Self-Publishing Royalties: Rates, Comparisons, and Calculators for 2023
What are the royalty rates for self-publishing?
(**Updated Fall 2023**)
“What are the self-publishing book royalties I can earn?”
“Is there a royalty calculator for Amazon KDP and other sellers?”
I got you! Here you’ll find out how much money will you make self-publishing and selling your book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Draft2Digital, and IngramSpark. I’ve got answers for e-books and print books.
I break down book royalties (or author compensation) for books that are self-published and sold to customers on Amazon KDP (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing), Barnes & Noble (Barnes & Noble Press), Draft2Digital, and IngramSpark.
Each self-publishing platform has its own royalty calculator you can use to determine how much you’ll make in royalties (or compensation) for each self-published book you sell. I’ve included links to those calculators.
At the end are some hypothetical book royalty scenarios and a comparison of how the retailers stack up against each other.
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Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
E-books: $0.99–$2.98=35% | $2.99–$9.99=70% (minus delivery costs) more info here from KDP or here from Vellum
The Amazon.com (US) delivery cost is $0.15/MB of your converted MOBI file. As the folks at the book formatting company Vellum explain, “it is the smallest (MOBI7) version of your book that is used to compute Delivery Costs.”
For authors who enroll in KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited): books under $2.99 are eligible for 70% royalties (minus delivery costs) during special promotions.
Kindle Unlimited (KU) e-books get pay-per-page-read royalties when the book is read by KU users (more info here from KDP); the pay-out to US authors from the KDP Select Global Fund varies monthly, and has typically ranged from about $0.40 to $0.50 per 100 pages read. You can calculate the payout from statistics available in the KDP author dashboard.
Print books: 60% of list price minus the printing cost (standard distribution); 40% of list price minus the printing cost (via expanded distribution) more info here and more info here
Note that effective June 20, 2023, an Amazon KDP price change is in effect.
Royalty calculator here (You can also click on the image below to access the calculator.)
Barnes & Noble Press (B&N Press)
E-books: 70% of your list price.
Print books: Earn 55% of your list price (B&N keeps 45% of every sale) minus the printing cost.
Royalty calculator here (click on the image below to access the calculator)
Draft2Digital
E-books: D2D takes a cut of 10% of the retail price (15% of net royalties) from the author
Apple Books: 70% of most books’ list price
Google Play Books: 70%
Kobo: $0.01–$2.99=45% | $2.99+=70% more info here (You can make more if distributing exclusively through Kobo Writing Life.)
Print books: 45% of your list price minus the printing cost (retailer keeps 45% of every sale and D2D keeps 10%) minus the printing cost.
Royalty calculator here (click on the image below to access the calculator)
IngramSpark
E-books: 60% of your list price
Print books: 45% of your list price (recommended), minus the printing cost and setup fee
You have the option of keeping a higher percentage, but this will deter IngramSpark partners from buying your book.
About the IngramSpark setup fee and market access fee:
Effective May 1, 2023, there are no more title setup fees. (Prior to May 1, authors had to pay $49 per book to publish and distribute a book through IngramSpark.)
For 60 days after launch, authors can make revisions and can re-upload their books for no fee. After day 61, the normal $25 fee applies for revisions.
IngramSpark, as of July 1, 2023, charges a 1 percent “market access” fee—1 percent of your book’s list price—to be able to distribute your book for you.
Royalty calculator here (click on the image below to access the calculator)
Examples (as of Summer 2023)
For an e-book priced at $6.99, the author royalty would be
$4.80 on Amazon KDP (US) (assuming the smallest MOBI7 version of your book is 0.5 MB [$0.09 distribution fee])
$4.89 on Barnes & Noble Press
$4.40 on Draft2Digital
$4.19 on IngramSpark
For a 6″ × 9″, black ink, white pages, paperback, matte cover, 200 pages, with a list price of $16.99, the printing cost would be roughly $3.25 to $4.08, and, as of May 1, 2023, the author royalty would be
$6.94 if sold directly on Amazon.com; $3.55 if sold via Amazon expanded distribution (US) (printing cost is $3.25)—get the explanation here
$5.74 on Barnes & Noble Press (printing cost $3.60)
$3.77 on Draft2Digital (printing cost is $3.88)
$3.57 on Ingram Spark (with the 55% distribution discount; $3.40 after July 1, 2023 (market access fee), (printing cost $4.08)
You can see from the above example that a $16.99 list price might be a bit low, and you might want to increase it.
A few more tips about self-publishing author royalties:
Try the royalty calculators for the most accurate information. Each retailer calculates its author compensation differently and changes its rates over time.
Consider your unique situation. Ask yourself where it makes sense for your book to be sold.
Learn how to reduce print costs on Amazon. Takeaways from Kindlepreneur’s “How to Reduce Print Costs” guide on that subject include writing a shorter book, choosing a 6″ × 9″ (or smaller) paperback in black ink, and making sure your line spacing is no wider than usual and that your font is no larger than usual.
Barnes & Noble Press and IngramSpark offer hardcover print book options.
Amazon KDP now offers hardcover print book options—but you have more limited choices than the above.
If you want to purchase a large number of print books to sell on your own, shipping costs are tough to calculate. Only IngramSpark, in its Print and Ship Calculator, makes those figures transparent. The method of shipping, number of copies ordered, and author’s zip code will determine the shipping cost. Barnes & Noble Press, last I knew, does not ship books to non-US authors.
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