When you think about selling direct, places like an online content marketplace are the last place you have in mind.
Well, it makes sense why you would think that way.
Regardless of how you slice it, they’re not that different from selling your books on Amazon and other online retailers.
Here’s the cool thing about the online marketplace – you have the same exposure as you would on Amazon.
But unlike selling on the retailers’ websites, you own the customer data.
Think of it like you’re selling on Etsy, where you’re selling in a marketplace, but you can also get the customer data when they buy from you.
The only caveat with selling in online marketplaces like Etsy?
These platforms will also take a cut from the sales you generate, but not as massive as Amazon, of course.
That’s what makes an online content marketplace like Curios a heaven-sent for authors and any creative businesses alike.
Unlike these online marketplaces, they don’t take any cut of the sales generated.
And that means you get to keep 100% of the sales, which is a good thing, considering that the profit margin for books is already slim enough.
A note about Curios
As always, I need to clarify here that everything I share in this blog post is based on my experience with using their free plan.
And we all know that the features in the free plan are somewhat limited.
So, what does the free plan entail, you wonder?
Well, not much.
While you do get the direct sales pages and a dedicated creator page, you only get up to 25 claims or giveaways per month, and 500 minutes of audio content stored.
But the biggest limitation of all, besides the no inclusion in genre, deals, or discovery pages?
You can’t even set up a pre-order with the free plan!
If you’re planning to create buzz on Curios with pre-orders, then you will have to upgrade to one of their paid plan to do just that.
You can’t do that with the free plan, unless you’re fine with listing your books on Curios after they’re available everywhere else.
My thoughts about the online content marketplace like Curios
So, how is it possible for us to keep 100% of our sales when we sell through Curios?
Is there any fine print that we missed here?
Well, fret not.
Curios did mention that they make money from subscriptions and pass some of the fees to the customers.
Rather than passing those additional fees on to you, it will be your audience who will have to pay them instead.
Will your audience go on a rampage because of that?
Well, I doubt they will, since it’s not unusual for the marketplace, like Curios, to charge additional fees.
That seems to be the standard for the online marketplace, not just Curios.
Now that you know how they make money, should you use Curios for selling directly?
For some, Curios may have been what many authors always want – selling directly with the benefit of an online marketplace like Etsy.
And it’s even more so now that you can sell print books on Curios.
But you will have to fulfill the order yourself, though, since they have yet to integrate with the POD services as I write this.
Even with that, I still don’t recommend that you use Curios to sell directly.
You’re better off using something like Payhip, Shopify, or WooCommerce to do just that.
Not only do these solutions offer more features than what you can get with Curios, but you also have more flexibility to market your online store.
What you should know about Curios
I won’t deny it can be enticing to upgrade to the paid plan since that’s the only way to include your books in more than one genre, and the deals and discovery pages.
Well, that’s expected when you’re selling your books in an online marketplace like Curios.
But here’s the hard truth about the online marketplace in general – you’re still responsible for driving traffic to your storefront.
You can’t rely on the Curios algorithm to do the heavy-lifting for you.
Sure, having inclusion in genre, deals, and discovery pages can help boost your sales.
But if you want to rake in dough with your books, then you will still need to drive the traffic yourself.
There’s a limit to what the Curios algorithm can do for your book.
And let’s not forget we don’t know how big the audiences who do buy on Curios are.
Unless they’ve been around just as long as Etsy, there’s a big chance it won’t have a significant impact on your book sales, even with the paid plan.
Well, I could be wrong about that, of course.
But it’s worth noting here, considering that Curios isn’t that much different from online marketplaces like Etsy and Storenvy.
What makes Curios different is that it’s an online marketplace specifically for content creators.
Who should use Curios?
If you’re looking for another channel to sell your books, then it’s worth considering listing your book on Curios.
Keep in mind that you will need to upgrade to the paid plan if you want Curios to do the heavy-lifting for your book, exposure-wise.
Otherwise, you will need to be a little creative with generating sales on Curios if you plan to stick to the free plan.
If you intend to do that, I suggest you save it for your own online store, if you have one.
Will I be upgrading to the paid plan?
I will certainly continue to list my book on Curios if I have a new one coming out for sure.
But upgrading to the paid plan?
The answer is obviously no.
If my experience with selling items on Storenvy is any indication, the only way for me to generate sales on Curios is none other than to drive traffic to the pages myself.
Since I have to drive traffic myself, I may as well put that effort to use on my own online store, right?
So, should Curios be a hard pass for you as well, since I have no intention to go all in with Curios?
If that’s what you have in mind, all I can say is don’t dismiss Curios just yet.
Just because it’s a hard pass for me, it doesn’t mean that it’s the same for you, too.
You won’t know if it works for you unless you give it a try.
Besides, I don’t see any harm in giving it a try when you can test it out for yourself with the free plan.
Sure, the features in the free plan are limited.
But that should be sufficient just to see if a solution like Curios is the right one for you or not.
Decided to give Curios a try? You can sign up with the free plan right here: