Your Publishing Questions Answered #2: Support Authors, Amazon

Each month, Exisle Academy Home Study students have the opportunity to send in their questions to be answered by our team of publishing experts.

This month, we answer a couple of interesting questions from Kiralee, who is in her second month on the program. Answers to her questions were written by our by Exisle Publishing's CEO, Gareth St John Thomas. Please note: questions and answers may be lightly edited for readability and flow:

Question #1: The Best Way to Support Other Authors

Kiralee: What is the best way to support other authors in terms of where to purchase their books? Amazon is obviously important for the review side but then there is buying directly from the author's website or supporting a small independent book seller too which both have benefits.

Gareth: If an author is selling from their own website they will appreciate your business. They get to keep all the money whereas through retailers they would lose around half of it in discounts and commissions.

Good independent bookstores need support from the writing community and it's good to put your business there especially if they are the kind of store that supports new authors. The chains generally do little for new writers but be aware that stores such as Dymocks in Australia are generally franchises so are independent.

Question #2: Can Authors Choose Where to Sell Their Own Books?

Kiralee: Is it completely up to the author if they want to sell on Amazon or do authors need a publishers permission for certain outlets?

Gareth: Most publishers welcome author’s own sales efforts, providing of course that they don’t conflict with their own. Talk with them about where they will be selling your book.

Traditional ‘trade’ publishers will normally cover all bricks and mortar and online book stores but often little else. Worse still some will claim to be selling everywhere but do little so have a candid conversation with the sales people concerned.

Worth noting for both questions: Amazon’s algorithms extrapolate predictive demand patterns so placing an order with Amazon and THEN writing a great review could well lead to them giving the book more exposure and ordering more copies.

To get your questions answered and learn how to succeed as a writer from publishing insiders, check out Exisle Academy Home Study