How do I set up direct sales for my books?
- Direct sales mean selling to readers without a retail middleman.
- Tools like Shopify, Payhip, or BookFunnel handle storefront and delivery.
- Direct sales capture far higher margins than retail.
- You own the customer data and relationship.
- You take on payment, delivery, tax, and support responsibilities.
Set up direct sales by choosing a storefront tool that handles the hard parts — Shopify, Payhip, or BookFunnel for delivering ebooks and audio, taking payment, and managing tax (such as VAT on digital goods). List your books, connect payment, and automate file delivery. Direct sales capture much higher margins than retail and give you the customer relationship and data, in exchange for handling fulfillment, tax, and support yourself.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Selling only through retailers means surrendering both margin and the customer relationship — you never learn who your readers are. Direct sales reverse that: you keep far more per sale and own the reader data that powers a newsletter and future launches. The trade-off is operational responsibility (payment, delivery, tax, support), so understanding what a direct storefront handles for you is key to deciding whether and how to set one up.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A storefront tool (Shopify, Payhip, BookFunnel).
- Automated ebook and audio delivery.
- Payment processing connected.
- Tax handling, including digital-goods VAT.
- Ownership of customer data and relationship.
- A plan for fulfillment and support.
Chapter iii·Example
An author sets up a Payhip store to sell her ebooks and a bundle directly. It handles checkout, automatic file delivery, and EU VAT. She earns roughly 90% per sale instead of 70% or less on retail, and — crucially — collects buyers' emails for her newsletter, something retail never gave her.
WriteLoom keeps your editions and reader list together, so direct sales connect straight to the audience you own.
See the Sell studio