You can find fixed costs in USD in the following table: Paperback specifications Your printing cost is calculated according to the following formula (where fixed cost depends on your page count and ink type):įixed cost + (page count x cost per individual page) It will also suggest a minimum list price to ensure that your book sells for enough to cover the cost of printing. Don’t worry, you won’t have to figure this out yourself - Amazon calculates your printing cost and displays it for you as you’re uploading your book to the platform.
What are the paperback printing costs?Īs for the printing costs associated with self-published paperbacks, those depend on A) your book’s page count, and B) whether you choose to print in black-and-white or in full color. This cost is waived if you select the 35% royalty plan - which may be a boon if you want to set a high price for your book anyway (as the 70% royalty plan requires it to be lower than $9.99). For instance, you’re looking at $0.15 per megabyte in USD and CAD, and £0.10 per megabyte in GBP. They vary depending on the currency used. If you’re on the 70% royalty plan, ebook delivery costs will be deducted from your royalty payments. Let’s break the cost of Amazon self-publishing down below. Instead, delivery costs (for ebooks) and printing costs (for paperbacks) are subtracted from your royalties. Unlike vanity presses, which make authors pay for publication, Amazon won’t charge you any money upfront to self-publish your book. Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book. (In lieu of opting into this plan, we recommend using IngramSpark for expanded distribution. But if you distribute your book through Amazon’s Expanded Distribution plan to non-Amazon retailers, like Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million, you’ll be looking at 40% instead. If you go through the regular Amazon-only distribution channels, you can expect 60% of the list price for every paperback sold. Each comes with its own royalty structure, and in both cases, the cost of printing the book is deducted from royalty payments. How do print royalties work?įor those thinking about self-publishing a print book, Amazon offers two distribution tiers for self-published paperbacks. If you enroll in KDP Select, the list expands to include Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico. Don’t worry, the 70%-eligible territories include all the big Anglophone markets - the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - in addition to several others, primarily in the EU. Additional copies sold outside those territories will go on the 35%. Keep in mind that only books sold to customers in certain countries are eligible for the 70% plan. This doesn’t require any extra effort on your part - the delivery fees are automatically deducted from your royalty payments. This price also needs to be at least 20% lower than the lowest list price for a print version.
Now let’s talk about the program’s ebook and print royalty plans - which, as you can imagine, are pretty different from one another. See the full list of payment thresholds here. For check and wire payments, you’ll be paid only after you make a certain amount in royalties (for instance, $100 in USD and CAD and £100 in the UK). In terms of which payment method is best for you, you should know that there’s no payment threshold for direct deposit. So if you have bills to pay, make sure you’re not counting on your royalties coming in right away. However, no matter which avenue you go down, there’s no way to receive your royalties any sooner than 60 days. Depending on where you do your banking, you can elect to be paid through direct deposit - also known as Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) - wire transfer, or check. Click to tweet! When does Amazon pay royalties to authors?Īmazon starts paying royalties 60 days after the first sale is made, with further payments coming through every month.