Every book sold through Amazon, a wholesaler, or a retailer costs you 30–65% of the cover price. Selling direct means you keep the difference — and you get your readers' email addresses with every order.
Newsletter subscribers, event attendees, podcast listeners, social followers, and ad clicks should land on your store — where you control the offer, capture their email, and keep 2–3× more of every sale.
The maths isn't complicated. Retailers take a cut. When you sell direct, there's no retailer.
Compare what you keep selling direct vs. through Amazon KDP or IngramSpark.
Every direct sale captures the buyer's email. After 500 sales, you have a 500-person launch list for your next book. Amazon keeps this data from you entirely.
No algorithm changing your visibility based on price. No KDP Select exclusivity requirements. Set any price, run any promotion, bundle any way you want.
Books.by payouts run through Stripe in supported countries. Amazon pays 60 days after the month ends. IngramSpark can take around 90 days. Your money should not sit in someone else's account longer than it has to.
Direct sales platforms have no marketplace. You bring the readers. Here's where successful authors send traffic — and what it's worth on a $19.99 paperback.
| Traffic source | Typical volume | Monthly revenue (direct) | vs. Amazon KDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email newsletter | 5–10% of list per launch | 500 subs × 8% = 40 sales = $586 | +$356 more |
| Social media bio link | 10–50 sales/month | 30 sales = $440 | +$268 more |
| Podcast/speaking | 20–100 per appearance | 50 sales = $733 | +$446 more |
| Blog/SEO content | 5–20 sales/month | 10 sales = $147 | +$89 more |
| Back-of-book link | 2–5% of Amazon readers | Converts future sales to direct | Compounds |
Revenue estimates based on $19.99 paperback, 250 pages, B&W interior.
Even 10–20 direct sales per month gives you buyer emails you can't get from Amazon. Put your Books.by link in your social bio, email signature, and newsletter. Every reader captured now is a guaranteed contact for book two.
Add a "buy direct" link at the back of your Amazon books. Readers who finish a book and want the next one will follow the link to your store. Over time, this shifts your highest-value readers — the ones who already love your work — to a channel where you keep 2–3× more per sale.
Your email list and social following already know you. On launch day, send them to your direct store first. A 5,000-person email list converting at 8% = 400 sales × $14.65 = $5,860 in the first week. The same 400 sales on Amazon would earn $2,296. That's $3,564 more for the same audience.
Full-time authors typically have 2,000–10,000+ email subscribers. Sending controlled traffic to a direct store instead of Amazon can mean the difference between $30K and $70K per year on the same volume. Amazon becomes your discovery channel; your store becomes your profit channel.
Amazon doesn't share buyer emails. Every Amazon sale is a one-time transaction. Every direct sale builds your launch list for the next book.
Book two launch: 360 emails × 8% conversion = 29 first-day sales from email alone. Those 29 buyers join the list too.
By book three, your list has 1,000+ buyer emails. Launch day generates 80+ sales before you spend a dollar on ads. Each launch feeds the next. Amazon can't offer this loop because you never see who bought.
You don't need a website, a developer, or inventory.
Books.by is a direct-sales platform built for self-published authors. Instead of paying commission on every sale, you pay one flat annual fee and keep the rest.
Every Books.by store comes with a custom URL (books.by/yourname), print-on-demand fulfilment through the same Ingram network the big publishers use, a free ISBN, and a built-in author page. Customers buy directly from you. No Amazon middleman, no algorithm to please.
The trade-off is real: Books.by has no marketplace. There's no "browse" tab, no recommendation engine pushing your book to strangers. You bring the readers. From your newsletter, your social bio, your podcast, your speaking gigs. Books.by makes sure you keep what they pay.
On a $19.99 paperback (250 pages, B&W), selling direct through Books.by earns approximately $14.65 per sale — a ~73% effective royalty. The same book on Amazon KDP earns approximately $5.74 (29%). That's 2.5× more per book. Use our royalty calculator to compare your specific book.
No. Books.by gives you a ready-made storefront at books.by/yourname with built-in checkout and print-on-demand fulfilment. eBooks are available on Books.by Pro where relevant. See our author website vs storefront comparison if you're deciding between the two.
Your channels: email newsletter, social media bio links, podcast appearances, speaking events, blog, and paid ads. The trade-off versus Amazon is clear — no passive discovery, but you keep 2–3× more per sale and own every customer email.
Yes, and most successful indie authors do exactly this. Use Amazon for organic discovery and your direct store for traffic you control. See our KDP vs Books.by comparison for the strategy breakdown.
Yes. Books.by uses print-on-demand — each order is printed and shipped automatically from the nearest facility (US, UK, EU, or AU). You never hold stock. See our printing specs for supported sizes and paper types.
Books.by uses Stripe-powered payouts in supported countries. Compare: Amazon KDP pays 60 days after month-end; IngramSpark can take around 90 days.
Books.by Core is $99/year and takes no platform commission on direct sales. Print, shipping, and card costs still apply.
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