Book Buying Betty: Your Favorite Visitor
The second kind of reader who visits your author website is someone I affectionately call Book Buying Betty. She visits your website to buy your book and browse your backlist. Book Buying Betty is everyone’s favorite visitor because she wants to buy what you have to sell. So, how do we ensure that Book Buying Betty has the best experience on your site?
Making Your Book Covers Clickable
The number one thing you can do to delight Book Buying Betty is to make your book covers clickable. Picture Betty on your website, captivated by the cover of your book. She clicks on it, expecting to be taken to a purchase page or more detailed information, but instead, she ends up nowhere or just sees a larger image of the cover. This leads to frustration and the perception that your website is broken. The solution? Ensure your book covers are clickable and lead somewhere meaningful. Ideally, they should direct Betty straight to Amazon if that’s your sole sales channel or to a dedicated book page on your own website.
Optimizing for Google Searches
Book buying Betty likely found your website by searching Google for either your name or the title of your book. However, few authors rank on Google for their book titles because they don’t understand how Google works. Google wants to direct a searcher to a page that precisely answers their question or matches their search. That’s why having a webpage dedicated to your book is crucial for ranking on Google. While it’s beneficial to have a single page listing all your books, each book cover on that page should link to another web page dedicated to a specific book. In short, each of your books should have its own webpage.
The Perfect Book Page
So, what makes an ideal book page? Start with the back cover copy, but don’t stop there. Include endorsements, and if possible, make them even more appealing than what’s on your book covers or Amazon listing. You can add photos of endorsers and links to their websites. Also, incorporate information relevant to book clubs, companion materials like maps (for fantasy novels), and discussion questions. The more comprehensive and engaging your book page is, the higher it will rank on Google.
Using MyBookTable Plugin
To streamline the process of adding book pages to your website, consider using the free WordPress plugin called MyBookTable. It allows for easy integration of buy buttons linking to various online retailers and helps with search engine optimization of your book pages. This can even enable your pages to outrank Amazon for your book title. If you’re not on WordPress, you can still apply these best practices manually by making sure each book has its own page with direct buy links to preferred retailers.
Selling Directly: Pros and Cons
Pros
Book Buying Betty may be interested in buying directly from you. Perhaps she wants a signed copy or would rather give her money to you than to Amazon. Selling books directly from your website offers several advantages.
Higher Margins
When selling an ebook on your website, you keep 90-95% of the purchase price, which is much more than the 35-70% royalty you get from Amazon. When you sell audiobooks directly, you keep the same 90-95% of the sale, while Audible only gives you 25-40%.
Customer List
When a reader buys from you directly, you get their email address and know what they bought. Amazon doesn’t always email your readers about the next book in your series. But if the customer buys from you directly, you can email them whenever you release a new book. When someone buys your book directly from Amazon, you have no idea who they are because they’re Amazon’s customers, not yours. The best email addresses are those subscribers who’ve already purchased your book.
Bundle & Pricing Control
By selling directly, you have more control over pricing and bundling. You can create any kind of bundle you can imagine. If your author friends give you permission, you can create a bundle of all of their books and do a big promotion together. Selling directly from your website makes it much easier to offer coupons, discounts, and other price promotions.
Cons
However, it also involves more work, a greater need for technical knowledge, and potentially higher costs due to various fees and the complexities of sales tax compliance.
Selling directly is most beneficial once you have a substantial platform and ongoing sales. I recommend waiting until you have at least 1,000 email subscribers and are selling at least 100 books on Amazon every month before you start selling directly from your website. If you add direct sales to your website before that, you’ll simply be adding work and expenses without adding any money to your bank account. But if you’re having some success, selling directly is a great way to monetize your success.
Before moving to platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, which will serve you better after you’re making $50,000-$100,000 per year from sales, consider simpler options like Payhip combined with BookFunnel or Story Origin combined with Lemon Squeezy for handling digital sales without monthly fees.
Payhip + Book Funnel
Payhip takes a percentage of your sales but charges no monthly fee. Their percentage is much smaller than Amazon’s. Payhip also functions as the seller of record, which means they handle sales, taxes, and VAT taxes for you. They integrate with BookFunnel, which delivers your ebook and audiobook to your reader. But you’re on your own for physical book fulfillment. If you sell paper books, you’ll be stuffing them into boxes and mailing them to your readers on your own.
StoryOrigin + Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy has no monthly fees, and it handles the VAT and sales taxes for you. It also takes a smaller share of the revenue, especially when you’re using it with its partner, StoryOrigin (Affiliate Link). The downside is that, as of this recording (March 2024), StoryOrigin only handles ebooks, and Lemon Squeezy doesn’t work for physical products at all. This option is more limited but potentially more profitable for ebooks.
The Key To Thrilling Book Buying Betty
The overarching goal is to make purchasing your book as easy as possible for Book Buying Betty. The smoother and more intuitive the buying process, the more likely she is to complete her purchase and even return for more. Whether through optimizing your website for search engines, making your book covers interactive, or venturing into direct sales, each strategy should focus on enhancing the customer experience for your most valuable visitors.
