would have it I came across a post from Dave Sheets here on Substack. He shared the pros of print on demand versus when an author should choose a long-printing run (i.e. printing 500 copies for events or selling directly). A long-printing run was what I needed, but I had been unable to find a printer who could beat Amazon’s price.

I connected with Dave who introduced me to his company Believers Book Services. Unlike Amazon, they provide wholesale pricing. So the more books you order, the cheaper your price per book will be.

And you know what? They beat Amazon’s price!

I ordered 1,000 paperback books to prepare for the markets, book festivals, and other direct sales opportunities I had coming up for the year. With shipping that made my price per paperback about $3.50, at least $1.50 cheaper than Amazon.

Even at the lower quantities quoted, I still found my overall price would be cheaper than Amazon. And the quality was way better! Look at the way these are packed. No bent books, no torn covers, no greasy finger prints on the cover (ugh yes that has happened on books I’ve received from Amazon).

So when you find a printer who provides competitive wholesale pricing like Believers Book Services you’re keeping even more money in your pocket.