December 3, 2012

Selling eBooks to the public with Ganxy

I first heard about Ganxy from a post on one of the blogs I read regularly, The Writer's Guide to ePublishing.  I found the idea of selling to readers from my website, blog, and/or Facebook page and keeping 90% of the cover price intriguing.  I decided to give it a try by setting up a test showcase (as they call product pages) at Ganxy.

It seemed daunting for someone like me, who knows squat about ePub and .mobi files, both of which Ganxy recommends be uploaded.  About all I could handle was a PDF, which is the third and last format Ganxy recommends.  I read their instructions, then did a search for a site that converts documents to ePub and .mobi formats.  I found Online Convert, which does it for free (they do accept donations, and they are on my list of places to send funds to now that I have received my September royalties).  I followed Ganxy's suggestion and named each new file with the book title, my name, and the format.

Once that was done, I was able to go back and create my showcase.  I decided to take advantage of the function that allows me to list other retailers (because some folks will always want to purchase from Amazon or BN, and while I'd gladly trade lesser Amazon rankings for higher royalties, there's no denying that reviews still stand for something).  Since I am an Amazon Associate, I had to include my personal ID in the linked product code so I get credit for any orders, which meant I had to get a product link code and only enter the part starting with "http" and ending with my Associate ID and skip the rest of it.  It's a pretty quick process once the files have been converted (and because I forgot to take out some Kindle- and Nook-specific references in the front of the first documents I converted, I'll need to go back and re-do these).

I then embed the code on the main page of my newly re-designed blog for an easy purchase link.  The showcase is pretty big, and since there's no way to fit six of them (and counting!) on one page, I skipped this for the page that lists my other titles in favor of linking each title to the showcase page.  Take a look and tell me what you think!

This is still new to me, but I'm learning how it works.  These are the pluses of hooking up with Ganxy for me:

• A 90% cut of the price of all eBooks sold, rather than the 65% and 70% offered by BN and Amazon.
• The ability to offer free eBooks to readers, choosing an end time by whichever is reached first:  A maximum number of free downloads or an end date.  Doing this on Amazon and BN is next to impossible.
• The ability to offer sale priced eBooks to readers, with automatic end dates/criteria I set (i.e., "The first 150 people to download this eBook will get $1.50 off the cover price").  I didn't have my current giveaway ready in time to offer a Black Friday or Cyber Monday special this year, but I can offer new releases at reduced prices for a temporary period to entice readers to buy from my eStore rather than Amazon or BN (I think that works better than saying, "Please buy from my eStore; I'll make more money," don't you?).  Price changes go into effect immediately, another plus.
• A good payment plan.
• Superb and prompt customer service.  I had many questions along the way, and they got back to me very quickly...even on Sunday.

This is an overview of my experience I'm sharing today, not an endorsement.  That decision to Ganxy or not to Ganxy has to be made by each individual indie writer, just like everything else in the business.  I strongly suggest reading their Terms of Service thoroughly.  But if you do decide to set up one or more Author Showcases, it's always nice for them to know the source of the new business.  For that reason, I ask that you drop an email to Lonnie Rosenbaum at Ganxy at lonnie @ ganxy.com (please remove the spaces) and let him know I referred you!

I hope you found this column helpful!  Let me know by leaving a comment!