Payment gateway for selling ebook?

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jmh

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# 177078 21-Jul-2015 11:34

I have a business and have written a book to provide some additional income. I want to sell it as an ebook. Buyers may be in NZ, but could also be in India, China or Europe, so I'm thinking that the currency would be NZD and USD as a minimum. I want the buyer to be able to click on a link on my webpage, see a pic of the cover and a bit of a write up and then click to buy. On receipt of payment the system would deliver the ebook to their mailbox. I already use paypal as a credit card payment method for my business. I've not done this before, so I would like some advice on the following:

1. What format would be best, e.g. epub or pdf
2. Any recommended payment gateways (the best I found for a reasonable price was Gumroad but they only offer USD)
3. Recommendations for a publisher who can edit and proof read the document.
4. Anything else I haven't thought of!!

Since this is a new venture, I'm keen to keep the price down. If I can get some sales there is potential to grow it into a collection.

I would appreciate any advice you experts have.

Jo

timmmay

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# 1348292 21-Jul-2015 11:43

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A friend of mine who writes fiction looked into this a while back. He ended up selling it on Amazon - they take a cut, but they make somethings a lot easier, and expose you to a wide audience.

jonathan18

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# 1348303 21-Jul-2015 11:55

As it happens, I read a column on that august site Stuff (by ex-TM COO Mike O'Donnell) on the self-publishing industry; after a bit of searching I managed to find it, and it's worth a read given your questions (one of the most germane points is the number of sales of the book via Kobo and iTunes versus Amazon, and the amount of work required to deliver for all three platforms - in this case at least the author may have been better to solely sell via Amazon).

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/70328075/50-shades-of-grey-achieved-rare-self-publishing-success

jmh

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# 1351502 25-Jul-2015 11:24

That's great - thanks for the tips. Amazon wasn't on my radar so I'll look into it.

richms

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# 1351525 25-Jul-2015 11:33

Ive seen paypal buttons used to sell ebooks on many websites.

Richard rich.ms

taneb1

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# 1351616 25-Jul-2015 14:55

You could also use something like PayIvy - https://payivy.com/

Pays directly to Paypal with Zero fee's from them and handles the delivery of the file for you.

Any comments made are my personal views and does not represent those of my employer