Recent Posts

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51
Evan is either a good designer or employs one. And one of the nicest things about Story Origin is that it's always improving.
52
I decided to try the email signup option at the top of the page.  Evan showed this in the tutorial, and it is a nice feature!

Very easy to set this one up.  Or I'm getting used to the process...or both. LOL
53
If you are based in the U.S., ADA-accessibility on your website may be an issue regardless of whether you sell direct.  A couple of years ago, I spoke to an attorney familiar with ADA-accessibility and his suggestion was that any website you have should be ADA-accessible, even a personal blog.  Was he being overly cautious?  Maybe.  I mean, attorneys are going to advise coloring well within the lines, you know?

But, the problem is predatory attorneys.  There are ones that go around looking for sites to sue.  Are author sites a prime target for that?  Maybe not right now but, as they continue to look for targets, they may come around to your site eventually.  Better to make your site as accessible as possible to avoid being an easy mark.

Of course, the problem is that making a website accessible is not a cut and dried process.  Even the accessibility guidelines can contradict themselves in areas.  You can sign up with services that will check and monitor your website for accessibility, but those services tend to be expensive.

And, if you end up going to court, you'd be at the mercy of a judge who may not understand websites or how to make them accessible or how it's not a simple series of steps to do it while the attorneys suing you will be arguing how easy it is do make an accessible site.

Fun fact: Some of the law firms suing people and companies for not having ADA-accessible websites don't have ADA-accessible websites themselves.

So, ADA-accessibility needs to go on the list, not just for selling direct but for having a website period.
54
Someone should make a list of everything to worry about when selling from our own sites - there's a lot going on.
55
Also, it's been mentioned in other threads but I don't think it's been mentioned yet in this thread . . .

If you are based in the U.S., you'll need to make sure your website is ADA-accessible.

And, be careful because there are some third-party tools/add-ons/plug-ins that claim to make your website accessible but they don't actually meet the standards.
56
Quote
https://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/for-businesses/remote-seller-faqs/remote-seller-state-guidance
I'm looking here, and if this is current, several states have a 100 or 200 sale threshold, and three states have no threshold (meaning tax has to be collected for every sale).

Also remember that some states allow localities and counties to levy additional. So I'm in California, which means I'd need to collect sales tax, but not just at one rate. I'd need to check specific county and city rates. That would be crazymaking even if I didn't have to pay a penny to any other state. (Assuming, of course, that I actually sold anything on my website.


And note that was all part of the "Streamlined Sales Tax" initiative.  Only in the compromised mind of a halfwit politician can the Internet sales tax system in the U.S. be considered "streamlined."

I already have to keep track of close to 100 sales tax districts in my own state to collect and remit sales tax on in-state sales.  Ugh.
57
Quote
https://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/for-businesses/remote-seller-faqs/remote-seller-state-guidance
I'm looking here, and if this is current, several states have a 100 or 200 sale threshold, and three states have no threshold (meaning tax has to be collected for every sale).

Also remember that some states allow localities and counties to levy additional. So I'm in California, which means I'd need to collect sales tax, but not just at one rate. I'd need to check specific county and city rates. That would be crazymaking even if I didn't have to pay a penny to any other state. (Assuming, of course, that I actually sold anything on my website.
58
Dan, some states count number of purchases.  So if 201 people bought a 99c ebook from the same state...we might have to file state sales tax.  That's the issue that concerns me.

Sorry, forgot about that one.  Didn't have my chart in front of me.  Also, Kansas, unless it has changed recently, has a $1 minimum.

Of course, one option is to set up your website such that it stops accepting orders after 199 (and doesn't accept orders from Alaska and Kansas at all).

On the other hand, for some of us, selling 100 books in a year is unlikely, so we just have to reject orders from Alaska and Kansas.
59
Dan, some states count number of purchases.  So if 201 people bought a 99c ebook from the same state...we might have to file state sales tax.  That's the issue that concerns me.

Not that I have 99c ebooks at the moment, but you can see the problems.  I believe a few states dropped that requirement recently, but others still have it.

And international...don't get me started!  I can barely keep track of Europe.  I have no idea what's going on in other countries.  This is one reason I decided to wait on trying merchandise (that and paying taxes to the state where the merch company is based). 

I found out just enough to be worried.  I don't have the time nor inclination to keep track of it all on the off chance I might have a good month (or year) selling directly to readers. 

And it's worth the $10 (minus 20c per sale) to have Story Origin with Lemon Squeezy.  Again, time is money and I don't want to spend it helping readers load their ebook.  And I like my covers!  :dog1:
60
For me, the options are Paddle or Lemon Squeezy.  Paddle has some of the features I would like, except that they are not really set up for eBooks.  Lemon Squeezy looks like it might be better for eBooks (even without StoryOrigin), but they don't yet have some of the features I would like.

Lorri earlier posted a link to Lemon Squeezy's roadmap and some of the features I would like are on the list.  So, in 3-6 months, they might possibly have what I want.  In the meantime, I can also keep an eye on Paddle.

For anyone that wants to sell direct today or soon-ish, the decision would be tougher.  But, for those in the U.S., if you are willing to set up things to collect sales tax in your own state, you probably won't have to worry about collecting sales taxes for other states for quite a while, especially if you're only selling a small number of books.  I haven't checked lately so this info may not be current but, last I checked, I think the minimum for collecting sales tax from a particular state was like $10,000 in sales in a year.  (Each state varies; I don't remember which states had a $10k minimum and I think there were a couple that had changed from $10k to $25k.  It's also possible that a state may have lowered the threshold since I last checked.  Regardless, you need to look into that if you plan to sell direct yourself.  The point is that, for most authors, you may not have to worry about sales tax issues right away, except for your own state.)

So, you could sell direct yourself using PayPal, Payhip, Shopify or whatever other service you want that still makes you the merchant of record, making you responsible for sales tax collection, and not have to worry about collecting sales taxes (aside from your own state) until you're selling probably thousands of books to a given state.  And then, if you're watching your sales, you could conceivably switch before you have to start registering to collect sales taxes.

That's something to keep in mind if you want to start selling direct on a soon-ish basis.

Otherwise, you can wait until Lemon Squeezy or Paddle (or whoever that will serve as the merchant of record so you need not worry about sales taxes at all) comes out with the features you want/need.
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