Kindle Direct Publishing Paperback: Is Expanded Distribution Worth It

About this video

Dale explains KDP Print expanded distribution. Standard KDP Print reaches territories including the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada and Australia and pays 60 percent of retail sales minus print costs. Ticking expanded distribution on the last page of the upload process lists the book with large distributors — primarily the Ingram Content Group — so online retailers and bookstores can order it, though listing does not guarantee orders. The trade-off is a lower royalty of 40 percent of the retail cost minus printing fees, because a middleman takes a cut; the two royalty rates operate separately, so declining expanded distribution does not affect standard KDP Print royalties or penalize the author. He notes other downsides: the list price cannot be adjusted separately for expanded distribution, propagation to thousands of retailers takes six to eight weeks, expanded distribution sales typically appear in reports between the 28th and the 31st of the month, metadata and price changes are delayed, Amazon may price-match a lower price shown on another retailer (his example: a book raised to $15.99 shown crossed out at $12.99 from Walmart.com), and third-party printers may produce slight quality variation. His alternative for wider reach with better earnings is to leave expanded distribution deselected, take the same content without the Amazon-assigned ISBN, and upload directly to IngramSpark or Lightning Source — with the warning that IngramSpark charges a $49 upload fee and requires your own ISBN.

Key takeaways

• Expanded distribution lists a KDP Print book with distributors, primarily Ingram Content Group, so retailers and bookstores can order it, without guaranteeing orders
• It pays 40 percent of retail minus printing fees versus 60 percent minus print costs for standard KDP Print sales, and declining it does not affect standard royalties
• The expanded distribution price cannot be set separately from the KDP Print price, and Amazon may price-match lower prices appearing on other retailers
• Expect delays: six to eight weeks to propagate to retailers, with expanded distribution sales typically reported between the 28th and 31st of the month
• Dale’s alternative is to skip expanded distribution and upload directly to IngramSpark or Lightning Source with your own ISBN, noting IngramSpark’s $49 upload fee

Episode details: published March 13, 2019 · 10:03 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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