Most new authors assume Amazon KDP royalties are straightforward — publish a book, earn a percentage. The reality is more nuanced. The difference between 35% and 70% on an eBook isn't automatic, and paperback royalties depend heavily on printing costs that many authors don't account for until after they've set their price. This guide walks through every royalty structure KDP offers, with exact numbers so you can make informed decisions before you hit publish.
eBook Royalties: 35% vs 70%
KDP offers two royalty tiers for eBooks, and you choose which one applies at the time of publishing. The key factors are your list price and your content type.
The 35% option applies to all territories, has no delivery fee deduction, and is the only option available for public domain works. It's also your only choice if you price below $2.99 or above $9.99 on Amazon.com.
The 70% option is where most fiction and nonfiction authors want to be. On Amazon.com, it requires a list price between $2.99 and $9.99 USD. But 70% isn't the full story — KDP deducts a delivery fee of approximately $0.15 per megabyte of your file. For a typical 1 MB eBook, that's $0.15 off the top. Here's what that looks like in practice:
- $2.99 list price → $1.94 royalty
- $3.99 list price → $2.64 royalty
- $4.99 list price → $3.34 royalty
- $9.99 list price → $6.84 royalty
At 35%, there's no delivery deduction, but the lower rate still bites: a $0.99 eBook earns roughly $0.35, and a $1.99 eBook earns roughly $0.70. One other important rule: if Amazon matches a competitor's lower price, your royalty is calculated on Amazon's sale price — not your list price. That price-matching clause can quietly cut your payout without any notice.
Substantial original content and translations of public domain works may qualify for the 70% tier — but plain public domain reprints are locked at 35%.
eBook Royalties by Marketplace
The 70% tier is available across most Amazon storefronts, but the eligible price windows vary by currency. Four markets — Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India — also require KDP Select enrollment to access 70%.
- Amazon.co.uk (GBP): £1.77–£9.99
- Amazon.de/EU (EUR): €2.69–€9.99
- Amazon.ca (CAD): C$2.99–C$9.99
- Amazon.com.au (AUD): $3.99–$11.99
- Amazon.co.jp (JPY): ¥250–¥1,250 (KDP Select required)
- Amazon.in (INR): ₹99–₹449 (KDP Select required)
- Amazon.com.br and Amazon.com.mx: KDP Select required for 70%
Outside the eligible price window in any territory, the rate automatically falls to 35%. If you're publishing wide and pricing in multiple currencies, it's worth checking each storefront's requirements individually. The official KDP list price requirements page covers every territory in detail.
Paperback Royalties
Paperback royalties work differently from eBooks. Instead of a flat percentage, you're working with a formula: (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost = your royalty. Printing costs are real money deducted before you see a cent, which means setting your price without knowing your print cost is a mistake that will cost you.
On Amazon.com, the royalty rate is 60% for list prices at or above $9.99, and 50% for prices at or below $9.98. That $0.01 threshold matters more than it sounds. The same split applies on other storefronts: £7.99/£7.98 in the UK, C$13.99/C$13.98 in Canada, and ¥1,000/¥999 in Japan.
Approximate black-and-white paperback printing costs for a standard 6×9" format in the US market:
- 100 pages: $1.90
- 200 pages: $2.75
- 300 pages: $3.60
- 500 pages: $5.30
A real example: a 200-page paperback priced at $9.99 (60% rate) minus $2.75 printing = $3.24 royalty per Amazon sale. Price that same book at $9.98 and you drop to the 50% tier — your royalty falls to $2.24. That single cent in list price costs you a dollar per sale.
Expanded Distribution drops the royalty rate to 40% of list price minus printing costs. That same 200-page book at $9.99 through Expanded Distribution earns $1.25 per sale — less than half the direct Amazon rate. Expanded Distribution royalties also display approximately 30 days after month-end, so cash flow is slower. Promotional discounts don't affect royalty calculations, which is one of the few breaks KDP gives authors on paperbacks.
Color printing costs significantly more. For a standard 6×9" format: 100 pages runs $6.25, and 200 pages runs $11.45. At 8.5×11", a 100-page color book costs $9.35 and 200 pages costs $17.65. That makes pricing color books for profit considerably harder. Use the KDP Royalty Calculator to test different price and page count combinations before committing.
Hardcover Royalties
KDP hardcovers use the same royalty formula as paperbacks: 60% of list price minus printing cost. The difference is that printing costs are higher. A 200-page hardcover costs approximately $7.25 to print. At a $19.99 list price, that works out to a $4.74 royalty per sale ($19.99 × 0.60 = $11.99, minus $7.25). Hardcovers tend to work best for books where readers expect a premium physical format — illustrated non-fiction, gift books, and reference titles where the higher price point feels justified.
Kindle Unlimited: The Variable You Can't Control
Kindle Unlimited (KU) operates on a completely different model. Instead of a per-sale royalty, authors enrolled in KDP Select are paid from a monthly Global Fund based on how many pages of their books are read. The May 2026 fund was $70.3 million.
The formula: (your pages read / all KU pages read that month) × fund amount. The per-page rate historically runs between $0.004 and $0.005. The September 2025 rate was $0.004521 per page.
What this means in practice for a 300-page novel fully read: approximately $1.35. Compare that to the same book priced at $4.99 as a direct eBook sale (roughly $3.34 at 70%). KU pages only count on first read — re-reads don't generate additional royalties — and there's a hard cap of 3,000 KENP pages counted per title per customer. Page counts are measured using KENPC v3.0, which is KDP's standardized page-counting system (your actual formatted page count may differ).
The rate fluctuates monthly based on total pages read across the entire KU catalog, which means your per-page payout is partly determined by how many other authors are enrolled and how many pages their readers consume. It's not a number you can count on being stable year to year.
Calculating What You'll Actually Earn
The most useful exercise before publishing is running the numbers on your specific book — page count, file size, planned price — before you finalize anything. KDP's own royalty calculator at kdp.amazon.com/en_US/royalty-calculator will show you the exact payout for any combination you enter.
A quick side-by-side for a 200-page book:
- $4.99 eBook (70% tier, 1 MB file): $3.34 per sale
- $9.99 paperback (Amazon Direct, 60% tier): $3.24 per sale
- KU (300 pages fully read): ~$1.35 per read
For readers who actually finish your book in KU, you're earning roughly 40% of what a direct eBook sale would bring. That math favors direct sales for authors with engaged audiences who buy — but KU's discoverability benefits can offset the lower per-read rate if you're building an audience. Our KDP how-to guides cover the KDP Select decision in more detail.
Common Mistakes That Cut Your Royalties
A few avoidable errors that frequently show up among newer KDP authors:
- Pricing below $2.99 and getting locked into the 35% tier. A $2.99 eBook earns $1.94. A $1.99 eBook earns $0.70. That's not a small difference — it's roughly 2.8x per sale.
- Not factoring in printing costs before setting paperback prices. Pricing a 300-page paperback at $9.99 sounds reasonable until you realize $3.60 goes to printing and you're working with the 60% rate — leaving $2.39. Price the same book at $12.99 and your royalty jumps to $4.19.
- Underestimating what Expanded Distribution costs. The 40% rate through Expanded Distribution sounds like a worthwhile trade for wider retail reach, but for many book types the margin is thin enough that it isn't worth pursuing without meaningful distribution volume.
- Ignoring the price-matching clause for eBooks. If you're enrolled in wide distribution and Amazon matches a lower price from another retailer, your royalty is calculated on Amazon's reduced sale price — not what you set.
If you're still scoping out which niches and price points are viable before committing to a format, the KDP niche pages on Pubscout show what competing books are actually selling for, which can inform your pricing strategy before you publish. The BSR Sales Calculator can help you translate a book's Best Seller Rank into estimated monthly sales volume.
Before You Publish
The Pubscout Chrome Extension lets you see live BSR, estimated monthly sales, and niche data directly on any Amazon book page — useful for checking what similar books in your category are earning before you finalize your own price. You can grab it at the Pubscout Chrome Extension page.
Amazon KDP royalties aren't complicated once you understand the structure, but the details matter. A one-cent difference in list price, a megabyte of extra images in your eBook file, or an Expanded Distribution opt-in can each shift your per-sale earnings meaningfully. Run your numbers before you publish, not after.