- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated October 28, 2015 at 11:35 pm by
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Hi All.
My friend D’Elen McClain has developed a website for the express purpose of helping readers buy directly from authors. It’s http://www.indiebooksdirect.com.
For now it’s free to post your author name and put your name into genre categories. The site is already live (I’m in there) and will officially open November 1st. The goal is to have the links go directly to your web page direct sales or to some other site, such as Gumroad, where the reader can buy directly from you.
If you’re interested in such a site, go to the website and sign up. It’s a good alternative that gives the author control of their own sales.
You said “for now it’s free” so do you know what the cost of adding your name to the list after the site officially goes live in November?
Also, I checked out your link. It goes to your blog/web site, but not to your list of books with a blurb and purchase button. Is it wise to irritate readers by adding at least two more clicks before they get to your list of published books on your web site? Not a complaint, just observations.
Another on the SciFi list went straight to Gumroad, but he did not have purchase buttons there, only the title linked in the blurb.
Otherwise, it looks like a good place to park a link to your own blog. It should move your listing up the pages inside Google searches, whatever the technical name is for that.
I like the idea and I bookmarked the page. But I found quite a few typos in the site copy. That will definitely turn off both readers and authors. We have several excellent editors here so your friend might want to hire one to clean up her website before it goes live.
All,
I directed my replies to the posters but to let everyone else know, thank you for the suggestions. The site is still under construction and those comments helped tighten up the site. If you use it and see other errors, please let the site owner know. There’s nothing so annoying to a site owner than links that don’t work or typos all over the place.The site is scheduled to go live on 1 November. I spent all of last weekend, in a marathon session, putting all of my books, paperback and ebook, on the site. I have a couple of things to tweak, but you can now purchase my books on gumroad.com.
Think about direct sales for yourself!
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