How much in royalties can you make with KDP Publishing (for eBook and Print)?

Royalties for your book with KDP

Publishing a book can be an exciting and highly creative process, one which most authors feel compelled to follow, dedicating many hours of hard work and effort into every page. But aside from the creative reasons why authors write books, they still want to get paid for every copy sold.

So, if you have published your book with KDP (or are about to) what royalties do they offer and what should you be aware of? 

Well, KDP splits the categories for print and eBook, offering different options for both, let's take a look at both of these starting with eBooks.

eBooks on KDP

They offer two choices for eBooks, the first is 35% and the second is 70%
For 35% your royalty will be 35% of the list price without the tax for each book sold, with the 70% it is 70% of the list price without the tax and less the delivery cost of the book (for example, in the US there is a fee of 0.15USD per MB, and in the UK there is a fee of 0.10GBP per MB).

Also, to qualify for the 70% royalty option, you have to have worldwide rights for the distribution of your book, if not (i.e. it’s a public domain or other book which you hold the rights for just certain territories) you will have to select just those countries, you’ll then just qualify for the 35% royalty, you can see more on their terms for Worldwide rights from the link.

It’s also worth noting, that the price you set for your eBook to receive the 70% royalty has to be at least 20% below the list price of your physical edition on Amazon.

KDP also has conditions for your eBook pricing based on the size of your book, so for the US (Amazon.com) the restrictions are:

For the 35% Royalty
An eBook less than 3MB – Min price $0.99 and Max Price $200
An eBook greater or equal to 3MB and less than 10MB - Min Price $1.99 and Max Price $200
An eBook 10MB and greater – Min Price $2.99 and Max Price $200

For the 70% Royalty
​All eBooks – Min Price $2.99 and Max Price $9.99
​You can see the full list of price requirements for other countries on their site.

eBooks which are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited

Kindle unlimited is a subscription service offered to Amazon customers, here readers pay a monthly fee and can read as many eBooks as they like (and keep them for as long as they want).

If you do select to enroll your eBook into Kindle Unlimited, you’ll get paid for the number of pages a customer reads (the first time), we have a great article which goes into detail on how KDP work out the Global fund where they pull the royalties from for Kindle unlimited / KDP Select

If the global fund available from KDP was $10 million, then a 100 page eBook that was borrowed and read completely 100 times would earn $1000 ($10 million x 10,000 pages read ÷ 100,000,000 total pages).

Paperback Books on KDP

KDP offer 60% royalties on paperbacks sold via Amazon marketplaces, this is 60% of your list price then with the printing costs taken off.

So, a 333page book at $15 with black ink sold on Amazon.com would be:
(0.60x$15) - $4.85 = $4.15 Royalty
(Royalty Rate x list price) – printing costs = royalty
 
For Paperbacks which are enrolled in Expanded Distribution, the royalty here is 40% of the book’s list price in the distribution channel (at time of purchase) minus the printing costs.
So, for the same 333page book, the royalties would be:

(0.40x$15) - $4.85 = $1.15 Royalty
(Royalty Rate x list price) – printing costs = royalty

Amazon does use a minimum list price for their books to ensure that the cost of printing your book will always be covered, this will be based on your page count and ink type, as such it will vary from book to book, however, their maximum prices are: 250USD, 250GBP, 350CAD, 250EUR, 350AUD, 30,000JPY 1,200PLN and 2,500SEK
 
Hardcover Books on KDP

For hardcover books, the royalty is 60% where the book has been sold within the Amazon Marketplace, this again, is the 60% of your list price, then less the printing costs (which will depend on ink, page count and where the book was purchased from).

(Royalty Rate x list price) – printing costs = royalty

As with paperbacks, hardback books have their minimum price set according to set up of the book, to cover printing costs, the maximum price is the same as paperback books (although they’re not in Australia currently).