Lesson 6 of 9 Free account 4 min read
KDP Select or Go Wide? Choosing Where to Sell Your Book
How Amazon KDP and KDP Select work, what Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) pays, what going wide through Apple, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble and aggregators involves, and how print-on-demand royalties compare.
Key takeaways
- KDP Select requires your ebook to be exclusive to Amazon for renewing 90-day terms, in exchange for Kindle+ page-read income and promotional tools.
- Exclusivity applies only to the ebook; your paperback and audiobook can be sold anywhere.
- Going wide means more storefronts, more work and slower growth, but no single company controls your income.
- Print-on-demand royalties are a share of list price minus printing cost, so compare KDP Print, IngramSpark and Lulu with real numbers.
Once your book is ready, the biggest distribution decision is whether to make the ebook exclusive to Amazon or sell it everywhere. There’s no universal right answer. It depends on your genre, your readers and how much distribution work you want to take on. Here’s how each option works as of November 2026.
How Much Do You Earn on Amazon KDP?
Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s self-publishing platform for ebooks, paperbacks and hardcovers. For ebooks, you choose between two royalty options. The 35% option pays 35% of the list price. The 70% option pays 70% of the list price minus a delivery cost based on file size, for sales in eligible territories, and requires a list price between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com. That ceiling rose from $9.99 in July 2026.
For paperbacks sold on Amazon.com, the royalty is 60% of the list price for books priced at $9.99 or more, or 50% below that, minus the printing cost. Through KDP’s Expanded Distribution to other retailers, the rate is 40% of list price, minus printing.
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