KDP 35% vs 70% Royalty: Which Should You Choose?

Choose the 70% royalty option if your ebook is priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and you're selling primarily in supported marketplaces like the US, UK, and Canada. Pick the 35% option if you need to price below $2.99, above $9.99, or you're targeting countries outside Amazon's 70% royalty delivery zones. That's the short answer. The longer answer involves delivery costs, your genre, and what actually puts more money in your pocket.

How Each Royalty Option Actually Works

Amazon gives you two choices when you publish an ebook on KDP. Here's what happens with each:

The 35% royalty option: You get 35% of your list price. No delivery fee deducted. Available at any price point from $0.99 to $200. Works in every Amazon marketplace worldwide.

The 70% royalty option: You get 70% of your list price, minus a delivery fee based on file size. Only available for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Restricted to specific countries and territories. Your book must also satisfy Amazon's pricing requirements, meaning the digital price can't exceed the physical price, and you must enroll in certain terms.

A common mistake: assuming 70% always beats 35%. It usually does. But not always.

The Delivery Fee That Eats Into Your 70% Royalty

This is where most new authors get surprised. At the 70% rate, Amazon charges a delivery cost of about $0.15 per megabyte (the exact rate varies by marketplace). For a text-only novel at around 1-2 MB, that's roughly $0.15 to $0.30. Barely noticeable.

But for a heavily illustrated book, a cookbook, or a graphic novel? File sizes can hit 10 MB, 20 MB, or more. At $0.15 per MB, a 15 MB file costs $2.25 in delivery alone. Price that book at $4.99, and your 70% royalty of $3.49 drops to $1.24 after delivery. The 35% royalty on the same $4.99 book? $1.75. No delivery fee. You'd actually earn more at 35%.

So the rule: if your file is large, do the math before selecting 70%. Text-heavy books almost always benefit from 70%. Image-heavy books need a closer look.

Price Points Where 35% Makes More Sense

The $0.99 price point is locked into the 35% royalty. That gives you about $0.35 per sale. Some authors use this as a loss leader for the first book in a series, driving readers toward full-priced sequels. It works well for that purpose. It doesn't work well as a long-term pricing strategy for standalone books.

At the other end, books priced above $9.99 are also stuck at 35%. If you're selling a premium non-fiction title at $14.99, you'll earn $5.25 per sale. That's actually more in raw dollars than a $9.99 book at 70% ($6.99 minus delivery). So high-ticket pricing at 35% can be competitive if your content and audience support it.

Here's a quick breakdown of real earnings per sale:

• $0.99 at 35%: $0.35
• $2.99 at 70%: $2.09 (minus delivery)
• $4.99 at 70%: $3.49 (minus delivery)
• $9.99 at 70%: $6.99 (minus delivery)
• $12.99 at 35%: $4.55
• $14.99 at 35%: $5.25

If you want to experiment with different price points and see exact take-home numbers, the Royalty Calculator on PublishRank lets you plug in your price, file size, and marketplace to compare both royalty tiers side by side.

Country Restrictions on the 70% Option

Amazon's 70% royalty isn't available everywhere. It works in major markets: the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and the Netherlands. If a significant chunk of your readership buys from other Amazon stores, those sales default to 35% anyway, regardless of your selection.

For most English-language authors, this isn't a dealbreaker. The US and UK alone account for the bulk of KDP ebook revenue. But if you're publishing in a language where your primary audience is in a non-supported marketplace, factor that into your decision.

The KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited Factor

Enrolling in KDP Select (which puts your book in Kindle Unlimited) doesn't change your royalty rate on purchased copies. You still choose 35% or 70%. But KDP Select does require exclusivity with Amazon, and it opens up page-read earnings from KU borrows, which are separate from royalties entirely.

Here's how this affects your decision: if most of your revenue comes from KU page reads rather than direct sales, the royalty rate on purchased copies matters less. Many fiction authors in KU see 60-80% of their income from borrows. In that case, optimizing your page count and read-through rate matters more than agonizing over 35% vs 70%.

But if you're selling non-fiction or genres where KU readership is thinner, direct purchase royalties are your primary income. The royalty tier you pick has a real impact on your bottom line.

My Recommendation for Most Authors

Price between $2.99 and $9.99 and select 70%. That's the right move for the vast majority of KDP ebooks. Fiction authors tend to land between $2.99 and $5.99. Non-fiction between $4.99 and $9.99.

Use 35% only when you have a specific reason: a $0.99 promo, a premium price above $9.99, or a file so large that delivery fees destroy your margin. Don't pick 35% by default. Don't pick it because you're unsure. The math favors 70% in almost every standard scenario.

One more thing: you can change your royalty option at any time through your KDP dashboard. This isn't a permanent decision. If you're running a limited-time $0.99 sale, switch to 35%, then switch back. Amazon processes the change within about 72 hours.