KDP royalty and printing cost calculator for paperbacks
When you sell a paperback through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), Amazon prints each copy only after someone orders it. KDP takes the cost of printing that copy out of each sale, and what you keep is your royalty. On Amazon, your royalty is 50% or 60% of your list price minus the printing cost. Your list price is the price you set for the book before tax.
This tool calculates your book’s printing cost, your royalty per sale, and the lowest list price KDP will accept. Every rate comes from Amazon’s KDP help pages.
By the Proselis team · Updated
Your royalty
For each copy sold on Amazon.com60% of your $14.99 list price is $8.99. Take away the $4.60 printing cost, and you keep $4.39 for each copy sold on Amazon.com.
- Printing cost
- $4.60
- For black ink on cream paper at 6 × 9 in on Amazon.com, KDP charges $1.00 for each copy plus $0.012 for each page. That’s $1.00 + 300 × $0.012, which comes to $4.60. You don’t pay this up front. KDP takes it out of each sale.
- Royalty rate
- 60%
- Your $14.99 list price is at or above $9.99, the lowest price that earns 60% on Amazon.com.
- Lowest list price KDP accepts
- $9.20
- That’s your $4.60 printing cost divided by the 50% royalty rate. At this price, a sale just covers the printing cost.
- Expanded Distribution royalty
- $1.40
- Expanded Distribution offers your paperback to bookstores and libraries outside Amazon. For each copy sold that way, you get 40% of your $14.99 list price, which is $6.00, minus the $4.60 printing cost. KDP’s chart allows it for this book, but each distributor decides whether to accept it.
The same book in every ink and paper
| Ink and paper | Printing cost | Lowest list price | Royalty at $14.99 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black ink, cream paper | $4.60 | $9.20 | $4.39 |
| Black ink, white paper | $4.60 | $9.20 | $4.39 |
| Black ink, groundwood paper | $4.42 | $8.84 | $4.57 |
| Standard color, white paper | $8.65 | $14.42 | $0.34 |
| Premium color, white paper | $20.50 | $34.17 | Price too low |
Each row is your book on Amazon.com at 6 × 9 in with 300 pages. Cream and white paper cost the same, but they have different page limits and Expanded Distribution rules.
How KDP calculates a paperback royalty
KDP multiplies your list price by your royalty rate. Then it subtracts the printing cost. What’s left is your royalty.
Your rate depends on your price. Each Amazon store has a threshold, which is the lowest price that earns 60%. At or above the threshold, you earn 60%. Below it, you earn 50%.
The threshold is 9.99 USD on Amazon.com (United States), 9.99 EUR on the euro stores, 7.99 GBP on Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), and 1,000 JPY on Amazon.co.jp (Japan). It is 13.99 CAD on Amazon.ca (Canada), 13.99 AUD on Amazon.com.au (Australia), 40 PLN on Amazon.pl (Poland), and 110 SEK on Amazon.se (Sweden). The euro stores are Amazon’s stores in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Belgium.
In Poland and Sweden, KDP’s table leaves a small gap just below the threshold, and the questions below explain it. KDP rounds printing costs and royalties to the nearest cent, or to the nearest yen in Japan.
Why one cent can add a dollar to your royalty
Because the rate changes all at once, your royalty jumps at the threshold.
A 300-page paperback printed in black ink at 6 × 9 in costs $4.60 to print for Amazon.com orders. At $9.98, it earns 50% of the price minus $4.60, which is $0.39. At $9.99, it earns 60% of the price minus $4.60, which is $1.39. One extra cent of price adds $1.00 of royalty.
If your price sits just under the threshold, the calculator shows what the threshold price would pay.
Regular and large trim sizes cost different amounts
Trim size is the width and height of your finished book. KDP calls a trim size large when it is wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches. Every other size is regular.
For Amazon.com orders, each page of a black-ink book costs $0.012 in a regular trim size and $0.017 in a large one, which is about 42% more. A 300-page book costs $4.60 to print at 6 × 9 in and $6.10 at 6.14 × 9.21 in.
Two sentences in KDP’s help pages say trim size doesn’t affect printing cost. The price tables on KDP’s Paperback Printing Cost page do charge more for large trim sizes, and this calculator follows those tables.
How KDP sets the minimum and maximum list prices
The minimum list price is the lowest price KDP lets you set. It makes sure each sale earns enough to cover the printing cost. KDP calculates it by dividing the printing cost by your royalty rate.
At the 50% rate, that is twice the printing cost. If twice the cost would reach the 60% threshold, the minimum is the printing cost divided by 0.6 or the threshold itself, whichever is higher. A 300-page black-ink book at 6 × 9 in costs $4.60 to print for Amazon.com orders, and its minimum list price is $9.20.
KDP also sets a maximum list price. It is 250 USD, 250 GBP, 250 EUR, 350 CAD, 350 AUD, 1,200 PLN, 2,500 SEK, or 30,000 JPY, depending on the store.
What Expanded Distribution pays
Expanded Distribution is a free KDP option that makes your paperback available to bookstores, libraries, and online stores outside Amazon. It works through distributors, which are the wholesale companies that bookstores and libraries order books from. KDP works with distributors in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Each sale through them pays 40% of the list price minus the printing cost. A 300-page black-ink book at 6 × 9 in with a $14.99 list price earns $1.40 a copy this way, compared with $4.39 for a sale on Amazon.com.
Your paperback must be on sale on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk to enroll, and the calculator shows this figure only for those two stores.
Which books Expanded Distribution accepts
Distributors decide whether to accept a book. KDP’s chart allows only some mixes of trim size, ink, and paper, and the calculator checks your book against it. Distributors also turn down some kinds of books. These include journals, notebooks, coloring books, puzzle books, cookbooks, how-to books, and books in the public domain (no longer under copyright). Paperbacks in Hebrew, Yiddish, or Japanese can’t use Expanded Distribution either.
Enter your list price without tax
In many countries, the price a reader pays includes a sales tax. It is called value-added tax (VAT) in Europe, goods and services tax (GST) in Australia, and consumption tax (JCT) in Japan. Your KDP list price leaves these taxes out. Amazon adds the right tax for the buyer’s country, and KDP calculates your royalty from the price before tax. Enter the same pre-tax price here that you enter on KDP.
Terms used on this page
- KDP
- KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, which is Amazon’s service for publishing your own ebooks and paperbacks.
- Royalty
- Your royalty is what KDP pays you for each copy sold after it takes out the printing cost.
- List price
- Your list price is the price you set for your book on KDP. It leaves out sales taxes such as VAT, GST, and JCT.
- Printing cost
- The printing cost is what KDP charges to print one copy. It is a fixed charge per copy plus a charge per page, but some short books pay only one flat charge.
- Royalty rate
- The royalty rate is the share of your list price you earn before the printing cost comes out. It is 50% or 60% on Amazon and 40% through Expanded Distribution.
- Threshold
- The threshold is the lowest list price that earns the 60% rate in an Amazon store, such as 9.99 USD on Amazon.com.
- Amazon store
- Each Amazon website is a separate store, and you set your list price in its currency. Examples are Amazon.com in the United States, Amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom, and Amazon.de in Germany. KDP calls these stores marketplaces.
- Trim size
- Trim size is the width and height of your finished book, such as 6 × 9 inches.
- Regular and large trim sizes
- A large trim size is wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches. Every other size is regular, and regular sizes cost less to print.
- Page count
- Page count is the number of pages inside your book, counting blank pages. KDP counts them in the file of inside pages you upload, which it calls your paperback manuscript. It rounds an odd count up to an even number.
- Groundwood paper
- Groundwood is a lighter paper with a textured feel. KDP offers it for black-ink books at about 5% less per page than cream or white paper.
- Standard and premium color
- These are KDP’s two ways to print in color. Standard color costs less and suits long books with fewer images, while premium color uses heavier paper and suits image-heavy books.
- Minimum and maximum list price
- The minimum list price is the lowest price KDP accepts for your book, and the maximum is the highest. The minimum makes sure each sale covers the printing cost.
- Expanded Distribution
- Expanded Distribution is a free KDP option that offers your paperback to bookstores and libraries outside Amazon. It works through distributors, which are the wholesale companies those sellers order books from.
- VAT, GST, and JCT
- These are sales taxes: value-added tax in Europe, goods and services tax in Australia, and consumption tax in Japan. Amazon adds them on top of your list price.
Questions
How much does KDP charge to print a paperback?
Printing cost is a fixed charge for each copy plus a charge for each page. The charges depend on the Amazon store, the ink, the paper, and the trim size.
For Amazon.com orders, a black-ink book of up to 110 pages costs a flat $2.30 in a regular trim size. A longer one costs $1.00 plus $0.012 a page, which comes to $4.60 for 300 pages. Large trim sizes and color ink cost more, and groundwood paper costs a little less.
You don’t pay for printing up front. KDP takes the cost out of each sale.
What are groundwood paper, standard color, and premium color?
Black-ink books can use cream, white, or groundwood paper. Cream and white cost the same.
Groundwood is a lighter paper with a textured feel, and KDP says it costs about 5% less per page than cream or white.
Standard color is the cheaper of KDP’s two color options. It prints with inkjet printers on the same paper as black-ink books, and KDP suggests it for long books with fewer images.
Premium color uses heavier paper and suits image-heavy books, such as children’s books, cookbooks, and photography books.
For Amazon.com orders, a page in a regular trim size costs $0.0255 in standard color and $0.065 in premium color. Standard color needs 72 to 600 pages and isn’t offered at A4 size (8.27 × 11.69 in).
Does a discount on Amazon lower my royalty?
No. KDP says a customer may pay less than your list price during a promotion, and that doesn’t change your royalty. When Amazon lowers its price to match another seller, KDP still calculates your royalty from your list price.
When does KDP pay paperback royalties?
KDP pays royalties for Amazon sales about 60 days after the end of the month in which the sales were made. Expanded Distribution royalties come about 90 days after the end of the month of the sale.
What rate applies between 39 and 40 PLN or between 109 and 110 SEK?
KDP’s royalty table doesn’t say. It gives 50% at or below 39 PLN and 60% at or above 40 PLN, and it leaves the same kind of gap between 109 and 110 SEK in Sweden. This calculator uses the lower rate of 50% for a price in either gap and tells you when your price falls there.
Which Amazon stores sell color paperbacks?
KDP’s pages disagree. The Paperback Printing Cost page gives prices for premium color in every store that sells paperbacks. It gives prices for standard color in every store except Amazon.com.au. The Color Ink Options page leaves out Amazon.nl, Amazon.pl, and Amazon.se for both kinds of color. The Paperback Submission Guidelines say standard color isn’t available on Amazon.co.jp. The calculator shows the listed price and warns you when your store is one of these.
Why does the calculator round my page count up?
KDP counts the pages in the file of your book’s inside pages. Each sheet of paper holds two pages. An odd count goes up to the next even number. A 333-page file counts as 334 pages. One example on KDP’s Paperback Royalty page prices a 333-page book at $5.00. That figure uses 333 pages, but the rounding rule gives $5.01 for Amazon.com orders.
Does this calculator cover ebooks or hardcovers?
No. It covers KDP paperbacks only. Kindle ebooks and hardcovers are priced differently. Ebooks have no printing cost, and hardcovers have their own table of printing costs and can’t use Expanded Distribution. Amazon’s stores in Brazil, India, and Mexico don’t sell KDP paperbacks and aren’t included. The figures here also come before any tax that Amazon holds back from your royalties.
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