How to Sell Ebooks on Your Website (In 4 Steps)

Whether you’re an author or course creator, you might be wondering how to sell ebooks while retaining most of your profits. Marketplaces like Amazon will take a percentage of your earnings, so the best option is to sell your products through your own website. However, if you’ve never created a site before, you might find the process a bit daunting. 

Fortunately, it’s not as difficult as you might think. You can use a beginner-friendly and cost-effective option like WordPress. Then, all you have to do is install a tool that will help you sell your ebooks and process orders seamlessly.

In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of selling digital books on your site or blog. Then, we’ll show you how to sell ebooks on your website, using WordPress. Let’s dive right in!

Why It Makes Sense to Sell Ebooks on a Website

Before we show you how to sell ebooks online, let’s talk about why you might want to choose this monetization strategy.

For starters, the ebook market is growing every year. In fact, it is predicted that the number of ebook readers will reach one billion by 2028.

If you’re an author, publishing ebooks could help you reach a wider audience. However, if you want to keep as much of the profits as possible, you’ll need to sell them on your website.

Of course, an ebook publisher like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or Apple Books makes it easy to publish and sell ebooks online. These platforms will handle all orders and transactions for you, and perhaps some of the marketing, too.

The downside is that they charge commission fees on each purchase. Therefore, it can be difficult to make money selling ebooks when you use these platforms.

If you learn how to sell ebooks on your own website, you get to retain more of your earnings. You’ll only need to pay for web hosting and any applicable transaction fees on ebook sales (for instance, if you’re using payment gateways like PayPal).

Additionally, you’ll have more control over how you display and sell your products. For example, you might share a preview of the first chapter, or enable users to download parts of the ebook for free. 

How to Sell Ebooks on Your Website (In 4 Steps)

Now, let’s look at how to create a website for selling ebooks, using WordPress.

While there are several web-building tools you can use, including all-in-one solutions like Wix and Squarespace, WordPress is possibly the best option if you want to keep your expenses low.

Step 1: Get WordPress and Web Hosting

WordPress is free, open-source software. You’ll just need to pay for hosting and domain name.

Plus, many web hosts offer affordable plans for new websites – and they install WordPress for you!

At SirsteveHQ, WordPress hosting plans start at just ₦‎600 per month.

When you purchase a plan, WordPress will be automatically installed and ready to use:

Additionally, you can use SirsteveHQ’s free instant search to browse available domains and register your chosen domain name.

Once you have WordPress all set up, take some time to familiarize yourself with the dashboard and design your site.

For instance, you can go to Appearance > Themes to choose a WordPress theme:

As you might notice, there are thousands of themes to choose from and most of them are free. 

However, you’ll want to select an e-commerce theme. This will have essential ready-made shop and product pages. 

When you find a design you like, simply hit Install followed by Activate. 

Step 2: Install Easy Digital Downloads

Now that you’ve designed your site, it’s time to set up your ebook shop. To do this, you’ll need to install an ecommerce plugin. 

For this tutorial, we’ll be using Easy Digital Downloads. This tool enables you to sell digital products like ebooks as downloads. 

To get started, go to Plugins > Add new in your WordPress dashboard and use the search bar to look for the plugin. When it comes up, click on Install Now followed by Activate:

You should now see a new option in your dashboard menu on the left. It will be labeled Downloads. Click on it and select Setup. Then, hit the Get Started button:

The plugin will ask you to add some information about your business, configure your receipts and payment methods, and more.

You don’t need to enter all of these details straight away. You can skip any of the steps in the setup wizard and configure the payment methods later. 

Step 3: Upload Your Ebooks

Next, you can start adding your ebooks to your site! 

In your WordPress dashboard navigate to Downloads > Add new:

This will launch the WordPress Block Editor, where you can create your first ebook download. Start by entering a title, book description, and price:

Then, scroll down to the Download Files section. Here, give your file a name and click on the link icon under File URL to upload your file:

This will open a popup window, where you can upload a file from your computer. Once you select your file, click on Insert into download. You might also want to add some Download Instructions for customers, using the box provided. 

In the panel on the right, you’ll see an option to specify a download limit and refund status:

You can also add an image thumbnail for your download, select a category, and more. 

When you’re ready, hit Publish. Then, you can go back to the main Downloads page to add more ebooks.

You’ll also want to add your ebooks to your main shop page. Go to Pages > Add New Page (or select an existing page). Then, click on the plus icon (+) to add a new block and select EDD Products:

This will add your ebooks to your shop page. You can also customize the appearance of your products using the Settings panel on the right:

Once you’re happy with your changes, you can go ahead and publish your page. You might want to click on Preview to see what it looks like to visitors:

Also, feel free to add more blocks and customize the shop page as you see fit.

Step 4: Set Up Your Payment Methods

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to configure the payment methods so that visitors can purchase your ebooks. Go to Downloads > Settings and click on Payments:

Start by checking the box for Test Mode. This will enable you to do a test purchase (which we’ll talk about in a minute).

Then, select the payment gateways you want to enable on your site. You can go to the PayPal and Stripe tabs to connect your site to your accounts. 

If you return to the General tab, you can also select a default gateway and payment method icons. When you’re ready, click on Save Changes:

Now, let’s do a test purchase. This will help you make sure that everything is working properly.

For the test, you’ll need to set Store Gateway as the default gateway. Then, visit your ebook store on the front end as a customer, select an ebook, and click on the Purchase button.

Your item will be added to the cart and you can proceed to checkout:

Enter your details and click on Purchase. 

You should now see a confirmation page, with download links for your products:

If the test was a success, you can go back to the payment settings, disable test mode, and change the default gateway back to your preferred option. 

That’s it – you can now start selling ebooks online!

Conclusion

Selling ebooks on your own site is worth considering if you want to avoid the costs associated with marketplaces like Amazon. When you choose this option, you own’t need to pay any commission fees. Plus, platforms like WordPress make it super easy to create a website and sell your products. 

To recap, here’s how to sell ebooks on your website:

1. Get WordPress and web hosting, using an affordable service like SirsteveHQ.
2. Install Easy Digital Downloads.
3. Upload your ebooks.
4. Set up your payment methods.

Do you have any questions about selling ebooks on your own WordPress site? Let us know in the comments section below!