Selling ebooks from your website or blog?

If you use a provider like Amazon Kindle Direct or Smashwords, you can link to the books on your site; they handle all the transaction costs, and bandwidth, and pay you a fee, after taking a cut.

It's a better option for the average person than setting up a shopping cart, etc. until you know you'll have enough sales to profit.

MysteryRiter said:

Medievalist: My problem is that I'm not allowed to participate in Amazon Affiliates because of the state I live in. Something about the tax...

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Not as an affiliate, but as a publisher via Kindle Direct. And there's B & N's Nook and PubIt. You make more as the publisher than you would as an affiliate.

Also Smashwords. And Lulu does ebooks now as well.

You'll have to pay state taxes, and you may need a business license.

Other options: eSellerate, or Google Checkout's cart system.

Both of these require HTML competency. And honestly, you're better off not having to deal with a cart and bandwidth etc.

Setting up a full e-store for yourself is a huge PITA. I wouldn't even attempt it myself.

Webs.com is free (you pay a fee if you want special features or your own domain name) and has a storefront that links to PayPal that is really easy to set-up and use. You will need to track sales and pay taxes, though.

I have a couple of short pieces that I'm planning, some day, to sell from my website. It will all be manual. E-mail me, pay via PayPal, and I'll e-mail the PDF out. I don't really expect many sales, so this could work. The pieces I'm thinking of have a real niche audience.

MysteryRiter said:

Ah, ok. I guess I'll just stick to linking to the Amazon page. Don't want to get involved with state taxes, business licenses, etc. Thanks!

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Hun, if you're selling stuff, you have to claim the profit as income. If they haven't already, your parents need to contact a tax professional who can advise them on how to handle your tax stuff (both state and federal if you're in the US) with you being a minor.

I know that the 'state tax' Medi mentioned above is state sales tax, which isn't the same thing as state income taxes. I just wanted to mention this to be sure everything is clear.

I'm no accountant or anything, but when I researched setting up my own shop, it looked like I'd be responsible for paying VAT (Value Added Tax) for any sales to folks in the EU. I decided I didn't want to mess with that.

Can we turn this into a breakdown of the taxes associated with self-publishing for US writers, since I really can't find any source that agrees with another, and I'm sure other younglings are having a similar issue.

Being a beginner to all of this, I was wondering if Lightning Source has a feature to any of their packages that would feed to them (for sales and delivery) directly from an author's book-title web site (as, for example, "thedoorway.com"). Thank you. Marty

Taxes associated with self-publishing in the United States are, to my knowledge:
1. Federal taxes - the income you receive from self-publishing. You will receive a 1099 from whatever sales channel(s) you are using for your books (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc.). You will use this information to file your annual taxes.
2. State taxes - if your state has a state tax, you will use the income noted on the 1099 as in #1 above.
3. If you are selling your books directly (i.e., from your own website or face-to-face or through the mail), you will need to pay sales tax on these items and you need to be registered as a business so you can file yearly, quarterly and/or monthly sales tax (and business and operating taxes) reports (if you sell enough to be required to report monthly).
4. Social Security and Medicare taxes. If writing is your full-time income, or the primary source of your income, you will need to pay your own Social Security and Medicare taxes. I am researching the estimated quarterly payment process right now.

I am just learning about all of the particulars relating to writing as a full-time job. In a lot of ways, it's easier if you have a full-time job and write on the side. But, it's not more fun!

Actually, Merri, you're dealing with this because you've entered the realm of being a publisher.

Writers don't normally deal with that. That's why they "have" publishers.

It's when you start self-publishing that things get murky and you have to alternate between your writer hat and your publisher hat, but they should be distinct - because you need to know how much time your publishing efforts are taking from your writing efforts.

Good point, Richard; however, if I had a traditional publisher, wouldn't they still send me a 1099? And, I'd still need to pay my own Social Security and Medicare taxes wouldn't I? I don't sell books directly (I used to, along with bookmarks and some other items), so I don't have to worry about sales tax and we don't have state taxes here in Washington.

I sold some ebooks from my website.

Never mind taxes. Never mind the cost of setting it up (with Wordpress, this is free anyway).

If someone buys an ebook for 99 cents, Paypal charges 30.

Enter Amazon and Smashwords....