Find out exactly how much money you make per book sale on Amazon KDP. Works for paperback, hardcover and Kindle eBook. Enter your price and printing cost — your royalty appears instantly.
This calculator uses Amazon’s official royalty formulas to show you exactly what you earn per book sale. You input your list price, printing cost (for print books), and monthly sales estimate — and the tool instantly calculates your royalty per sale, monthly income, and annual projection.
The calculation changes depending on your book format. Paperbacks use a 60% royalty minus printing cost. Kindle eBooks use either 35% or 70% depending on your price. Hardcovers follow the same structure as paperbacks but with a higher base printing cost.
Amazon KDP offers three main royalty structures, and choosing the right one for your format and price point makes a significant difference in your monthly income.
Every paperback sold through KDP earns you 60% of your list price minus the printing cost. This is the only royalty option for print books — there’s no 35% or 70% tier. The printing cost varies based on your page count, trim size, interior type, and marketplace. A typical 250-page black and white novel in a 6×9 trim costs around $3.85 to print in the US marketplace.
So a $14.99 paperback works out like this: ($14.99 × 0.60) − $3.85 = $5.14 per sale. To figure out your printing cost first, use the KDP Printing Cost Calculator.
Kindle eBooks have two royalty tiers. The 70% rate is available when you price your eBook between $2.99 and $9.99. Outside that range, you earn 35%. For the vast majority of authors, the 70% tier is the right choice — you’d have to sell roughly six times as many copies at $0.99 (35% = $0.35/sale) to match what you earn at $2.99 (70% = $2.09/sale).
| List Price | Royalty Rate | Royalty / Sale | Annual (50 sales/month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.99 | 35% | $0.35 | $210 |
| $2.99 | 70% | $2.09 | $1,254 |
| $4.99 | 70% | $3.49 | $2,094 |
| $9.99 | 70% | $6.99 | $4,194 |
| $12.99 | 35% | $4.55 | $2,730 |
Know how much you want to earn? Our Target Royalty Calculator tells you exactly how many copies to sell and what price to charge to hit your monthly income target.
Open Target Royalty Calculator →KDP hardcovers follow the same 60% minus printing cost formula as paperbacks, but the base printing cost is significantly higher. The fixed cost component for a standard hardcover starts around $6.80, compared to $0.85 for paperbacks. This means hardcovers need to be priced higher — typically $24.99 or above — to generate a meaningful royalty. Use the Hardcover vs Paperback comparison tool to see which format earns more at different price points.
The royalty rate matters, but pricing strategy matters even more. Here’s what actually works based on how the numbers play out.
For most fiction novels, pricing between $12.99 and $16.99 tends to maximize total revenue. Below $10, you leave money on the table. Above $20, you risk losing price-sensitive readers to other books. The goal is to find the price where your royalty per sale times your monthly sales volume gives you the best outcome — not just the highest per-book royalty.
If you want to build readership and sales volume, $2.99 is the most powerful Kindle price point. It unlocks the 70% royalty, it’s low enough that readers don’t hesitate, and it still earns you $2.09 per sale. Many successful Kindle authors keep their first book permanently at $2.99 as a reader acquisition tool while pricing later books in a series at $4.99–$6.99.
If you write in a series, consider pricing the first book at $0.99 or even making it free (perma-free) to bring readers into the series, then pricing books 2, 3 and beyond at $3.99–$4.99. The royalty on book 1 is minimal, but the read-through revenue from the rest of the series can be substantial.
If you enroll your Kindle eBook in KDP Select, it becomes available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Instead of a sale royalty, you earn a per-page-read royalty called KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages). The global KENP rate in 2025–2026 has been approximately $0.004–$0.005 per page.
For a 300-page novel, a full read earns roughly $1.20–$1.50. That’s less than a $2.99 sale, but KU readers often read more books per month than buyers — so your total reads can more than compensate. Whether KU makes sense depends on your genre. Romance, fantasy, and thriller readers use Kindle Unlimited heavily. Non-fiction and literary fiction readers generally buy rather than subscribe.
Amazon pays KDP royalties approximately 60 days after the end of the calendar month in which sales occurred. Sales from January are paid in late March, February sales in late April, and so on. Payment methods available are direct deposit (EFT), wire transfer, and check. The minimum payment threshold is $10 for EFT, $100 for check, and $100 for wire transfer. Your royalty balance accumulates until you reach the threshold.
Your paperback royalty depends on your printing cost. Use the free Printing Cost Calculator to get the exact number for your page count and trim size — then come back to calculate your royalty.
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