A site for authors with an paid online digital download feature

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   TessSchlesingerposted 7 years ago

   There are so many of us who write fiction, and we're stuck with Amazon, itunes, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, etc, all of which have their own difficulties.
   
   I would really like a formula in the hubpages tradition where every author has their own site, plus the ability to upload their books and sell to readers. Naturally hubpages takes its percentage.
   
   There isn't a single site like that that I can find, and I've looked.
   
   In addition, having a place where we can write serial stories to bring readers back week after week is also good.
   
   I understand that there are a lot of people who can't really write but that doesn't mean that there aren't many who can.
   
   Would be really great if you could do something like that.

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      makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      There's a major issue re VAT re sales of any digital items within the EU
      
      Affects everybody who wants to sell any digital item (music, ebooks (on which VAT is payable), ecourses etc) to people in the EU irrespective of where you live. That's because the rule is that the VAT is payable depending on where the buyer lives not where the seller lives.
      
      It means every time you sell to somebody who lives in a new EU country you must register for VAT in that country .
      
      I know it's crazy - but it's happened because of the global operations (eg Amazon) which seek to dodge tax.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         So that's what it is. Wow!
         
         What happens when one opens one's own website (if only I could figure out how to do that)?

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      relacheposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      By the way, here at HubPages, no one has their own site.  That's why it's called HubPages.
      
      There are a couple dozen print-on-demand book publishers in the USA who, if you have your own website, will allow you to do exactly what you are wishing.  I find it interesting you say you can't find any.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Sorry for the wrong terminology. What would you call my little big of space on hubpages under my own name? What is the correct terminology?
         
         I would really be interested in knowing which sites you are thinking of. Lulu? Smashwords? I will investigate. But I've been looking for something like I want for 5 years and found nothing.

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            Austinstarposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Cafepress.com used to let you print small books on demand. Cds too. Give it a look.

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               TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               cafepress is not an author website. I'm looking for a particular combination of things. The combination is not available at any website.
               
               The bookselling websites, e.g. Amazon, Itunes, Barnes and Noble, do not give you space to write your stories, only the option of selling books.
               
               Blog sites are in news format with no ability to download digital files for a price.
               
               Various bookselling sites like Smashwords, etc.  also do not give you space to write as well as sell books.
               
               If you go to sites which offer free websites e.g. Wix, they offer blogs, but they do not offer a facility when one can sell digital downloads.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You can write and sell serials on Smashwords, but you need to do your own promotion.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Been there. Done that. They do not have an author's website in the same mode that authors have.
         
         These are the basic components of an author's website.
         
         https://janefriedman.com/author-website-components/
         
         There isn't a single site on the web that caters strictly to authors (not writers) where they present their work in author style (not bookshop style or store style which is what smashwords and all the other sites like that do).
         
         In Smashwords, you search through all the books on the site using a search engine.
         
         On an author's website, you wouldn't do that. You would go to the their website and look at what the author offers. You would not be in competition with other authors.
         
         Again there is nothing like this on the internet. I've been looking for 5 years.

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   relacheposted 7 years ago

   Your space on HubPages is "your account."  And it's just part of HubPages, it's not separate.
   
   When you say you can't find Print On Demand book companies, yet you keep naming specific industry notables, obviously you are finding POD companies.
   
   Unless you can explain clearly what you are seeking, AND how the businesses you have investigated are not meeting those needs, no one but you will be able to solve your problem.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Relache.
      
      I'm not talking about print on demand book companies.
      
      I'm talking about writing sites that allow one to download books for a fee. In other words, sites like Hubpages where one has one's own 'account' and has the option of selling digital downloads, i.e. books.
      
      I am looking for a website which comprises many authors who have their own 'accounts.' Each account permits the author to have their own profile,  to write short stories, or series, or anything else as a hook (or even the first chapter of a book), and then allows the reader to buy the ebooks.
      
      Content writing sites comprise many writers.
      
      I'm looking for something similar for authors.

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3. 71

   makingamarkposted 7 years ago

   So what's wrong with Blurb http://www.blurb.co.uk/ or Lulu https://www.lulu.com/ or CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/?
   
   What specifically is it that you're looking for that they don't provide?
   
   Doesn't it depend on how you use your account?
   
   What's wrong with a blog linked to a self-publishing account?
   
   Or do you mean you like being part of a community and want to be on a site with lots and lots of other authors so you can get some competition?

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      TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      These are author websites.
      http://www.johnlecarre.com/
      
      http://clive-cussler-books.com/
      
      http://daniellesteel.com/
      
      I am trying to imagine how on earth you even begin to think that lulu or createspace has anything like that. I've been a client on both of them. They do not meet my need for my own promotional website and an ability to download from my particular account.
      
      If you go to blogger or Wordpress, everybody has accounts. On their accounts, they can write and earn money in various ways. However, there are two issues. The first is that you cannot sell digital downloads from them and the second is that it's set up for writers - NOT authors.
      
      Authors sell books. Books can either be printed or digital. I do NOT want printed books so companies like Lulu, print on demand, create space, etc are NOT what I want. I want DIGITAL books. This means EBOOKS which can be downloaded. Kindle does this, but Kindle does not provide an author website.
      
      So there are content writing sites on the web for writers. There are blogging writing sites for bloggers. There are print on demand sites for authors who wish to sell print books. There are bookstores like amazon that sell ebooks.
      
      There are, however, no sites for a myriad authors each to have their own account where they can present their work as per the sites above plus have the option of selling one's own DIGITAL (not print) books.
      
      Is that clear enough? Or are you trolling me?

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   Austinstarposted 7 years ago

   Obviously, you need to set up an author site with the ability to sell 'subscriptions" to your work - ie: access to read your stories online via your own published content.
   It's fairly easy to do, any competent webmaster should be able to set that up for you. There should be a college or university near you that has webmaster classes or classes in information technology.
   You could find a webmaster student who could work with you to set up a website that would work for you for a reasonable fee. The students need projects, and you need a website.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You don't even need a webmaster, you just need to use eJunkie.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I tried. In fact, I tried for years.
      
      Most web designers use CMS or Word Press. Doesn't work. What they offered me was not what I wanted. Certainly if I had the funds to have it done professionally, I wouldn't be having this conversation.
      
      I think there's a huge need for this, and I'm quite amazed that none of you see it.
      
      I think that the person who eventually puts this together will make a lot of money.

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         Austinstarposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Ok, I would love to put this together for myself! If it works out, I'll be happy to set one up for you too. Thanks for the link to Jane Friedman's list! Is that a complete list of what you are looking for? or is there more?

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            TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Let's take it a step further.
            
            Imagine facebook for authors. is a social networking sites on the one hand, yes. But on the other hand, each author has their own 'account.'
            
            On the left you have a menu.
            
            The menu gives you several options.
            
            One for  short stories.
            One for books.
            One for an ongoing serial each week/day/month.
            
            Then there is the online store when you can upload your books and when someone clicks on the payment button, the payment goes to paypal and they download their book to read.
            
            The idea of short stories and a serial works in that the reader can see that the person can write (or not). The idea of the weekly serial is so that people keep coming back to the story.
            
            Added to that is a capacity to add videos, power point presentations, or comic-like strips to make the story more exciting.
            
            So, yes, each person has their own account which presents them as an author (not someone who writes content). And, it's not really necessary to do a full profile, but I suppose there must be some sort of artwork on the first 'page' in order to draw people when they glance at it.
            
            So now we come to the social networking part.
            
            All these accounts are linked to each other, just the same way hubpages, facebook, Google Plus, etc. are linked to each other. Authors can talk to each other.
            
            This is because one single author site is too small for Google to notice, but if one has thousands of authors together, hopefully this will generate traffic.
            
            Each author will pay a percentage to the site on any book sold. These are all ebooks.. So it's a matter of being able to download a PDF document which anyone can read on their phone or laptop.
            
            There can also be a page for reviews on the personal account site which are linked to the central 'social networking' aspect where the top reviews can be read.
            
            That is my idea in total.

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               C.V.Rajanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Good idea. If it is really a revenue making idea, somebody would have done already! I don't know whether any author makes any worthy money by selling e-books. Such a website owner would need subscription fees for running the show; I don't know how many authors would pay it and then hope to sell their e-books and get more money to offset the expenditure.

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                  TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  You're thinking wannabe authors, not world famous authors. Kindle certainly makes money. So does itunes. All these places make money, so I'm really at a loss to understand the negativity about this.
                  
                  In any event, don't worry about it.
                  
                  it was an idea, and it was addressed to hubpages.
                  
                  I think it can work. If I ever get the the money to put it together, I'll do it. I don't have to make money out of it so long as it runs itself.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I misunderstood you about profit.  Most small website owners don't draw a fixed salary at all, they just draw money from the site's profit to make ends meet.  I was talking in that context.

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                        TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes, I wondered about that. It's an Americanism. When I talk about profit, it's the excess, not the salary. Basically, your mark-up on your product should cover running costs, emergency costs in the future (plus investment for future capital equipment), plus salaries, etc.
                        
                        Generally one does market research before one sets up a business, and then one sees what one can hope to sell. This was an exercise we had to do in London when I did a business course there. I also did this in South Africa at College. If, for instance, you know that you can sell 10 products a month, and your income in order to cover your salary and all your expenses will be $10,000, then each product should be priced at $1,000. That does not include profit. Just covers running expenses which includes your salary.
                        
                        The big problem in today's work is that big business is sitting with 80% of the walk-by trade while small business is left with the crumbs. In addition, while income from small business remains in the local community, profits and income from big business leaves the community to go where the shareholders and owners are. This results in increasingly poor local areas... but that's another story...

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                           Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           I know exactly what you mean about doing a business case before embarking.   I obviously haven't done a full business case but my initial top-of-the-head sums led me to believe that the proposed site would not earn enough to make a surplus, even assuming the owner did not take a salary, unless it was either a subscription-based operation OR the commission was comparable to other publishers.
                           
                           I do understand your frustration with the excessive profit motive current in today's business.  I've been exposed to it while working in big corporations, where they've closed down perfectly profitable operations simply because they were not profitable ENOUGH.    The greed is astonishing.

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               psycheskinnerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               How does this differ from the author central feature for Amazon?  I have one there where I post my blog, twitter, have my books listed, and do indeed make a nice income.

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         relacheposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Why?
         
         There's nothing inherent to the business model which guarantees revenue.
         
         By the way, here is my analysis of online subscription writing site Channillo, and the earnings potential around subscriber/readers.
         
         http://hubpages.com/community/forum/135 … ost2794510

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            TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, but that is not what I'm looking for (although I hadn't heard of that site before).
            
            I've described more fully to AustinStar below.
            
            There are sites for bloggers. There are sites for content writers. There are sites for print on demand. There are sites for ebooks.
            
            There is not a site for authors to do a variety of things where the number of authors increases the size of the site in order to draw traffic.

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               makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               That's because reputable authors who actually generate traffic wouldn't use a site like this. They'd have their own websites and maximise their income direct to them (ie minimise expenses paid direct to others - unless the return on investment warranted it).
               
               Why on earth would they want to share their traffic with competitors?
               
               What you are then left with is wannabe authors who want a platform for accessing an audience - but without putting the effort into marketing. This is typically a subscription model type site which makes money for the owners but rarely brings subscribers what they aspire to have.
               
               Those wanting to compete with the open market and retain more of their earnings have to "do the business" for themselves.
               
               In other words there's a reason why there is no site. If there was money in it somebody would have invented it by now.

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                  relacheposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  The tl;dr of this thread.

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                     makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Huh?

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                  TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm sorry. I don't believe that. I understand where you are coming from, but it's simply not true. As soon as a site gains enormous traffic, recognized authors will use it. You need an evaluation technique as to who can actually write and who can't.
                  
                  The publishing industry has been in the throws of change ever since the book stores said that they wouldn't sell on consignment anymore. As a result the print number changed from 5000 to 2000, and instead of the commissioning editor making the choice for which books will be published, it's now the marketing department.
                  
                  Add to that, the development of print on demand, and there are enormous stresses within the publishing industry.
                  
                  Also if you look at ISBN, it's a con. Did you know that they don't have a set price for ISBN numbers, but take the average of what people are earning in a particular country and charge that? So just because there are some very rich billionaires in America, the price for an ISBN number is the highest in the world.  The system is completely unfair.
                  
                  The publishing industry is ripe for change. You're looking at this from a persona business point fo view. I'm looking at it from a global point of view.
                  
                  Anyway, I didn't write this for everybody to discuss it. It was a suggestion to hubpages, nothing more. If they wanted to ignore it, they could. If not, I think they'll make money out of it (if done the right way).

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                     makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     First things first.
                     * If you want to make a suggestion to HubPages put it in an email and send it to them.
                     * If you don't want a suggestions discussed don't post it in the forum!  
                     The point of the forum and having scope to suggest new suggestions is that HubPages get to reflect in the comments as well as the suggestions.
                     
                     Given the popularity of writing, if your proposal was a goer don't you think somebody would have started a site by now? I'm sure other people will have had this idea.
                     
                     You make a number of assumptions:
                     "As soon as a site gains enormous traffic, recognized authors will use it."
                     So explain what strategy you or HubPages would use to GET enormous traffic? As we all know big content sites with big traffic are now a thing of the past. People are bailing out of them - including HubPages. 
                     
                     You need an evaluation technique as to who can actually write and who can't."
                     Personally I thought that was the role of the marketplace. You can set tests for standards of the English Language but where are the funds to pay the people to do the assessment?
                     
                     I do know a bit about writing sites. I've been published internationally (by a "proper publisher" and associated others in various countries) and currently write articles for a leading magazine in the UK. I also have a friend who's been writing for a few years and has consistently been in the New York Times Best Seller lists.  Bottom line I do understand something of the changes that have taken place in the publishing industry.
                     
                     What generates traffic is a NICHE INTEREST - a very precisely defined market who can be found on social media with a very particular interest. So, for example, if it was a niche writing site dedicated to one of the categories on the New York Times Best Seller list (eg "Young Adult Paperback") then you might just have an "idea with legs".  However if it was a site which was generic and trying to cover all authors and all angles then it's not going to have an identity and is unlikely to get traction with any of the niche interest groups
                     
                     What generates a lot of interest from investors is something that fills a gap, provides benefits to a lot of people, has a properly costed cashflow forecast and P&L account and cannot be copied by other people.
                     
                     The other issues is that a generic writing site which is only going to pick up would-be authors and serious amateurs and semi-professionals doesn't have the identity, or the backing or any hope of the clout of serious traffic. Besides which such a site is very much targeted at writers and not readers - and they are very different audiences!
                     (Just think for a minute why Good Reads gets such high traffic!)
                     
                     So you are back to the subscription model and, like I said, there are an awful lot of sites out there where the business model "stinks" from the consumer perspective.
                     
                     I'm still inundated on a regular basis by people who want me to review their newly set-up sites for people to post art to sell. They think they've come up with a brand new idea. As opposed to people who have watched the market and realise that all these sites arrive and disappear in pretty short order. I refuse point blank to even take a look at them for review purposes until they have survived a minimum of six months. I'm not greatly troubled by many sites to look after that period of time. They sink without a trace.
                     
                     For any site to work it has to have somebody behind it who is fanatical about making it work, who has the time and the access to the necessary funds to get it off the ground and who has the contacts to get it set up so it works fast and efficiently and effectively. It's not cheap - in either time, effort of financial investment.
                     
                     You might well have a kernel of an idea.
                     
                     However from my perspective (I used to write business cases - and more importantly critique them for a living for organisations putting in serious funds ) it needs a lot more work and testing of assumptions before it's worth presenting and selling as something worth investing in.
                     
                     If you are that 'fanatical person' who believes in their idea have a go. But you need to do more work on the idea and how it could be made a reality.  Plus identify what are the risks and how would these be minimised or eliminated. Show them how the numbers work....

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                        TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        I'm sorry, but the actual item said that if you have an idea for hubpages, then to submit there. I had no idea that hubpages meant that I was submitting to the hubpages community.
                        
                        I'm not following this thread anymore
                        
                        I truly thought the suggestions went to hub staff.

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                           makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           Oh - I see what you mean. I can well understand why you'd be dischuffed if that was you thought you were doing.
                           
                           If you look at the other threads in that particular sub-forum you'll see they're split between ones which didn't merit any comments at all and ones which attracted quite a few.

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5. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   Tessa, you say "I would really like a formula in the hubpages tradition where every author has their own site". 
   
   I'm sure you know that we don't have our own sites on HubPages. We did have our own sites when we had sub-domains.  Now, we do not.  As far as Google and our readers are concerned, all our Hubs are thrown in together on the main site (and on the new sites).   Yes, it is possible to see all your Hubs together on your Account page, but that's mainly so you can manage them - very few readers will ever look at your profile, only other members generally do that.
   
   I do see what you mean, however, but I wonder whether anyone could make money from the kind of site you're proposing.  They would have to charge the authors to use the site, because commissions from sales would be far too small and too hard to manage.  What would you pay as an annual fee to have such a site?

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      makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You know what that sort of site reminds me of? The myriad number of so called art gallery websites where people pay a subscription to display their art hoping to make a sale because now it is "online" - not realising that getting it online is just the beginning and now you have to market it and drive traffic to the site
      
      The vast majority are a scam because their business model is actually about selling subscriptions to people who don't know how to market their own art on their own account. It's actually got nothing to do with selling art.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         MakingaMark, I'm pretty sure those art sites are pretty much what Tessa has in mind. 
         
         Basically, each author would have a profile and their own mini-website on the site, where they could post stories, serials, download links etc.   The front page would then advertise all the works by category and also have an author index etc. 
         
         I think the idea is that each author would have their own website, but it would gain more visibility than a standalone site due to the fact that the main site would become known as a place to find good stories and novels.   
         
         I could see how that could be done on multi-user Wordpress, though getting serials to show in the right order would be tricky.
         
         However I do think it would have to be a subscription-based service because it would not be worth the cost of development if income was just commission on downloadable books. Books are now being sold at such low prices, the commission would be laughable.   I think Tessa is looking for a site that would do all that for commission only.

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            makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            The thing is I used to track the stats for those sites - which is possible - and was NOT surprised when I found that they generally had a relatively low levels of visits for the site - all of which had to be shared between all the sites on the 'big' site.  I fact the conclusion I came too was that the traffic was so low that most of it had to be site owners checking their sites and visiting the forum which always on the same domain URL - and hence boosted numbers.
            
            Hardly surprising since the people who used to take out subscriptions generally hadn't got a clue about to get people to visit them.
            
            In the end I started advising people against using them because I became more and more convinced that they may have been started with good intentions - but in the end they kept going because they represented a nice business model for the owners (all those subscriptions). 
            
            It's the online equivalent of a vanity gallery.

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   makingamarkposted 7 years ago

   I'm afraid I still don't get it.
   
   So you set up your own website (not difficult) or blog (again not difficult)
   
   Then you look at (say) Blurb ebook - see http://www.blurb.co.uk/ebook and decide how to make your ebook
   
   or Lulu - see http://www.lulu.com/create/ebooks
   
   Then you look at (say) Blurb's retail channels and distribute via (say) iBooks http://www.blurb.co.uk/apple-ibooks-store or Blurb's own retail channels (see http://www.blurb.co.uk/sell-through-blurb) which allows an embed on your website for links to where you can buy an ebook
   
   or if you're an Apple person use iBooks Author http://www.apple.com/uk/ibooks-author/ and use blog or website to sell via Apple iBooks Store
   
   I'm thinking maybe you haven't visited any of these sites in a while?
   
   PS Guess what Danielle Steele does when selling ebooks - she refers people to the Apple iBooks store via her website - see https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-ap … 3310?mt=11

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      TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      No, you don't set up your own website.
      
      What you do is join an author site which has been set up in such a way that people have a profile page, a menu where people can read short stories, a weekly (or daily or monthly) serial, plus buy books from the author.
      
      This is not rocket science.
      
      There are no author sites where people have their own profile page (except, perhaps writing.com).
      
      If you look at the writing.com model (and it's really a pity that it's for wannabe writers), they have something of what I'm looking for. However, they don't offer ebook downloads where the author can be paid.
      
      So let's say you have www.indieauthor.com
      
      Indie author allows authors to sign up for their own account.
      
      On the profile page of the account, you can say something about the author, put a sales spiel, whatever. You also have the menu to the author's work. Some of this work is to be paid for; the rest is gratis.
      
      The books are to be paid for. Indieauthor.com takes 40% of the ebook price while the author takes 60%.
      
      The point is to sell directly from one's own site because the percentage the bookstores are taking is too large. If one sells for 99 cents, one only gets 34 cents. Likewise, if one sells for $1.99, one only gets 68 cents. However, if one gets 60% of $1.99, one gets $1.20.
      
      Traffic is initially assured through advertising and marketing.
      
      On social networking aspect of the site (not quite like hubpages forum), authors and readers can mingle (taking a page out of goodreads.com). I think Whatapp (or something like that) has a serial storytelling website but there is no payment. I like their formatting, though.
      
      Smashwords is nice in that it links to most of the retailers. It's accounting procedure and the way it sets out books is less than desirable, though. Also, it's far easier to 'sell' a free book than to sell a priced book (unless it's erotic).
      
      One of my books on Createspace has done fairly well (In Search of the Pearl of Great Price) but that's because the professor I did the ghostwriting job for is well liked and well known. In total between Lulu and Amazon, sold about 3000 books.
      
      Someone needs to come up with a site that has a different format to that of blogging and content writing. It needs to cater to the needs of authors, give them independence from retailers like Amazon, not be associated with vanity printing in that it shouldn't offer services at a price. However, in order to ascertain minimum standards, there should be a grammar test, and only if you pass it can you upload books.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Tessa - but the reason the bookstores take "too large" a commission is because they need that amount to be financially viable.  If I were going to design such a site,  I'd need to charge much the same commission to pay for my site development, hosting and advertising/marketing. 
         
         While a lot of what you propose could be set up by someone like myself, some of the more sophisticated features would require an experienced programmer who would charge a very high hourly rate so it would be an expensive endeavour. And the site name you're proposing would cost over $800 just to buy.
         
         You say someone "needs" to create such a site, but I'm afraid someone only needs to create such a site if it has a prospect of making money.

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            TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            1. The name can be anything. That was just an illustration of what the site did. So a name can be had for a few dollars.
            
            2. Yes, of course, it's a financial investment. However, profits are vastly over the top today, and I don't buy for one moment that Amazon needs to make as much money as it does. In fact, I don't even believe in the concept of profit. The most prosperous area in Europe is Basque in Spain and that's a result of Mondragon which does not work on profit. It works to cover its costs. One doesn't have to run at a loss, and one can certainly make a good living out of something, but profit is unnecessary. I'm very much into crowdsourcing these days so that the concept of shareholders can be eliminated. But that's another topic.
            
            I don't know how much money you think a lot is, but I truly doubt a site like this would cost more than $50,000. It's not that difficult. And $50,000 is only a lot of money when you haven't got it. As 62 people currently own half the world's wealth ($41 trilllion according to the CIA), it's all very relative.
            
            
            
            My point was simply that something like this isn't available, that I would like it to be, that Blogger doesn't charge, Word Press doesn't charge, and  their software is pretty impressive as well.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Wordpress doesn't charge for its Wordpress.com free sites because it has a huge section of the business which DOES charge.  Offering the free sites and free software is a carrot to lure people into using their paid services.
               
               Blogger is the same - at one time it was a major part of Google promoting its other services. Nowadays, Google has stopped developing Blogger and has moved on to other things,and I think has only left Blogger live because there would be such an outcry if they closed it down. 
               
               You may not approve of profit BUT if no one makes a profit, what does the website owner live on?  I am not interested in making a fortune, but I don't think it's unreasonable for a website owner to expect the site to contribute something meaningful to their living expenses, especially if they're going to spend thousands of dollars in creating it.
               
               I don't think it would cost as much as that - but let's say the site did cost $50,000.   Things change very quickly on the internet nowadays, so you wouldn't want to rely on the site lasting longer than, say, 5 years.  That means you'd need it to make over $10,000 a year - otherwise you'd be better off putting the money in the bank and living on it.  And at 30 or 40 cents per book, that means you'd have to sell 25,000 books a year. 
               
               Considering that most ebooks are lucky to sell even a few hundred copies, that means you'd need a few hundred authors on the site to even break even. And why do all that work just to break even?

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                  TessSchlesingerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Marisa, I'm truly surprised you don't understand that profit has nothing to do with the monthly income of the business owner.
                  
                  Let me run through that with you.
                  
                  Plan 1.
                  
                  Business investment cost $50,000
                  Monthly running costs       $20,000 (which includes 3 staff salaries at 2000 per month plus one CEO salary at $8000 per month) The other $6000 covers rent, materials, insurance, plus money saved for future investment and emergencies, etc.
                  Income                               $15,000
                  
                  In this case, the company runs at a loss.
                  
                  Plan 2.
                  Business investment cost $50,000
                  Monthly running costs       $20,000 (which includes 3 staff salaries at 2000 per month plus one CEO salary at $8000 per month) The other $6000 covers rent, materials, insurance, etc.
                  Income                               $20,000
                  
                  In this case, the company breaks even.
                  
                  Plan 3.
                  Business investment cost $50,000
                  Monthly running costs       $20,000 (which includes 3 staff salaries at 2000 per month plus one CEO salary at $8000 per month) The other $6000 covers rent, materials, insurance, etc.
                  Income                               $30,000
                  
                  In this case, the company runs at a profit.
                  
                  In the last two scenarios, the owner and staff still get their salaries, and the owner still takes home $8000 per month. The profit is the bit that is over and above his salary, and it would amount to $360,000 in addition to the $96,000 salary.
                  
                  I did accounting at school, Marisa, and my parents were in business. I know how ti works. One does not have to make a profit. One has to cover one's costs and running expenses. Salaries, including the salary of the owner are running expenses. One doesn't take one's salary out of the profit.
                  
                  You're confusing the mark-up on the product as profit. It isn't profit It's a mark-up. Up until the late 60s, mark-ups were worked out by adding up all the costs (rent, salaries, insurance, emergency funds, etc. then doing a survey on how many products one would likely sell, dividing the costs by the product in order to find the price of the individual product.
                  
                  When Von Mises came out and sold the 'what the market will bear' model, it sent prices up and there hasn't been any relationship between the cost of production and price ever since. It's simply what the people are willing to pay.
                  
                  I'm well aware of the the history behind blogger. etc.
                  
                  This post was a suggestion for an idea to hubpages. That's it. I didn't realize that everybody was going to thrown the toolbox at me.
                  
                  It requires knowledge and capital. It is a doable product.
                  
                  If the site becomes well known and you have famous authors and publishing houses beginning to use the site, any suggestion that it can't be profitable, isn't accurate.
                  
                  This site makes quite a bit of f money for the owners.
                  http://www.writing.com/?i=1
                  
                  A couple of years ago, I researched them. They are a husband and wife software team who know nothing about writing and have several sites. They site works on giving you your initial space free (say space for 5 stories), then charges a monthly fee if you want to publish more stories. They're still in business 16 years on.

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                     makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Exactly. Their business is in making money via subscriptions from people who don't know how to market themselves.
                     
                     The people who make the money are the owners.

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   Austinstarposted 7 years ago

   From what I can gather, yes, each author will have to have their own website. The only other way to do this would be to "guest blog" on someone's blogging site and link to the author's content for sale.
   Sites like HubPages are going to go away.
   The reason? Because HP staff can't please everyone when everyone wants something different. The only way to control your own content is to control your own web site.
   So, you might as well just buy your domain name from TuCows or Whois and then get someone to show you how to set everything up the way you want it. Usually for authors, that will mean learning how to install and edit WordPress for domains.
   And yes, you will still have to market your own website or hire someone to do it for you.
   Fivr.com might be a good place to start looking for marketing help.

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