Amazon.com and Paypal – Anyone in the world can buy (usually) but not everyone in the world can sell.

I reviewed a book called Write It, Self-Publish It, Sell It by Bill Keeth. I published the link to Amazon.co.uk where people could buy the book. A few days ago, I received an email from one of the subscribers to my newsletter asking for assistance. He lives in the U.S. and wanted a copy of this book but could not purchase it. His order on Amazon.co.uk kept getting cancelled. It was a long, drawn out issue which was, thankfully, resolved. He’ll get his book.

All of this got me thinking about how complicated it can be for a self-published author. I know that when I started, I desperately wanted my books to be sold via Amazon.com; furthermore, as Paypal was free to join and seemed very popular, I wanted to use this facility. After much research, I knew that it would be financially and physically impossible for me to do this. When Bill Keeth faced his problems with his book, I wanted to know if things had improved and did some research.

For the purposes of this piece, let’s use a hypothetical author who has self-published a book and wants to have it sold via the internet. These are his characteristics:

• He lives somewhere in Malaysia.
• He has self-published a book.
• He has created a website to sell his books.
• He has limited funds.
• He does not have a bank account either in the UK or the US.
• He has people from the UK and the US wanting to buy his book.

Let’s start with Amazon.com. In the ‘Seller Account’ of an Amazon.com account (for U.S.), under the Amazon.com Advantage program, it is stated as follows:

If you're a publisher, label, or studio looking for a distribution and fulfillment channel for your products, Amazon Advantage is for you.

Click on the link and you’ll read this comment:

To enroll in Amazon.com Advantage, you must have an e-mail account and Web access, you must be located in North America, and you must have worldwide distribution rights to the Title you want to enroll. ...

That was the end of Amazon.com (United States) for our hypothetical author.

What about Amazon.co.uk? Well, in the ‘Seller Account' there, there is a statement under Instructions and Regulations which reads as follows:

1.1.3 To register as a seller on the Site, unless otherwise agreed by us in advance in writing: (i) you must be an individual that is resident, or a business that is established, in the United Kingdom; (ii) the goods you are selling must be physically located in the United Kingdom at the time of sale; and (iii) the place of supply of any services you are selling must be in the United Kingdom. Please note that if you are selling goods as a trader in the course of your business, you are required by law to make that fact clear to potential buyers in your listing.

For our hypothetical author, that’s UK out as well.

However, as I learnt from Bill Keeth, it’s not so easy for those who live in the US or UK either. He writes:

My books are listed under Amazon Marketplace, as opposed to Amazon Advantage, which most publishers use. And the reason I'm not listed under Amazon Advantage is because the commission charge is a whacking 60% - which, I know you'll understand is quite out of the question for self-publishers who won't buy thousands of books at a time.

Now, what used to happen with Amazon Marketplace is that Amazon would advertise the book @ a cover price of, say, £9.99 + postage costs + £1.99 search fee (or some such) - all of which meant no customer ever bought a book because it was cheaper in the bookshops. Now, all of a sudden, Amazon has dropped the £1.99 charge - BUT seem to expect customers to access the book via the Used and New section.

All this means that the most effective way for an author to sell his book is directly from his website. It might mean lesser exposure, yes, but certainly, there is more control and less hassle all round.

Then, comes the issue of payment - how’s the buyer to pay for the book and how will the author, as the seller, receive the money?

Paypal, being one of the easiest and most popular merchants, Paypal, comes in. It’s really easy to set up an account. It’s free and the html codes are all fixed and ready for you to use. Indeed, if you just want to request payment and don’t have a website, then, you can even just send the buyer an email.

The problem comes when you want to withdraw your money. For people living in the US and the UK, this is really not an issue as you have bank accounts and Paypal will send the money directly into your account. Now, for our hypothetical author, who has no bank account, in the US, it’s really tough. Paypal starts by boasting that it can be used in over 190 countries. Look closer and you’ll read as follows:

1. For those living in the countries like the US, UK, Australia, Canada and so on, it is stated as follows: PayPal Localized Sites – Your Customized Total Payment Solution.
2. Thereafter, the field narrows down: For those living in India, Hong Kong and so on, these people can send and receive payments. They can withdraw from their Paypal account into their ‘in-country’ bank account or to a U.S. bank account.
3. For those Jamaica, Argentina and others, they withdraw their money to a U.S. bank account or request a cheque from Paypal.
4. For our unfortunate hypothetical author in Malaysia, he can only withdraw his money to a U.S. bank account.

At this stage, our hypothetical author has a website, loads of books but no way to accept payment. I found one company that helps authors like our hypothetical author – 2Checkout. There is a one time payment of U.S.49.00 and the transaction fees are 5.5% commission on each transaction, plus a $0.45 charge per transaction. There are additional Penalties and fees which you can read on their website. More importantly, for our hypothetical author, he can receive his money in four different ways:

1. EFT — Electronic Funds Transfer
2. Payoneer — The 2Checkout.com-branded Re-Loadable MasterCard® (powered by Payoneer) is the solution for vendors who wish to be able to accept EFTs in countries that do not offer the EFT service.
3. Wire Transfer — Monetary wires are not as quick as EFTs, although they are typically suggested for payments greater than $10,000 USD.
4. Paper Cheques — Cheques are manually printed from our 3rd-party processor and then mailed out to the address given by the author.

I’ve been using 2Checkout since I started the website and have never had a problem with them. If you feel that 2Checkout is for you, then here’s the link to their website where you can sign up for an account.