6 Reasons why KDP is Better than Payhip for Authors

Are you struggling in deciding between KDP and Payhip for your book selling? The short answer for you is KDP. This article will tell you why KDP is more appropriate for a writer, ebook writers, than Payhip. Well, another reader may be asking "what is your position to say so?" No problem. I have experiences in using both for a long period so I have a good position to inform you about this.

Defining KDP and Payhip

KDP

KDP, as you may have known, stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. It is the Amazon e-book self-publishing platform that was launched in November 2007. It helps independent publishers to publish and sell their e-books and paperbacks to the world. KDP does not publish and selll all submitted books, by the way. The submissions will be reviewed for at least 24-72 hours before they are decided whether to publish or not. All books published and sold with KDP are charged from $0.09 to $200.00, depends on the length, size, and type of the book. To put it another way, the author can choose whether to retain 30% or 70% royalty of their books. This policy applies under particular conditions.

Payhip

Payhip is an e-commerce platform that enables anyone to sell their digital products, including e-books. It was founded in 2012, younger than KDP. It serves the sellers to upload their e-books, decide the price, and get their books accessible online for purchase. There's no review in Payhip. It means that all e-books, as long as they are formatted in an acceptable way for Payhip, they will be accepted.

You might notice that I use "author" for KDP and "seller" for Payhip. I did so because KDP is specialized for books while Payhip is not. When you join KDP and get your book published, you are an author. In Payhip, once you get your book uploaded, you are a seller. Well, Payhip is not a self-publishing platform but an e-commerce because it helps you to sell any digital products including images and videos while in KDP the images and videos must be included into a book. Yes, a video can be attached to a kindle version of your book, if any.

6 Reasons Why You Should Choose KDP Over Payhip

Now, let's jump to the pool. I know that most readers do not want to read long articles just to know which one should be chosen between the twos. So, here are the reasons why KDP is more preferred than Payhip.

1. You want a professional look, an author

I am not talking about your book design. I am talking about your publishing platform. KDP has a castle-like reputation. Along with its age of operation, KDP has been trusted by millions e-commerce including GoodReads. Self-publishing with KDP means you are ready to introduce yourself as a responsible and professional author. Famous authors from J.K. Rowling to Eckhart Tolle have their books listed on KDP. Although you don't intend to compete with them, getting yourself into the same pool is really something valuable.

Payhip does not give you this. It entitles you as a seller of the digital product. Your buyers may perceive you as the author of the book they purchase via Payhip, but for a clear reason, you know that riding with Payhip makes you a good seller, perhaps, but never an author.

2. With KDP, your books sell by themselves, almost

Not all people are good at marketing, including myself. I don't have any "ninja moves" in selling my books by myself, because I am a writer, not a seller. I need someone or something else to bring my books to the market fields, to make people know about my books without me doing that by myself. Fortunately, KDP helps me a lot in this case. Well, I still do some job like sharing my books URLs, writing articles related to the topic my books discuss, and enclose the article with references and at least one of them is my book. But, my books are listed in eBay and GoodReads even before I created accounts in their systems. Well, KDP makes it.

Unfortunately, when I was with Payhip, I must do all of these by myself. What Payhip gave me just a link to my book and I had to share the link to my social media until one day I got blocked by social media for being suspected spamming. Perhaps, in the future, Payhip will also have connection with other e-commerces so it is not only Payhip but also Payhelp for the authors like you.

3. KDP secures your books

Well, this is the most important point. All authors do not want their books listed for free in, for example, PDFDrive.com. How do you feel if one day your spouse says that, "Hey, I read your book." And you ask, "How? Did you buy it?" and you are told, "No! I downloaded it!" KDP ensures that this will not happen to you easily. In KDP, you have chances to set Direct Rights Management (DRM) that will restrict inaunthenticated people from viewing the content of your books. DRM, according to Fortinet.com, helps organizations clearly communicate what costumers can and cannot do with their digital media, which in turns educates users about how copyright and intellectual property work. In short, DRM is crucial to helping authors and writers protect their works, said Fortinet.com.

I apologize to you to tell you this. In Payhip, if people buy your books, they got the PDF files of your books. In one year or less, your books PDF will be available on the internet, for free. Although Payhip can add a stamp in each downloadable copy with the respective costumer's email address, do not think that your costumers feel shy to share your book files. What if they use an email that hold fake information regarding themselves?

4. KDP secures your money

By having a journey with KDP, you can be sure that your money is safe. It is not only that KDP, or Amazon in general, has a strong payment management but also its partner, Payoneer, your virtual bank account where your money will be transferred from KDP, is a castle-like wallet. Payoneer does not have a double-check system but a tripple-or-more checking system to ensure that it is you that is accessing your account. In Payoneer, all payments are made through a fully compliant secure, and tightly audited payments platforms that is recognized by financial regulators all around the world.

What about Payhip? Payhip uses PayPal and Stripe to manage your payment. Quoting an article published in May 2022 in Thehackernews.com, a security researcer claims to have discovered an unpatched vulnerability in PayPal's money transfer service that could allow attackers to trick victims into unknowingly completing attacker-directed transaction with a single click. Does it give you a goosebump?

5. Meet other KDP authors around the world

There are so many KDP Facebook groups and forums on the internet where you can meet other KDP authors and get their supports on how to write a good book, how to format a book, how to decide the price, and how to sell or promote your books. Among the authos joined the groups, you can find famous authors as well. How lucky you are.

With Payhip, you can meet other sellers and ask about your books to a photographer who is selling his photos via Payhip. Sure, you can get valuable inputs from them too because they are also good in writing, God willing.

6. But KDP is tough

Some days ago, someone in the KDP group said that he got an email from KDP telling that one or two of his books are withdrawed from the selling page. The reason was, the book contains plagiarism. I read all the comments said that he should stop plagiarizing texts from blogs and websites and compile them into a junk he called book. Well, I mentioned before that KDP is a reputable self-publishing platform. It maintains its reputation by reviewing all the books. Only books that meet the requirements can be published in KDP. Is it tough enough? Well, for a real writer like you, it is a chance to shape yourself as a good writer. KDP is not tough. It just teaches us how to be a good writer.

Concluding Remarks

We have reached the last part of this article, by the way. In conclusion, KDP is a better choice for publishing and selling your books. Besides it also sells your printed books, it is secure, it is helping your book marketing, and it makes you a professional writer. You can sell the book although you do not have a good marketing strategy because your books will be distributed in global markets. If you just want to sell your low quality digital products because you think they are too valuable to delete from your computer, Payhip is a good choice. But if you shot higher, I don't see any reason to pass KDP.