What is the KDP Select Global Fund Payout? How does the KDP Select Global Fund work?

As a nonfiction book publishing coach who has helped dozens of American authors self-publish and market their books, I often get asked about this.

This information is especially for authors on Amazon.com (USA). Scroll down to learn more.

If you’re an author with an ebook available on Kindle Unlimited, you’ll receive payouts for the total number of pages of your ebook that Kindle Unlimited members read during each month.

To qualify for these payments, you must be enrolled in KDP Select, which makes your ebook “exclusive” to Amazon and available through Kindle Unlimited.

When a Kindle Unlimited member reads your ebook, you get paid for every page they read. (See this link for more on payments and the payment schedule.)

These payments will be in addition to the self-publishing royalties you receive from Amazon when your book is purchased the usual way on Amazon.com.

There is a 60-day lag between the end of the month and the time you get your payout.

How much does Kindle Unlimited pay per page read? How much is the monthly payout, and how has it varied over time?

The author payout to US authors has ranged from roughly $0.0040 to $0.0050 per page read, or $0.40 to $0.50 per 100 pages read. Over time, the KDP Select author payout has averaged $0.455 per 100 pages read.

That means if you had a 200-page ebook available on KU, and a KU reader read the whole book, . . . you, the author, would be paid about 91 cents.

Here is a graph of the KDP Select Global Author Fund Payout, per page read, for US-based readers on Amazon.com, from July 2015 through May 2024.

But what about inflation?

Joe Solari made a great point on the Self-Publishing with Dale podcast: Amazon KDP author payouts have not increased, on average, over time. But inflation has.

The same payout of 45.5 cents per 100 words is worth a lot less today than it was worth several years ago. Just sayin’.

How is the payout determined?

The payout comes from the Kindle Select Global Author Fund (AKA the Kindle Select Global Fund). The fund is based on the subscription fees paid by the total number of Kindle Unlimited members. As KU members join or drop off, the Global Fund changes.

As Amazon explains, authors receive payouts for the previous month’s page-reads of their book(s).

Those payouts vary based on the readers’ home country.

From Amazon directly, from the “Royalties in Kindle Unlimited” Help page: “The share of fund allocated to each country varies based on a number of factors, such as exchange rates, customer reading behavior, and local subscription pricing. Author earnings are then determined by their share of total pages read. They are able to earn a maximum of 3,000 Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENPC) read per title per customer.”

Where is the payout posted?

KDP Select authors can see the previous month’s payout while logged in to KDP—in their Prior Month's Royalty Report. Written Word Media (the book promotion company that runs FreeBooksy and Bargain Booksy) also posts KDP Global Fund monthly payouts on its website.

For what it’s worth, some authors say their payouts appear to be less than what Written Word Media has posted. I haven’t been able to sort that all out yet.

Is your book enrolled in KDP Select? If so, what has your experience been with it and with the payouts?

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Amazon KDP Select Program Global Fund (USA): Payout Per Page Read