So, Focus Publishing's first book, Seasons of the Moon by Rabbi Sinclair who is a member on here, is finally listed on amazon.com. I really have to say that I don't feel it's worth it. The process of setting up your own merchant account for me was very confusing and it was not very clear up front that this would be something I would have to pay for as in a monthly fee. Not only does Amazon.com charge you $39.99 a month to list a new product with amazon.com, but they also charge 15% off of the price of what you're selling your item for. So, if I have one book that I sell for $25, I make $21.25 off of that book plus Amazon.com has preset shipping fees that you can charge your customer. Meaning if it costs me $25 to send a book to the UK, I am forced to charge $12.99 from Amazon.com to ship that book ANYWHERE overseas. They don't offer me any option whatsoever to put in my shipping fees.
So if I receive two orders this month from the UK, I make $42.50 plus $25.98 for shipping. My costs are $39.99 for the monthly fee and $50 for shipping. So I make $68.48, but I spend $89.99. Now I understand why people complained about the international shipping costs for books when ordering from my website - I'm actually charging people what it costs me. The only way to make money on there is by jacking up the price of your item. Unless you are selling books in a high volume - Amazon.com is a waste of money in my opinion.
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