Popping this onto the Wiki Forum too as it more personal than the wider Lulu Forum.
Only difference being that I have shown a break down of costs for a typical listing/sale at the end………..
Copy of Lulu Posting…
Many of you already know me from my involvement on the forum (and elsewhere).
In the past I have responded on a number of threads about eBay as a book selling outlet and in summary from the experiences of myself and others, eBay is a good outlet but will not bring in much profit. I was breaking even but I recently moved into small profit when a group of collectors bought a number of first editions of The Spider Gem.
A few days ago I was chatting with a friend who runs an eBay shop and suddenly realised that this is a way to reduce eBay listing fees and to get further exposure for our work. eBay shops operate under a monthly subscription but give much lower listing fees (as low as 3p for one month).
I have therefore decided to open and maintain an eBay store that will focus on self published and PoD published authors exclusively.
I cannot promise massive sales but it should generate a trickle and extend the readership of the author's work. It also opens up the books to those eBay users across the globe.
(as an example I have sold twenty books on eBay over the past 10 months).
I am not planning on running this as a profit making venture, it is just to provide an improved outlet for the my work and that of fellow self published authors.
To make a start I am looking for a minimum of around 6 authors to trial the service (although I can handle as many as want to join in). From what I have read and seen it should be possible for a few of us (or more) to join together to make this work well for us.
I can provide a full breakdown of costs associated with this eBay store and you will see that it really is a fairly low cost outlet (although not as high profit as selling direct to readers yourself).
If you want more details then send me an email at ten.yesevol|ffat#ten.yesevol|ffat
If you provide the selling cost of your book/s and the approx shipping charge based on weight I can give you a break down of the associated figures so that you can see how it is all laid out.
Like Chris' UK Wiki this is another outlet that could spread the word although this one does carry a small charge due to the eBay listing fees but at silly prices of 3p, 5p and 7p (dependent on listed price) there is not really a great gamble involved even if one month listing doesn't sell
This is a UK venture hence the posting here on the UK forum but if anyone overseas wants to take part then that's OK but please realise that sales will be impacted by larger shipping fees.
oh..and on the subject of the dreaded shipping costs I can work this using one of two models (author choice). You ship stock to me and I handle everything OR I handle the ebay selling side and you ship to customer/reader. The latter is by far the better option for self pubbies as it removes a set of shipping charges AND it allows the author to customise the signature as well as taking a small profit from any shipping charge (I generally round up so if postage and packing comes to £1.46 I would charge £1.50).
Give me a shout if you are interested. Any type of fiction or other self published product can work. Providing we get enough of us together then I'll keep you all posted on progress.
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example of fee breakdown for using the eBay shop option
Method 1 I handle EBay you handle shipping to reader
For a book costing £9.99 requiring £2.50 shipping cost
EBay Shop Charge £0.00 Taff will cover this
EBay Listing (1 month) £0.05 For 7p a quantity of up to 5 can be listed
EBay Final Value Fee £0.90 Only payable if book sold (see below for rate)
Paypal Payment Fee £0.62 3.4% +20p on item cost plus shipping cost
Taff eShop commission £0.50 My eBay shop fee – only when book sold
In this scenario the buyer would pay me £12.49 into my Paypal account and I would pay you £10.42 via cheque or Paypal.
For a book costing £4.99 requiring £1.50 shipping cost
EBay Shop Charge £0.00 Taff will cover this
EBay Listing (1 month) £0.05 For 7p a quantity of to 9 can be listed
EBay Final Value Fee £0.50 Only payable if book sold (see below for rate)
Paypal Payment Fee £0.41 3.4% +20p on item cost plus shipping cost
Taff eShop commission £0.25 My eBay shop fee – only when book sold
In this scenario the buyer would pay me £6.49 into my Paypal account and I would pay you £5.78 via cheque or Paypal.
Method 2 I handle shipping and EBay
For a book costing £9.99 requiring £2.50 shipping cost
EBay Shop Charge £0.00 Taff will cover this
EBay Listing (1 month) £0.05 For 7p a quantity of 5 can be listed
EBay Final Value Fee £0.90 Only payable if book sold (see below for rate)
Paypal Payment Fee £0.62 3.4% +20p on item cost plus shipping cost
Taff eShop commission £0.50 My eBay shop fee – only when book sold
In this scenario the buyer would pay me £12.49 into my Paypal account and I would pay you £7.92 via cheque or Paypal.
For a book costing £4.99 requiring £1.50 shipping cost
EBay Shop Charge £0.00 Taff will cover this
EBay Listing (1 month) £0.05 For 7p a quantity of to 9 can be listed
EBay Final Value Fee £0.50 Only payable if book sold (see below for rate)
Paypal Payment Fee £0.41 3.4% +20p on item cost plus shipping cost
Taff eShop commission £0.25 My eBay shop fee – only when book sold
In this scenario the buyer would pay me £6.49 into my Paypal account and I would pay you £3.78 via cheque or Paypal.
For either method in the event that a listing does not sell all you pay is the listing fee (3p, 5p or 7p) and I can debit this against any follow up sale on subsequent months.
The 25% that I would charge for processing things will go towards the shop subscription fee. I;d start with the basic package (£6) and if we get more authors signing up I would the increase to the featured and anchored shop options. Mind you at a cost of £300 a month we'd have to get a lot of us onbaord for an anchored store! LOL
As I say, I'm doing this as an outlet for my writing rather than a profit makier.
