When readers buy a book, it feels simple. Click a button. Download the ebook. Wait for the paperback to arrive. What most readers never see is everything that happens behind the scenes before that book reaches them.
For independent authors, writing the book is only part of the job. There’s editing, cover design, formatting, advertising, newsletters, websites, accounting, customer support, and a hundred other tasks that somehow need to get done before a story finds its audience. The reality is that large retailers take a percentage of every sale. That’s fair—they provide a valuable service. But when readers purchase directly from an author’s website, a much larger portion of that sale goes to the person who actually created the story.
That support doesn’t just help pay bills. It helps fund the next book.
Every direct purchase helps an author pay for editing. It helps cover artwork. It helps justify spending another six months or a year writing the next story instead of doing something else entirely. There’s another benefit that often gets overlooked.
When you buy direct, you become more than a customer in a giant marketplace. You become part of the author’s community. You’re more likely to hear about upcoming projects, special editions, early releases, bonus content, and opportunities that never appear on the big retail sites. It’s a little like shopping at a local bookstore instead of a giant chain. Both will get you the book. One simply creates a more direct connection between the reader and the person who wrote it.
I’m grateful for every reader, no matter where you buy my books. But if you’ve ever wondered whether buying direct makes a difference, the answer is yes. It really does.
— Mark
If you’d like to browse my books directly, you can find them here.