A Guide to Buying Direct from an Author: The How & Why

Here's the guide for buying direct from the "Shop." It covers the practical process of HOW to make a purchase and receive your book along with the WHY buying direct from an author is important.

Practical How-To

Here are the instructions for how to buy a book DIRECT from the "Shop". I'll be demonstrating with a FREE book, so you can follow along and test the process without spending money. You won't even need to add a payment option since it's $0!

How-To Written Directions

1) Go to "thearrowedheart.com"

2) Click on "SHOP"

3) Here you can browse the store, but for now, let's "Sort by" and choose "Price (low to high)" to see what's ON SALE

4) Select the "FREE" book, Campus Good Girl

5) Click "Add to Cart"

6) Click "View Cart" in the sidebar that pops up. *The video shows how easy it is to remove something from your cart, too, like I did for this demonstration.

7) Click "Checkout"

8) Enter your information. *In this case, just your name, email, and number since this is a FREE book. In the video, I removed an old discount code, but this is where you can add one if you have it.

9) Review that everything looks right & select "Place Order"

10) You'll receive an email but can also download the book from the screen that pops up. Let's download it from here. Click "Download"

11) A PDF opens with the BookFunnel link for the book. *This is a workaround because WIX doesn't integrate directly with BookFunnel. Click the link (you don't have to copy/paste it anywhere)

12) BookFunnel will open and you'll be able to download the book like normal. You'll be able to read it on BookFunnel's site or download to whichever e-reader you prefer.

How-To Video with Captions

Why Buying Direct is Important

When you buy directly from Hallie Bennett, Jemma Frost, or any other author, you are tangibly showing your support which also reaps real benefits for YOU!

This isn't a good deed like recycling where you toss a plastic bottle in the blue bin then never know what happens to it or see the positive effect it has ASAP.

You're essentially SHOPPING SMALL because an author is actually running a SMALL BUSINESS (yep, that means buying books directly from your favorite author on Small Biz Saturday in November counts)!

Buying direct cuts out the middle man (aka Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).

Instead of sending your hard-earned money into billionaires' pockets, it's going directly to an author, 100%.

No 70/30 split. No extra fees.

100% to the author.

How does that translate to benefitting you?

Well, when authors receive more of the royalties from selling their book, they have enough money to REINVEST into things that aid their productivity (also it helps them with those practical things like food and shelter which is vital to being able to pen books LOL).

Necessary author items like software, subscriptions, cover artists, editors, assistants, and more. It even contributes to extra fun things like character art, special editions, or curated book boxes. All things that enhance the reading experience!

Did I mention it also reduces author stress which boosts creativity?

Isn't that worth a few extra clicks, if necessary?

One Final Note: Cost

I get it.

Money's tight these days, and a subscription like Kindle Unlimited fits a lot of budgets. I don't fault anyone if this is the only way you're able to read all the books you want (also a shout-out to libraries)!

And while I'd love to offer the books in the "Shop" at a lower price, this is against the rules of each retailer. Everyone's book must be the same price everywhere.

But also, there's value in books, and we shouldn't undercut that by trying to compete with giant retailers--a near impossible feat.

If you'd ever like a FREE copy of Hallie Bennett's or Jemma Frost's books, just join their ARC teams on BookSprout! You'll automatically get notifications when book copies are available! No purchase necessary.

Hallie Bennett's ARC Team: JOIN HERE

Jemma Frost's ARC TEAM: JOIN HERE

Hopefully, this guide has de-mystified buying directly from an author and encouraged you to give it a try!

Ready to start shopping? Click here!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or send an email to thearrowedheart@gmail.com!