You can sell your books on your own and BookFunnel will email a private download link to your buyer automatically! If a reader has any trouble transferring a book to their reading device, our top-notch support team is always happy to help.
Whether you are looking for easy-peasy set-up, all-in-one store solutions, or every customization under the sun, we support a platform that will suit you.
We try to keep this information current, so please send us a note if this becomes outdated.
How Does It Work?
You create a delivery action on BookFunnel for each item we should deliver, and when your sales platform tells us you had a sale, we do just that! Like this:
- Sell using one of the supported sales platforms listed below and integrate it with BookFunnel
- Create a delivery action on BookFunnel for each book we should deliver
- When your store notifies BookFunnel of a sale, BookFunnel emails your buyer a unique link to download your book
You can customize the download page and email message buyers receive.
If buyers have any trouble downloading their book, send them to BookFunnel.com/help and we’ll help them out!
Multi-Book Delivery, Bundles & Boxsets
If a buyer purchases more than one item in your store, buyers will receive one email with links to each of the items they purchased. A delivery email with 2+ books will use default text and cannot be customized at this time.
One delivery action typically delivers one book, but it doesn’t have to! Delivery actions can deliver as many books as you select, which is perfect for:
- Boxsets so that you don’t want to combine books into a single ebook file
- Book bundles with companion materials in a different format, like PDF or MP3
- Ebook + audiobook bundles sold for less than a reader would pay to purchase each format individually
- Paperback, hardback, or merchandise upsells where you offer digital goodies with the purchase of any physical product in your store (BookFunnel does not deliver any physical products, this is specific to upselling other products in your store by offering bonus digital content)
Supported Sales Platforms
We have noted the tech-skills required for each of the five sales platforms we support, along with their fee structure and basic pros/ cons to help you decide which store is best for you.
Gumroad
Gumroad is a fantastic sales platform that’s been around for over 10 years. There is no upfront cost or monthly subscription, and Gumroad supports redirect links after purchase, which means your readers can bounce right to BookFunnel and download their books instantly.
Gumroad handles VAT 100% and can report taxable US sales to help US authors file in states where they have nexus.
Difficulty: Easiest
Pros: Gumroad covers VAT, helps with US sales tax, bounces readers to BookFunnel immediately after purchase, has no monthly fee, and is the easiest platform we’ve found to integrate with.
Cons: None, Gumroad is great for any author looking for a simple sales platform
Cost: 10% per transaction, plus standard credit card processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S.), rates are slightly different with PayPal
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 71.66
Learn more about setting up Gumroad and BookFunnel
Payhip
Payhip is a great option if you are interested in selling direct without any real investment of cash or time. There is no monthly fee and it only takes a few minutes to create an account and upload your books.
If you choose to sell to readers in the European Union, Payhip collects and pays all EU VAT so that you don’t have to think about it.
Difficulty: Easy
Pros: Payhip reports and pays EU VAT, accepts credit cards and PayPal payments, has no monthly fee and is fast to get up and running
Cons: None, really
Cost: 5% per transaction, plus standard credit card processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S.)
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 76.50
Learn more about setting up Payhip and BookFunnel
Shopify
Shopify is a robust storefront with many options to customize your store and buyer’s experience. They have a huge knowledge base to help you get started, no matter where you are in your career. They also support point-of-sale transactions, so if selling at trade shows or conventions is a future goal, Shopify might be your winner! Plans start at $29/month and include almost every feature the average user might want.
If you do not want to build a storefront and only need “buy” buttons, you can look at Shopify Starter for $5/month.
Difficulty: Moderate
Pros: Drag-and-drop store builder, custom buy buttons, point-of-sale support, simple sales tax collection (you must file and remit sales tax to your state), every feature you can think of by installing available extensions (called “apps”)
Cons: It can be overwhelming to get started with Shopify if you just want a simple sales landing page and aren’t ready to design an entire storefront
Cost: $39/month + 2% per transaction (if you don’t use Shopify Payments), plus standard credit card processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S.)
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 50.50
Learn more about setting up Shopify and BookFunnel
Thrivecart
Thrivecart is a supercharged checkout page builder and cart tool designed for advanced sellers. With Thrivecart, you can design custom sales funnels for every product so that buyers are offered additional (specific) products during checkout to increase their purchase amount. Unlike other comparable services, Thrivecart charges a one-time fee and has no monthly subscription.
Difficulty: Moderate, mostly because of the upsell options (they are built-in and straightforward, but… with more power comes more complication)
Pros: Advanced upsell options, bump products, sales tax collection and reporting on the Pro Plan, one-time purchase fee (no monthly subscription fee)
Cons: High upfront cost to purchase Thrivecart (one-time fee of $495 or $695 for the Pro Plan), not a website/storefront builder
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S.*
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 81.50*
* Excluding the initial purchase fee
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin you can install to build a store on your own WordPress installation. While WooCommerce is free to install on your WordPress site, there are fees associated with hosting your own domain. You cannot install WooCommerce if WordPress is hosting your website. Example: authorname.wordpress.com
Difficulty: Moderate to difficult, depending on your comfort with WordPress
Pros: WooCommerce is a snap to install and setup if you are already a WordPress expert, buyers don’t have to leave your WordPress site to buy your book, low transaction fees
Cons: Requires a WordPress site and hosting, tends to have more issues than other sales platforms we support
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S. (Excluding the cost to host your own WordPress site)
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 81.50
Learn more about setting up WooCommerce and BookFunnel
PayPal
PayPal is recognized and trusted by buyers all over the world. While getting started with a PayPal business account takes time, it’s worth it for some authors.
Difficulty: Very difficult, requires patience
Pros: You can sell on your own website, low fees, buyers can bounce to their BookFunnel download page after purchase
Cons: Challenging for many authors to set up, you’re on your own with taxes, requires you to build your own sales pages (which you can do on BookFunnel!), no storefront options, poor tech support according to some authors
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S.
Net monthly earnings after selling 50 books for $1.99 each: $ 81.50
Learn more about setting up PayPal and BookFunnel
Additional Notes
- Delivery Actions are available on all plans Note: BookFunnel will not send a delivery email for a book priced at $0.00 if you are on a First-Time Author plan.
- Each buyer receives a unique download link
- Buyers have 14 days to download the book files and can request additional time by visiting BookFunnel.com/help
- EPUB files are watermarked with the buyer’s identifying information
- Delivery Action downloads are counted against your monthly download quota (just like a regular download)
FAQ
You are responsible for selling your book and collecting the payment. BookFunnel does not handle the sale or take a cut of your profit. We just handle the delivery of the files.
Not at this time. Let us know which platform you would like for us to consider next by sending an email!
Delays are very rare on most platforms. It is more common for an email to get lost in a buyer’s spam or “Promotions” inbox. WooCommerce tends to be the only platform with delays, usually caused when it doesn’t send a purchase notification to BookFunnel.
You can customize the email your readers see. Since your readers may have already downloaded the file from the store or Dropbox folder, you can include text like this in your delivery email:
“You’ve already received the book files from my online store, but sometimes they can be tricky to transfer to your reading device. If you have any trouble, you can download your copy of book_title from BookFunnel using this link: (paste-download-page-link). They have step-by-step instructions and are happy to help if you need additional assistance.”
If you are on a Mid-List plan or higher, BookFunnel will send a delivery email when you “sell” a free book.