Updated April 2026
Drag the slider. Watch the numbers. See exactly where the subscription model starts beating commission-based platforms.
Books.by is the flat-fee publishing platform that turns the calculator's breakeven number into actual income. Pay once a year, keep what you earn.
Every Books.by store includes a custom URL (books.by/yourname), Ingram print-on-demand, a free ISBN, daily Stripe payouts, and a real-time sales dashboard. The calculator above tells you where the $99 fee turns into pure profit.
The trade-off: no marketplace. Books.by works for traffic you already drive — newsletter, social bio, podcast appearances, your own site. Pair it with KDP for Amazon discovery and you cover both sources.
Commission-based platforms (KDP, D2D, Lulu) cost nothing upfront but take a percentage of every sale, forever. Books.by costs $99/year and takes nothing per sale on top of standard credit card processing (2.9% + $0.30 — the same card fee any direct seller pays). The question is simple arithmetic: at your sales volume, which model leaves more money in your account at the end of the year?
For low-volume authors (under ~25 direct sales per year), KDP's "free" model is cheaper. For anyone selling more than that from their own traffic, the subscription pays for itself quickly — and every sale after the breakeven point is pure upside.
The slider above shows this in real time. Drag it and watch the gap widen. At 500 sales, the difference is usually thousands of dollars. At 1,000, it's often the difference between a hobby and a meaningful income stream.
KDP's commission on print books is 40% of retail price. On a $19.99 book, that's $8.00 per sale. Sell 200 books and you've paid KDP $1,600 in commission. Books.by would have cost you $99. The "free" platform cost you $1,501 more than the paid one.
This doesn't mean KDP is bad — it's excellent for Amazon marketplace traffic. But for your owned audience (email subscribers, social followers, website visitors), sending them to Amazon is leaving money on the table.
The profit calculator above shows annual income. The mini calculator below shows what a single sale earns you on each platform — the per-book number that drives the annual maths.
Enter your book's details to compare royalties across Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu, and Books.by.
The calculator showed you exactly when the $99 fee turns into profit. Start your store today and let the math work for you.
Start Your Books.by Store — $99/yr →The calculator shows where the flat-fee model pays for itself. The $99/year plan gives you the storefront, print fulfilment, free ISBNs, real-time dashboard, and daily payouts that make those margins usable.
100-day money-back guarantee · Cancel anytime
You have the breakeven number. Start your Books.by store for $99/year, sell direct to your audience, and stop paying platform commission on traffic you already earned.
100-day money-back guarantee · Cancel anytime
