Demystifying Direct Sales: The Five Types of Direct Sales and How to Pick the Right One For You 🤔

Episode 176 / Direct sales is the current hot topic in the author community, but there’s lots of choices to be made. Landing page or store? Kickstarter or subscription? And taxes–what about taxes? Hello, decision fatigue. Fear not, we’ve got your back.

In this episode, we break down direct sales into five main types 🖐️. We’ll walk you through the difficulty level of each type, explain what kind of authors are best suited for each, and share some invaluable resources 🧰. 

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Time Stamps:

 

Buy Button

Difficulty: Easy

Software options: Bookfunnel, Payhip, WooCommerce, Lulu

Best for: Authors who want to add direct sales to their income stream, but don’t want to spend time on ads

Recommended resources: Bookfunnel integrations guide https://authors.bookfunnel.com/help/delivery-actions/

• Podcasts: most recent podcast with Jami Davis (WIKT Episode 170) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/170-2/

 

Landing Page

Difficulty: Medium 

Software options: Bookfunnel, Lead Pages, ThriveCart, etc with BookVault, Lulu

Best for: Authors who have either a few products and don’t want to create a store or authors with a huge backlist who want to sell direct, but don’t want to spend a massive amount of time uploading backlist to a store

• Podcast: Nell Goddin (WIKT Episode 161) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/161-2/

Recommended resources:

Russell and Monica’s Author Ecosystem https://authorecosystem.com/overview/

 

Store (usually Shopify)

Difficulty: Advanced

Software options: Payhip, Gumroad, Shopify, etc along with email providers like Klaviyo and ConvertKit along with BookVault or Lulu

Best for: Authors who have multiple series and enjoy ads

Podcasts:

• Morgana Best (WIKT Episode 136) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/136-2/
• Rebel Author Podcast with Morgana Best https://pod.link/rebelauthor/episode/e446454bee2596c7a50843f72a8bee65
• Rachel Hanna (WIKT Episode 172) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/172-2/
• The Creative Penn interview with Katie Cross https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2022/06/20/selling-books-direct-on-shopify/

Recommended resources:

Morgana Best’s Stop Making Others Rich (book) and Authors Selling Direct (course) https://best-business-for-authors.teachable.com/p/authors-selling-on-shopify?affcode=1328780_rjjijgkt  (Affiliate Link)

Kickstarter

Difficulty: Medium to Difficult

Software options: Bookfunnel, Backerkit, BookVault

Best for: Authors who want to sell to their own audience plus gain new readers using the Kickstarter algorithm; authors who don’t enjoy ads

Podcasts:

• Russell and Monica on Kickstarter (WIKT 105) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/105-2/

Recommended resources:

Author Ecosystem https://authorecosystem.com/overview/

 

Subscription

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Software options: Bookfunnel, Ream, Patreon

Best for: Authors who enjoy creating lots of content, authors who enjoy nurturing close relationships with their readers, authors who have high Discipline in Clifton Strengths, prolific authors

Podcasts:

• Emilia Rose and Michael Evans on Ream (WIKT 159) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/159-2/
• Emilia Rose on Subscriptions (WIKT 134) https://wishidknownforwriters.com/134-2/

 

Recommended Resources: 

Ream Subscriptions for Authors Accelerator https://learn.subscriptionsforauthors.com/subscriptions-for-authors-accelerator

 

Our Sponsor: BookVault

Link:https://wishidknownforwriters.com/bookvault

 

More links: 

The Big List of Craft and marketing books mentioned on WIKT podcast episodes https://bookshop.org/lists/recommenced-resources-for-writers-from-the-wish-i-d-known-then-podcast

Jami’s Launch Plan https://www.jamialbright.com/launchplan

Jami’s books https://amzn.to/3wSraA5

Sara’s books https://www.sararosett.com/bibliography/

Resources from the Author and Reader Community to Help Ukrainians