You invested your time, energy and dedication into finishing your book. Shouldn’t you be able to keep a healthy percentage of the revenue it generates? While you’ve certainly earned more than pennies from each sale, you may be surprised to learn just how little many authors earn from the sale of their books. Publish your work through the traditional publishing model, and you’re highly unlikely to collect even a slight majority share of your profits. You’ll pay back advances, pay literary agents and editors, and may not even benefit from targeted marketing designed to help your work reach large audiences. When you choose to self-publish and independently release, however, you retain control over your career and earning potential.

Independently Release Books, Publish Online and Manage a Web Store

At first blush, maintaining a web store seems like an overwhelming amount of work. After all, you have to process payments in a method which protects both you and the consumer. You must find secure file hosting for your eBooks, then work out a distribution method to ensure quick access. The work of marketing and promotions falls squarely on your shoulders, too. When you dig a bit deeper, however, you’ll find that there are two primary options to more effectively sell your books: publish directly to a proprietary marketplace, and eCommerce management systems.

The first option takes the work of payment processing, content delivery and file hosting out of your hands completely. You will still need to develop a wide array of targeted marketing options in order to capture new readers’ attention, however. Further, many of the most competitively priced plans through major eBook retailers like the Amazon Kindle Store also come with bundled exclusivity agreements. In order to keep the greatest percentage of your earnings, you’ll be forced to sell your work through a single platform while also relinquishing some of your control over pricing and promotion. The second options, working with an eCommerce platform service, is almost always a far better choice for self-published authors.

What is an eCommerce Platform?

Designed to provide web merchants with all the tools they need to succeed, an eCommerce platform is a comprehensive sales solution for sellers of digital goods. Payment processing is managed for you, through trusted names like Google Wallet and PayPal. Your eBooks are hosted securely, and distributed immediately through content delivery automation. Services like PayLoadz.com also offer powerful marketing tools, like affiliate network access, which help you to expand your reach. Best of all, these fully independent systems help you keep far more of your earnings when you sell books. Publish through your own web store, and you don’t surrender your earnings in exchange for pennies on the dollar. Your overhead costs associated with sales and distribution are dramatically lowered, and your ability to reach new audiences is exponentially increased.

Before you sign over the lion’s share of your earnings and relinquish control over your intellectual property, consider the benefits of truly independent web publishing.