Free tool
KDP paperback royalty calculator
TL;DR
Paperback royalty = rate × list price − printing cost. Rate is 50% under $9.99 and 60% at $9.99+; US B&W print is about $0.85 + $0.012/page (with a flat tier under 110 pages). A $9.99 book often out-earns $8.99 because of the rate jump — run your page count below.
Amazon pays paperback royalties of 50% under $9.99 and 60% at $9.99 or above, minus the printing cost (about $0.85 plus $0.012 per page for black & white). Enter your page count and drag the price to see exactly what lands in your pocket per sale.
US marketplace, black & white interior on white paper. Amazon's minimum price for this page count is $4.58.
How the math works
Your royalty is list price × royalty rate − printing cost. Two things trip up most first-time publishers: the printing cost scales with page count, so a 300-page book earns much less than a 120-page book at the same price — and the royalty rate jumps from 50% to 60% at exactly $9.99, which means a $9.99 book often out-earns a $8.99 one by a wide margin.
Publishing an ebook instead? Use our Kindle royalty calculator. Thinking about running Amazon Ads? The ads break-even calculator tells you whether this royalty can afford the clicks.
Don't have the book yet? ebookdone turns an idea into a finished, KDP-ready paperback — interior PDF, wrap cover, and metadata — from $9.
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