How to price a short ebook on KDP, Gumroad and your own site
Work back from what one sale leaves on each channel. KDP pays 70% less delivery from $2.99 to $12.99 and 35% outside that. Gumroad takes 10% + $0.50 on a direct sale, plus card processing. Your own site pays card fees and handles the tax. Then check what books like yours cost, and choose. No price can promise a sale, so treat every number here as arithmetic.
What one sale leaves
These are worked examples at three prices for a 2 MB file of text, before tax. They aren’t suggested prices, and they say nothing about how many copies anyone will sell.
| List price | KDP at 70% | KDP at 35% | Gumroad, direct sale | Your site, card fee only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2.99 | $1.88 | $1.05 | $1.80 | $2.60 |
| $4.99 | $3.28 | $1.75 | $3.55 | $4.55 |
| $9.99 | $6.78 | $3.50 | $7.90 | $9.40 |
The columns don’t compare like with like, and the gaps between them aren’t the whole story. KDP and Gumroad handle the checkout and deliver the file; your own site does neither by itself, and the last column leaves out hosting, delivery and tax. The Gumroad column takes its 10% + $0.50 fee and 2.9% + $0.30 card processing; a PayPal sale has PayPal’s fees instead.
The table does show one thing plainly. Flat fees weigh most on cheap books. The fixed part of Gumroad’s fee, and of a card fee, is a larger share of a $2.99 sale than of a $9.99 one.
On KDP: two bands and their edges
The band a price falls in matters more than small moves inside it.
- Below the floor. At $2.98 a sale pays 35%, or $1.04. One cent more, at $2.99, it pays $1.88.
- Above the ceiling. At $12.99 a sale pays $8.88. At $13.99 it drops to 35% and pays $4.90, so a higher price can leave less.
- Large files. Delivery costs $0.15 per MB in the 70% band. A 20 MB book at $4.99 pays $3.00 for delivery, leaving $1.39, where 35% would pay $1.75.
- The 35% floor rises with the file: $0.99 under 3 MB, $1.99 under 10 MB and $2.99 from 10 MB up.
- A print edition sets a limit. For 70%, the ebook’s price must be at least 20% below the list price on Amazon of any physical edition.
KDP sets other conditions too. The 70% rate covers listed sales territories, and for sales in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India it needs KDP Select. Books that are mainly public-domain content get 35%. Read its pricing page before you settle on a number. The royalty calculator runs your own price and file size.
Amazon can also change what a reader pays. It may lower your price to match another seller’s, and pays 70% of that lower price, less delivery, in the 70% territories. If the match takes the price below the 70% band’s minimum, you earn 35%. If your book is free somewhere else, it may match that too, and pays nothing during the match. That matters if the same book doubles as a giveaway.
On Gumroad
Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 per transaction on sales through your profile or a direct link, and that doesn’t include card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 or PayPal’s fees. When a new customer finds you through its Discover marketplace, it takes a flat 30%, processing included. Since 1 January 2025 it describes itself as merchant of record, collecting and remitting sales tax where it has the obligation, though it notes some creators may already have returns of their own to file.
The flat parts make a cheap book’s direct sale the dearer one: at $2.99, a direct sale gives up $1.19 and a Discover sale $0.90. At $9.99 it reverses, $2.09 against $3.00. You don’t choose between them for each sale, since it depends on how the customer found you.
On your own site
Stripe’s standard online rate for a domestic US card was 2.9% + 30¢ on 30 October 2026; other countries differ. You keep the most of each sale and you hold the customer’s address, but you take on the rest: delivering the file, refunds and tax.
Tax is the part people miss. In the EU, VAT on electronic services sold to consumers is due where the customer lives. The European Commission’s One Stop Shop lets sellers declare it in one place, and sellers outside the EU can use it. Ask an accountant before you sell across borders. A merchant of record such as Gumroad takes this on in exchange for its larger fee.
How to choose the number
The sums tell you where the edges are, not where to stand. Look at what similar books charge, and choose a price you could explain to a reader. A guide that solves one expensive problem can reasonably cost more than a longer book on a general topic, so don’t price by the page alone.
Where Chapbook fits
Chapbook doesn’t sell your book or process payments. Its KDP listing view shows what a sale earns in each band at the price you set, using the same arithmetic as the calculator, and offers a starting price by length. That starting price is a rule of thumb, not market data.
What to do
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Find your file size
Upload to KDP’s preview or check the size of your EPUB. A book of text is small. A book full of pictures can cost more in delivery than the 70% band is worth.
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Run the numbers for your price
Put your price and file size through the royalty calculator, then work out the Gumroad and card fees beside it. Do it at two or three prices, not only the one you first thought of.
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Look at ten books like yours
Same topic, same length, same store. Note their prices and how long they run. This tells you what readers there are used to paying, which your own costs can’t.
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Decide on exclusivity before you price
KDP Select requires the ebook to be exclusive to Kindle for its 90 days, so you can’t also sell it on Gumroad or your own site during that time. Choose first.
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Keep your prices close across channels
Amazon can lower your price to match a cheaper edition elsewhere. If you want a lower price on your own site, know that the Kindle price may follow it.
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Change one thing and write down why
If you try a new price, change only the price, and note the date. Without a record you won’t be able to tell what a change did.
