Sold an Amazon Expanded Distribution Book?

[BoTox]

Someone bought a book of mine from an "Expanded Distribution" site. I had recently set all my books to this in May. I'm not sure what that was, an actual bookstore of another online marketplace but it was the first. With that I've sold about 5 paperbacks total since I started in October of 2018.

Paperback books aren't nearly as popular nor as profitable as ebooks but then again I'm not in it for the money. This is more of an experiment for me. I wanted to understand the whole dynamic of writing and selling a book on my own. It has made me more aware of what I put down on the page and how it flows in a more confining format like the printed page.

Anyone else sell paperbacks with good success?

[Alex Bridges]

Not fetish fiction paperbacks, but I sell more paperback versions of my nonfiction than ebook versions. There's no structural difference between the two for me except the links in my ebooks work, and they don't, obviously, in the paperbacks.

I'm not sure exactly how expanded distribution works, but I believe those distributors are mostly small Amazon sellers who use bots to buy random books at a lower price than what consumers pay. When I put my first book up on Amazon with expanded distribution, all these new copies from random sellers started showing up for sale at a lower price than what I charge customers, and that led to lower royalties for me. They weren't used copies either, but brand new.

I think it's kind of a scam for Amazon not to be more clear about how it works. It's not like someone is buying a thousand copies at a time to put in their brick-and-mortar stores. It's someone gaming the system and underbidding you on your own product. Or at least that was my experience.

[BoTox]

On 7/28/2019 at 10:50 PM, Author_Alex said:

Not fetish fiction paperbacks, but I sell more paperback versions of my nonfiction than ebook versions. There's no structural difference between the two for me except the links in my ebooks work, and they don't, obviously, in the paperbacks.

I'm not sure exactly how expanded distribution works, but I believe those distributors are mostly small Amazon sellers who use bots to buy random books at a lower price than what consumers pay. When I put my first book up on Amazon with expanded distribution, all these new copies from random sellers started showing up for sale at a lower price than what I charge customers, and that led to lower royalties for me. They weren't used copies either, but brand new.

I think it's kind of a scam for Amazon not to be more clear about how it works. It's not like someone is buying a thousand copies at a time to put in their brick-and-mortar stores. It's someone gaming the system and underbidding you on your own product. Or at least that was my experience.

Ah, good way to look at it. Especially since it was a single book. I think I'll turn it off because I didn't make $1 off that sale.

[BoTox]

Depressingly, I was paid $0.62 for that copy. Thanks for the input.