I almost pulled the trigger on putting The Problem-First Method ebook on Amazon instead of even messing with building out my own site to sell the ebook.
It felt like the default. Everyone does it. KDP had already made the print decision easy. Print-on-demand at their scale is hard to beat, so the paperback and hardcover were never really in question. The ebook felt like it should follow the same logic.
Then I checked the math.
At $15 on my own site, I keep about $14.26 after Stripe fees.
At $15 on Amazon, I keep $5.25.
Almost 3x per sale. And that's before the second thing you hand over: the customer. Amazon keeps the email. You get a royalty statement.
For a big publisher with a marketing budget and a front-of-store deal, maybe that trade is worth it. Reach in exchange for margin. Fair enough.
But as an indie author, I'm not sure what "distribution" I'm actually buying. A first-time indie book isn't getting surfaced to strangers on Amazon. It's being found by the people who already heard about it from me, the same people who'd land on my site anyway.
So the ebook stays on my own site. Smaller pond. Better math. And a customer I actually get to know, which means I can do fun stuff like throw in 3 free ebooks you can gift to friends when you buy.
Still figuring this out. Open to being told I'm wrong.