Not sure yet… I think the largest functionality will be selling rationality-related books and the like, pre-vetted by rationalists, with reviews, and all in one place. I’m not sure if we can get bulk pricing, and there’s not much incentive to buy books from the LW store if you can get the same from Amazon. What I wanted to do was set up a checkout system where you can choose your price beyond a certain minimum, where proceeds will go to your choice of one of a few rationality-related charities listed (potential candidates being FHI, SIAI, Richard Dawkins Foundation, et cetera).
At some point I’m going to dig through my old files and find my original proposal, then modify it and post it in the discussion section here at LW. I’ll ask for proposals and request ideas/critiques. That’ll probably be in a week to three from now.
Not sure yet… I think the largest functionality will be selling rationality-related books and the like, pre-vetted by rationalists, with reviews, and all in one place. I’m not sure if we can get bulk pricing, and there’s not much incentive to buy books from the LW store if you can get the same from Amazon.
Did you consider just using Amazon Affiliates? If I recall one of the options would just allow you to set up a completely independent website, send the orders through them and take a cut. Charging more is also possible. Obviously you don’t get anywhere near as much money as if you did it all yourself but you would need to be passing a LOT of inventory to make that hassle worthwhile. And if you do end up making large numbers of sales then you can transition to handling the orders yourself if it happens to be worth it.
Huh, Affiliates seems to have changed since I checked it out a few months ago, or maybe I misunderstood it back then. Thanks for the tip.
From memory there are actually a variety of different options. Ranging from ‘link to us and get a cut if your readers convert to sales’ through ‘they will not even know Amazon is involved’ and even the option of actually owning your own stock and using Amazon to handle storing and distribution. (None of this is as cheap as making some business connections and private arrangements. But it’s a heck of a lot easier!)
What I wanted to do was set up a checkout system where you can choose your price beyond a certain minimum
I have no actual information on how well that will work (it seems like it would), but that phrase triggered a memory for me of an xkcdsucks post:
Radiohead style would be letting people pay however much they want, including nothing. (...) No one cares that you could pay more than a usual price for the album, that’s not news. (What! Radiohead will be glad to take money you want to give them! Well stop the presses, mother fuckers!)
I’ll try to ignore that bias and evaluate the store neutrally when it’s up. This post may be noise.
No one cares that you could pay more than a usual price for the album, that’s not news.
That may well not be true. I doubt that there’s an easy route to send small amounts of money to most bands (unlike charities). Here is a tech-savvy author turning away tips from readers, out of fear that they’re pirating his books. And he does have free books that might elicit a tip.
Interesting. I just found Cory Doctorow expressing a similar view here:
Every time I put a book online for free, I get emails from readers who want to send me donations for the book. I appreciate their generous spirit, but I’m not interested in cash donations, because my publishers are really important to me. They contriebute immeasurably to the book, improving it, introducing it to an audience I could never reach, helping me do more with my work. I have no desire to cut them out of the loop.
In his case, he’s apparently set up a system for readers to buy copies and have them donated to libraries.
Not sure yet… I think the largest functionality will be selling rationality-related books and the like, pre-vetted by rationalists, with reviews, and all in one place. I’m not sure if we can get bulk pricing, and there’s not much incentive to buy books from the LW store if you can get the same from Amazon. What I wanted to do was set up a checkout system where you can choose your price beyond a certain minimum, where proceeds will go to your choice of one of a few rationality-related charities listed (potential candidates being FHI, SIAI, Richard Dawkins Foundation, et cetera).
At some point I’m going to dig through my old files and find my original proposal, then modify it and post it in the discussion section here at LW. I’ll ask for proposals and request ideas/critiques. That’ll probably be in a week to three from now.
Did you consider just using Amazon Affiliates? If I recall one of the options would just allow you to set up a completely independent website, send the orders through them and take a cut. Charging more is also possible. Obviously you don’t get anywhere near as much money as if you did it all yourself but you would need to be passing a LOT of inventory to make that hassle worthwhile. And if you do end up making large numbers of sales then you can transition to handling the orders yourself if it happens to be worth it.
Huh, Affiliates seems to have changed since I checked it out a few months ago, or maybe I misunderstood it back then. Thanks for the tip.
From memory there are actually a variety of different options. Ranging from ‘link to us and get a cut if your readers convert to sales’ through ‘they will not even know Amazon is involved’ and even the option of actually owning your own stock and using Amazon to handle storing and distribution. (None of this is as cheap as making some business connections and private arrangements. But it’s a heck of a lot easier!)
I have no actual information on how well that will work (it seems like it would), but that phrase triggered a memory for me of an xkcdsucks post:
I’ll try to ignore that bias and evaluate the store neutrally when it’s up. This post may be noise.
This is a bit tangential to your point...
That may well not be true. I doubt that there’s an easy route to send small amounts of money to most bands (unlike charities). Here is a tech-savvy author turning away tips from readers, out of fear that they’re pirating his books. And he does have free books that might elicit a tip.
Interesting. I just found Cory Doctorow expressing a similar view here:
In his case, he’s apparently set up a system for readers to buy copies and have them donated to libraries.