Amazon.com have this really nice program called Advantage, designed for people selling their own books/CDs/DVDs. But you need a US bank account, and you need to deliver your books or whatever) to their warehouse in the USA.
This isn't going to happen with my books any time soon.
Amazon.co.uk don't have Advantage. They do have something called "Fulfilment by Amazon" which seems similar, but I'd still have to get the books sent to their warehouse, create the product listing (not a serious problem) and pay for storage space until the books sell. On the other hand, Amazon provides the website, collects the money and makes the delivery. This sounds like something to look into if I get as far as a second or third printing. They could also deliver to the rest of Europe, which would be handy.
"Sell on Amazon" sounds like a better idea for now. I put the book on their website, they handle the purchase, and then I send the book to the customer. For this they charge 75p +15% + a variable closing fee, which is anything from £0.43 to £1.32, with no explanation that I can find of how much or why. Still, the book will sell for 15€ or about £12. So the worst case would be 75p + £1.80 + £1.32 = £3.87 to Amazon, £8.13 to me. This is about what I'd get selling through a local bookshop.
The Spanish version is 0.99€ + 15% + 0,45€ a 2,1 € - worst case 0.99€ + 2.25€ + 2.10 € = 5.34€ to Amazon, 9.66€ to me.
To sell internationally, I have to be able to communicate with customers in English or Spanish (no probs), have a bank account in one of the EU countries (no probs), meet international safety standards (no probs, books don't explode) and pay any international taxes, including VAT.
Ah. That might well be a problem. You don't have to pay the Canarian equivalent of VAT on books. If I have to register for VAT, I can just imagine that would mean having to create a limited company and pay 2,000€ in other taxes.
So that's a little something for me to find out about next week. I can manage without Amazon, selling via book shops and tourist shops and my web site, and perhaps direct to tourists at the Roque, but it would be really nice to get this book into Amazon.
2 comments:
Don't forget you'll need to pay for postage and something to put the book in so it doesn't get damaged in the post.
Amazon usually add post and packing to the cost of the book. But yes, I have to price padded envelopes and postage too. I need to do that for selling from my own website anyway.
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