Buying ebooks directly from me, the author, can be a real win/win situation.
You Get to Keep the Ebooks – Forever
Not everyone is aware, but when you buy a book from certain large distributors (yes, especially that biggest one), you’re only technically borrowing the book. The seller can take it back, delete it from your ereader, whenever they want. They usually don’t, but they can (it’s in the Terms of Service).
When you buy direct from me, the ebook file is yours forever – no backsies.
You still can’t quite do what you want with it, like sending out copies to your friends or uploading it to various websites – it’s only for your personal use – but you can read it whenever you want, wherever you want.
I’ll note here that Bookfunnel adds an invisible watermark to all the ebooks with the email it is delivered to, so that authors can find the origin of leaks when their books end up on illegal download sites for example.
The Author Gets A Larger Cut
While Indie authors get a decent cut of ebook sales from distributors, we get an even bigger one if you buy directly from us. So if you’re looking for a way to support an author you like, buying their ebooks direct is the way to go.
The only exception to this rule is for individual short stories, where the fixed fee for each transaction becomes rather big for the sale of just one story – so feel free to grab more than one while you’re there. But I’m happy with individual sales, too!
Being the master of my own store also means I’ll be able to give out vouchers more easily to my buyers. If this is something you want in on, make sure to sign up for my newsletter, which is where I’ll be giving them out.
I use Payhip for the actual money transactions. They allow for payment with PayPal or credit/debit cards. I invite you to read their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Payhip will offer you a “download” link after puchase, but be aware that this will just be a small image saying that the book will be delivered to you shortly by Bookfunnel. So no panic when you expect an epub and only get a jpg – just watch your email for anything from Bookfunnel.
The Bookfunnel App
I use Bookfunnel to deliver my ebooks, and this is awesome news all around.
If there should ever be a technical issue with a delivery (not that this happens often, their developers clearly know what they’re doing), the Bookfunnel team will help you out.
They allow for multiple ways to retrieve your books:
- Download the ebook file
- Send the file by email
- Send the file directly to your ereader
- Read the ebook in your browser
- Read the book in their app
There may be more, but that last point is a real game-changer. They have their very own ereader app, and it’s completely free. They’ll remember all the books that have been sent to the email you enter to claim your books, so the first time you connect – bam! – there they all are.
It means that all books you buy direct from me, or from a large number of other Indie authors, will appear in your Bookfunnel library.
No more filling your inbox with epubs!