[Elizabeth Ann West]

HUGE Thank you to another author who tipped me off about Gumroad! (Didn't know if you wanted to be publicly thanked since it was in PM).

Just set up my account and been exploring. Very cool that it is easy to set up and has a 30-Day step-by-step challenge to help digital creators build an audience. I read through a number of those days and there is VERY valuable information in there for all of us! I loved the clear information on making a landing page, for example!

I love that it will collect the purchaser's information for me (not their purchasing information, just address and email and name) so that I can say . . . send a holiday postcard to my readers etc.

Also, it makes handing VAT and sales tax pretty easy. Finally there is their fee: 5% +$.25, so on a $1 book, you make $.70. You can also give discounts and coupons to readers.

Now, the dilemma becomes how do I leverage growing my site and sales base WITHOUT cannibalizing my Amazon and other vendor sales (since I'm not ready to do that right now), and the BEST answer I can come up with is to start writing a few exclusive books or put together exclusive bundles for readers on my site. That's my plan, especially for shorter works that I know my readership would love to have, but doesn't necessarily make sense to sell them on the main sites.

 

[Leanne King]

Interesting. I got a Gumroad account in 2012, but they had no way of handling VAT back then so I mothballed it. If they've got that sorted now, it might be time to take another look.

 

[Cactus Lady]

Yay!!! I was looking at Gumroad too, until the VAT thing, so when I saw this I went and checked just now and they're handling it now!

I like the idea of having some exclusive content on your direct sales, short fiction and bundles.

 

[chrisanthropic]

Me too!

I've been talking with some of the developers about a few features I'd like to see, and they're super responsive.

I absolutely love the interface and as a computer geek, their API is a wonderful thing too.

 

[Allyson J.]

I use Gumroad and really like it...but I haven't found a way to actually get significant sales there. Maybe exclusive content is the way to go!

 

[ireaderreview]

I have a question, and excuse me if I'm missing something obvious here.

If Gumroad's charges end up being 30 cents on a $1 book, then why not just sell through Apple instead? My understanding is that they offer 70%, right?

 

[chrisanthropic]

Well, the quick answer is sell through both and let customers choose.

For me personally, I like that Gumroad offers at least some analytics and are very open to working with their users (very responsive, listen to suggestions, etc)

Plus Gumroad allows you to use cool features like emailing anyone who has purchased X item from you, automatically emailing customers a coupon code for their next purchase, etc.

 

[ireaderreview]

Thanks.

This is worth its weight in gold: Plus Gumroad allows you to use cool features like emailing anyone who has purchased X item from you, automatically emailing customers a coupon code for their next purchase, etc.

I first read about Gumroad 3 or 4 years ago. Good to know they're still around. Their product is very interesting. The 30% cut is more than I would have hoped for.

 

[Elizabeth Ann West]

It's ONLY 30% on a $1. On a $5 book it's $.50, or only 10%. On a $10 bundle, it's only $.75 or 7.5%.

 

[ireaderreview]

Then it's really good. So, theoretically, someone could create a book store, use gumroad, invite fellow authors, and start building a completely independent book store.

 

[Peter Spenser]

So, theoretically, someone could create a book store, use gumroad, invite fellow authors, and start building a completely independent book store.

Absolutely.

 

[Kirkee]

Okay, I'll state the obvious: Gum (as in chewing gum?) Road.
I've known about them for quite some time, liked the site...but
that name... How can they compete with the other vendors with a
(sticky) name like that?

Do you think they actually stand a real chance of succeeding
with a lackluster monicker like Gumroad?

I hope I'm wrong, though, because, as mentioned, I like
the set-up.

That name has to go. 

 

[David Dire]

Thanks for this thread Elizabeth, I wasn't aware Gumroad was used for this.

Do you think they actually stand a real chance of succeeding
with a lackluster monicker like Gumroad?

I must admit, when I first came across the name a while ago, I dismissed it as something oddball related to travelling/travelers/hipsters... not that there's anything wrong with that, just I didn't see any connection for selling ebooks.

I feel the more relaxed name of Gumroad probably adds to some kind of anti-multinational corporation angle that many artists can resonate more closely to. Personally, I would have called it 'Digital Gum' ... but what do I know.

Very interested to try to use their service though.

ps: As business names go, here are some real winners: http://www.biznamewiz.com/funny-business-names

 

[scifi365]

How does Gumroad compare to Ganxy? Anyone used both and got some insights? We've been talking internally about our three year plan and both of these may turn out to be competitors of ours someway down the road.

 

[Leanne King]

As far as I can see Ganxy still have the VAT problem - in that they don't account for it. So if you don't plan on selling to anyone in the EU, it's fine. Otherwise...at your own risk, I guess.

 

[555aaa]

Gumroad has some sort of revenue-share option. Does anyone understand how that works? Their description of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[chrisanthropic]

Gumroad has some sort of revenue-share option. Does anyone understand how that works? Their description of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Here's a link (which you probably already saw): https://gumroad.com/revenue_share

Their revenue share feature is for people who create applications using Gumroad's API. Although Gumroad works great as a store, they see themselves more as a set of tools for people to use to create apps with. That's why they've opened their API and are so responsive to developers. They often feature apps on their blog that do this.

In other words, a developer could create a webapp/site/store that uses Gumroad 'behind the scenes' but adds a few custom features. They could open this storefront up to allow indie authors to list their books (for example). Then they could make sure that they get their cut of any sales before Gumroad takes their cut and the author gets theirs. Not unlike how D2D/Smashwords work.

**EDIT**
In fact, their newest blog post has an interesting tool for authors (though I wouldn't use it) - http://blog.gumroad.com/post/113206265808/booklaunch

 

[555aaa]

Thanks, Chrisanthropic. That's actually what I want to do (what I'm sure will be popular) - create a reusable platform that bookstores (or authors or publishers) can use to make their own bookstores / audio bookstores (meaning not an author site, but a store that has many authors).  What I need is the backend that splits the consumer sale revenue out to an author share and a site share, and also support having many authors.  But I do worry that

I also hate the company name and it has zero brand recognition = trust.  PayPal has a lot better recognition but no / limited support for digital products. I never figured out how to do this with PayPal (30 cents per transaction plus a swipe fee).

Their cut isn't 30%, it's 5% plus 25 cents per transaction.

 

[ilamont]

I've been a Gumroad user since 2013, and have sold many hundreds of copies of my books using Gumroad forms linked from or overlaid on my websites. 95% of sales are PDFs -- very few people buy standalone ePubs although I have sold maybe 10 or 15 "bundles" including PDF/mobi/ePub. Click through to the Google Drive book in my sig to see how I implemented it (press the PDF or Bundle buttons).

I like the service because of the customization options, the overlays, the support, and the fact that I know who my customers are. I have also begun to experiment with the Gumroad subscribe service. Yes, the name is a little goofy, but I point out on my sites and on the forms that customers will be sent to an external service that uses very high levels of security to complete the transaction.

I used a competing service from 2012-2013. The technology was dated and at times difficult to implement.

 

[GoneToWriterSanctum]

I do not accept VerticalScope's Terms Of Service on Kboards, and have asked for my account to be deleted, along with all of my posts.

If you are here as a result of a Google search, leave now. The owners of this site are interested only in your possible ad revenue.