Introduction
Amazon is arguably the world’s largest e-commerce platform and it’s quite tempting to want to secure space for your products there. This is quite okay, but considering the pros and cons, you have to be 100% certain that you’re making the right decision and that you’ll be able to reach the right audience.
If you’re an ardent follower of my writing, or any product of mine at all, you’ll be aware by now that I don’t mind deviating from the norm if that will bring the needed solution, and provided the new method is not wrong. I’m not against following the rules, I do that most of the time, but when what is popular doesn’t work, or has already been saturated or overused, it’s only okay to try out new methods, and that’s what birthed my values.
Now, back to the problem at hand. Selling on Amazon is not bad, it’s an awesome e-commerce platform which I don’t mind recommending especially if you’re in the US or Europe and every customer of yours is there.
I know every blog bearing topics on ‘selling things online’ recommend Amazon, but beyond the general ideas, who has really taken their time to consider that not everyone might reap benefits from even the best things there are? Amazon is great, but not for everyone.
Below are factors you must consider before deciding whether or not Amazon is the best fit for you as an author, publisher or anyone selling stuff online.
1) Regional Bans and Restrictions:
It is not news that there are regions or countries that for whatever reason(s) are partly or wholly restricted from making purchases on Amazon.
For example, Africa as a continent suffers a major discrimination from Amazon. On the other hand, some countries are totally restricted, while others are partly restricted.
Therefore, as a writer publishing on Amazon, there is a huge chance that you have automatically ruled out any possibility of ever having a market in the entire continent of Africa. I wonder why publishers are not let in on this.
Africa is not the only place with major restrictions, although there is likely no other continent with major ban, but there are countries and regions outside Africa who are on the same boat.
As an author or publisher, you can publish from anywhere.
But…
As a customer, you cannot buy from anywhere.
The point is this, a writer should be more concerned about the seamlessness of customer experience and purchase more than they should be concerned about which platform they dream to write on, unless you plan to be the only one buying and reading your books.
Why do I sound so confident and certain?
Well, I’ve used Amazon before. I realized something important which I’d love to share with you.
In 2020, I published a couple of books on Amazon with the African market in mind, because one of them was a poem book about the African woman and patriarchy. I started letting the word out for free through few people, but no one bought a single book despite promising to. I was getting discouraged until I remembered that Amazon allowed free book sales every other season, so I took advantage of that.
The first day, I tried getting Africans to buy, but no progress. Even free books? I wondered. My poems were amazing and heart touching, at least that has always been the feedback I’ve gotten from people who I gave my books to read in person. These people weren’t my friends or family and I hardly knew them, so they couldn’t have soothed my ego. I’ve intentionally given copies of my books to the meanest people I’ve met, because I know they hardly have anything good to say about anything or anyone, yet they were pleased. Someone even tried to steal my work! For real. If they were being honest, why, then was I not selling anything even when it’s for free?
I decided to try some other idea and put the books before people from majorly UK, US and every other link available.
Guess what?
I made sales! Both free and paid. It wasn’t much, because the books weren’t for non-Africans and I had no audience and no social media beforehand, I also did no paid advertising, but at least it proved something positive.
Moreover, few days ago I tried to download a number of ebooks I found on Twitter and was bounced back. I already told the authors that I was purchasing and at the end I looked like a liar.
I could neither purchase the free nor the paid books and I couldn’t send to someone else.
What is more? Neither I nor anyone in my region has access to KDP Membership for readers. I sent a query to Amazon where it was listed to do so, but as expected, I received no response from them.
This was when I realized what my potential customers back in 2020 must have been through.
2) Exorbitant Fees To Some Locations:
I wanted to buy something on Amazon and was alarmed by the delivery fee. I think it was a book or something of similar weight, it was around 5 – 7 dollars. I couldn’t believe it. I know there are taxes and all, but that isn’t the point right here.
The point is that such exorbitant fee would discourage lots of potential international customers from buying your books, especially the paperback.
3) High Withdrawal Limit:
Amazon has a $100 limit. You cannot withdraw until you reach this amount.
The problem is that most authors don’t sell as much and therefore won’t withdraw anything.
Even if your book is $7, you’ll need to sell around 90 to 100 books to be able to make it to the limit. Most authors don’t sell up to 50 books in a year. How long will it take you to eventually withdraw? It definitely won’t generate the kind of passive income you desire, and if you give up out of frustration from the delay, Amazon would take all the money realized if it’s not up to $100.
4) Publishing Per Region:
I understand that this was intended to create flexibility for publishers to enable them freely decide which zones to publish and where to leave out. But this has ended up harming the progress of some publishers instead of helping them.
To help breach the barrier caused by multiple links, publishers have learned to hold all these links together using ‘universal book link builders’, but this doesn’t help as much as it is expected to.
Why? You may ask.
This is because these universal links only acts like a ‘key holder’ which only joins multiple keys together while they still remain separate keys. When you pick up a key holder bearing a bunch of keys, you’ll still need to pick out your desired key in order to open the door. And when you don’t know which key to use? That means the door will remain closed against you.
This is the same thing that happens with universal book links. When a potential customer clicks on it, he is taken to a page that bears all the links you joined together and he’ll be required to pick his country’s link and proceed to buy.
This sounds super easy, but many customers don’t understand how to navigate through this. Many don’t even know that each Amazon link would lead to a different country, so let’s say someone clicks on the .com or .co.uk and he’s not permitted to buy, he’ll definitely give up and leave. One customer lost! And more follows.
5) Low Royalty:
If you’re selling on Amazon itself, you may be allowed to place your books on sale on other stores, but that’s at a cost. The royalty rate is around 35% NET profit which is ridiculously small.
How is Net profit calculated?
It is derived once all other costs and expenses have been deducted. For example: taxes, coupons, print, etc.
That’s to say that nothing much would be left of your book afterwards at 35%.
However, if you want to earn more, you’d have to place your book on Kindle Unlimited where you’d be allowed to earn 70% NET profit.
Placing your books on Kindle Unlimited has its downside which includes:
1) You cannot price your book above $9.99.
2) You cannot sell anywhere else within 90 days of placement even if you pull out your books from Amazon during this period. You could be sued if it’s discovered that you defaulted.
The 70% royalty is still based on NET profit, remember, so you won’t earn as much as you imagine.
6) It is overcrowded:
It’s tempting to assume that selling on a very popular platform like Amazon would increase your chances of being discovered. Wrong!
Selling on an overpopulated platform like Amazon would instead help you disappear faster among the crowd, unless you already have a tangible audience whom you’re counting on to purchase your stuff, or you know how to gather an audience somehow, if not, it’s gonna be a long stressful and sometimes unsuccessful game.
The most adviceable thing to do is to use a lesser crowded platform, as long as people use it and trust it.
You have nothing to lose, alright? Look, you’re still gonna be the one to market it personally whether you list on Amazon or some other place. So why not choose where you’re more likely to be discovered fast?
Conclusion
This is just a little piece of advice. I know it is different from everything you may have heard, but that’s just it.
There are loads of other reasons to think about, but let’s just use these six (6) points for the moment.
If you’re sure that you have no use for customers outside US and Europe, then using Amazon may not be that limiting, but if you want as many people as possible to buy your stuff, consider other options other than Amazon.
Please, feel free to share this post with others if you found this helpful.
Originally published on dilju.com in 2022.
