Where to Sell Ebooks Online: 6 Options Compared for Indian Sellers
You can sell an ebook in about six different places, and the internet has strong opinions about all of them. Most of those opinions were written for American sellers, which matters a lot, because your buyers want to pay by UPI and your money needs to land in an Indian bank account.
So here's the comparison from an Indian seller's point of view.
The quick table
| Platform | Buyers pay with | You keep (roughly) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon KDP | Amazon checkout | 35% or 70% royalty | Novels, Kindle readers |
| Your own site + Razorpay | UPI, cards, netbanking | About 97.6% after the standard 2% + GST fee | Guides you promote yourself |
| Instamojo | UPI, cards | Less on the free plan for digital files (reported 5% + ₹3) | Simple setup, file delivery included |
| Creator platforms (Superprofile, Cosmofeed and similar) | UPI, cards | Varies, check each | Link-in-bio sellers |
| Gumroad | Cards, PayPal | Around 10% + 50 cents goes to Gumroad | International buyers |
| Payhip | Cards, PayPal | 5% on the free plan, plus payment fees | International buyers, EU VAT handled |
Fees change. Always check the current pricing page before you decide. The point of the table is the shape, not the decimals.
1. Amazon Kindle (KDP)
The biggest bookshop on earth. Readers already have their cards saved and their trust switched on.
- Pros: discovery, trust, Kindle Unlimited readers.
- Cons: low royalty unless you meet KDP's rules (for Indian sales the 70% rate needs KDP Select), you don't get buyers' contact details, and design-heavy PDFs don't suit Kindle.
Full walkthrough: Kindle Direct Publishing in India.
2. Your own website with Razorpay
You put a "Buy" button on your page, the buyer pays by UPI, and they get the PDF. You keep the most money and own the customer relationship.
- Pros: lowest fees, UPI, the money settles to your bank (usually T+2 working days), full control.
- Cons: you need a website with policy pages for Razorpay's verification, and you have to sort out PDF delivery.
A true story from this very website: our own ebook made its first sale on 12 October 2026 at 11:45 AM. ₹99, paid by UPI, through our own Razorpay checkout. The fee on that payment showed as ₹0, which was a pleasant surprise; the standard rate is 2% plus GST, so don't plan your life around ₹0.
Step-by-step: how to sell a PDF online in India.
3. Instamojo
An Indian platform that hosts your file and delivers it automatically after payment.
- Pros: quick to set up, UPI support, no website needed.
- Cons: higher fees on the free plan for digital products. Fine for testing an idea, pricier at scale.
4. Creator platforms
Superprofile, Cosmofeed and similar tools give you a link-in-bio page with products, UPI checkout and file delivery in one place. Very popular with Instagram creators.
- Pros: made for social sellers, pretty pages, quick.
- Cons: platform fees and plans vary a lot. Read the pricing page twice.
5. Gumroad
Hugely popular worldwide, very simple.
- Pros: clean checkout, good for selling to buyers outside India.
- Cons: no UPI, higher fee, and payouts to India need a little patience.
6. Payhip
Similar idea to Gumroad, with a free plan.
- Pros: handles EU and UK VAT for you, good for international audiences.
- Cons: Indian buyers can't pay by UPI. And PayPal India can't receive payments from buyers inside India at all, which surprises a lot of people.
So which one should you pick?
Here's my one strong opinion: if most of your buyers are in India and you'll be promoting on Instagram or WhatsApp, use UPI. Every extra step between "I want this" and "paid" loses buyers. A ₹99 UPI payment takes about ten seconds. A foreign card checkout takes long enough for someone to change their mind, go make chai, and forget your name.
- Mostly Indian buyers, you bring the traffic: your own Razorpay checkout or a creator platform.
- Novel or general reading: Amazon KDP.
- Mostly international buyers: Gumroad or Payhip.
- Just testing an idea this weekend: Instamojo or a creator platform.
You're also allowed to use two. A Kindle version for Amazon readers and a PDF on your own site is a common combination, as long as KDP Select exclusivity doesn't apply to the same ebook.
The platform isn't the hard part
Honestly, people spend weeks choosing a platform and an afternoon telling anyone the book exists. Flip that. Pick something reasonable in a day, then spend the weeks on traffic: a daily post, a WhatsApp channel, a short video. If you're still deciding what to sell at all, our honest list of passive income ideas in India might help, and if the ebook isn't written yet, start with how to write an ebook.