The eBook Selling Platforms.

Selling ebooks is an increasingly popular way to generate income, but success depends heavily on where and how you sell them. Some ebook selling platforms focus on discoverability, while others give you complete control over pricing and distribution.

Here’s a look at some of the major ebook-selling platforms, how they work and links to further tricks and tips using that platform.

Number 1 ebook selling platform? Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Amazon KDP is one of the most well-known platforms for selling ebooks, offering access to Amazon’s massive marketplace. When an author publishes through KDP, their book becomes available for purchase on Amazon, with the option to enroll in Kindle Unlimited (KU), Amazon’s subscription-based reading program.

Authors can price their ebooks anywhere from $0.99 to $9.99 (for a 70% royalty rate) or higher (with a 35% royalty rate). KDP also offers Kindle Select, which provides additional promotional tools in exchange for exclusivity. This means the book cannot be sold on other platforms for the duration of the enrollment period.

While Amazon provides great exposure, it has limitations, such as pricing constraints and less direct access to customer data. Additionally, since Amazon is a competitive marketplace, visibility can be a challenge without effective marketing.

Why does it get a ?number 1 spot. Well, success is subjective. There are loads of people who have made money selling ebooks through their own website. But there seems to be more news around the KDP platform.

Here's our Kindle 101.

Gumroad

Gumroad is a platform designed for independent creators to sell digital products, including ebooks, directly to their audience. Unlike Amazon, Gumroad gives full control over pricing and marketing, allowing creators to sell at any price they choose and bundle ebooks with other digital content.

One of Gumroad’s key features is its simplicity. Authors can create a product page, set up payment processing, and start selling within minutes. The platform also supports pay-what-you-want pricing, subscriptions, and discounts.

Gumroad takes a percentage of each sale, which varies depending on monthly revenue. The platform does not have a built-in audience like Amazon, so authors are responsible for driving traffic to their sales page. However, it offers flexibility and a more direct connection with buyers.

Clickbank

ClickBank is a digital marketplace primarily known for its strong affiliate marketing network. It allows authors to list their ebooks, which affiliates can then promote in exchange for a commission. This setup makes it particularly attractive for sellers who want to leverage affiliates to reach a larger audience.

The platform offers global payment processing, analytics, and an extensive network of marketers who specialize in promoting digital products. While ClickBank can drive significant sales through affiliates, listing a product does not guarantee visibility. Sellers need to price their ebooks attractively for affiliates while ensuring they remain profitable. This then can reduce the amount of buyers due to high sales price for an ebook that doesn't seem worth it.

ClickBank charges a one-time activation fee and takes a percentage of each sale plus a dollar amount. Unlike platforms like Gumroad and Payhip, which focus on direct sales, ClickBank is ideal for sellers who want to utilize affiliate marketing rather than build an audience themselves. However building an affiliate base of sellers is not that easy to do.

Own Website

Selling ebooks directly from your website provides complete control over pricing, customer relationships, and marketing strategies. This approach allows you to keep all profits without sharing a percentage with a third-party platform.

Platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce (for WordPress), and SendOwl provide tools to sell digital downloads seamlessly. Some benefits of selling directly include the ability to build an email list, upsell other products, and create custom sales funnels.

However, selling on your own website requires driving traffic and managing customer service. Without a built-in audience like Amazon or ClickBank, success depends on effective marketing, SEO, and email campaigns.

Draft2Digital

Once called Smashwords, Draft2Digital is an aggregator that allows you to upload your ebook (following rules) and then D2D submits your ebook to many publishers and platforms including iTunes, Kobo, Amazon and a whole range more. Many times it is a set and forget system (you can't promote each and every one of those platforms).

Is one better than another?

Ebook selling platforms like you because they need your ebook and traffic to make money. What they offer and what you want is what you are looking for. The main ideas is that:

• Do they have a good customer service. This also goes for refunds, how the ebook is presented, navigation, trust etc. If it is bad then it will reflect poorly upon you
• Do they pay you quickly and timely. Also how do they pay you?
• What do they allow you to do? Can you access customer emails? Can you upload to a certain amount, have restrictions on downloads or pay more for higher sized ebooks (like Amazon does)
• Do you need to generate traffic?
• Does your sales page need to be set up in a certain way (just like Clickbank).

They will all have positives and negatives. Those negatives should be less than the positives for your need, not someone elses.

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