Kindle Direct Publishing Explained: Is KDP Worth It in 2020?

About this video

This video’s banked transcript is on an Arabic caption track; summarized here in English, it is Dale’s 2020 deep dive asking whether KDP is worth it. KDP began around 2008, boomed in the 2013 Kindle gold rush, and now handles ebooks and print, but authors must supply their own written, formatted manuscript, covers and metadata. KDP is, he stresses, 100% free to use; the cost is the royalty split. Ebooks earn 35% outside the sweet spot and 70% between $2.99 and $9.99, minus VAT and, at 70%, a delivery fee of about 15 cents per megabyte with a 1-cent minimum — so matching a $9.99 book’s earnings outside the band requires pricing near $19.99. KDP Select is an optional 90-day ebook-only exclusivity deal: it unlocks 70% in regions such as Japan that otherwise pay 35%, pays per page read from the monthly KDP Select Global Fund (he says it recently ran about $27 million a month, at a little under half a cent per page), and borrows boost Best Sellers Rank. Print pays 60% minus print costs, netting about 35–50% in practice, he says. He advises promoting deals yourself and starting Amazon Ads small.

Key takeaways

• KDP is free; the real cost is the royalty split and delivery fees at 70%
• Outside $2.99–$9.99 you need roughly double the price to earn the same per sale
• Select pays per page read from a shared global fund — income depends on total pages read
• Print nets roughly 35–50% after print costs; page count drives the cost
• Promotions no longer work on autopilot — you must drive traffic to them yourself

Episode details: published March 10, 2020 · 15:50 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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