Where writers (and others) sell books -- and more ...

Questions & Answers

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Q: Who can sell on AuthorSales.Com?

A: Our intended primary client base is published authors who have stocks of their own books on hand to sell. However, AuthorSales.Com should be a good fit for lots of other kinds of people as well. You don't need to be the author of the books you sell-- and for that matter it doesn't  have to be books you're selling. The type of online store we've set up will work equally well for CDs, DVDs, and other types of merchandise suitable for web-based sales. Part of the idea of AuthorSales.Com is to reach out to sellers who don't have the range of products or the volume of sales to justify the complexities and expense of a stand-alone online store. We wanted to  set up a selling system that would be a good fit for a seller with a limited range of items for sale and/or a low volumes of sales. If you expect to sell somewhere between one item a month and ten items a day, AuthorSales.Com is probably for you.

Q. How many different items can I sell?

A: AuthorSales.Com's current store design is primarily intended to showcase a single author's work. It is therefore intended to present limited numbers of items in each store. Your store is going to consist of a single  page listing all your items, with a brief desription and a seller-provided image of each item, plus a detail page for each item, and a checkout and payment system attached. There won't be any categorization of the titles, or special pages for separate types of books. During our initial phase, we're limiting our clients to ten items each. Later on, that limit is likely to be be eased a fair amount -- but we're not going to be the place for you to sell 4,234 different titles in 57 different categories!  The short form: You shouldn't include more items than a customer could scroll through easily.

Q: Can I sell one-of-a-kind items?

A: Absolutely. However, we do ask that you clearly label any one-of-a-kind or limited-stock items as such, so that customers will understand that it is first-come first-serve. As with any item, let us know when it's sold out, and we'll remove it from your catalog.

Q: Can I list out-of-stock items on my catalog?

A: No. The potentials headaches and complexities of managing back-orders and out-of-stock notices are just too much trouble for everyone. If you run out of stock, you must use the cancel/delete page to notify us so we can remove the item from your catalog. If and when you get in new stock of the item, enter it again as a new item and we'll put it back in your catalog. (Hint: save the emails listing your original submissions so you can cut-and-paste on later re-submissions and save yourself some typing.) If we see your reported inventory go to zero and don't get an inventory update from you, we'll reserve the right to cancel the item ourselves without notice.

Q: Will you process payments before I have notified you that I am ready to ship?

A: That depends on the type of payment. We will not pre-process credit card orders.  In most cases, credit-card payments are likely to be the lion's share of your orders. PayPal payments are effectively instantaneous, and there is no practical way to put a "hold" on such payments, so we're not going to try. Customers using PayPal will be shown a notice warning that payment is immediate, and that AuthorSales.Com cannot track client inventory directly. We will be responsible for PayPal refunds under such circumstances. We reserved the right to turn off the PayPal payment option for any and all clients if it causes too many refund problems. Payments by check and money order are likely to be fairly unusual, and checks must be approved or cleared before we can instruct you to ship. In our initial phase, we'll confirm checks are good by depositing them. As this is likely to take some time, we'll do it as soon as possible.  AuthorSales will be responsible for refunds under these circumstances.Customers paying by check will be shown a notice explaining this policy.  If and when check/money order volume is sufficient, we'll look into using a pre-deposit approval system. We will only refund to the original customer, and not to any third party.  Once we have received confirmation that you are ready to ship, and we  have also confirmed payment, we will clear the item for shipping and instruct you to ship it. From that moment on, you are 100% responsible for shipping the order, for dealing with the customers, for managing returns and refunds as needed, and for all other related tasks. We do the web-hosting, the order management, and the payment management. The rest is up to you.

Q: Will I receive payment for orders that have not yet been completed?

A: No. You'll receive a monthly statement reporting on (and reimbursing for ) only those orders that AuthorSales.Com has cleared for shipment. We won't clear any order for you to ship until we have confirmed payment and until you have confirmed that you are ready to ship. If, say, an order comes in on March 31, it will likely be April 1st or 2nd before you confirm you are ready to ship and we clear the payment. In such a case, the order would be credited on your April statement.

Q: How will I receive my monthly statements and payments?

A: If you have earned $10.00 or more in a given month, we'll either mail you a statement and a check, or send you a statement via email and a payment to your PayPal account. If there are no sales during a given month, we'll inform you of that via email. If proceeds from sales due to you are less than $10.00 for a given month, we'll inform you of that via email, but hold reimbursement until the next monthly statement wherein the accumulated amount due is $10.00 or more. We will clear all accounts twice a year, for the June and December statements. In other words, if your sales total plus taxes and shipping and less 20 percent is $9.32 in January, we'll send an email in February reporting that sale, but will send no payment. If you have no further sales for the next five months, we'll send emails for the next five months notifying you that you still haven't sold anything. In July, when it's time to run the June statements, we'll send you a statement, pay you the $9.32, and start over.  And, as noted, we can pay you via a regular paper check sent through the mail, or else using PayPal for instant online payment.

Q. Can I sell to resellers or wholesellers using AuthorSales.Com?

A. No. We're geared up for retails sales.

Q. How many items a month will I sell?

A: We have no way of knowing. If you have very little traffic to you existing website, if you do no promotion, and you're selling something no one wants for an unreasonably high price, adding an online store isn't going to make you rich. If, on the other hand, your products are hot, the demand is there, and you know how to promote, the sky is the limit.

Q: What sorts of books do you expect to work on AuthorSales.Com?  What sorts of books probably won't?

A: We're just starting out, so we don't know for sure -- but at a guess, fiction and non-fiction titles by known and established authors are likely to be better sellers. AuthorSales.Com would also be well-suited to, for example, selling the texts that are assigned for a particular class, or selling CDs by a popular local band, or doing online sales of a church calendar. With certain exceptions, self-published books aren't likely to do so well. However, the whole idea here is to provide a way to do relatively low-volume sales. While we'll be very selective in accepting our first clients, we'll be open to experimentation as we go along. 

Q: What should I charge for my books and other items? List price? A substantial discount? Or should I charge a premium price because the item is not available elsewhere?

A: You'll have to work out pricing for yourself, on a case by case basis. There are a lot of issues to consider. Is the item available from an online retailer or a physical store? What discounts do they offer? Can you add something to the item -- a personalized autograph, a bonus pamphlet, a music track available nowhere else -- that will make getting it from you worth paying a bit extra? You'll also have to figure in what you paid for the item, and the costs of setting up and maintaining your sales operation. In all likelihood, you'll have lots of expenses that all have to be covered by price you charge for your items.