When we were releasing the title from our new small press, Writ Large Press, we were giddy to find our title finally appear on Amazon. The writer was too. It was like some sort of test we’d just passed, something that made us legitimate and available around the globe!

Well, that joy didn’t last long when we realized that it made no economic sense for us. Talking with other small publishing companies around town, we found that the main gripe was the discount at which we were “forced” to sell our books. Our book, which is priced at US$15, was selling for $10.20 within three days. Add to that, or subtract I suppose, the cut for Amazon, then to our LSI, our printer, well, isn’t much left for the writer or for ourselves.

What we decided to do was create a PayPal account and use that to create our own shop page on our website.

Borders, the big book chain that is in a big financial mess, is cutting ties with Amazon, according to this NYT article.

I obviously don’t know what the terms of their long-running relationship had been, but it makes sense, from the perspective of a small press like us, to create your own e-commerce site. Seriously, it is the internet. You can reach our website from anywhere in the world. So why just rely on Amazon to sell your goods?