Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Payhip

I spotted a new indy publishing platform, Payhip, which allows authors to sell direct to their fans and followers using a link. Readers can buy using Paypal or credit cards. Evidently they charge a flat 5% fee for each sale once its made and then pay the author immediately (disclaimer: I did not read every single page on the site, so if you want to use them do check them out thoroughly.)

I don't indie publish for profit, so naturally I'm not the best judge of the service, but it looks pretty straight forward to me. According to their FAQs they ". . . support ALL file formats. Including EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW and many more."

Since Amazon.com and other host sites are charging a lot more than 5%, this could be a more attractive alternative to writers who simply want to sell direct from their web site or blog versus getting lost in the glut of the booksellers. I really like the idea myself -- this would be the sort of site I'd prefer to use if I ever decide to go indy. Are any of you all using Payhip, and care to comment? Let us know if you want to share.

10 comments:

  1. I...may end up using this site. It handles EU VAT, which was what was stopping me from setting up sales on my own site. I'm trying to find a catch, but I haven't spotted one yet...

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    1. Chuck Wendig is selling at least one book with Payhip, and since he's pretty biz-savvy I take that as a decent endorsement.

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  2. Someone on the kboards is doing something similiar. Can't remeber the name of the service. She seems pretty pleased. I can Def see advantages.

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    1. Definitely like the 5% fee, too -- that seems really reasonable, considering the services they're offering.

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  3. I'll have to check this out. Thanks for the heads up.

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  4. Think it sounds VERY interesting. Especially like the anti-piracy idea. With a nice site for drawing the reader or an established following, could definitely see it working well.

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    1. You know what I was telling you about via e-mail? This could be the answer to a lot of those issues. :)

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  5. Now then! This is interesting!

    I'm too ill to even contemplate running a self-publishing business, with all the Amazon-gaming shenanigans it requires to compete with those who've made a science of it. In fact, putting myself at the mercy of Amazon is a definite no.

    When I'm well enough to write, that's what I do. Write, edit, polish and submit, then when the book is released I tell my readers. I produce one good novel per year this way and it works. This is my business model. This is me.

    So if this turns out to be a viable way for me to sell my books directly to my readers, it's attractive.

    Thanks for the heads-up, Lynn.

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  6. I've heard gumroads is similar. I haven't done a ton of research on these but adding this to future things to investigate

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