Need some help please in identifying the right platform for selling ebooks

Hi everyone,

I would like your help please. Basically, I am in the process of writing a collection of short stories, and I thought recently how itcould be cool if I turned them into ebooks instead and (hopefully) try and sell them online.

Now, the problem I have (after doing the research) is that I seem to be presented with these typical options in regard to the best place to sell them:

A) On eBay (with an eBay shop)
B) On my own ecommerce website
C) Both?

So far, people have suggested I start with eBay first, due to the high traffic the site generates, and see how it goes, before putting my own site together. But the site I wish to create will be where all the relevant info will be held that ties in directly with my stories (which can be purchased and downloaded from the site). To explain it better, it will be the companion site to the ebooks, from here I can keep any interested parties up to date with whats going on in the world I’ve created (where my stories will be set) and provide more in depth detail on my characters etc. It’s going to be fully involving and interactive so people can get more out of the experience, other than what they read in my ebooks.

And the trouble with eBay (or other marketplaces) is that I’m limited in the information I can put across BEFORE they download the ebooks, so they would most likely not have any idea what they could be reading (other than the standard descriptive blurb that is). And as for the eBay shop, for example, that again is limiting in terms of what you can do with it.

That’s another reason why I thought my own site may work better, for the look of it to be exactly how I want it to be, as well as being informative, and then offering direct downloads once I’ve whetted their appetite (that’s the plan anyway).

Anyway, I hope I’ve made enough sense here for anyone to offer some advice. It would be very much appreciated :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Adrian

Hi adrianmidd. Welcome to SitePoint. :slight_smile:

It’s hard to make a go of this sort of thing, so ebay has advantages in that sense. You save the cost of setting up a site that may get no visits anyhow. So it’s a way to test the water and see if there’s interest in the products.

You might also want to check out something like ClickBank.