Options Besides Amazon...

I started with Amazon and only recently have branched out. I would blame this mostly on my poor marketing, but my sales haven't gone well in general. Almost every sale has been in person. I removed my books from KU and KS to remove the exclusivity of Amazon. I have experienced the poor service and experience with Amazon and would like to reduce/remove dependence on them.

So- in my mind I have nothing to lose by trying other things. I have a lot of work to do, but one of those is finding a better print-on-demand service. Ultimately it will cost me more out of pocket and increases the book debt, but other than simply ceasing to write, an Amazon alternate future might be the only way to ever get anywhere.

I own POD books (by myself and other authors) and don't see much difference in quality between KDP and other printers (my understanding is that IngramSpark and KDP use the same equipment anyway (someone correct me if I'm wrong))!! The main advantage to detaching from A. is that indie bricks and mortar bookstores usually won't give you the time of day if you use KDP as your printer. But they have other requirements (returnability, etc) that can be a headache to deal with, also. I am currently debating whether it is worth it to unpublish from KDP and start over with IS--- but I hesitate because I would lose all my reviews, which I worked very hard to get over the years. Also, most indie books stores near me (Portland) would ban my books anyway, so I'm not rushing to make the switch.

I've used Lulu.com for POD for years... I know they maintain their own internal capability, and I can EASILY tell the difference between Lulu printed books and Amazon printed books (which may go through multiple different printers). The Lulu print quality has always been top notch...
That said, I don't really sell many books through Lulu's own stores or even their global connections. Mostly I sell through my own Woocommerce site that connects directly to Lulu. I think this is convenient, other than the wait time for printing.

Ok, that's good to know! I've only looked into IngramSpark as an alternative!

That's good information, Tod. It makes me think, a good solution would be to let KDP handle KDP and use Lulu for all direct sales. That way, if Amazon wrecks something, it's their return process that will support the issue.

I've seen some people use Etsy as a store front for direct sales, which may or not make sense. I already have an Etsy store for another business, so I need to look into issues with owning 2 Etsy stores.

The better (custom) alternative will be more work... Do you know of a system or package that makes it easy-ish for people to setup a custom web store?

I think Etsy is interesting... my recent series has potential for Arizona gift shops because it's fiction based on some colorful AZ history... I think Etsy might be a similar thing. Books that have appeal to creatives for reasons other than their literary merit... TBD.
So I have two approaches. My todnewman.com site uses Woocommerce on top of Wordpress for the sole reason that Woocommerce has a direct connection to Lulu.com. So someone can buy at todnewman.com and Lulu fulfils the order behind the scenes. My second approach is my publisher's site which has various aesthetic advantages but doesn't have that native Lulu API connection. So the publisher's site serves to aggregate the different versions of my book between 1) paperbacks on Lulu sold through todnewman.com, 2) Kindle ebooks for most of my books (because I can make them look nice), and 3) ePub e-books for the "Rim Country" series that I won't put on Amazon at all.
Long reply. Thoughts?

Also, WIX and Shopify both have direct API connections to Lulu as well. I know Shopify is really expensive to the store owner. Not sure about Wix. Woocommerce is free, but it takes a little more work--certainly more than Shopify.

That's super useful. Thank you.
And I see that Woocommerce has a digital delivery option.

Yes. I've withdrawn a few of my novels from KU and eventually I'll offer ePub through Woocommerce too... it's pretty straightforward.

I have my books in (my third) Etsy shop! Not selling well, but I've heard of other authors who are killing it there, and since I was already familiar with the process, I switched from attempting to sell on my website to there (Etsy handles the sales tax issues, which I could not figure out on my Wix site). So currently, I have digital downloads and Amazon-printed paperbacks on Etsy. Eventually, I'd like to also offer exclusive special-edition hardbacks!!

I. Graham, be sure to research whether Amazon will allow you to publish through them and Lulu simultaneously...

Sarah, thanks. I am only aware of the KU/KS exclusivity, but I will check again. I already removed my ebooks from KU/KS for that reason.

I haven't looked, but the digital download single-use link is probably one of the big keys to any retail site.

The only exclusions for Amazon are the Kindle Unlimited exclusivity for e-books. Paperbacks can be published anywhere else if your book is enrolled in KU or Kindle Select. But e-books cannot. Which is why I only do KU/KS for novelettes attached to a series any longer. Because they're useful for marketing purposes.

How does marketing work on Etsy?

Other than using the right keywords for each listing, I don't know! I think you can pay for extra visibility, but I haven't bothered yet.

For me going wide is an absolute must. Amazon is very restrictive and from my experience readers on there have been trained over the years to only snap up freebies or rely on KU. Wider outlets like Kobo, Apple, B&N are different and seem to be far more inclined to pay for books. Of course the ultimate goal would be to cut them all out entirely and sell directly from a website or store of your own creation.

Great discussion, y'all! I'm a member of a FB group called "Wide for the Win" and there's a lot of valuable discussion there too.

Bringing this up to the top. I put an ebook of my new "The Rim Country" novel on Kobo as a test. It was straightforward. This ebook is my first one that I am not putting up on Amazon...

I hope it works out for you...I have all my titles on my own site, Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Google Play Books...Amazon (and in-person events) are the only places I've seen any action!

Okay, I've been looking into the hybrid Amazon/IngramSpark model and I think I'll be dipping my toes in sooner rather than later...I think I misunderstood some things. If Grok is correct (ha, ha), it is more feasible for me than I thought!!

Curious what you learned that you had misunderstood before...

I thought Amazon would be more punitive, and you were guaranteed to lose your reviews of the previous editions!