Sell Direct First. Consider Amazon as a Secondary Channel.
We recommend that your primary marketing and sales efforts point customers to your own website. Selling direct lets you control the customer experience, process transactions, collect customer data, and grow your email community. That direct relationship is one of your most valuable business assets.
We make this easy. Our fulfillment systems work with any shopping cart, so you can sell from your own site while we handle printing, inventory management, and shipping. Our goal is simple: help you sell more products without adding complexity.
What You Can and Can't List on Amazon Right Now
Amazon has tightened control over how new products are added to its marketplace, and the rules now depend on your product type:
- Books — New titles cannot currently be added to Amazon's Books category through the standard Marketplace channel. This applies regardless of binding type, print-on-demand vs. inventory, or how long you've been selling. The limitation is Amazon's category policy, not our printing or fulfillment model. Books can still reach Amazon through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) — see below.
- Planners & Journals — May be listed in Amazon's Office Products category.
- Card Decks — May be listed in Amazon's Games category.
These alternative categories aren't always an ideal fit, and category placement affects how customers find your product, so we want you to understand the tradeoffs before choosing this route.
Because Amazon's policies change frequently and without much notice, we encourage you to build your business on your own website first, then add Amazon or other channels where they make sense for your product and goals.
Want the full background on what changed and where other creators are selling instead? Read Amazon Marketplace Changes for Books, Planners, and Card Decks.
Two Ways to Sell on Amazon
Depending on your product type, there are two separate paths to Amazon. They work differently, so please read the one that applies to your product.
Path 1: Amazon Marketplace — for Planners, Journals & Card Decks
Many Vervante customers successfully sell planners, journals, and card decks on Amazon Marketplace. These products fit within Amazon's marketplace categories (Office Products for planners and journals, Games for card decks) and let you reach customers who prefer to shop on Amazon, while you keep your primary sales channel on your own site. On this path, Vervante prints and fulfills each order as it comes in.
Amazon takes a 15% discount plus $1.80 per transaction fee. We receive the orders when your product is purchased on Amazon. The transaction is entered in your order report in your author account so you will see all transactions. Amazon pays Vervante for transactions and we will reconcile your Amazon purchases with your monthly invoice. You set the retail price for the book in Amazon Marketplace. The Vervante printing and postage costs are just examples. The actual printing cost is based on the actual book specs and the postage is based on weight and shipping method.
The pre-set shipping fees the Amazon customer pays are $5.50 for US, $25.00 for Canada and $31.00 for International. If your book or product will cost more to ship than these shipping fees, you may want to charge accordingly to cover your postage costs. You can also offer free shipping for any of these three regions.
An ISBN is required for your product to be listed on Amazon.
To submit your product for an Amazon Marketplace listing, please log in to your Vervante Author Account and return to this page. The submission form will appear here.
Path 2: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) — for Books
While new books can no longer be listed in Amazon's Books category through the standard Marketplace channel, you can still sell your books on Amazon through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
FBA works differently from a Marketplace listing. You open your own Amazon seller account and create and manage the book listing yourself, under your account. Amazon then provides inventory management, customer service, payments, and shipping to the end customer. We prep your inventory and ship it directly to Amazon's fulfillment centers on your behalf, so your production and quality stay consistent while you take advantage of Amazon's reach and fulfillment infrastructure.
You do not have to print with Vervante to use this service. If your books are stored in our warehouse, we can prep them and send them into Amazon fulfillment centers whether we printed them or you had them produced elsewhere.
What You Provide
- Your own Amazon seller account and FBA relationship
- The shipment plan created in your FBA account
- The box or pallet labels generated through your FBA account
- For box shipments, the shipping labels from your FBA account
What We Provide
- Receiving and storage of your inventory
- Prep to Amazon requirements
- For pallet shipments, we prep the pallet
For pallet shipments, you tell Amazon when the shipment will be ready and Amazon schedules the freight pickup.
Because the listing lives in your own Amazon seller account, the FBA setup and listing are managed by you rather than by Vervante. The Marketplace submission form above does not apply to FBA. If you would like us to prep and ship inventory to Amazon for your FBA account, we are happy to help with that side of the process. Just contact us to get started.
