How to sell books directly from your website, and when does Shopify for authors make sense? Dave and Patty argue whether selling direct is the future or a fad. Dave says direct means you own the checkout, the customer and the reader data. Patty says most authors don't have the traffic, so direct only works on top of an audience.

You'll learn the three parts of any direct setup: a storefront, a payment processor and a way to deliver the book. You'll hear how a full Shopify store compares with a simple checkout link plus an ebook delivery service. They also explain why KDP Select's 90-day ebook exclusivity means you can't sell that ebook on your own site while you're enrolled, though print and audio can still be sold elsewhere. Patty covers the jobs stores quietly handle for you: file delivery, refunds, sales tax and VAT. In What Would You Do?, they take on three demo authors: a new author with one book, a Kindle Unlimited author with an engaged newsletter, and an AI publisher looking for a way around the gatekeepers.

In this week's Options Compared, they give a quick verdict on four routes: stores only, a full Shopify store, a checkout link, and a hybrid of stores for discovery plus direct sales for super-fans. Where they land: build the email list before the shop, and put a sign-up link at the back of every book. One question stays open: should you put up a direct page on day one, or wait until book two?

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Topics: how to sell books directly from your website, shopify for authors, selling ebooks direct, KDP Select exclusivity rules, author email list, selling signed paperbacks direct, going wide vs Amazon exclusive, direct sales for indie authors

Voices are AI-generated (ElevenLabs) versions of the hosts, Dave and Patty of Publish at Scale. Scripts are written with AI and checked against a dated fact sheet. Not affiliated with Amazon, Kindle Direct Publishing or Anthropic. No income claims: results depend on your books and your work.