Amazon Advertising!
For a limited time Briggs & Schuster Authors can join together and split the costs related to Amazon Advertising. For a fraction of the costs of having your own Amazon vendor account, your books can be listed as “sponsored”, managed and sold directly via BSA Amazon Vendor Account.
Although we cannot promise results, we have seen authors utilizing this method and increasing their sales by more than 200%. For a very small investment, you too can try and see if this method works for you.
What is it?
When someone searches for a book category (mystery, poetry, etc.) they are taken to a results’ page. On that page, they are presented first with “Sponsored” book titles. These “Sponsored” books show first on the page because they are participating in a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaign. Pay-Per-Click is a way to pay for your book to be prioritized on the results’ page. The way PPC works, you only pay if/when a potential buyer clicks on your “Sponsored” link. These “Sponsored” links can show first on a page or be displayed as “suggested items.” Sponsored books are also displayed when an end-user is viewing another book or browsing for something to read. In this case, you may see “Sponsored” books under “Products related to this item” within the same book category.
This is a great way to promote your book to an audience that is ready to buy and seeks a book like yours.
The Opportunity
If you are already a Briggs & Schuster customer, this is your opportunity to try a different approach in selling your books. Instead of paying 35% to Amazon through the distribution service, we will sell directly to buyers via the BSA Amazon vendor account.
More specifically, you will NOT pay Amazon their required 35% per book sold. Because Amazon will not be selling your books. You will be selling your books on Amazon through the BSA Amazon vendor account. In this case, you will pay $0.30 per book sold. And you will do the order fulfillment by mailing your book(s) directly to the buyer.
The author can choose to sell their books as “signed copies” therefore making it a custom order, which is typically not returnable.
The BSA Vendor Account
As you may have noticed, when you buy something from Amazon, the seller of the item you are buying may be any vendor. This is due to the fact that Amazon is a marketplace and allows vendors to sell their own items in exchange for “renting” a vendor account on a month-to-month basis.
The vendor account cost is $39.95 per vendor, per month, plus $0.30 per book sold, plus costs associated with listings and the labor to get it all set-up and managed. Plus the cost of running PPC ads and costs associated with your time in packaging and shipping your book(s).
That’s a lot for an author to do, requiring know-how, infrastructure and an overall sales of 100 books per month just to break even.
Solution
The Briggs & Schuster authors combine forces, and commit to a 3-month trial. During this trial each participant will pay the $39.95/month plus the $0.30 per item sold. But, BSA will handle the eCommerce set-up, management and item listing at no cost to the author. And each author will handle the shipping of their purchased books.
If their books are selling a lot and the author wants to increase the PPC exposure we can manage that too.
How will the shipping and handling work?
When a buyer purchases a copy of your book, you will receive an email with the buyer’s name and address. The author signs (optional) a copy of the book and mail it to the buyer. Due to the custom nature of signed books, this transaction is not typically returnable. However, in some rare cases the buyer will have the right to return a book. (i.e. Items arrived damaged, wrong items were shipped, etc.)
In the case of a returned book, the author will either refund or replace the item according to Amazon vendor rules. In most cases, Amazon finds the buyer to be right and the vendor has to “eat” the cost of refunding or replacing the purchase.
The Financial Commitment
If you agree and want to participate in this limited trial your cost will be a non-refundable $119.85 (3 months x $39.95) plus $0.30 per book sold.
The Trial Period
The trial will start on October 1, 2021 and will run until January 1, 2022 lasting exactly 3 months. This is to capitalize on the Christmas sales. At the end of the 3-month trial, together with the authors, we will be able to assess the Return-On-Investment (ROI) and decide whether to continue or not.
The Briggs & Schuster Commitment
- Each author will have equal attention and will have an equal dollar amount allocated for the PPP campaign. (Important: Although the amount spent will be equal, the number of times your book will be displayed will vary. This is due to the fact that Amazon sponsored links work as a pay-per-click. That means you only pay if/when an end-user clicks on your sponsored link. An end-user click on your sponsored link is not a guarantee that the end-user will buy your book. It is a guarantee that the end-user will land on your Amazon’s book page and will have a chance to buy your book.)
- Each author will have an allocated dollar amount that if not used, will rollover to the following month for the 3-month period.
- Each author will receive a detailed monthly report of their:
- Link impressions (How many times the sponsored link was displayed),
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) (How many times an end-user clicked on your sponsored link)
- Sales (How many books were sold as a result of CTR)
The Author’s commitment
The author will be responsible to:
- Pay upfront for the 3-month non-refundable trial at $119.85
- Pay at the end of each month $0.30 per book sold
- Ship the book(s) sold immediately upon receiving an order
- Keep in-hand books ready to be shipped
Learn more:
Amazon Advertising:
Amazon Sponsored Products:
https://advertising.amazon.com/solutions/products/sponsored-products?ref_=a20m_us_obj_prfm_sp
Deadline to participate
Please contact us at contact@bsa.im by September 20, 2021 if you wish to participate in this trial.
Thank you,
BSA Marketing Team