Selling an ebook online is two separate decisions wearing one coat: where the checkout lives, and who owns the customer afterwards. Platforms are happy to blur that line, because the second decision is the one that matters and the one they win. This guide compares the real options as of mid-2026, with the numbers that have been stable for years, and gives you a way to choose that you will not regret in six months.
The platforms, compared honestly
| Platform | Your cut | Who brings buyers | Who owns the customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon KDP | 70% at 2.99 to 9.99 dollars, else 35% | Amazon does | Amazon, entirely |
| Gumroad | About 90%, flat platform fee | You do | You: emails included |
| Payhip | 95% on the free plan | You do | You: emails included |
| Etsy | Roughly 90% after transaction and listing fees | Etsy search, somewhat | Mostly Etsy |
| Your own site | Everything minus payment processing | You, entirely | You, entirely |
Read the last column twice, because it decides your next book. A thousand sales on Amazon leave you with royalties and no way to tell those readers you wrote a sequel. A thousand direct sales leave you with a mailing list that launches the next book for free. Neither is wrong, but only one compounds.
Amazon KDP: the mall
Amazon is where ebook buyers already are, and that is the whole pitch and the whole price. The 70 percent tier applies between 2.99 and 9.99 dollars, minus a delivery fee tied to file size, and 35 percent applies outside the band, which is why the market clusters inside it. KDP Select adds Kindle Unlimited page-read income in exchange for digital exclusivity while enrolled, a trade that suits fiction read in volume and rarely suits nonfiction. Amazon shows you no buyer emails and never will. Publishing there is covered step by step in our KDP publishing guide, including the AI disclosure that applies to generated content.
Gumroad, Payhip and the direct channel
Direct platforms flip every Amazon property: nobody browses them, the margins are strong, and every buyer arrives with an email address attached. That makes them the natural home for books with an audience attached: your newsletter readers, your clients, your social following, the people who already know you. Payhip's free plan takes 5 percent; Gumroad's flat fee lands your cut around 90 percent. At those margins a 12-dollar direct sale earns roughly what four Amazon sales do once fees settle, which reframes how many buyers you actually need.
Pricing, briefly and honestly
- On Amazon, price inside 2.99 to 9.99 unless you have a reason not to; the royalty cliff at the edges is real money.
- Direct, charge more than feels comfortable: 9 to 29 dollars is normal for specific, useful nonfiction sold to people who trust you. Buyers there are paying for you, not shelf position.
- Short and focused beats long and padded at every price. Length expectations by format are in our ebook length guide.
A sequencing that works
Launch on Amazon for the discovery and the credibility of existing somewhere people can check. Put the same book on one direct platform at a slightly higher price with a bonus that justifies it: a worksheet, a template pack, the audio. Send your own audience to the direct link and let strangers find the Amazon one. Review the split after ninety days: if direct is winning, invest in the list; if Amazon is winning, invest in the next book, because catalog depth is how Amazon rewards you.
And before any of it: have something worth selling. The bottleneck for most people is not the platform choice, it is that the book does not exist yet. That part is what Bookbind compresses from months to an evening: a planned, written, designed book with print-ready files, made from one sentence and your approval at every step.
Make the thing worth selling first. One sentence in, a publishable book out.
Try this idea freeNo card needed. You approve every step before anything is written.