Quick Answer
Use Amazon KDP for Amazon marketplace discovery. Use your own website or a Books.by store for traffic you control: newsletter subscribers, social followers, podcast listeners, event audiences, clients, students, and readers who already know your name.
Direct Sales Profit Calculator
How much does the destination of your link matter? This USA base comparison includes print, shipping, and card costs without taxes or annual membership allocation.
Books.by card processing is estimated at 1.2% of the retail price plus the customer's shipping contribution. KDP's platform share already covers its checkout and fulfilment model.
The Real Difference
| Question | Amazon KDP | Own store / Books.by |
|---|---|---|
| Who brings the buyer? | Amazon or you | You |
| Who owns customer data? | Amazon | You |
| Payout timing | About 60 days after month-end | Daily on Books.by |
| Best use | Marketplace discovery | Owned audience conversion |
| Risk | Lower margin, no buyer relationship | No built-in marketplace traffic |
The Three-Channel Author Stack
1. Amazon KDP
Use for Amazon search, Kindle readers, Prime trust, and algorithmic discovery. It is too big to ignore.
2. IngramSpark
Use for bookstore and library availability. This is access, not usually your highest-margin channel.
3. Books.by
Use for readers you bring yourself. This is where margin, buyer emails, and long-term relationship value matter.
When Amazon Should Get the Sale
Send readers to Amazon when the purchase began on Amazon, when Kindle Unlimited matters, when reviews are the main goal, or when the buyer strongly prefers Amazon checkout. Amazon earns its cut when it creates the demand.
When Your Own Store Should Get the Sale
Send readers to your own store when they came from your newsletter, social profile, podcast, speaking event, course, consulting funnel, school visit, conference, or author website. That traffic is yours. Giving it to Amazon means paying a commission on work you already did.
Where Books.by Fits
Books.by is the author-store option for people who do not want to build a Shopify stack, connect print-on-demand apps, manage plugins, and stitch together checkout, fulfilment, ISBNs, analytics, and customer data. It is a direct-sales layer built for authors.
Who Should Not Use Books.by
- Authors with no audience yet who only want Amazon discovery.
- Authors who need complex ecommerce workflows unrelated to books.
- Authors who want a free platform and are comfortable paying commission forever.
Who Should Use Books.by
- Authors with email lists, social audiences, courses, clients, communities, or speaking events.
- Nonfiction, business, health, education, and niche authors using books as lead-generation assets.
- Genre authors with loyal superfans who buy bundles, signed copies, or special editions.
The Rule
Let Amazon keep the traffic Amazon creates. Keep the traffic you create. That is the clearest, most profitable way to think about platform choice.
Related Reading
See the broader best self-publishing platforms comparison, compare Books.by vs Amazon KDP, or run numbers in the KDP cost calculator.
