Pricing and Royalties

KDP paperback/hardcover royalty — the actual current tiers

1. Formula: royalty = (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost. Printing cost depends on your trim size, page count, ink type (black & white, standard color, premium color), and paper choice — it is not a flat number, KDP's Print Cost help page and the live Pricing step calculate it for your specific book.
2. On Amazon.com (the US marketplace), verified against KDP's own "Paperback Royalty" and "Paperback Printing Cost" help pages: a paperback priced at $9.98 or below earns a 50% royalty rate; priced at $9.99 or above earns 60%. Both rates still have printing cost subtracted after the percentage is applied.
3. Other KDP marketplaces (UK, Germany, and so on) can have their own list-price cutoff for the 50%/60% split — check KDP's "Paperback Royalty" help page's own chart for the marketplace you're pricing in, don't assume the $9.99 US threshold carries over exactly.
4. Expanded Distribution (the optional paperback opt-in covered in the Distribution Choices topic) pays a separate, lower royalty rate on those sales — verify the current Expanded Distribution rate on KDP's own royalty page before counting on it matching your direct-Amazon royalty.
5. Because printing cost is subtracted after the percentage, always check your actual printing cost for your trim size and page count in the live Pricing step BEFORE settling on a list price — this is the step that tells you whether a price you like actually leaves you a real royalty.

Last verified: August 2026

KDP ebook royalty — the actual current tiers

1. Verified against KDP's own "eBook List Price Requirements" and "eBook Royalties" help pages: the 70% royalty option currently applies to ebooks priced from $2.99 up to $12.99 (this maximum was raised from $9.99 in 2026 — always re-check KDP's own page since this exact number has moved before and can move again), sold in one of KDP's eligible marketplaces.
2. The 35% royalty option is available at any list price from $0.99 up to $200, and is what you're paid outside the 70% band's minimum/maximum or in marketplaces the 70% tier doesn't cover.
3. Delivery costs (a small per-megabyte fee based on your ebook's file size) are subtracted from the 70% royalty option, but not from the 35% option — a large ebook file (lots of embedded images) can meaningfully eat into the 70% royalty, so keep file size in mind, not just list price.
4. Do not treat these exact dollar thresholds as permanent. This app verified them against KDP's current published help pages at the time this was written, but Amazon has changed this band before (from $9.99 to $12.99, for example) — always re-check KDP's own "eBook List Price Requirements" help page before finalizing a price.

Last verified: August 2026

IngramSpark pricing — wholesale model, not a flat royalty percentage

1. IngramSpark doesn't pay a flat royalty percentage the way KDP does. Instead: royalty per copy = (list price × (1 − wholesale discount)) − print cost − any per-order fees.
2. The wholesale discount is the cut you offer to bookstores/retailers/libraries who order through Ingram's network, commonly in the roughly 30%–55% range (see the Pricing and Global Distribution topic for why this range matters for actual bookstore pickup). A bigger discount means more of the list price goes to the retailer before you ever see your cut.
3. Print cost, like KDP's, depends on trim size, page count, ink, and paper, and is subtracted after the wholesale discount, not before — so IngramSpark's real per-copy earnings can be thinner than KDP's at the same list price, this is the tradeoff for its wider bookstore/library reach.
4. IngramSpark's own royalty calculator (in your dashboard) will show your actual per-copy number once you've set list price, wholesale discount, and returnable status — use it rather than estimating by hand.

Draft2Digital pricing — a percentage-of-royalty commission, not a setup fee

1. D2D doesn't charge a signup or per-title fee. Instead, verified against Draft2Digital's own published FAQ/Knowledge Base: D2D takes 10% of the retail price of every book sale, i.e. 10% of the royalty D2D collects from each retailer, before passing the remainder to you.
2. Because each retailer in D2D's network (Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and the rest) sets its own royalty terms with D2D, your actual take-home percentage can differ slightly store to store even at the identical list price — D2D's title setup shows a live, per-retailer estimated royalty as you adjust your price, use that rather than assuming one flat number applies everywhere.
3. Always confirm D2D's current published commission rate on their own site before finalizing pricing expectations, since royalty terms can be updated.