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University Press ROI Calculator

Model what moving even 10% of your sales from Amazon to your own shop adds each year, and how soon it pays back your platform costs.

For university presses with a real trade catalogue that sell mostly through Amazon today. Trade houses, magazines and digital-first publishers should use our Publisher Revenue Calculator.

Your press’s numbers

Enter your press’s figures to see what selling from your own shop would add

40%
35%
Your result will appear here.

What the calculator assumes

Most academic publishers run a mixed model: trade titles sell mainly through Amazon, monographs through institutional channels (Project MUSE, JSTOR, EBSCO, ProQuest), and direct sales to readers are thin or missing. The numbers strongly favour selling direct: moving a sale from Amazon to your own shop more than doubles your margin on that book.

The calculator models that move cautiously. It assumes each direct sale replaces an Amazon sale, on which you keep 35% today, and it leaves your institutional volume unchanged. The result is a rough guide; for a precise model built on your own channel data, book a 30-minute call.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a university press keep on Amazon, and how much selling direct?
On Amazon, a university press typically keeps around 35% of the list price after the retail discount and Amazon’s fees. In its own shop, after payment processing (~3%) and platform fees, it keeps about 85%: roughly 2.4 times the net margin per book.
Is a shop of your own worth it if only 10% of sales move there?
Yes. Moving just 10% of your annual revenue from Amazon to your own shop raises net revenue per book by ~143%, which is a real gain each year even if institutional volume stays the same. The calculator above shows the exact figure for your press.
How does this work alongside Project MUSE, JSTOR and other institutional channels?
Your own shop does not replace them. It adds a high-margin retail channel for trade titles, course adoption titles and individual readers, while institutional sales carry on as before. It picks up the long tail and the sales to individual readers that go to Amazon today.
What does a university press need from its own shop?
Ecommerce that handles academic metadata (ONIX), a reader for EPUB and PDF with annotations, bulk orders from institutions, course adoption requests, DRM for restricted titles, and integration with your fulfilment and distribution. publica.la does all of this in a single platform.
How long does it take a university press to open its own shop?
On publica.la, 2 to 4 weeks for a typical press catalogue. A custom build takes 4 to 9 months, and a patchwork of Shopify, apps and an external reader usually takes 6 to 12 weeks of development.
What is the payback period for switching platforms?
The calculator estimates the payback in months from your current platform and tech cost divided by the annual gain projected from moving 10% of sales direct. For most university presses spending under USD 30,000 a year on platforms, with trade revenue of USD 1M+, it pays back in under 12 months.

Want a precise model with your own channel data?

On a 30-minute call we’ll run it with your Amazon, institutional and direct sales.

Let’s talk about your shop

ebooksdepository

Find any book. Buy it wherever you like.

Search for an ebook or an audiobook and see which independent bookshops sell it. Then buy it from the one you prefer. It’s free and open to everyone.

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