Part of: KDP Publishing Guide: Low-Content Books · KDP low-content publishing
This KDP royalty calculator shows your exact Amazon royalty and print cost: enter trim size, page count and price to see the US, UK, EU, Canada and Australia side by side.
KDP paperback royalty = (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost. On Amazon.com the rate is 50% at $9.98 and below, 60% at $9.99 and above. A 120-page black-and-white 6×9 journal costs $2.44 to print, so at $9.99 it earns $3.55 a sale; at $8.99 it earns $2.06.
Every KDP paperback royalty comes from one formula:
Royalty = (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost
The calculator applies Amazon.com's rate and printing costs, which KDP updated in 2025. Here is the arithmetic for a 120-page, 6" × 9", black-and-white journal:
At $8.99 the same book earns 50%: $4.50 − $2.44 = $2.06. One dollar more on the price is $1.49 more royalty, because the rate itself steps up.
Insight: The $9.99 threshold makes the jump from $9.98 to $9.99 worth more than any other cent on the price scale. A 120-page book earns $2.55 at $9.98 and $3.55 at $9.99 — a full dollar of royalty for one cent of price. Price at $9.98 only if you have a reason.
| Interior | Pages | Regular trim | Large trim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black ink | 24–108 | $2.30 flat | $2.84 flat |
| Black ink | 109–828 | $1.00 + $0.012 per page | $1.00 + $0.017 per page |
| Premium colour | up to 40 | $3.60 flat | $4.20 flat |
| Premium colour | 41 and up | $1.00 + $0.065 per page | $1.00 + $0.08 per page |
Large trims are any size wider than 6.12" or taller than 9" — 7" × 10", 8" × 10" and 8.5" × 11" among them. The calculator switches tables when you pick one.
Black-ink worked examples: 100 pages $2.30 · 120 pages $2.44 · 200 pages $3.40 · 300 pages $4.60 · 333 pages $5.00, which matches KDP's own published example.
120-page, 6" × 9", black-and-white, Amazon.com:
| List price | Rate | Royalty per sale | 50 sales/month | 200 sales/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6.99 | 50% | $1.06 | $53 | $211 |
| $7.99 | 50% | $1.56 | $78 | $311 |
| $8.99 | 50% | $2.06 | $103 | $411 |
| $9.99 | 60% | $3.55 | $178 | $711 |
| $12.99 | 60% | $5.35 | $268 | $1,071 |
The table shows why low-content publishers cluster at $9.99: below it, every dollar of price adds 50 cents; at it, the whole price earns 60%.
Print cost is the only number that moves with pages, so at a fixed $9.99 every page above 108 costs you royalty:
| Pages (black ink) | Printing cost | Royalty at $9.99 | Per 100 sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | $2.30 | $3.69 | $369 |
| 100 | $2.30 | $3.69 | $369 |
| 120 | $2.44 | $3.55 | $355 |
| 150 | $2.80 | $3.19 | $319 |
| 200 | $3.40 | $2.59 | $259 |
| 300 | $4.60 | $1.39 | $139 |
Up to 108 pages the flat $2.30 rate means extra pages are free; above it, each page costs 1.2 cents of royalty. A 108-page journal and an 80-page journal cost the same to print, so if your interior fits 108 pages, use them all.
| Marketplace | 60% from | Below threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com (US) | $9.99 | 50% |
| Amazon.co.uk | £7.99 | 50% |
| Amazon.de and EU | €9.99 | 50% |
| Amazon.ca | C$13.99 | 50% |
| Amazon.com.au | A$13.99 | 50% |
Set each marketplace price yourself rather than letting KDP convert from US dollars — automatic conversion lands on prices like £8.12 and C$13.67, which sit just under the 60% thresholds.
Before June 10, 2025, KDP paid a flat 60% on paperbacks and hardcovers at any price. KDP announced the change on May 15, 2025: books listed below $9.99 (£7.99, €9.99, C$13.99, A$13.99) dropped to 50%, and books at or above those prices kept 60%. The same notice lowered printing costs for colour paperbacks — standard colour on Amazon.com and premium colour in several European marketplaces — but black-ink printing costs did not change.
For low-content publishers the effect was sharp. A 120-page journal at $7.99 earned about $2.35 under the old flat 60%; it now earns $1.56. The same book at $9.99 still earns $3.55. Catalogues priced at $6.99–$8.99 lost a third of their royalty overnight, and the response across the category was a move to $9.99 with more pages or better design to justify it.
The lesson for pricing a new title: decide first whether the book can credibly sell at $9.99. If it cannot — a thin 50-page notebook, say — it is competing at 50% against books that earn 60%, and the margin gap compounds across every sale.
A publisher in the gratitude-journal niche lists five 6" × 9", 120-page variants at $9.99: lined, prompted, couples, kids and a 52-week guided edition. Each earns $3.55. If the five average 25 sales a month, that is 125 sales and about $444 a month — from one niche researched once. That is the real KDP model: not one bestseller, but a cluster of variants on a niche you understand, priced at the threshold.
The same 120-page journal can also be sold on Etsy as a printable PDF. The economics differ completely: on Amazon you earn $3.55 at $9.99 but never handle printing or delivery; on Etsy a $6 PDF of the interior keeps about $4.98 after fees, with no printing cost, but the buyer prints it themselves. Many publishers do both — the paperback on Amazon for buyers who want a bound book, the PDF on Etsy for those who prefer to print at home.
Cut pages, not quality. A 150-page journal that would work at 120 pages costs $0.36 more to print every sale. On 200 sales a month, that is $72.
Stay in black ink. A colour interior costs about five times as much per page. A 100-page colour book costs $7.50 to print and needs a price above $12.50 to earn anything at 60%.
Choose a larger trim only for content that needs it. Large trims cost more to print: 120 pages at 8.5" × 11" cost $3.04 against $2.44 at 6" × 9", which cuts the royalty at $9.99 from $3.55 to $2.95. A letter-size planner can usually carry a higher price, so price it up rather than absorb the difference.
Next steps: size the cover with the KDP cover calculator, read the KDP publishing guide, and avoid the low content book mistakes that get titles rejected. Craftific's KDP tools generate interiors at the exact page count you price here.
On Amazon.com, 50% of list price at $9.98 or less and 60% at $9.99 or more, minus printing cost. Other marketplaces have their own thresholds — £7.99 in the UK, €9.99 in Germany, C$13.99 in Canada and A$13.99 in Australia.
For a US black-ink paperback, a flat $2.30 up to 108 pages, then $1.00 plus $0.012 per page. A 120-page book costs $2.44; a 300-page book $4.60. Colour interiors cost much more — $3.60 flat up to 40 pages, then $1.00 + $0.065 per page.
It is the first price that earns 60% instead of 50%. Moving a 120-page journal from $9.49 to $9.99 lifts the royalty from $2.31 to $3.55 — a 54% jump for 50 cents. Almost every low-content book that can bear $9.99 is priced exactly there.
Whatever makes royalty minus printing cost positive. For a 120-page black-and-white book at 50%, that is just over $4.88 ($2.44 ÷ 0.5). The calculator shows the exact minimum for your page count, but books priced that low earn cents.
No. Expanded Distribution — bookstores and libraries — pays 40% minus printing cost, and requires a higher list price to clear it. For a low-content journal, expanded distribution often pays nothing; leave it off unless the book is priced at $12.99 or more.
Yes, on volume. At $3.55 a sale, 50 sales a month is about $178 per title. The sellers who earn well have 20 to 100 titles in niches they research first — see best KDP niches.
Author copies earn nothing: they are sold to you at printing cost plus shipping, so a 120-page journal costs $2.44 plus delivery — useful for proofs, craft fairs and gifts, but they do not count as sales or earn royalty. Only customer purchases on Amazon do.
Spec-correct PDF interiors, covers sized to your page count, and AI-written Amazon listing copy.
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