KDP Publishing: Is It Still Worth It?

About this video

Dale explains how KDP works and whether it is still worth using. Authors must bring their own formatted manuscript, cover and metadata. He describes the ebook royalty structure: 35% outside Amazon’s $2.99–$9.99 ‘sweet spot’ and 70% inside it, noting that a $19.99 book at 35% roughly matches a $9.99 book at 70%. KDP Select is a 90-day exclusivity deal that extends the 70% rate globally and puts the book into Kindle Unlimited and the lending library, where borrows and page reads influence Best Sellers Rank — he says a book can, in his words, become a number-one bestseller without selling a single copy, which he calls a hollow victory. Print pays, he says, 60% of retail minus print costs, typically netting around 35% in practice, across nine marketplaces, with expanded distribution via Ingram at roughly a third of the Amazon payout. Select also unlocks a 7-day Kindle Countdown Deal and a 5-day free promotion each 90 days. He ends by recommending Amazon Advertising cautiously and pointing beginners to Amazon’s free KDP Jumpstart course, concluding KDP is free, wide-reaching and competitive but not for everyone.

Key takeaways

• Price ebooks $2.99–$9.99 for 70%; outside that range you get 35%
• KDP Select trades 90-day exclusivity for global 70%, KU borrows and promo tools
• Borrows and page reads affect Best Sellers Rank, not just sales
• Print royalty is 60% minus print costs; expanded distribution pays far less
• Never spend ad money you cannot afford to lose

Episode details: published March 11, 2019 · 14:28 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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