That means you can buy directly from Spiral Publishing rather than going through another vendor or distributor like Barnes and Noble, Apple, or Amazon. Our books will still be available there for sure, or at least most of them will. More on that in a minute.
So if you can still pick up fiction from Kari Kilgore and Jason A. Adams in the usual places, why should you consider going direct, you might ask?
One reason is you get to support the artists without a cut going to the distributor. Sure, there’s a small processing fee unless you’re paying with cash (or check). But the percentage that goes to the authors does jump up when you buy direct.
For example, a novella ebook priced at $3.99 can be set to 70% royalties on Amazon, which is $2.76. That’s a great amount to be sure, and we’re thankful and happy for each and every one of those sales.
On our Shopify store, that same $3.99 novella gives us $3.57. Quite a difference.
That means Jason and Kari can more easily afford kibble for their house critters, and that, in turn, means less time toiling away at the day job and more time to write!
None of the math means we’re opposed to someone buying our books from their favorite retailer, or someone who has a pile of gift cards burning a hole in their pocket. We use a service called Books2Read to let you choose the platform of your choice. The great part of that is you can go there straight from our online store, too.
We’re adding links all the time, so if your favorite major retailer isn’t there, let us know. Adding the Books2Read link to each book takes time as well, so please let us know if the story you can't wait to read hasn't been added yet so we can move it to the front of the line!
We use a fantastic service called BookFunnel to deliver ebooks straight to your inbox, and you can read more about how that works here. No more fretting about whether the file will work on your e-reader or fussing with side-loading!
Another advantage to buying direct is we can offer special pricing and discounts that are much harder to do or sometimes impossible on the big stores. For example, Amazon penalizes prices lower than $2.99 with a lower percentage of royalties. But there are times when that price fits the story.
And right now for the grand opening—and for Cyber Monday—we can offer a coupon for 50% off your entire order of ebooks! The discount is automatically applied to your through December 31, so no need to enter a code. Happy shopping!
We have all kinds of plans for those kinds of discounts, so be sure to check back often. Or better yet, sign up for our newsletter. Things like a sale on romance stories for February, a discount on Jason’s Leprechaun tales for St. Patrick’s Day, or a coupon for Kari’s books during her birthday month are all a possibility.
We’ll also be able to offer exclusives on new releases, where you can get the ebooks from our store long before they’re released on other retailers. And special stories, bundles, and collections won’t be available anywhere else. That’s why we say most of our books will still be on all the major vendors. We’ve got all kinds of fun ideas about when that might not be the case.
What about print books, you may be thinking? Setting that up for direct sales takes more time than setting up ebooks, so that’s in the works for the future. For now, we’re using the same Books2Read service that links you to other online ebook retailers. Books2Read lets you click through to purchase print copies of our novels, novellas, collections, and anthologies from several different options like B&N, Amazon, BooksAMillion, and Powell’s.
You can also buy through Bookshop.org, which lets you order from or support participating local and independent bookstores.
As soon as print is available to buy direct, we’ll certainly let you know.
What else do we have in store for our store?
A big part of the plan, and the fun, will be offering merchandise related to our story worlds. Think t-shirts, mugs, and pillows, of course, with cover artwork or fictional locations, but we also have a lot more fun items on the way that we’ll keep under wraps for now.
If you’re looking for gift options, you can send ebooks right to someone else’s inbox if you like, or you can purchase gift cards so they can pick out their own next great reads.
With all of that being said, we hope you understand why we’re so excited to offer this new way to escape into stories with us.
Head on over to our homepage to check it out, and don’t forget the 50% off offer until the calendar turns over to 2024. We hope you’ll take advantage of the welcome to our new store.
Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us at Spiral Publishing!