January 2025 Update: Selling Books on Amazon v. Your Own Site

A Literal Literary Loser Knows More

A month ago, in a post entitled, “Selling Books on Amazon v. Your Own Site,” I reported:

From August 8, 2024 to January 8, 2025 I sold 64 copies of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” on Amazon. The book retails for $9.99 of which I keep about $6.50. This means that, in five months, “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” earned me about $416.

During the same time period, I sold 54 copies of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” via my personal website, of which I kept about $9.50. This means that my total profit there was about $513.

I sold fewer books myself than on Amazon, but I made more money.

I wasn’t planning on updating again so soon, but January proved to be a pretty lively sales month. (This made me nervous. NYC public Kindergarten applications were due on Friday, January 24. The fact that I was still selling copies of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” right up to the wire — and beyond — made me hope that these were people preparing for next year, not only starting their research for this year, now. I worry about my clients. My husband teases that I treat each one like they were my own kid.)

So let’s do some math!

From January 1, 2025 through February 6, 2025, I sold:

• 30 copies of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” via Amazon and earned $209.40

• 16 copies of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” via my own site and earned: $152

Had I so the first 30 copies via my own site, I would have made $285. Which is over $75 dollars more that what I made after Amazon took their cut.

But, of course, the question becomes: Would the people who bought on Amazon have ever even found me via my website? It seems unlikely. Amazon is still the best site for discoverability and ease of purchase.

But as I also wrote back in January:

The books are not the profit driver in my school consulting business. The books serve two purposes: They direct potential customers to my consults and workshops (which are the profit drivers), or they provide a $9.99 summary for those who can’t afford the workshops and consults. (Making both options available is extremely important to me.)

As a result, my question becomes, which is more important, getting the most amount of profit from my books, which means selling through my site, or having them available on Amazon, where more potential customers are likely to discover them, and thus learn about me and my workshops and consulting services?

Do I make less money in the short run, pushing the books on Amazon as a way to make more money in the long run via workshops and consults, or do I focus on selling through my website, to my already established customer base, making more money with each sale but not expanding my reach to new customers as much?

The search for an answer continues!

Stay tuned for more updates!