Alva Digital Downloads is a Shopify app that lets self-published authors sell PDF and EPUB ebooks direct to readers — cutting out the 30–65% platform cut on Amazon KDP or Gumroad. Every PDF ships stamped with the buyer's name, email, and order number , delivery emails arrive from the author's own domain , and Alva's fraud layer holds risky orders before the file leaves the server. Sell single titles, or pack a whole trilogy as one product.
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Export the book from Vellum or InDesign — one PDF, one EPUB. Drag both into Alva's uploader. The files sit in Cloudflare R2; Alva's signing layer is configured at the product level, so each buyer gets a stamped copy rather than the raw upload.
Open the Shopify product editor. Variant 1 = PDF ($9.99), variant 2 = EPUB ($9.99), variant 3 = PDF+EPUB bundle ($14.99). In the Alva tab, attach the right file per variant. Turn on PDF stamping. Turn on fraud review. Three minutes from export to live.
The order clears fraud in under a second. Alva stamps the PDF with the reader's name, signs the download link, and emails it from books@authorname.com — not a Shopify subdomain. The reader opens the mail on their phone and the file downloads immediately.
Upload Book 3. Open the existing "Complete trilogy" pack product, add the new PDF. Existing buyers of the trilogy get a notification via the customer account portal that a new entry is available — they re-download without a support ticket.
Every delivered PDF is stamped at download time with the buyer's name, email, and order number. The stamp sits in a configurable footer, survives copy-paste, and makes the file traceable. If a stamped copy surfaces on a piracy forum or LibGen, the author knows which order leaked it, can block any remaining downloads for that buyer, and has evidence for a DMCA takedown.
Ebook PDFs are small, high-margin, and frequently targeted by stolen-card buyers scraping for resale. Alva scores every order against 40+ signals via Shopify's Risk API — AVS mismatch, device fingerprint, email age, CVV outcome, VPN/proxy flags. High-risk orders auto-hold before the file is delivered. The author approves or rejects in one click. False-positive rate across Alva's merchant base: 0.4%.
A delivery email from a Shopify subdomain looks like a receipt. A delivery email from the author's own domain looks like a book. Alva's custom email sender domain feature handles the DKIM and SPF records via Postmark, lets the author edit every line of the template with 14 dynamic variables, and lifts inbox placement by reinforcing the author's brand.
A pack groups multiple files under a single Shopify product. Sell the "Complete trilogy" with three PDFs, three EPUBs, and a bonus short story as one $29 bundle. When book four ships, add the file to the pack — existing buyers can be notified and granted access via the customer account portal, without a support email.
Readers lose emails. Their phone dies. They switch e-readers. Alva's customer account portal gives every buyer a permanent page inside the Shopify customer area listing every book they own and every file available to re-download. Each re-download is a freshly signed, stamped PDF — not a stale link.
If the reader's Gmail filters the delivery email, the same signed link is also on the Shopify thank-you page, the order status page, and the customer account portal. Four delivery surfaces means the author never gets the "I can't find my download" email. Every click is logged per-channel — the author knows exactly where the reader picked up the file.
A PDF ebook typically sits between 2–12 MB. An EPUB is smaller, usually 500 KB to 3 MB. That means a catalogue of 30 books in both formats fits comfortably under 400 MB. Storage is almost never the binding constraint for an author — the features are. Authors land on the plan that unlocks PDF stamping, fraud protection, and the custom sender domain.
Every paid plan includes unlimited bandwidth, unlimited orders, PDF stamping, fraud protection, custom email domain, made-to-order files, Shopify POS, and Shopify Flow actions. The 14-day trial begins only after the first live order.
Most authors do not leave Amazon KDP outright — KDP stays live for discovery. The direct-sales store on Shopify becomes the 80–90% margin channel the author points their email list at.
From Gumroad: Customers → Export CSV. From Payhip: Customers → Export. KDP does not share reader emails — that list has to be built via newsletter captures on the author site. Import the CSV into Shopify customers and tag with "from-gumroad" for a re-buy coupon flow.
Drop every title's PDF and EPUB into Alva's uploader. Rename consistently — title-slug.pdf, title-slug.epub — so CSV-driven product binding is trivial. If the catalogue is large, use the CSV import: one row per file with SKU, price, and pack membership.
For each book, create a Shopify product with three variants — PDF, EPUB, PDF+EPUB bundle. Attach the matching file(s) per variant in Alva. Turn on PDF stamping. Turn on fraud review. For series, also build a "Complete series" pack product attaching every file in the sequence.
Send the old Gumroad or Payhip list a "buy direct from the author for X% off" email. Include a link to the new Shopify product page. Existing Gumroad buyers can be issued a free re-download coupon if the author wants to migrate their library. Newsletter captures on KDP back-ads funnel new readers into the same Shopify store.
"The PDF stamping was the clincher. I pulled a pirated copy of one of my books off a forum and could tell from the footer exactly which sale it came from."
"Emails go out from my author domain now. My reply rate on the delivery email is up — readers actually reply and say thank you."
"My trilogy sells as a single bundle product. When book four dropped I added the file to the pack — early buyers got the new book free, which became a newsletter moment."
A step-by-step walkthrough for self-published authors selling PDF and EPUB ebooks direct on Shopify.
Practical measures — per-buyer PDF stamping, signed URLs, and fraud detection — to stop ebook piracy on Shopify.
Install Alva from the Shopify App Store. Upload your PDF and EPUB, bind them to a Shopify product, place a test order — watch the stamped PDF land in the buyer's inbox within 1.4 seconds. Keep 80–90% of the sale price instead of 30–65%. Trial starts only after the first real customer order.