Quick questions for book authors

I am building a website for an author and want to make sure I do it right.

-- Do you sell copies of your book(s) through your website? Did you need permission from your publisher to do so?

-- Were you required to post any kind of disclaimer or publisher's text at the point of sale or checkout?

-- Can you sell the book for more or less than the price on the book jacket? (For example, autographed copies or bulk discounts.)


Please send me a PM if you don't wish to answer publicly. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

There are a couple different ways to approach this, but the real answer resides in the author's contract with the publisher.

If the author just wants to direct readers to traditional book channels (ie, Amazon, B&N, the publisher's own site, etc), just add the link and let them find it. That is what the publisher wants and expects you to do.

If the author has the right to purchase books and resell them via non-traditional channels (ie, trunk of his car, website, blog, special sales to third parties unrelated to booksellers, etc), those terms would probably be specified in the publishing contract. If that's the case, you can usually charge whatever you want. But it's a good idea to review the contract and clear the sale with the publisher first.

Agent note of the day: Buying your own books and finding a way to sell them is a cash extravaganza. You can buy them at a deep discount, and resell them at your own price. --Example 1: Author buys large quantity of his baseball instructional book, sells them all to local youth program.
--Example 2: Author buys large quantity of his bio on famed athlete, sells them to sports memorabilia dealer (who will probably forge the athlete's signature and sell them for 10x more but that is not our business).

An author has to be the greatest advocate of his/her book, don't wait for the publisher to make these sales.

Sorry to ramble. Hope that helps.

 

Great information, thanks swenk!