KDP Proof Copy vs. Author Copy Explained

When you publish a paperback or hardcover with Amazon KDP, you can buy printed copies of your own book. KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s Amazon’s service for publishing your own books.

For each copy, you pay what it costs Amazon to print it. KDP calls this the printing cost. You pay for shipping too.

KDP offers two kinds of printed copies. They do different jobs.

• A proof copy is a test print of your book. You order it before you publish. It shows you how your book looks in print.
• An author copy is a printed copy of your published book. You can sell it, give it away, or keep it.

In short, order a proof before you publish. Order author copies after your book is on sale.

You can order these copies only for paperbacks and hardcovers. Kindle ebooks don’t have them. KDP’s prices and rules can change. The facts in this guide come from Amazon’s KDP help pages as of October 2026.

What do the KDP terms in this guide mean?

• Your Bookshelf is the page in your KDP account that lists your books. You order both kinds of copies from it.
• Your book’s status tells you where it is in the publishing process. You’ll see it next to the book on your Bookshelf.
• Draft is the status of a book you’ve started setting up on KDP but haven’t submitted for publishing yet.
• Live means your book is published and readers can buy it on Amazon.
• Live with unpublished changes means your book is on sale, but you’ve made edits on KDP that you haven’t submitted yet.
• Print Previewer is KDP’s tool that shows your printed book on screen, page by page. You use it after you upload your book’s pages and cover. It also checks for problems you must fix before you publish, such as text too close to the edge of a page.
• Printing cost is what Amazon charges to print one copy of your book. It depends on your book’s page count, size, ink, and paper. It also depends on the Amazon store you order from.
• Trim size is the width and height of your finished book, such as 6 × 9 inches.
• A marketplace is KDP’s word for one of Amazon’s country stores, such as Amazon.com in the United States or Amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom.
• A royalty is the money KDP pays you when a reader buys your book.
• KDP Reports is the part of your KDP account that shows your sales and royalties.
• An ISBN is the number that identifies your book. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number.

How do proof copies and author copies differ?

What is a KDP proof copy?

A proof copy is a test print of your book. KDP says it’s for you to review before you submit your book for publishing.

Every proof is marked “Not for Resale.” KDP calls this marking a watermark. A proof also has its own barcode with no ISBN.

You can order a proof while your book is still a draft. First, you must approve your book in Print Previewer. Print Previewer shows your book on a screen. A proof is the real thing. You can feel the paper, see the cover in print, and check the binding. The binding is how the pages are held together inside the cover.

What is a KDP author copy?

An author copy is a printed copy of your published book. KDP sells it to you at your printing cost. You can sell author copies yourself or give them away.

You can order author copies only when your book’s status is Live or Live with unpublished changes. The option doesn’t appear for any other status. After your book goes live, the option may take another 24 hours to appear. If you don’t see it, check again in 24 hours.

Do author copies include your latest edits?

An author copy is printed from the version of your book that’s on sale. It doesn’t include edits you’ve made on KDP but haven’t published. If your book is Live with unpublished changes, you’ll get the version that’s on sale now.

To get your latest version, publish your changes. Then wait until your book’s status says Live again before you order.

Even then, you may get a copy printed before your changes. Here’s why. KDP prints each copy only after someone orders it. If an order is canceled after its copy is printed, Amazon keeps that copy in stock until it sells. Your order can get that older copy.

To check, look for the printing date inside your copy. KDP won’t replace or refund a copy printed before your changes.

How do you order a KDP proof copy?

Before you start, upload your book’s pages and cover to KDP. Then approve your book in Print Previewer.

1. Go to your Bookshelf on KDP.
2. Find the paperback or hardcover you want a proof of.
3. Open the “…” menu next to that book. Click Request Printed Proofs.
4. Choose how many copies you want. You can order up to 5 proofs in one request.
5. Choose the marketplace for the country you’re shipping to. The store table below shows which one to pick.
6. Click Submit Proof Request.
7. Wait for an email from KDP. It arrives within 4 hours and has a link to finish your order.
8. In the email, click Proceed to Shopping Cart.
9. Check out and pay within 24 hours of getting the email. If you wait longer, KDP removes the proofs from your cart.

If the email hasn’t arrived after 4 hours, check the inbox for the email address on your KDP account. If you still can’t find it, look in your Amazon cart. Your proofs may already be there.

At checkout, you can add other delivery addresses. This lets you send proofs straight to reviewers, such as an editor or a friend who’s reading your book before it’s published.

How do you order KDP author copies?

1. Go to your Bookshelf on KDP.
2. Find the paperback or hardcover you want copies of.
3. Click the Order Author Copies button for that book. If its status is Live with unpublished changes, open the “…” menu next to the book instead. Click Order Author Copies there.
4. Enter how many copies you want. You can order up to 999 in one order.
5. Choose the marketplace for the country you’re shipping to.
6. Click Proceed to checkout. Amazon takes you to your cart in that store.
7. Check out and pay in your cart.

Which Amazon store should you order from?

Order from the store that delivers to your address. This table shows the stores KDP lists for some common countries.

KDP’s help page How do I order a proof or author copy? lists the stores for other countries. If KDP can’t ship to the address you enter, it tells you at checkout.

How much do KDP proof and author copies cost?

You pay your book’s printing cost for each copy, whether it’s a proof or an author copy. KDP says this is the lowest price it can offer for your book. It doesn’t give any other discounts.

To find your total, multiply the printing cost in the Amazon store you order from by the number of copies. Then add shipping.

How does KDP calculate the printing cost?

The printing cost of a paperback has two parts:

• A fixed charge for each copy
• A per-page charge, which is a small amount for each page in the book

KDP puts them together in one formula.

Fixed charge + (page count × per-page charge) = printing cost

The table shows KDP’s prices on Amazon.com, in US dollars. They’re for paperbacks printed in black ink on white or cream paper.

A book with 110 pages or fewer pays only the fixed charge in the first row. It has no per-page charge. The per-page charges in the second row are 1.2 cents and 1.7 cents.

A book counts as large size if it’s more than 6.12 inches wide or more than 9 inches tall. Every other trim size counts as regular. A book that’s 6 × 9 inches is regular size.

These prices don’t apply to color ink, hardcovers, or other Amazon stores. Each of those has its own prices. Groundwood paper, a cheaper paper KDP offers for black-ink books, has its own prices too.

KDP shows your book’s printing cost in the Rights & Pricing section when you set up your paperback. You can also use our KDP royalty calculator to see it in each Amazon store. If you don’t know your page count yet, our word count to pages calculator can estimate it.

What do 5 proofs and 100 author copies cost?

Say your paperback is 6 × 9 inches and has 300 pages. It’s printed in black ink on white paper. You live in the United States. You order from Amazon.com and pay in US dollars.

1. Find your size. Your book is regular size. It’s no wider than 6.12 inches and no taller than 9 inches.
2. Find your charges. Your book has more than 110 pages. It pays a fixed charge of $1.00 a copy, plus $0.012 for each page.
3. Calculate the per-page charge. That’s 300 × $0.012, which comes to $3.60.
4. Add the fixed charge. That’s $1.00 + $3.60, which comes to $4.60. This is the printing cost of one copy.
5. Multiply by the number of copies. Five proofs cost 5 × $4.60, which comes to $23.00. One hundred author copies cost 100 × $4.60, which comes to $460.00.
6. Add shipping. Amazon shows the shipping cost on the last page of checkout.

In total, you’d pay $23.00 plus shipping for 5 proofs. You’d pay $460.00 plus shipping for 100 author copies.

A shorter book is simpler. A 100-page paperback of the same size pays only the fixed charge of $2.30 a copy. Five proofs of it cost 5 × $2.30, which comes to $11.50, plus shipping.

How much does shipping cost?

KDP doesn’t give a formula for shipping. The cost depends on these five things:

• How many books you order
• How fast you want them delivered
• Where you’re sending them
• Which Amazon store you order from
• How much the books weigh and how big they are

Proof and author copy orders never get free shipping. They don’t get Prime shipping either. Prime shipping is the free delivery that comes with an Amazon Prime membership.

To see the shipping cost, go to the last page of checkout. Look at the total before you click Place your order. You don’t have to place the order to see it.

How long do proof and author copies take to arrive?

Amazon shows a delivery date on the last page of checkout, just before you click Place your order. This date depends on how many copies you order and how fast you choose to ship them. It includes the time KDP needs to print your copies.

KDP suggests writing the date down when you order. The date can change. How long printing takes depends on how many orders KDP has at the time.

Faster shipping won’t speed up printing. KDP can’t print your order faster, even if you pay for quicker delivery.

If checkout shows no delivery date, KDP needs extra time to print your order. It emails you when it has a date.

To track your order, visit the Amazon store where you placed it. Go to Your Account and click Your Orders. Find your order and click Track Package. If there’s no Track Package button, your order hasn’t shipped yet.

If your copies haven’t arrived by the delivery date, see KDP’s help page My proof or author copy didn’t arrive on time.

What should you check in your proof copy?

A proof is your chance to catch mistakes before readers do. Go through it slowly. Keep your book open on your computer next to it so you can compare the two.

• Check the cover. Make sure the title, your name, and the pictures sit where you planned. KDP asks you to keep cover text at least 0.125 inch inside the trim lines. That’s one-eighth of an inch, or 3.2 mm. The trim lines are where the printer cuts the cover to size.
• Check the spine. The spine is the narrow edge that shows when your book sits on a shelf. Its text should be centered and easy to read. KDP allows spine text only on books with at least 79 pages. The text also needs at least 0.0625 inch of space on each side. That’s one-sixteenth of an inch, or 1.6 mm. That space keeps the text from wrapping onto the front or back cover.
• Check the margins. Margins are the blank space around the text on each page. Look closely at the inside margin, next to the spine. This margin is also called the gutter. No words should disappear into the fold.
• Check the pictures. Photos and drawings should look sharp. KDP asks for images of at least 300 DPI. DPI stands for dots per inch. It counts how many pixels of your image fill each inch of the printed page. More pixels per inch print sharper. A picture that’s blurry in the file you uploaded will print blurry. KDP doesn’t count that as a printing error.
• Check the page order. Each chapter should start where you expect. The page numbers in your table of contents should match the real pages.
• Check the first pages. The pages before your first chapter are called front matter. Read your title page and copyright page closely. If you still need a copyright page, our copyright page generator can help.

If you need to fix the cover, our KDP cover calculator can help. It calculates the size of your whole cover from your page count and trim size. The whole cover is the back cover, the spine, and the front cover as one flat sheet.

What counts as a printing error on KDP?

No two printed books are exactly alike. KDP calls the small, normal differences between copies variance. Some of them come from print on demand. Print on demand means KDP prints each copy only after someone orders it.

KDP treats the problems below as normal. It doesn’t count them as printing errors.

If your problem is bigger than these limits, contact KDP. For example, contact KDP if the cover shifted more than 0.125 inch. Contact KDP too if your problem isn’t on this list.

When you contact KDP, do these three things.

• Attach photos of the problem. Use the attachment option in KDP’s contact form. KDP needs photos before you can ask for a refund.
• Give the Product ID. It’s the number under the barcode on the last page inside your book.
• Give your book’s ASIN or ISBN. The ASIN is the product number Amazon gives your book. ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number.

Should you order a proof copy or author copies?

Order a proof before you publish, especially for your first book. If the proof shows problems, fix them in your book’s pages or cover. Upload the new versions to KDP. Then approve your book in Print Previewer again. If you made big changes, order another proof.

Once your book is live, order author copies when you need books to sell, sign, or give away.

You don’t earn a royalty when you buy a proof or an author copy. You also don’t earn one when you sell an author copy yourself. Neither kind of copy shows up in your KDP Reports. You’ll find your past orders in your Amazon order history.