The Decision in a Nutshell
Shopify lets you build your own online bookshop on your own domain, with your branding and your customer list, but you pay a monthly subscription, payment fees and usually app fees, and you set everything up yourself. BooksOasis is a ready-made bookstore where you list your books under a flat plan, keep the full ebook price and have print and ebook delivery handled for you. Shopify suits established authors with steady traffic who want full control. BooksOasis suits authors who want a direct storefront without building or running one.
Build a Shop or Join a Store
Shopify is an ecommerce platform used by businesses of every size. For an author, it means a complete online shop: product pages for each book, a checkout, discount codes, bundles, customer accounts and marketing tools. Shopify itself does not print books or deliver ebooks, so authors connect apps for those jobs, such as a print-on-demand service for paperbacks and a delivery service for ebook files.
BooksOasis is a bookstore for independent authors and small presses. Instead of building a shop, you add your books to a store that already exists. Readers browse genre shelves, series pages, new releases and sales, and each book page can carry ebook, paperback and hardcover editions. Checkout, printing, ebook delivery and a reading app are all part of the store.
Side-by-Side Table
| Shopify | BooksOasis | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Your own online shop on your domain | Listings in an independent bookstore |
| Monthly cost | Subscription plan, cheaper when billed yearly, plus any paid apps | Flat plan from $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month for 10 books |
| Per-sale costs | Card processing, plus an extra fee if you use a third-party payment provider | None on ebooks; print pays the price minus printing and a 30% fee on that cost |
| Print books | Through a connected print-on-demand app | Built in: paperback and hardcover |
| Ebook delivery | Through a digital delivery app | Built in, with a reading app |
| Branding | Fully yours | Your author name or imprint on book pages |
| Reader discovery | Only traffic you bring | Store browsing plus traffic you bring |
| Setup effort | High | Low |
The Real Cost of a Shopify Bookshop
Shopify's costs come in layers, and authors often underestimate them.
- The plan. Shopify charges a monthly subscription, with a discount for paying yearly. Check its pricing page for your country, since prices vary by region.
- Payment processing. Every card payment carries a processing fee. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify's own, Shopify adds a further percentage on each sale, which falls on higher plans.
- Apps. Print-on-demand and ebook delivery apps may have their own monthly fees or charges per order.
- A theme and domain. Free themes exist, but many shops buy a premium theme, and your domain renews yearly.
Add those together and a Shopify bookshop can easily cost several hundred dollars a year before you sell a single book. That is reasonable for an author selling hundreds of books a month directly. For an author selling a few copies a month, it is a lot of overhead.
BooksOasis bundles everything into one plan. Starter costs $29.99 a year for up to 10 books, Growth $179 a year for 100 and Publisher $599 a year for 500, with a pay-as-you-go option for a single title. There are no per-sale fees on ebooks, and print simply deducts the printing cost plus a handling fee of 30% of that cost, with readers paying shipping.
Setup and Maintenance
Building a good Shopify bookshop is a project. You choose and customize a theme, create product pages with descriptions, formats and images, connect payments, install and configure print and ebook apps, set up shipping rules and taxes, test the checkout, and write policies. Afterward, you maintain it: updating apps, fixing broken integrations and answering customer questions.
On BooksOasis, setup means creating a book and adding editions. You upload an EPUB for the ebook and, for print, an interior PDF and a cover sized to your trim and page count, and the dashboard checks the files and shows the exact cover dimensions and spine width. Each book needs at least three genres and three keywords, and it goes live after a short review. Checkout, delivery and the reading app are already working.
If you enjoy building and tinkering, Shopify is satisfying. If you would rather spend that time writing the next book, a ready-made store saves many hours.
Print Books
On Shopify, print books come from a print-on-demand app connected to your shop. When a reader orders a paperback, the app sends the order to a printer, which prints and ships it. You set the retail price and keep what is left after the printer's charges and Shopify's fees. Some authors instead keep stock at home and ship copies themselves, which gives them signed copies and bundles at the cost of time spent packing.
On BooksOasis, paperback and hardcover editions are part of the store. You choose from five common trims, from 5 x 8 to 8.5 x 11 inches, set a price above the minimum, and earn the price minus the printing cost and the 30% handling fee on that cost. Orders are printed and shipped without any integration on your part.
Ebook Delivery
Shopify can deliver files with a digital downloads app, and many authors connect a dedicated ebook delivery service that helps readers load the file onto their devices. That works well but adds another tool and, often, another subscription.
BooksOasis delivers ebooks itself. Buyers read in the store's app, which works offline and keeps their place, highlights and notes in sync. Each ebook sale pays you 100% of the price, with no processing or platform fee taken from it.
Where Buyers Come From
A Shopify shop has no built-in audience. Every buyer arrives because you sent them, through your newsletter, social media, ads, podcast appearances or back matter. Authors with a large, engaged readership often do very well, because they keep more of each sale and control the whole experience.
BooksOasis brings some readers of its own. People browse its genre shelves, follow series and check books on sale, and promotional prices you schedule show the regular price crossed out and can appear in its sale banners. Its audience is growing rather than huge, so your own marketing still matters, but you are not starting from zero.
I write author websites, book sales pages and descriptions that turn visitors into buyers.
Customer Ownership
Shopify's biggest advantage is ownership. Your shop collects buyer names and email addresses, so you can follow up with new releases, offer bundles and build a direct relationship. Your shop lives on your domain, and if you ever leave Shopify, your customer list comes with you.
On BooksOasis, the store manages checkout and the reader's library. You control your books, prices, promotions and public author identities, and one account can run unlimited pen names and imprints. Building your own customer list happens through your newsletter rather than through the store.
A Sensible Path
- Start with ready-made stores, including the big retailers and BooksOasis, so your books are available everywhere with little setup.
- Grow your newsletter with a free reader magnet.
- Track direct demand. When readers regularly ask to buy signed copies or bundles from you, a shop of your own starts to make sense.
- Add Shopify when the numbers work, keeping BooksOasis and other stores for readers who prefer them.
Whichever route you choose, your website is where direct sales begin. Our guide to building an author website that sells covers the pages and copy that convert visitors.
Choosing
| If you... | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| Have a large audience and sell many copies directly | Shopify |
| Want signed copies, merchandise and custom bundles | Shopify |
| Want full ownership of customer data and branding | Shopify |
| Want a direct store without building one | BooksOasis |
| Want printing and ebook delivery handled for you | BooksOasis |
| Want low, predictable costs | BooksOasis |
Frequently Asked Questions
Not by itself. Authors connect a print-on-demand app that prints and ships orders placed in their Shopify shop.
Usually not. The monthly plan and app costs add up, so a Shopify shop makes most sense once you sell many copies directly.
No. Checkout, printing, ebook delivery and the reading app are all part of the store.
Yes. Neither requires exclusivity.
On your own Shopify shop, you do. On BooksOasis, the store handles checkout, so build your list through your newsletter.
You earn the price minus the printing cost and a handling fee of 30% of that cost. Readers pay shipping.