Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Marketing Loft [Public] => Topic started by: alhawke on September 23, 2022, 12:59:24 AM
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Direct sales seems to be en vogue lately. Bookfunnel announced today support for Gumroad. Gumroad takes a small percentage of sales, far lower than retailer, while handling VAT (starting at 9% sales). Any of you game for this? The catch is you still have to pay the "royalty" 9% fee percentage. This could be a way for me to dip my feet into direct sales. https://gumroad.com/pricing
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So close.
I lean toward Paddle.com but they are more for SaaS than stuff like eBooks. They've also changed their website so I don't know if they allow selling anything other than software anymore, but I haven't checked to verify one way or the other either.
Gumroad has an affiliate program which is good, but it still sounds like you are responsible for sales and VAT taxes. It says they will remit VAT taxes in the EU, but I'm not clear whether or not you would have to file any paperwork with the EU for that. Also, it sounds like you'd be responsible for sales taxes in the U.S. for fifty states and hundreds of taxing districts.
Gumroad's fees don't seem unreasonable, but I wish they did the same as Paddle. When you use Paddle.com, Paddle is the merchant of record. That means they handle all sales and VAT taxes and you don't have to deal with that at all because they are the seller, not you. If Gumroad did the same, it'd be like sign me up!
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I use PayHip. I really like it for ebooks, but I don't know how well it would work for paperbacks. PayHip does keep track of VAT but not US state sales taxes. (Check PayHip for more details.)
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U.S. state and local sales taxes are the PITA. In my state, there's like ninety-some different sales tax districts that I would need to keep track of. On the plus side, a good number of other states have upped their minimums so if you're only selling a small amount to a particular state, you may not have to worry about it. But, some measure the threshold per calendar year and I think others are cumulative, so you need to keep track even if you aren't yet required to collect sales taxes for particular states just yet.
That's why my preference is a provider that will act as the merchant of record, which essentially means you are selling your eBook/book to them wholesale and they are the retailer selling to the customer. That makes them responsible for sales taxes and VAT and all that.
You're still responsible for income taxes, of course, but that's not the nightmare that sales taxes can be.
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Likewise, too, if the provider is the merchant of record and you use affiliates, affiliates are affiliates of the merchant, so you don't need to worry about the tax issues of paying affiliates because you're not paying the affiliates.
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I use PayHip. I really like it for ebooks, but I don't know how well it would work for paperbacks. PayHip does keep track of VAT but not US state sales taxes. (Check PayHip for more details.)
Do you not sell direct in the US due to the tax issue?
And Payhip is a 5% cut, right?
{edit for clarity
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I sell in the US. It would just be nice if they kept track of the state sales tax. :dog1:
Last time I checked, they didn't have a way to interact with TaxJar.
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Coincidence, Scribecount just announced on FB they are adding Gumroad to their platform. Next they'll be adding McDonald's and you'll be able to keep up with your burger orders through the platform. grint Seriously, wonder how many features they're going to add?????? But, yeah, for those who use both maybe you will find that welcoming.