Ebooks have become the new way to gather information and learn something new. Moreover, most writers have ditched the traditional publishing methods and opted for eBooks. You no longer need the permission of a publishing house or any other gatekeeper to get your content to the public.

Many people are familiar with Amazon Kindle, one of the world’s most popular repositories for digital services. However, it can come with several issues that can make a couple of writers cringe. There is where Gumroad comes in.

What is Gumroad?

Gumroad is a simple but powerful e-commerce platform that lets you sell digital services. These can be books, courses, memberships, and more. The platform is packed with various tools that make this process seamless.

Getting up and running is also very easy. You just open an account, add a product, start selling, and get paid for your services.

The Advantages of Using Gumroad

Gumroad acts more like a support structure than a gatekeeper for online publishers and writers. You don’t have to use their platform to get the most out of it. Gumroad is designed to integrate with other systems that you may prefer.

That means you can set up your digital services store either on their website or integrate it on an already existing one that you have more control over. You even get a custom domain to link back to Gumroad’s site.

Gumroad allows you to integrate their payment platform and “follow” button on your existing site. That makes it easier for people to buy memberships, courses, eBooks, and follow you for more content without leaving your site.

Selling eBooks online freaks out many people not because they lack content. Rather, the process of handling payments can be too daunting.

Suppose you are selling directly through your blog or other platforms. In that case, you have to figure out the best payment methods, keep the customer’s payment details safe, deliver the eBook once the customer has paid, and deal with accounting, tax, credit card fraud, among other things.

Gumroad handles that. It can take just 30 minutes to have your eBook available for purchase and download.

The Disadvantage of Gumroad

The biggest downside of using Gumroad is their hefty payment fee compared to other online payment services such as PayPal.

They have two options when it comes to fees:

  1. Pay no monthly fee but pay 8.5% + 30 cents for every sale
  2. Pay $10 per month then pay 3.5% + 30 cents per sale. This option comes with other perks, such as removing Gumroad branding from your sales emails.

However, considering they handle all the intricacies of payments, including VAT taxation which can be daunting to file in EU countries, the fees are worth it.

How to create and sell an ebook with Gumroad

To sell a publication, magazine, or flipbook with Gumroad, you need to have created it first in a format that’s shareable on the internet. That is where Heyzine comes in.

Your eBook will probably be in PDF format by this stage. That means all content has been written, edited, and approved for publication. For the best user experience, you need to convert your eBook in PDF format into a flipbook.

A flipbook, flipping book, otherwise known as a digital flipbook, is an interactive eBook that brings the look and feels of print publications into the digital world. That means your readers will have a more natural feel with the eBook.

Flipbooks also allow for richer content compared to standard PDFs. You can add animated page flips and multimedia embeds for readers to play video or audio content.

Create your content with Heyzine

Head over to the PDF to flipbook conversion page, click the upload button, and select the PDF file from your computer. It will take a few seconds for the page to reload and show you a preview of the results.

The final conversion may take longer, but no more than five minutes. There’s no limit imposed on the size or number of pages.

Customize the Flipbook

You can change many things to fit the document's style and the reading experience you intend your readers to have.

Click the customize button to get into the editor, where you can change things such as the page turn effect. If you are uploading a magazine, catalog, or brochure, the “Magazine” effect works fantastically. Professional documents can use the “Slider” effect.

You can also add your company logo and link so that readers can directly get in touch. Moreover, your flipbook will look more professional.

Once everything looks well-presented and stylish, you can get the flipbook link from the share menu.

Flipbook links are private by default. They are not shared anywhere unless you do, and if you want more security, you can always set a password for your flipbook.

get flipbook link

Publish the link on Gumroad and sell the membership

After you’ve signed up on Gumroad, head over to “New product” and select “Membership”. This option allows you to set up recurring payments for users to access your membership area.

Add the product title, description, and optionally, customize the last part to your product/membership URL. Finally, add a thumbnail and cover image.

The thumbnail will show up in Gumroad Library, Profile, and Discover pages, while the cover image is what your audience will see when they view your product and profile.

You can add more details about what your members will receive under “Product Info”. You can further explain the different membership tiers here. Membership tiers allow you to charge differently for more content or perks.

Finally, upload the content to each tier. When you click “Upload your files,” select the “link to external page” option. Paste the link to your flipbook here.

Focus more on creation, less on payment and distribution

Creators should be more focused on their content, which is the heart and soul of what they do. Using tools such as Heyzine and Gumroad for content distribution will save you from the headache of delivering your content online spectacularly and earning seamlessly from it.