Heralding the Future in Bookselling: A Zero Commission Bookstore for Self-Published Authors

So far ebook stores have always taken a commission, varying between 30 and 70%. Now there's a newcomer in the publishing marketplace and it could be a real game changer: a zero-commission bookstore. It has a nice name: Bookstore Without Borders, reminiscent of the famous humanitarian aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières

Curious? To find out how it works, see Novel Rocket's excellent post, click here.

To visit the bookstore click here.

This is how the opening page looks like (my screen shot):

 
The site is very new, so it has not yet achieved any meaningful ranking on Alexa. The available book list is still short but it's growing fast and BWB has established a presence on Goodreads since July 2013 (here) and people in the blogosphere have started to  take note, for example Anastasia Pollack (here). The founders are really dynamic: Sara Mills, mother of six, is a freelance editor, book reviewer and author of two books; Lynda Baxter, with a strong background in the art world, is a web designer and SEO marketing expert; Scott Thompson with a long experience in the digital pre-press and printing industry, has developed a content management system that has made the BWB site both agile and functional.

Wondering about their business model? It's simple: for $99 you get a one time forever page on their site where you can upload up to 12 books. If you need more space, buy it, that's all there is to it. And of course, they offer a range of support services that you pay for. Go take a tour, and here's to their success! 

To conclude on a more general note: the rise of small e-bookstores suggests that the future may not be all Amazon or other big digital department stores. There may be space for the small guy to set up his store next to the big guys like Amazon, just like in the last century when you had small boutiques in the vicinity of Saks 5th Avenue or Macy's...

If the analogy holds, it also suggests that the small e-book stores of the future, to succeed against the giant distributors, will need to set themselves up with a clear "personality" or brand upfront. You'd have, for example, an ebook store devoted to "All the Best in Romance", another focused on "Top Thrillers" etc. And that implies having the in-house capacity to identify the best books...

In my view that would really help readers to find their next good read. By the same token, it would help writers in resolving their biggest nightmare, the so-called "book discovery" problem, which is a polite way of saying that you fear your book has sunk out of sight in the tsunami of published books!

What's your opinion? Do small e-book stores have a future?

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Comments

Unknown said…
This is interesting. The infrastructure required to maintain something like this let alone advance it is very, very high. That would concern me. Where is the customer service portion of the website. Amazon didn't get big just by being there, they are able to chronically underprice competitors while offering superior customer service. This concept is viable, but it has a long way to go in order to compete w/ The Beast! Good luck to them.
Renee said…
Interesting, and I agree with A.M. Boyt; there are a lot of factor to consider - however, I do believe it's just a matter of time before Amazon sees real competition. I read somewhere where their share of sales has slowed (can't remember where I read it), so people are willing to look elsewhere for books. We'll see what happens...
A.M.Boyt and Renee, thanks for the comments. Yes, I agree, any start-up facing Amazon has a steep road ahead!

But I think an e-book store that would try to reproduced the whole range of book genres offered by Amazon would be destined to fail: too much to take on, too costly. The model to follow (in my view) is the one suggested by my analogy. If an e-bookstore makes a name for itself in a particular genre, possibly by setting up a website to review books and having a series of respectable reviewers on board to select the books on offer, then I do believe it would have a fighting chance and attract customers.

Book discoverability remains the major hurdle for both writers and readers as you both know. Such a store, with a clear reputation and brand, would go a long way to solve the problem!
Sara Mills said…
Hi Claude,
I'm one of the partners at Bookstore Without Borders. What a great post, and you have some insightful thoughts about the future of the book industry.
As for BWB, we've got an eye to the future as well. One of our partners is a software engineer who has built us not just an eBookstore, but a multi-layered platform that will bring all kinds of features to our store. One of those we will be rolling out soon is our review system. We will have a stable of professional reviewers reviewing the books on our site so that readers can get an honest, professional assessment of the books they're interested in buying. We want to take away the personal attacks and negativity that comes along with an open reviewer system, while still giving the reader valid, well-thought out reviews.
Our focus is on indie books and I think you're absolutely right about new bookstores needing a focus if they're going to compete. Another thing that BWB does differently is that we have content restrictions on our books so that BWB remains a family friendly website.
Just thought I'd share a little more about who we are and where we're headed.
Sara Mills said…
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Thanks, Sara Mills, for dropping by and sharing a little more about BWB and where it's heading - it sounds like you are heading in a very good direction!

Speaking as a reader, I'm happy to hear that you are setting up a book review system that will be different from Amazon's, more independent from personal attacks and systemic bias. That's important and to be welcomed.

And, in my view, it will be important for writers too: being featured on your bookstore's digital shelves will be a mark of guarantee that the book is a "good read", professionally edited. This is not the case with Amazon and it is certainly an area where independent e-stores can compete successfully.