This is designed for those authors who do not have facilities online to receive credit card payments nor the resources to easily package and mail books directly to customers. However, it is freely available to any author published through L&R Hartley or subsidiaries who has a website.

We will put a special "Buy Now" link on your website so that prospective customers may order online using a credit card or echeck. Books ordered using this facility will be mailed to the customer directly from our warehouse.

Ask us and we will send you the necessary HTML code to insert in your webpage.

For every book sold from the Author’s Own Marketplace we will pay YOU (the author) a commission payment of 25% of the retail price of the book. (For example if your book retails at $30.00 then you will receive $8.75 per book or $105.00 per dozen books sold.) Please note: this is a commission payment not a royalty payment.

You, as the author, may set the retail price, however this must naturally be more than the current trade price. Remember not to set it so high that you price your book out of the market. We can suggest a retail price if you wish. Our standard postage and handling charges are automatically added (based on the total value of the order) when the books are ordered.

On or near the 20th. of each month we will mail sales reports and cheques to those authors whose books have been sold from the Author’s Own Marketplace during the past month. Please ensure that you keep your postal address details current. If you prefer, we can deposit this money directly into your bank account and send the monthly sales reports via email.

As this is the author’s own marketplace, the onus for the promotion rests entirely upon the author. This means that it is your responsibility to promote this website — however more sales does means more revenue for you.

Include your web address on stationery, greeting cards, and literature. This is an easy promotion tool that is sometimes overlooked. Make sure that all reprints of cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your web address. And see that your printer gets the web address syntax correct.

Promote using traditional media. Be sure to include your web address in any display or classified ads you purchase in trade journals, newspapers, yellow pages, etc. View your website as an information adjunct to the ad. Use a two-step approach: (1) capture readers' attention with the ad, (2) then refer them to the web address where they can obtain more information and perhaps place an order. Look carefully at small display or classified ads in the back of narrowly-targeted magazines or trade periodicals. Sometimes these ads are more targeted, more effective, and less expensive than online advertising. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc. Television and radio advertising can be used to promote websites, especially in a local market.

Don't neglect e-mail as an important way to bring people to your website. Just don't spam. That is, don't send bulk unsolicited e-mails without permission to people with whom you have no relationship (it’s bad manners, illegal and negative to good business practice).

Install a "Signature" in your e-mail programme to help potential customers get in touch with you. Most e-mail programs such as AOL, Netscape, and Outlook allow you to designate a "signature" to appear at the end of each message you send. Limit it to 6 to 8 lines: A brief description of your book and your web address. Look for examples on e-mail messages sent to you.

If you wish to change the retail price please advise us a few days in advance and we will make the necessary changes without charge to you. (However, we do ask that you respect our staff by not requesting changes too often.)

If we choose to increase or otherwise change commission percentages, we will advise you a month in advance.

If for any reason you wish to opt out of the Author’s Own Marketplace programme, please advise us and we will remove the link on your publisher-provided website and replace it with a different link to another bookstore selling your book. You may also choose to remove all links from any personal websites that you may have set up. Any links that remain online after opting out of the programme will still be honoured by automatically referring sales enquiries to another online bookstore. No commission is payable for re-directed links after opting out. There are no penalty charges for opting out of the Author’s Own Marketplace programme.

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