📦 The Selling Direct Series, Part 1: Why It’s Time to Ditch the Middleman (Sometimes)

7 Minutes to Creating a Direct Sales Storefront (on Any Platform)

Let me guess. You’ve got links to your books on every storefront imaginable—Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, probably even that one Swedish platform no one remembers signing up for. (Looking at you, Adlibris.)

But here’s the thing: every time a reader buys your book there instead of from you, you’re handing over not just a cut of your earnings, but the most valuable thing in your business:

👉 The customer relationship.

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Why does that even matter?

Because when Amazon sells your book, you don’t get the customer’s name.
Or email.
Or even the chance to say, “Hey, there’s a sequel!” without hoping they stumble across it in a sea of Also Boughts.

If that sounds like trying to build a house on someone else’s land—it kind of is.

When you sell direct, you own that relationship. You can build trust, follow up with other offers, and create superfans instead of... just more data for Bezos' spreadsheets.

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But selling direct sounds hard, right?

It can be. But it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s start with the simplest setup possible for eBooks. No storefront, no plugin soup, no midnight tech meltdowns.

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💸 Step One: Stripe + BookFunnel = Instant Storefront

If you can copy and paste, you can set this up. Here’s the recipe:

🛠 Tools You’ll Need:

• Stripe – for payments

• BookFunnel – for secure delivery

• Zapier – to tie it all together

Here’s how it flows:

1. A reader buys your book via a Stripe payment link (you can embed it on your site or use the direct link).

2. Stripe confirms the sale.

3. A Zap is triggered.

4. The zap sends the reader’s email + book info to BookFunnel, which delivers the ebook instantly and handles all the tech fuss.

Boom. No inventory. No “where’s my download?” chaos. Just clean, automated delivery.

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🎥 Watch It in Action

If you’re a visual learner (or just like peeking over my digital shoulder), here’s a quick walkthrough I recorded to show you the whole setup step-by-step:

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⚙️ Want a Bonus?

You can easily expand the zap to:

• Add the reader to your email list

• Tag them for a post-purchase sequence

• Send a personal thank-you message that doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it

This isn’t just about selling a file—it’s about creating connection. And yes, you can automate all of that, too.

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🔓 Paid Subscriber Perks

Want to skip the setup?

➡️ [Paid subscribers can download my ready-to-go Zap here]
It’s plug-and-play, and yes—I walk you through the whole thing during Thursday Office Hours, too.

(So if you’ve been staring at Zapier like it just called you by the wrong name, come hang out. We’ll get you unstuck.)

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Coming Up in the Series…

📚 Selling box sets and bundles (without breaking your brain)
💵 Handling sales tax (without spiraling)
🛒 Building a storefront that actually looks good

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💬 Your Turn

Tried selling direct before? What tripped you up—or what’s holding you back now?
Hit reply and let me know—I might feature your question (with your blessing) in an upcoming post.

You’ve got the tools. You’ve got the readers. Now you’ve got the plan.
Let’s sell some dang books.

💡 You don’t have to be techy to build something powerful. You just need a plan—and a few clever zaps.