100% agree about owning the relationship, especially long term. I love Amazon KDP, but another example I've been spending a decent budget to rank a very good book in the top search results for a term. It had 10x organic 5 star reviews and only positive feedback, then all of a sudden it gets 3x 1 star reviews. I find this happens far too much and put it down to competitors trying to kill off others with spamming negative ratings. Not sure if you've experienced that before, it's just frustrating.
I've had this a couple times, and it's becoming more of a concern now that I am spending more on the production of the books. For me this is now a necessity
All makes absolute sense Chris! Can you recommend a POD platform for the books? I can find several for the 'merch' side of a business but not for the book content.....
The BIGGEST hurdle about building a brand "outside" of Amazon is to OWN the ISBN for your books. If you allow Amazon to own the ISBN they then have the rights to the book. I'm surprised you didn't address this right from the start of your video? If you purchase your own ISBN, then Amazon is a "publisher and marketplace" and you can have your books published by OTHER platforms if you wish. This completely free you from relying solely on Amazon if there ever is a problem with your Amazon account. Building your own e-commerce resource (website) and brand image with other products is great, but it doesn't help if 90% of your products are books with the ISBN still owned by Amazon. It's still a legal problem. Please share with us HOW to change to your own ISBN numbers along with the most cost effective way to do this. Great videos, HUGE fan of your work!
Using Amazon's free ISBN does not give them rights to the book. ISBN and copyright are two completely different issues. You don't need an ISBN to sell on your own website. The main reason to purchase your own ISBNs is if you want to publish on multiple platforms (Amazon, IngramSpark, etc) and you don't want to end up with multiple listings on Amazon. Using your own ISBN ensures that Amazon lists all copies/versions of the book on one listing. The other reason to purchase your own ISBN is that it can help you get into physical bookstores. ISBNs are prohibitively expensive in the US, so not necessarily a good option, depending on your circumstances.
I agree with most of your points. Only thing I find hard is change these customers to premium customers, they're used to spend 5-10$ for a book and you jump that almost double or triple the price they were used on Amazon,unless it's really premium I see it hard to just the extra buck. Just my two cents
*Very interesting video Chris. This cetainly is the way to go to avoid over-reliance on Amazon. Are you using a specific template for your website? If so, are you making it available for other book publishers? Are you currently getting traffic to the website and making sales? Thanks.*
Mine isn't quite set up just yet as we are still finalising a few things. This mockup site was set up by our team, not sure if it's a template or not! Will have more on all this for sure
@@ChrisRaydog *Thanks. It'd be great if you could get your team to make it available as a template that we could buy as designing a website can be a time-consuming hassle.*
got my account terminated for no reason back in 2022, luckily I got it back but since then I was thinking about creating a store, I just didn't find a good privider with resonable printing prices
Yes, check out www.chrisraydog.com/brandstore if you'd like to look into this further. It is definitely an investment, but this offers access to the exact team, templates and manufacturing partner that I am working with. I'm finalising my store with my manufacturing partner currently
📈 Master Amazon KDP with my proven seller strategies | ► www.ChrisRaydog.com/
🛒 Done-For-You Brand Store | ► www.chrisraydog.com/brandstore
100% agree about owning the relationship, especially long term. I love Amazon KDP, but another example I've been spending a decent budget to rank a very good book in the top search results for a term. It had 10x organic 5 star reviews and only positive feedback, then all of a sudden it gets 3x 1 star reviews. I find this happens far too much and put it down to competitors trying to kill off others with spamming negative ratings. Not sure if you've experienced that before, it's just frustrating.
Or KDP send them very bad copie. A lot of negative reviews I saw was about paper quality, errors with printing or damaged package.
I've had this a couple times, and it's becoming more of a concern now that I am spending more on the production of the books. For me this is now a necessity
All makes absolute sense Chris! Can you recommend a POD platform for the books? I can find several for the 'merch' side of a business but not for the book content.....
The BIGGEST hurdle about building a brand "outside" of Amazon is to OWN the ISBN for your books. If you allow Amazon to own the ISBN they then have the rights to the book.
I'm surprised you didn't address this right from the start of your video? If you purchase your own ISBN, then Amazon is a "publisher and marketplace" and you can have your books published by OTHER platforms if you wish. This completely free you from relying solely on Amazon if there ever is a problem with your Amazon account.
Building your own e-commerce resource (website) and brand image with other products is great, but it doesn't help if 90% of your products are books with the ISBN still owned by Amazon. It's still a legal problem.
Please share with us HOW to change to your own ISBN numbers along with the most cost effective way to do this.
Great videos, HUGE fan of your work!
Using Amazon's free ISBN does not give them rights to the book. ISBN and copyright are two completely different issues.
You don't need an ISBN to sell on your own website. The main reason to purchase your own ISBNs is if you want to publish on multiple platforms (Amazon, IngramSpark, etc) and you don't want to end up with multiple listings on Amazon. Using your own ISBN ensures that Amazon lists all copies/versions of the book on one listing. The other reason to purchase your own ISBN is that it can help you get into physical bookstores.
ISBNs are prohibitively expensive in the US, so not necessarily a good option, depending on your circumstances.
Very interesting, I would like to see more!
Finding an alternate print on demand company has always been the issue. Which company are you using for fulfilment
how do you sell coloring books? like who prints and ships? is there a POD for books?
Thank you for this video . Who is your print on demand supplier for your books that is my main issue.
If you live in USA, your books are high quality ect then buy very good printer and do it yourself. Its not so complicated to do print.
Check out www.chrisraydog.com/brandstore if you'd like to look into this further. It can certainly be a pain
I agree with most of your points. Only thing I find hard is change these customers to premium customers, they're used to spend 5-10$ for a book and you jump that almost double or triple the price they were used on Amazon,unless it's really premium I see it hard to just the extra buck. Just my two cents
My own store sound exciting, would be great to know more about it
*Very interesting video Chris. This cetainly is the way to go to avoid over-reliance on Amazon. Are you using a specific template for your website? If so, are you making it available for other book publishers? Are you currently getting traffic to the website and making sales? Thanks.*
Mine isn't quite set up just yet as we are still finalising a few things. This mockup site was set up by our team, not sure if it's a template or not! Will have more on all this for sure
@@ChrisRaydog *Thanks. It'd be great if you could get your team to make it available as a template that we could buy as designing a website can be a time-consuming hassle.*
got my account terminated for no reason back in 2022, luckily I got it back but since then I was thinking about creating a store, I just didn't find a good privider with resonable printing prices
18 GBD for book... It would be very difficulty to sell. Not a hater but triple the price is to much.
I am curious about the strategy to drive traffic to the website.
Great video Chris! I'd be interested to hear about the POD/ publisher you are are using to sell this brand.
Yes, check out www.chrisraydog.com/brandstore if you'd like to look into this further. It is definitely an investment, but this offers access to the exact team, templates and manufacturing partner that I am working with. I'm finalising my store with my manufacturing partner currently
Pls share more info, I am super interested
Thanks Chris great video 😅
Thank you Phyllis!
More more more- Maybe IG or Tik tok Strategy for brand?