KDP Royalty Calculator

Amazon KDP pays authors a share of each book sale. The share depends on your format: eBooks use a percentage-of-list model (35% or 70%), while paperback and hardcover use a percentage-minus-printing-cost model (50% or 60% based on list price, minus per-unit printing).

eBook royalty is the simplest: 35% of list price (any eligible price) or 70% of list minus a per-MB delivery fee (only $2.99–$9.99 US). Print royalty is trickier because the printing cost varies by page count, ink (B&W vs color), and trim size. On a short B&W paperback the printing cost might be $2.30 flat; on a 500-page premium-color hardcover it can easily exceed $40.

KDP has no upfront fees and no minimum sales commitment. You keep the ISBN (or use a free KDP-assigned one), set your own list price, and Amazon withholds its share from every sale. Payouts land monthly, about 60 days after the sale month ends, subject to per-marketplace minimum thresholds.

For most authors with eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, the 70% tier is the clear winner. At $4.99 list with a typical 2 MB file, 70% pays ~$3.28 per sale vs 35% paying ~$1.75 — almost double. The 70% tier is why most indie authors price their eBooks in that sweet spot.

35% makes sense in three situations. First, if you're pricing outside the $2.99–$9.99 window — a $0.99 loss-leader reader magnet or a $14.99 premium niche book has to be 35%. Second, if your file is huge (image-heavy cookbook, graphic novel, children's book) — at 20+ MB the delivery fee can wipe out most of the 70% advantage. Third, if you want distribution in certain territories not covered by the 70% option.

One more wrinkle: the 70% tier requires your eBook list price to be at least 20% below the list price of any physical edition of the same book, and requires KDP Select enrollment for 70% payouts in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India. If you can't meet those rules, you get paid 35% in those marketplaces regardless of which tier you picked.

Print royalty is `rate × list price − printing cost`, where the rate is 50% if your list price is ≤$9.98 and 60% if ≥$9.99 on Amazon marketplaces. The $9.99 threshold is a real revenue hinge — pricing at $9.98 earns substantially less than $9.99 because you drop a whole 10 royalty points.

Printing cost for US paperback: short books (24–108 pages) have a flat fixed cost of $2.30 (regular trim) or $2.84 (large). Longer books (110–828 pages) cost $1.00 fixed plus a per-page rate — $0.012/page for regular B&W, up to $0.08/page for large-trim premium color. Hardcover uses a higher fixed base (~$5.65 + per-page over 108 pages) because binding is more complex, and KDP doesn't offer standard color for hardcover (only B&W or premium color).

You don't actually receive negative royalties per sale — KDP doesn't bill authors for their books. What people call "negative royalty" is really two different guardrails on the pricing side, both of which appear before a sale happens.

On the eBook 70% tier, the issue shows up when your file is large enough that the delivery fee approaches your list price. A 20 MB image-heavy book priced at $2.99 generates $3.00 in delivery fees — the fee alone equals or exceeds the royalty base, so the 70% advantage collapses or disappears. The 35% tier doesn't deduct delivery fees, so heavy-file authors often end up better off there anyway.

On print, it's a pricing-rejection warning. If you set a list price so low that `rate × list − printing cost` would be negative, KDP shows a "minimum list price" error and won't let you publish at that price. A 300-page premium-color paperback can't be listed at $14.99 because the printing cost alone (~$20.50) exceeds the 60% royalty share — KDP forces you up to the floor price that makes the math work.

KDP pays royalties monthly via direct deposit (most marketplaces) or check/wire transfer (where direct deposit isn't available), approximately 60 days after the end of each sale month. So your January 2026 royalties arrive in late March.

Each marketplace tracks earnings independently and has its own payout threshold — $10 via direct deposit in the US, with higher thresholds for check or wire payouts in other marketplaces. If your earnings in a given marketplace don't reach the threshold in a month, they accumulate until they do. Your KDP reports dashboard shows estimated earnings in near-real time; the final reconciled statement arrives with the monthly payout email.

Kindle Unlimited (KU) earnings from pages read are tracked separately and paid from the KDP Select Global Fund on a per-KENP basis — not per-sale. If you've enrolled in KDP Select, those earnings appear as a distinct "KENP royalty" line alongside your sale royalties on the monthly statement.