How do I set up my site to take orders for my book?

[Rhush]

Im on amazon.com, but only my kindle version is available in Germany and I had a woman ask if she could just use paypal. Im trying to extend my distribution and I think it would do me well to have a link on my site, but I am unfamiliar with that aspect of the game. Plus, Ive noticed that shipping out of the country is pretty pricey on my side of things. Any suggestions?

[Al Stevens]

You can add a paypal button to your site and fulfill the order yourself from your private stock of author copies.

[Rhush]

How do I add the paypal button? And what about shipping and handling? Ha. These feel like goofy questions but hey.

[Al Stevens]

You need a paypal account so they can pay you when someone orders. They take a 3% bite, so figure that into your price.
Once you have an account, go to the paypal site and select "Merchant Services." They have instructions there for how to add a button to your website.

When somebody uses the button to buy, Paypal puts the money in your account and notifies you with email about the purchase.

You can check with the post office about what it costs to ship a book to various places. Then add a stipend to cover your time and expense for shipping supplies, going to the post office, and all that. You can get your mailing labels and postage on line, too, so the farthest you have to get from your house is your mailbox.

I've done this with CDs and DVDs, and it's quite easy and convenient.

[Williebee]

Mod Note: Moved over to Tech Help.

Also, Rhush? Google/Youtube are your friends. There are tutorials for much of what you need to know for the process. For example. (http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/paypal_buynow.html)

[GodOfABF]

My Website (abfbook.telostic.com) was set up to take orders via PayPal... you may want to check it out to see how a simple site like this is structured (by all means PM me or message me using the e-mail links on the site if you want to ask me a more detailed question). (Note : I know that this site is not very sophisticated. It has been deliberately designed to be simple to update and maintain. I went for functionality over style!)

Here's one piece of "globally applicable advice" that you must implement, no matter what else you decide upon : if you are going to incorporate payment buttons -- and, hence, HTML / XML (etc.) code (since this is what makes the buttons and other "widgets" actually work) -- from PayPal or other on-line payment processors, into your Website, it is absolutely crucial that once you have everything working (actually, once you have it half-working...), you make a full and complete backup of your site. Ideally, you should have two copies of this, on two different computers (over and above what's actually on your Web hosting provider's site).

And each and every time that you change something -- yes this does mean something as trivial as changing the price of one book -- you must back up the code that reflects the design element change.

Trust me on this one. Unless you like re-designing Websites "from scratch", or unless you like 6-hour "WTF isn't this working any more debugging sessions", you'll pay heed to my advice! (Supplementary Note To Self : If you add or change a graphic element in the off-line test mirror site, then upload the HTML enabling / referring to the graphic, then neglect to upload the bl**dy graphic itself, don't blame me when it doesn't show up on the "real" on-line Website. Watch out for this one, it has caused me more than one, 3-hour "WTF isn't it showing up" debugging session!) :tongue

You Have Been Warned About The Fickleness Of Computer Storage Media,

[Rhush]

Thanks everybody!