How to Choose KDP Categories: A Step-by-Step Method
A repeatable method for choosing your three KDP categories by relevance, buyer fit and competition, with a worked example and a ve…
The Receipt: One Price, Two Formats
Same list price, two formats, each judged on its own terms. Every figure below is worked from the formulas in KDP's help pages, read in September 2026. The working is shown line by line, so you can redo it with whatever rates and fees KDP shows on the day you price.
| Line item | Ebook, 70% option | Paperback, 200 pages B&W |
|---|---|---|
| List price | $9.99 | $9.99 |
| Royalty rate used | 70% | 60% (Amazon marketplaces) |
| Cost deducted | Delivery: 1 MB x $0.15 = $0.15 (assumed US fee) | Printing: $1.00 + (200 x $0.012) = $3.40 |
| Formula | 0.70 x ($9.99 - $0.15) | (0.60 x $9.99) - $3.40 |
| You keep | $6.89 | $2.59 |
| Share of list price | about 69% | about 26% |
Rounded to the cent. Unrounded, the ebook comes to $6.888 and the paperback to $2.594.
Two things make the comparison less obvious than it looks. The ebook takes its cost off the price first and then applies 70%, while the paperback applies its rate first and then subtracts printing. And the paperback number moves with page count, which the ebook number does not.
Treat this as a per-format receipt, not a claim that one title should carry the same price in both formats. The next section covers the print-price question for a linked ebook.
How the Ebook Royalty Works
KDP offers two ebook options. The 35% option pays 35% of your list price, excluding VAT, in every territory. The 70% option pays 70% of the list price, excluding VAT, less delivery costs, but only for in-copyright books sold in the territories listed on KDP's pricing page. Outside those territories the 35% rate applies, and public domain books qualify only for 35%.
The price band is the part that changed recently. KDP's help page on 70% royalty option requirements (help topic G200634560, read on September 25, 2026) lists the Amazon.com band as $2.99 to $12.99, effective July 7, 2026, up from $2.99 to $9.99. The current KDP ebook royalty rate at $9.99 is therefore 70%. Other write-ups may still show the older ceiling, so confirm the band on KDP's page before you set a price.
The same page adds one more condition: sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India need KDP Select enrollment to earn 70%. As of September 2026 the page lists no rule tying the ebook price to a print edition's price. Older seller advice mentions such a rule, so if you sell a linked paperback of the same title, reread the requirements list for each marketplace before you copy the same price across.
Delivery cost is charged per megabyte of file size, and the fee differs by marketplace. KDP publishes the delivery cost table on its pricing page. The receipt above uses $0.15 per MB for US sales as of September 2026; confirm that figure in the table before you rely on it.
A text-only novel of a few hundred kilobytes barely notices the fee. A 25 MB illustrated cookbook pays $3.75 in delivery, which takes $2.63 off the royalty after the 0.70 multiplier. That is the one place where the ebook side of the ledger can start to look like the paperback side.
How the Paperback Royalty Works
The paperback formula is list price x royalty rate, minus printing cost. On Amazon marketplaces the rate is 60% of list price minus printing cost; through Expanded Distribution it is 40%. Amazon has changed the low-price bands before, so read KDP's royalty help page before you price. Every 60% figure below uses that standard rate, and you can swap in a different one.
Printing cost depends on trim size, ink and page count. For a US black-ink book in regular trim, KDP's printing cost page listed these figures in September 2026:
| Page count | Formula | Printing cost |
|---|---|---|
| 100 pages (24 to 108 tier) | flat $2.30 | $2.30 |
| 150 pages (110 to 828 tier) | $1.00 + (150 x $0.012) | $2.80 |
| 200 pages | $1.00 + (200 x $0.012) | $3.40 |
| 300 pages | $1.00 + (300 x $0.012) | $4.60 |
These figures are for regular trim only. Trims larger than 6.12 x 9 inches, which includes 8.5 x 11 puzzle and activity books, use a different fee table, and so does color ink. Look up your exact combination on KDP's printing cost page before you price.
The paperback also has a floor. KDP divides the printing cost by the royalty rate to get a minimum list price. Assuming 60%, a $3.40 printing cost gives a minimum of $5.67. If a 50% rate applied, the same book would need $6.80.
What Page Count Does to the Paperback Number
The ebook line barely moves when you add chapters. The paperback line moves every time. The table holds the price at $9.99 and assumes 60%, which gives $5.994 before printing:
| Pages (B&W, regular trim) | Printing cost | Royalty at $9.99, assuming 60% | Share of list price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $2.30 | $3.69 | about 37% |
| 200 | $3.40 | $2.59 | about 26% |
| 300 | $4.60 | $1.39 | about 14% |
| 400 | $5.80 | $0.19 | about 2% |
The 400-page row is the one to remember: $1.00 + (400 x $0.012) = $5.80, and $5.994 - $5.80 = $0.194. That book earns roughly nineteen cents. A long paperback priced like a short one is a book you sell at almost no margin.
That is why the same manuscript can be a fine ebook and a poor paperback at the same price. If you plan a long print edition, price it from the printing cost up instead of matching the ebook.
If Your Rate Is Lower: A Sensitivity Check
The rate matters as much as the printing cost, and it is the number most likely to move. Amazon has changed the low-price bands before, so no price tier is asserted here. Last checked September 2026: the royalty figure on KDP's own pricing screen is the authoritative one for your title.
To see how much is at stake, rework the 300-page book at the same $9.99 price under three rates:
| Rate | Working | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | $5.994 - $4.60 | $1.39 |
| 50% (hypothetical lower band) | $4.995 - $4.60 | $0.40 |
| 40% (Expanded Distribution) | $3.996 - $4.60 | -$0.60 (a loss) |
Ten points of rate cost about a dollar per sale on that book, and the 40% row loses money outright. A lower-priced edition is exposed further: $8.99 under a 50% rate earns $4.495 - $4.60, which is negative.
Enter your intended price into KDP's paperback pricing screen when you set up the title, and compare it with your own working. The free KDP calculators on Octozia model regular-trim paperbacks if you want to test prices before you open the KDP form.
The Same Comparison at Other Prices
Nine ninety-nine is a common anchor, not the only one. The table shows the same 200-page black-and-white paperback and 1 MB ebook at four price points, using the formulas above and 60% for the paperback rows. The ebook and paperback columns are separate per-format results, not a same-title pairing.
| List price | Ebook royalty | Paperback royalty, 200 pages, assuming 60% | Ebook rate used |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2.99 | $1.99 | Negative: $1.79 at 60% before printing, below the $3.40 printing cost | 70% |
| $9.99 | $6.89 | $2.59 | 70% |
| $12.99 | $8.99 | $4.39 | 70% |
| $14.99 | $5.25 | $5.59 | 35% |
Redo any row from the formulas. The $12.99 ebook keeps 0.70 x ($12.99 - $0.15) = $8.988, and the paperback keeps $7.794 - $3.40 = $4.394. The $14.99 ebook sits outside the 70% band, so it earns 35% x $14.99 = $5.2465, while the paperback earns $8.994 - $3.40 = $5.594. The $2.99 paperback nets -$1.61 at 60% ($1.794 - $3.40).
Look at the last row. Once the ebook price passes the 70% ceiling, the ebook and the paperback pay almost the same per copy on a 200-page book. The ebook's advantage is the 70% band, so staying inside it is worth more than a few extra dollars of list price.
Expanded Distribution and Other Sales Channels
The paperback figures above are for sales on Amazon marketplaces. Books sold through Expanded Distribution, meaning non-Amazon retailers and libraries that order through KDP, are paid at a lower rate: 40% of list price minus printing cost. As of September 2026, KDP's Expanded Distribution help page is the place to confirm the rate.
Take the $9.99 book with the same $3.40 printing cost: 40% gives $3.996 - $3.40 = $0.596, or about $0.60. That assumes the printing cost is identical for that channel. One paperback sold through a bookstore channel would then earn roughly a quarter of what one sold on Amazon does, before you ask whether the channel sells any copies at all.
If reaching bookstores and libraries matters more to you than the Amazon share, compare the economics against a wide-distribution printer in the KDP versus IngramSpark comparison. That is a separate decision from format choice, and it changes the math on the paperback side.
How to Run This for Your Own Book
Run the same receipt in six steps, using your book's real numbers.
1
Find your file size
Export your ebook file and note its size in MB. A text-only novel is often well under 1 MB. An illustrated one can be many times that. Multiply by the per-MB delivery fee in the delivery cost table on KDP's pricing page.
2
Get your page count
Use the final interior page count, including blank pages, not the word count. Printing cost is per page of the printed file.
3
Look up printing cost
Open KDP's printing cost page and pick your marketplace, trim size and ink type. Write down the fixed cost and the per-page cost.
4
Pick the royalty rate
Ebook: 70% inside the band KDP lists for your marketplace (Amazon.com showed $2.99 to $12.99 in September 2026), otherwise 35%. Paperback: 60% on Amazon marketplaces, 40% for Expanded Distribution, with KDP's royalty page as the tiebreaker.
5
Compute both formulas
Ebook: rate x (price - delivery). Paperback: (price x rate) - printing cost. Write the result to the cent.
6
Compare with KDP's own screen
Type the same price into the KDP pricing screen. If the numbers differ, trust KDP's screen and find the input you got wrong.
If you publish puzzle and activity books, the trim is often 8.5 x 11, which means the large-trim fee table applies rather than the regular-trim one above. The guide to KDP interior templates covers how trim size and page count interact before you get to pricing.
A Worked Example: A 160-Page Cozy Mystery
Take a 160-page cozy mystery in 5 x 8 inch regular trim, black and white, with a 0.6 MB ebook file. You are deciding what to charge for each format.
Printing cost: $1.00 + (160 x $0.012) = $1.00 + $1.92 = $2.92. Paperback minimum list price, assuming 60%: $2.92 / 0.6 = $4.87.
Priced at $11.99 with 60%, the paperback keeps $7.194 - $2.92 = $4.274, so $4.27. Priced at $9.99 it keeps $5.994 - $2.92 = $3.074, so $3.07.
For the ebook, delivery is 0.6 x $0.15 = $0.09. Listed at $4.99 on the 70% option, it keeps 0.70 x ($4.99 - $0.09) = 0.70 x $4.90 = $3.43. Listed at $6.99, it keeps 0.70 x ($6.99 - $0.09) = 0.70 x $6.90 = $4.83.
| Option | List price | You keep | Copies to earn $100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ebook | $4.99 | $3.43 | 30 |
| Ebook | $6.99 | $4.83 | 21 |
| Paperback (assuming 60%) | $9.99 | $3.07 | 33 |
| Paperback (assuming 60%) | $11.99 | $4.27 | 24 |
Copies are rounded up: $100 / $3.43 = 29.15, so 30; $100 / $4.83 = 20.7, so 21; $100 / $3.07 = 32.6, so 33; $100 / $4.27 = 23.4, so 24.
A cheaper ebook can match a pricier paperback per copy. A $6.99 ebook out-earns an $11.99 paperback on this short book, and the ebook number does not shrink as the manuscript grows. On a 400-page epic, the paperback needs a much higher price to compete.
Common Mistakes in Royalty Math
Applying 70% to the whole price
The 70% option takes delivery off first. Forgetting the fee overstates a large ebook by dollars, not cents.
Using the wrong trim's cost table
A regular-trim formula applied to an 8.5 x 11 book understates printing cost. Use the fee table for the trim you actually publish.
Forgetting that blanks count
Pages you add for spacing still print and still cost $0.012 each in the 110-plus range.
Pricing to the ebook, not the print cost
Matching a $9.99 paperback to a $9.99 ebook only works when the book is short. Above 300 pages the per-copy income collapses.
What the Numbers Suggest for Format and Price
On a short, text-only book, the ebook earns more per copy and needs no upfront cost. The paperback earns less per copy but reaches buyers who will not read on a screen, and it can sit next to the ebook on the same listing. Many sellers publish both, and the receipt shows how to price each one separately instead of copying the number across.
For puzzle and activity books the picture shifts. The paperback is usually the main product, and the trim and page count decide the margin before anything else.
If you build interiors yourself, KDP Creator generates numbered 300-DPI PNG page images with a manifest and offers 5 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9 or 8.5 x 11 trim. You still assemble the interior file yourself.
It runs on a 3-day trial with a card required. The hub of KDP publishing guides lists related walkthroughs.
FAQ
What is the current KDP ebook royalty rate?
KDP offers 35% and 70% options. The 70% option applies to in-copyright books priced from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com, with delivery costs deducted, according to KDP's requirements page read on September 25, 2026 (effective July 7, 2026). Outside the band, or in territories not covered, you earn 35% of list price. Territories are listed on KDP's pricing page.
How much does KDP pay on a $9.99 paperback?
On Amazon marketplaces you earn 60% of list price, $5.994, minus the printing cost. A 200-page black-and-white book in regular trim costs $3.40 to print, so you keep about $2.59, and a 300-page book keeps about $1.39. Amazon has changed the low-price bands before, so read KDP's royalty help page and swap any different rate into the same formula.
Why is my paperback royalty lower than my ebook royalty at the same price?
Printing cost is subtracted from every paperback sale, and the rate is 60% against the ebook's 70%. The ebook only loses a delivery fee based on file size. Printing cost does most of the work, the lower rate adds about a dollar at $9.99, and the gap widens as page count rises.
What is the minimum price I can charge for a KDP paperback?
KDP calculates it as printing cost divided by the royalty rate. A $3.40 printing cost gives $5.67 at 60%, and $6.80 if a 50% rate applied. Larger page counts and color ink raise the minimum. The pricing screen in KDP shows the exact floor for your book.
Do Expanded Distribution sales pay the same as Amazon sales?
No. Expanded Distribution pays a lower rate, 40% of list price minus printing cost, so a $9.99 paperback with a $3.40 print cost earns about $0.60 instead of $2.59. Read the rate on KDP's Expanded Distribution help page before counting on that channel.
Build the interior after you have priced it
KDP Creator turns puzzle settings into a ZIP of 300-DPI page images that you assemble into the interior; 3-day trial, card required, cancel anytime before it ends.
