The Truth Behind KDP Earnings

About this video

Dale argues KDP is not a safety net — accounts can be shut down, books blocked with vague explanations, and support can be unhelpful — and walks through what he presents as the real economics. For ebooks, he says KDP offers 35% and 70% tiers; the 70% tier requires pricing between $2.99 and $9.99 and incurs a delivery fee based on file size, and in Brazil, Japan, India, and Mexico the royalty is effectively 35% unless enrolled in KDP Select at that price range. He gives examples where larger, image-heavy files lose much more to delivery fees than text-only files, notes the 35% tier avoids delivery fees, and says publishing via wide distributors avoids KDP’s file-size cut. He also explains VAT is removed before royalties are calculated in some countries, lowering payouts versus a US sale. On KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, he reports the September 2025 page rate and global fund figures he cites, argues inflation has eroded their real value, and says AI-driven scam books and page-read manipulation further drain the pool. For paperbacks, he says KDP now pays 50% at $9.98 or lower and 60% at $9.99 or higher, minus printing costs, with expanded distribution at 40% minus print fees and only partial Ingram reach, which he advises serious authors to skip. He then compares wide options he favors: Apple Books, Kobo Writing Life, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble Press paying largely flat or higher rates with no delivery fees as he describes them, aggregators Draft2Digital (revenue-share model) and PublishDrive (subscription model), and for print IngramSpark, Lulu, and BookVault, which he says offer wider reach, differing quality, costs, and direct-sales options.

Key takeaways

• He says KDP’s 70% ebook tier requires $2.99-$9.99 pricing and subtracts a file-size delivery fee, so image-heavy books can earn far less per sale than lean text files; the 35% tier has no delivery fee
• VAT is deducted before royalty calculation in some countries, and some regions default to 35%, so international payouts can be lower than an equivalent US sale
• He reports Kindle Unlimited’s real page-rate value is falling with inflation despite a large global fund, with more authors and scam books competing for the pool
• He says KDP paperbacks pay 50% at $9.98 or below and 60% at $9.99 or above minus print costs, while expanded distribution pays 40% and offers limited reach compared with Ingram-based options
• Wide retailers and aggregators he lists — Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble Press, Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, IngramSpark, Lulu, and BookVault — are presented as ways to avoid delivery fees and reach markets beyond Amazon

Episode details: published November 24, 2025 · 19:09 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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