Shouty person
A lot of authors – especially trans and queer authors – are using #Itchio to sell books to customers in order to cut Amazon out of the equation. That's great. I'm a big fan of authors selling direct.
But here's something you need to know. Itch is taxing UK customers … for non-taxable goods.
Shouty person
VAT is not applicable to ebooks in the UK. Here's a screenshot from the government guidance on VAT.
So why are #Itchio charging VAT on ebooks? And what are they doing with the funds they collect?
Shouty person
Are #Itchio turning the funds over to HMRC? If so, what are they telling them it's for? Because why would you pay tax on non-taxable products?
Are they giving the money to the authors? I'm pretty sure they're not.
Are they keeping the money they haven't earned?
Shouty person
Some cheap and easy alternatives to #Itchio for authors to consider. Source: #BookFunnel
First up, Gumroad.
Difficulty: Easiest
Pros: Gumroad covers VAT, helps with US sales tax, has no monthly fee, and integrates with BF
Cons: None [I’m going to disagree with BF here and say the con is lack of customisation]
Cost: 10% per transaction + processing fees
Shouty person
Next up, Payhip.
Difficulty: Easy
Pros: Payhip reports and pays EU & UK VAT on digital goods, accepts cards and PayPal, no monthly fees, quick to set up
Cons: None [sc: support not very helpful]
Cost: 5% per transaction + standard processing fees
Shouty person
Third is #Fourthwall.
Difficulty: Moderate
Pros: Fourthwall collects and remits taxes for you.
Cons: None [sc: hugely American-centric]
Cost: Up to 5% per transaction + standard processing fees
Shouty person
Fourth is #LemonSqueezy
Difficulty: Moderate
Pros: LemonSqueezy collects and remits taxes for you.
Cons: None [sc: fairly American-centric and no support for physical products such as paperbacks]
Cost: Up to 5% + up to $0.50 per transaction + standard processing fees
Shouty person
Fifth is #WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin
Difficulty: Moderate to difficult, depending on your comfort with WP
Pros: Easy to install *if* you’re a WP expert, buyers don’t have to leave your WordPress site to buy your book, low transaction fees
Cons: Requires a WordPress site and hosting, more issues than other sales platforms
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US + the cost of your WordPress site
Shouty person
Don't use Shopify; they support fascists.
I wish I didn't. I'm planning to migrate off as soon as I feasibly can.
Shouty person
One other thing that you can get with all the above options that you can't get with #Itchio is #BookFunnel integration. While you *can* deliver books yourself, you'll end up needing to handle your own tech support. I get frequent emails from readers who've bought direct but can't figure out how to get their books onto the device/app of their choosing. BookFunnel handles those for me.
Shouty person
There are other options but they're more complicated. If you're looking to replace your #Itch.io sales with something quick and painless, I'd go for Gumroad or Payhip.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.