How To Promote My New Book (Amazon or Affiliate Program)?

I'm self-publishing my new book about to be published shortly through LightningSource. Here's my dilemma as a self-published, self-marketing author:

1. Do I leave fulfillment to LightningSource/Amazon who will charge me 55% right off the top, leaving me with much smaller margins (the cost of the book will come from my share, the remaining 45%) and focus on just marketing the book? If I take this route, then I can't do much for affiliates and Joint Venture partners, but reduces a lot of S&H overhead.

2. Do I do the fulfillment myself, selling the book for lower than Amazon, worrying about shipping and handling (especially international shipments, refunds, etc)? This approach will give help me pay decent amounts to affiliates, JV partners and bulk resellers, but increases my order- processing overhead.

What do you think?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Ravi Jayagopal
Author, "No Business Like E-Business"
http://www.NBLEB.com
Cada,

The problem with doing both (which I will be doing anyway) is that when your affiliates drive traffic to your web site, and you send the visitor off to Amazon to buy the book, all of their effort has gone to waste, and you have effectively screwed your affiliates by by-passing the affiliate link.

- Ravi
http://www.RavisRants.com
Hi Frootbat31,

Lulu charges ridiculously high rates - $10 for a book that LightningSource will print for me for just $4. I'm not even considering LuLu. They take too much, and I don't get anything more for my money than, say using LightningSource distribution, which is a lot less actually.

- Ravi
http://www.HowToThrowYourVoice.com
Hi all,

I've been in e-Business since 1996, and have made thousands of dollars in sales through ClickBank, 1siteautomation.com (my own private lable of 1shoppingcart).

My big dilemma was to whether sell it through Amazon only, or Amazon and my own site - I didn't want to ideally split up my focus, but I have found the answers since I first asked this question.

I have decided to primarily sell my book through my own site, http://www.NBLEB.com , and there won't be any mention of purchasing through Amazon. That is because Amazon would normally take a 55% discount, and I'm not willing to part that much for them. I will instead use some of that money for paying my affiliates, who will be paid around $10 per sale of the book.

I have sold ebooks for thousands of dollars, and they haven't done one bit for my reputation as an author. So, this time, I'm not after the money - I'm after the reputation and respect that comes along with being a published author.

Sorry, ran out of space....
So here's what I finally decided, in case you've come to this thread and want to see how it all ends :-)

1. Going to offer a short discount (25%) to Amazon. My local Barnes and Noble 1 mile away won't even stock the book because "that's not how they work". I don't expect any sales from a physical book store, so screw them and their 55% discount. 25% is all they get ( that too only because that's the minimum Lightning Source will let me set :-)

2. I will sell it primarily through my web site, and there will be no referring folks to Amazon. If someone still ends up finding the book on Amazon and buying it, then so be it. I'm not going to be doing any explicit promotion of the fact that my book is on Amazon. People will have to buy from me, US or International.

3. I'm going to charge a modest shipping rate - maybe even offer free shipping for US only. Still working out the costs.

4. I'm going to offer aggressive commissions to my affiliates.

- Ravi
http://www.NBLEB.com