Can I sell the same book on my website and Amazon?

Yes, as long as you are not enrolled in KDP Select for your ebook.

KDP Select requires exclusivity for your digital edition. If you are in Select, your ebook can only be sold through Amazon's Kindle Store. Your paperback and hardcover, however, are never exclusive, even if your ebook is in Select. You can always sell physical copies on your website, at events, or through any other channel.

If you are not in KDP Select, meaning you have gone "wide," you can sell your ebook everywhere, including your own site. And you absolutely should. Direct sales on your website offer several advantages that no platform can match.

The margin is dramatically higher. When you sell a $9.99 ebook on Amazon, you keep about $7 after their 30% cut. When you sell the same ebook through Shopify or Payhip, you keep $9.50 or more after a small transaction fee. That is a 35% improvement in your per-sale revenue.

You get the customer's email address. When someone buys on Amazon, Amazon owns that relationship. They will not tell you who bought your book. When someone buys on your website, you capture their email, which means you can market your next book directly to a proven buyer.

You can offer products that Amazon does not support. Signed copies. Bundles of multiple books at a discount. Book-plus-course packages. Exclusive editions with bonus content. Your website is the one place where your creativity in packaging is completely unlimited.

The setup is straightforward. Shopify is the more powerful option if you plan to build a full store with multiple products. Payhip is simpler and cheaper if you are only selling digital products. Both integrate with email providers so that every purchase automatically adds the buyer to your list.

The strategy: use Amazon as your discovery engine. Readers find you there through search, ads, and recommendations. Then use your back matter, your email list, and your website to convert those Amazon readers into direct customers for your next books. Over time, an increasing percentage of your sales will come from channels you own, which means an increasing percentage of your income is insulated from platform changes.

There is a subtler advantage to direct sales that most authors miss: pricing power. On Amazon, you are constrained by market expectations and the 70% royalty threshold. On your own site, you can price however you want. A hardcover bundle of three books for $49.99, sold directly, is entirely possible when the reader trusts you enough to buy from your store. A "VIP edition" with bonus content for $29.99 is pure profit. Amazon cannot offer these options, but your website can. The readers who buy from you directly are your most loyal customers, and loyal customers will pay premium prices for premium experiences.

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