Enter your desired monthly income and we calculate exactly what price to charge and how many copies to sell. Work backwards from your goal.
Most new KDP authors set income goals without doing the math first. They want to earn $3,000 a month but haven’t calculated how many books they need to sell at their planned price point to reach that number. This calculator reverses the process — you set the goal, and it shows you exactly what’s required.
The results are often surprising in both directions. A $4.99 Kindle eBook at 70% royalty earns $3.49 per sale, meaning you only need 860 sales a month to hit $3,000. That sounds like a lot, but spread across multiple books or a series, it becomes achievable. A paperback priced at $12.99 with $3.50 printing cost earns roughly $4.29 per sale — requiring about 699 sales a month for the same $3,000 target.
The most reliable path to meaningful KDP income is building a catalog, not relying on a single title. Five books each selling 20 copies a month generates the same income as one book selling 100 copies — but it’s far more achievable and more resilient. Each new book you publish expands your total monthly sales potential without requiring the single-book sales volume to increase.
| Monthly Goal | Price | Royalty | 1 Book Sales | 5 Books Each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500/month | $4.99 eBook | $3.49 | 144 sales | 29 sales |
| $1,000/month | $14.99 PB | ~$5.49 | 183 sales | 37 sales |
| $3,000/month | $9.99 eBook | $6.99 | 429 sales | 86 sales |
| $5,000/month | $14.99 PB | ~$5.49 | 911 sales | 182 sales |
Use the Royalty Calculator to see exactly how much you earn at any price point before setting your income target.
Open Royalty Calculator →If your book is enrolled in KDP Select, Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read it for free through their membership, and you earn a per-page royalty. The current KENP rate is approximately $0.004–$0.005 per page. A 300-page novel fully read earns roughly $1.20–$1.50. While this is less than a direct sale, KU reads add up significantly in popular genres like romance, fantasy, and thriller, where subscribers read multiple books per month.
When setting your income target, consider whether your genre has a strong KU readership. If it does, your actual monthly income from a KDP Select book could be 30–50% higher than direct sales alone, effectively lowering the number of purchases you need to hit your monthly goal.
FAQ
Common questions about setting income goals and calculating sales targets for Amazon KDP.
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