Here are some of the downsides you need to think about before you start: 1. Book marketing needs to be done all by yourself. Appearing on things like a podcast is a good way to promote your store though, but you should still put together a solid marketing plan. 2. When it comes time to do a book promotion or a book launch, getting people to come to your site to buy directly will require a lot of advertising and email list outreach. You won't have the online resources that Amazon has to drive traffic to your books. 3. If a customer buys from your website, you're forfeiting a valuable Amazon customer book review.