Amazon Publishing Options Explained
What is the difference between publishing your title through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), KDP Select, or Publish to Kindle (P2K)?
| KEP | KDP | KDP Select | P2K | |
| Royalty Rate | 70% royalty for domestic sales and international sales; 35% royalty for international sales in India, Japan and Brazil. 35% royalty for all sales for public domain titles. | 70% royalty for domestic sales and international sales; 35% royalty for international sales in India, Japan and Brazil. 35% royalty for all sales for public domain titles. | 70% royalty for sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India. 35% royalty elsewhere. | Domestic 45%, International 40% |
| Price Restrictions | Your title must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty. Outside of this range, the royalty rate decreases to 35%. Delivery charges also apply. Free is not an allowed price point. | Your title must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty. Outside of this range, the royalty rate decreases to 35%. Delivery charges also apply. Free is not an allowed price point. | Some price restrictions, including pricing between $2.99 and $9.99. Delivery charges apply. Some free pricing allowed (see Amazon promotion below) | Free is an allowed price point. Only price restrictions are between free and .99 (not allowed in some territories, including AU, NZ, and Eurozone) . The above royalty rate applies to any price point you choose. |
| Price Matching and Royalty Calculation | If you are at 70% royalty, and Amazon price matches your title, you will be paid off of the price Amazon sells your book, not the digital list price. If you are at 35% royalty, you will be paid off the digital list price. | If you are at 70% royalty, and Amazon price matches your title, you will be paid off of the price Amazon sells your book, not the digital list price. If you are at 35% royalty, you will be paid off the digital list price. | Your title must be exclusive to KDP Select, so no opportunity to price match. | Regardless of Amazon’s price matching, you will be paid off of the digital list price. (ie. if your $9.99 book is discounted to $2.99, you will still receive a percentage of $9.99 for each sale.) |
| Delivery Cost | If you are at 70% royalty, delivery costs are deducted from each sale. For large files, in particular, this can add up to several points of lost royalty | If you are at 70% royalty, delivery costs are deducted from each sale. For large files, in particular, this can add up to several points of lost royalty | If you are at 70% royalty, delivery costs are deducted from each sale. | No delivery deductions |
| Amazon Promotion | N/A | N/A | You are able to promote your book for free for a limited number of days (up to five days of free promotion for each 90-day enrollment period). | Eligible for all Amazon promotions including Kindle Daily Deal, Kindle Monthly Deal, Gold Box Daily Deal, etc. |
| Kindle Lending Library | Eligible. Automatically enrolled. If you are earning 35% royalties, you may opt-out. | Eligible. Automatically enrolled. If you are earning 35% royalties, you may opt-out. | Required. | Eligible but default is unenrolled. |
| Amazon.com Searchability | Minimum of searchability; titles can be found on the website. Titles selling extremely well are added to "Customers Who Bought This..." searches. | Minimum of searchability; titles can be found on the website. Titles selling extremely well are added to "Customers Who Bought This..." searches. | Kindle Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited added to search options. | Search Engine marketing purchased at no cost to you for increased searchability on Google, Amazon, & Bing; Automatically included in all "Customers Who Bought This..." carousels. Pre-orders counted twice when determining first week of sale rankings. |
| Pre-Orders | Not available | Limited to 90 days prior to publication. Cover, metadata and at least a draft file required to make title available for pre-order. Final draft must be loaded three weeks prior to pub date. (INscribe Policy, to meet Amazon two week deadline). Limit: 10 titles | Same as KDP | No limit to lead time on pre-orders. Cover and Metadata only are required (cover may be a place keeper). Content file must be loaded three weeks prior to pub date. (INscribe Policy, to meet Amazon two week deadline). No limit to number of titles. |
| Kindle Unlimited | Not available | Not eligible unless invited. Follows Select rules. | Required. Paid per page read out of pool - averages less than 1/10 a penny per page. Requires 90 day enrollment, re-enrolls 90 days at a time. Max price 9.99. | Can choose the titles individually to enter. Paid on full book once 10% is read. Paid 20% of Cost of Goods Sold (approx. 8.5% of Suggested Retail Price.) Max Price $15.99. Requires 90 day enrollment, 30 day re-enrollment automatically. |
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