10 Ways to Earn Higher Royalties with Direct-to-Reader Sales

10 Ways to Earn Higher Royalties
with Direct-to-Reader Sales

Amazon is great at selling books. Of course it is—it’s great at selling everything. It has an online presence
and financial and political clout that hands-down beats everyone else.

On one side of the coin, Amazon’s power can benefit all authors. On the other side, Amazon’s size allows it
to write rules. Amazon’s pricing requirements have pushed publishers to increase the retail price of their
books. This hits the indie and self-publishing worlds particularly hard—and authors feel the sting directly. 

While no one can deny the power of having your book listed for sale on Amazon, Outskirts Press certainly
knows that authors often wish they could earn higher royalties than Amazon portions out—and earn that
money faster. 

You can earn more, quicker, by selling directly to your readers. Allow bookstores (and Amazon) to carry
your book but also put effort into selling direct. That means what it sounds like: customers pay you your
full asking price for your book, and you give them your book.

• Price your book however you want, regardless of the suggested retail price.

• Keep the difference (what your customer paid you for the book minus what you paid Outskirts
Press for the book) as your net profit.

And remember: at Outskirts Press, your author’s copy price is always below the wholesale price, even if
you buy just five copies at a time. That means you don’t have to overcharge your readers to make a profit
yourself. Over the life of your book (which is basically forever with print-on-demand availability), that is a
publishing savings worth keeping in mind.

Start thinking about how you can do this by reviewing the following 10 Ways to Earn Higher Royalties
with Direct-to-Reader Sales. These are some of the most effective tactics, garnered from our almost
twenty years of helping self-publishing authors like you sell more books at a higher profit. And this list will
probably inspire you to think of other ideas too!

1. Sell what you got.

Every Outskirts Press publishing package comes with author’s copies of your book. While you will
want to keep at least one on your own bookshelf, you can consider selling most, if not all, of the
others. Since you got these copies for “free,” your profit will be impressive.

And don’t worry—you can always order more copies of your book. Don’t pass up a profit-making
sale by refusing to sell your bookshelf copy.

2. Buy more to make more.

The more copies of your book that you buy at once, the lower the per-book cost to you. How much
you pay doesn’t have to affect what you charge your readers. So, pay less, charge the cover price,
and earn more.

3. Clip coupons.

Sign up for Outskirts Press’s email list. Watch our website. We regularly offer our authors great
deals, so when you see a free or reduced shipping promo, take advantage of it.

4. Host a party.

Talk with your local bookstore about holding a reading and book signing. This could be your book’s
launch, but it doesn’t have to be. If you wrote a romance novel, for example, you might read around
Valentine’s Day, even if you previously launched your book. If you wrote a history of an event or an
explanation of a political idea, read during the event’s anniversary week or when that political idea
is in the news.

Think outside the box too and consider if another venue might be perfect for your book. Would
your favorite coffee shop or wine bar like to host your party?

Once you’ve secured the time and place, post about the event on your social media, email everyone
you know, and post flyers on bulletin boards around town. Ask for news coverage by your hometown
media.

For ideas on hosting a successful event, read the “10 Rules for Hosting a Book Launch Party” tip
sheet (which can be adapted to any book-related event) in your Publishing Center Book Marketing
COACH Dashboard.

5. Rent a space.

Farmers’ markets, holiday bazaars, and many community festivals rent booths to local businesses.
When it comes to your book, you’re now in that of entrepreneurs! Rent a table, booth, or tent. Your
neighbors may be selling honey and handmade sweaters, but that will make your book all the more
unique an offering—and intriguing to would-be buyers.

Plus, you can make clever use of the event’s other features. For example, farmers’ markets often
showcase musical guests to entertain people while they shop; ask if you can take the mic between
performances and read a short passage from your book.

6. Consign.

Some gift stores and bookstores love to consign directly with authors. That means you buy a set
number of books from Outskirts Press and leave them with the store. After they sell them, you
receive a percentage of the sales.

You should sign a contract with the store laying out how many copies they’d like to try to sell at any
one time, what percentage of the sales price they’ll give to you, when they will pay you, and how
long they will try to sell the copies before they return them to you.

This is a great way to leave the selling to the professionals while reaping the financial benefits that
are more like those of being a direct-to-reader seller yourself.

7. Sip and sign.

You don’t have to throw a big public party to reach readers who want to buy your book. Invite
friends (and, we recommend, friends of friends) into your home or garden for an intimate tea or
dessert. Readers will love getting to know about you and your writing process—and growing that
familiarity with genuineness will encourage book sales at the party.

Ask a friend or two to help you with the hosting duties, so you can focus entirely on talking with
your guests—including suggesting how your book fits their interests or needs—and leave the
refilling drinks and making change for twenties to your cohost.

8. Listen to your inner child.

Remember the lemonade stands of your (or your kids’) youth? There’s still something perfect about
just taking a chair and table to the sidewalk and setting up shop. This is a particularly great idea for
times when people are sticking closer to home or when there’s not a big community event on the
calendar. Invite a friend to join you. If you wrote a cookbook, maybe they can try out one of your
cookie or drink recipes and sell those beside you. If you wrote a business how-to book, maybe they
help you engage passersby in a short “game” version of one of your principles. Why not! Have fun
with it.

9. Take a note from 2020.

We all learned a lot of new words in 2020, including Zoom. Host an online event, which allows you
to include guests from all around the country.

Make a plan ahead of time. It’s always a smart idea to not just read at your guests but interact with
them, and this is especially true with online events.

• Will you have an icebreaker?

• Breakout rooms so guests can speak more easily with each other?

• An activity or game?

• How will you handle questions from your guests, your audience?

• What tech issues could arise, how will you help prepare your guests, and how will you
correct or work around issues during the event?

• How can guests buy your book direct from you but online? Don’t forget to think about
delivery, which may include shipping time and costs. (This is why we suggested inviting
people just from within the country rather than the world; international shipping is of
course manageable, especially if sending it around the world makes sense for your book’s
topic, but it does add a possibly unnecessary layer of complexity.)

As with other parties, enlist a cohost or two to help you, so you can stay focused on engaging your
guests. Better connection with you, the author, will lead to your guests buying more books.

10. Sell from your online home.

Set up a shop on your book’s website. There should be a “buy the book” link on every page that
takes readers to the sales page of your website. Work with your web designer to set up a secure
shop. Outskirts Press helps direct traffic to your online store; each of our authors receives an
author page on our website where you can list contact information for direct sales.

Your calendar is now on its way to being full of direct-to-reader sales ideas. You can put some of these
ideas into action now and some in the near future—and some are perennials you can keep tending for as
long as you have copies of your book to sell. So, what are you waiting for? Get to selling—and put profits
in your pocket immediately.