In Short
Etsy is a giant marketplace for handmade, vintage and digital goods, where printable planners, journals, workbooks and guides sell well to shoppers searching for practical downloads. BooksOasis is a bookstore where readers come for novels, nonfiction and series, and where you keep the full ebook price under a flat plan. Etsy suits authors whose products are tools people print and use. BooksOasis suits books meant to be read. If you make both kinds, list each where its buyers shop.
Two Very Different Marketplaces
Etsy is known for creative, handmade and personalized items, and digital downloads are a large category on it. Shoppers search for things like budget planners, homeschool worksheets, recipe cards and wedding templates. You create a listing with images and a description, upload the file, and buyers download it after paying. Etsy charges small fees on every listing and sale, and offers paid ads to boost visibility.
BooksOasis serves a narrower crowd: people who want something to read. It is a store for books by independent authors and small presses, organized by genre and series, with new releases and discounted titles easy to find. A single page for each title can hold the ebook alongside paperback and hardcover editions. Rather than paying per listing or per sale, authors buy a flat plan sized to how many books they list.
Comparison Table
| Etsy | BooksOasis | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Printables, planners, templates and workbooks | Novels, nonfiction and series |
| Listing fee | $0.20 per listing, renewed every four months or when the item sells | Flat plan from $29.99 a year for 10 books |
| Fee per sale | 6.5% transaction fee plus payment processing (3% + $0.25 in the US) | None on ebooks; print pays the price minus printing and a 30% fee on that cost |
| Advertising fees | Offsite Ads fee of 12% or 15% on sales they bring in | None |
| Delivery | File download | Reading app that works offline and syncs notes |
| Print books | Only if you make and ship them | Paperback and hardcover, printed and shipped |
| Audience | Very large, general shoppers | Smaller, book readers |
| Exclusivity | None | None |
Etsy's Fees, Added Up
Etsy's individual fees look small, but they stack. For a US seller, each listing costs $0.20 and renews every four months or whenever the item sells. Each sale carries a 6.5% transaction fee and a payment processing fee of 3% plus $0.25. If a sale comes through Etsy's Offsite Ads, which advertise listings on other websites, a further 12% or 15% applies to that order.
Here is a $4.99 digital download sold by a US seller without Offsite Ads:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Listing renewal on sale | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee (6.5%) | $0.32 |
| Payment processing (3% + $0.25) | $0.40 |
| You keep (about) | $4.07 |
That is roughly 18% of the price in fees, more if Offsite Ads apply. Higher-priced bundles lose a smaller share, since part of the cost is fixed.
On BooksOasis, the same $4.99 ebook pays you $4.99. The cost sits in the plan instead: $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month for up to 10 books on Starter, with larger plans for 100 and 500 books and a pay-as-you-go option for a single title. At about $0.92 saved per sale, the Starter plan pays for itself after roughly 33 sales a year compared with Etsy.
What Etsy Buyers Look For
Etsy shoppers usually want something to use, not something to read. Top-selling digital items include planners, trackers, checklists, worksheets, coloring pages and templates. Buyers search with practical phrases such as "printable budget planner" or "kids reading log", and they judge listings by the preview images more than by any description.
That makes Etsy a natural home for authors who create low-content and activity books, workbooks that accompany a nonfiction title, or printable companions to a course. A gratitude journal or a meal planner can sell steadily on Etsy as a printable PDF while the bound version sells elsewhere.
Novels and narrative nonfiction are a harder fit. Few Etsy shoppers go there looking for their next thriller, and an EPUB download is less familiar to them than a printable PDF.
What BooksOasis Readers Look For
BooksOasis readers come to find books. They browse by genre, follow series from the first volume, check new releases and pick up titles on sale. Promotional prices you schedule show the regular price crossed out and can appear in the store's sale banners, and series pages group every volume together.
Its audience is far smaller than Etsy's, but it is made up of readers rather than general shoppers, and the catalog focuses on independent authors and small presses. Novels, memoirs, self-help, business books and series all fit naturally.
Delivery and Reading
Etsy delivers files. Buyers download your PDF or EPUB after payment, which suits printables perfectly, since the buyer will print them anyway. For ebooks, some buyers may need help opening an EPUB on their phone or e-reader.
BooksOasis delivers ebooks into its own reading app, which works offline and keeps a reader's place, highlights and notes in sync across devices. Buyers start reading right away with nothing to download or convert. Each ebook needs an EPUB file, and an ISBN is optional.
Physical Books
Etsy lets you sell physical books, but you make and ship them yourself, or connect a print-on-demand service through a separate integration. Handmade and personalized editions, such as custom children's books or hand-bound journals, can do very well on Etsy because buyers value that craft.
BooksOasis prints and ships paperback and hardcover editions for you. You choose from five common trims, from 5 x 8 to 8.5 x 11 inches, upload a print-ready interior and cover, and earn the price minus the printing cost and a handling fee of 30% of that cost. Readers pay shipping at checkout.
I format interiors for low-content books, workbooks and printables, ready for print and digital download.
Setting Up Each Store
An Etsy listing lives or dies by its images. Buyers expect mockups showing the printable on a desk or clipboard, sample pages and a clear list of what is included, plus tags that match how shoppers search. Many successful digital sellers create dozens of listings, since each listing is a separate chance to appear in search, and the $0.20 fee makes that affordable.
A BooksOasis listing is built around the book itself. You add a title, description, cover and editions, choose three to five genres and three to seven keywords, and submit it for a short review. Search on the store looks at the title first, then the subtitle, author name, series, keywords, genres and description, so a clear title and well-chosen keywords do most of the work.
Protecting Your Files
Any downloadable file can be shared, and printables are especially easy to pass around. On Etsy, many sellers add a short license note inside the file stating it is for personal use only. Ebooks read inside the BooksOasis app stay in the buyer's library rather than circulating as loose files, which may suit authors who worry about casual sharing.
A Strategy for Both
- Sell printables on Etsy: planners, worksheets, trackers and workbook pages people print at home.
- List your books on BooksOasis: novels, nonfiction and series in ebook, paperback and hardcover.
- Link the two naturally. A workbook buyer on Etsy may want the book it accompanies, and a reader may want the printable companion.
- Watch Offsite Ads costs on Etsy and factor them into your prices.
- Schedule sales on BooksOasis around launches and holidays.
If your Etsy products are journals or planners, our guide to formatting workbooks, journals and planners covers layouts that work both printed at home and bound.
Which Fits Your Product
| If you sell... | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| Printable planners, worksheets and templates | Etsy |
| Handmade or personalized books | Etsy |
| Novels and narrative nonfiction | BooksOasis |
| Series that readers follow book by book | BooksOasis |
| Print books you do not want to ship yourself | BooksOasis |
| A book plus a printable companion | Both |
Frequently Asked Questions
For US sellers, $0.20 per listing, a 6.5% transaction fee and payment processing of 3% plus $0.25 per sale, plus Offsite Ads fees of 12% or 15% on sales those ads bring in.
Printables, planners and workbooks sell well. Novels and narrative books are a harder fit, since most Etsy shoppers are looking for practical downloads.
Yes. Neither requires exclusivity.
BooksOasis charges a flat plan that covers a number of books, from 10 on Starter, rather than a fee per listing or per sale.
BooksOasis prints paperback and hardcover editions in five common trims, including 8.5 x 11 inches, so many journals and workbooks fit.
Etsy advertises listings on other websites and charges 12% or 15% of the order when a sale comes from one of those ads.