Amazon KDP Review: Is KDP Worth It in 2024?

About this video

Dale reviews Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing as it stands today, covering ebooks, KDP Select, Kindle Vella, print and hardcover. KDP distributes ebooks to 13 regions in the Amazon ecosystem. Ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 earn 70% minus a delivery fee based on file size, while books priced outside that range earn 35% with no delivery fee; Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico do not honor the 70% rate unless the book is in KDP Select, and public domain works are automatically 35%. KDP Select is a 90-day exclusivity program for the ebook only, placing it in Kindle Unlimited, where authors are paid per page read from the monthly KDP Select Global Fund; he says the rate has historically been less than half a cent per page. Select borrows raise bestseller rank as if a sale, and each 90-day term offers either a 5-day free book promotion or a 7-day Kindle Countdown Deal, not both, with the Countdown Deal keeping the 70% royalty even when the price drops below $2.99. Kindle Vella offers serialized episodes of 600 to 5,000 words unlocked with tokens, paying authors 50% of revenue plus performance-based monthly bonuses. For print, KDP offers 16 trim sizes and page counts from 24 to 828, a free ISBN that is exclusive to Amazon, proof copies with a ’not for resale’ watermark, and 60% royalty minus print fees. Hardcovers, rolled out around mid to late 2021, come in five trim sizes with 75 to 550 pages, but lack dust jackets and standard color printing and, in his experience, have unpredictable quality. Expanded distribution for paperbacks only, handled by Ingram Book Group in the US and UK, pays 40% minus print fees. KDP pays 60 days after the close of the month. His top pros are that KDP is the path of least resistance to Amazon, has competitive royalties and fast print fulfillment; his top cons are heavy-handed account terminations with no phone support, reach that barely extends beyond Amazon, and the limited hardcover option.

Key takeaways

• Ebooks priced $2.99 to $9.99 earn 70% minus a file-size delivery fee; outside that range the royalty is 35% with no delivery fee.
• KDP Select is 90-day ebook exclusivity for Kindle Unlimited, paid per page read, with a choice of a 5-day free promotion or a 7-day Countdown Deal per term.
• Kindle Vella pays 50% of revenue plus monthly bonuses for serialized episodes of 600 to 5,000 words unlocked with tokens.
• Print pays 60% minus print fees with a free Amazon-exclusive ISBN; expanded distribution for paperbacks pays 40% minus print fees via Ingram in the US and UK.
• Dale’s main cons are heavy-handed account terminations, limited reach beyond Amazon, and hardcovers with no dust jackets or standard color option.

Episode details: published March 16, 2024 · 23:47 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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