How to Publish a Book and Get Paid (What KDP Really Pays)

Here’s how each route pays, the real per-copy math and how to make a book earn even when it doesn’t sell much.

Traditional publisher or self-publish?

Two ways to do it, and they pay very differently.

A traditional publisher pays you an advance (money up front), then royalties once your book sells enough to earn that advance back. They handle editing, the cover and getting it into stores. You’ll usually need a literary agent first, a book proposal with sample chapters for nonfiction, and a lot of patience. Have a lawyer read any contract, because it decides who owns the rights and for how long.

Self-publishing means you do all of it yourself (or pay people to), but you keep a much bigger slice of every sale and you can publish this month. For most people reading this, that’s the realistic route, so the rest of this page is about it.

How much does Amazon KDP pay?

KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is free to use for ebooks, paperbacks and hardcovers. Here’s how it pays on Amazon.com:

What does that look like per copy? Some quick math:

• A $4.99 ebook with a 2 MB file on the 70% option: $0.30 delivery, so 70% of $4.69 = about $3.28 a copy
• The same ebook on the 35% option: about $1.75 a copy
• KDP’s own paperback example: a 333-page book at $15 costs $5.00 to print, so you get (60% of $15) minus $5.00 = $4.00 a copy

Printing a black-ink paperback in a regular size costs $1.00 plus $0.012 a page for 110 to 828 pages, and a flat $2.30 for shorter books. Longer book, bigger printing bill, smaller cut. Price it so the math still works.

So 100 ebooks at $4.99 is roughly $328. That’s real money, but 100 sales is more than plenty of self-published books ever do.

When does KDP pay you?

Every month, about 60 days after the end of the month the sale happened in. Sell a copy in January and you’re paid around the end of March. Expanded distribution sales take about 90 days.

Pick direct deposit. On Amazon.com there’s no minimum for it, while checks and wires wait until you’ve earned $100.

Is KDP Select worth it?

KDP Select is a free 90-day program for your ebook. The deal: your ebook has to be sold only on Kindle while you’re enrolled (your paperback can still be sold anywhere). In return, your book goes into Kindle+, Amazon’s reading subscription, and you get a share of a monthly fund based on how many pages subscribers read.

The per-page rate changes every month, so nobody can tell you up front what it’ll pay.

It’s worth trying for a first book. Most indie ebooks sell on Amazon anyway. If you want to be in Apple Books and Kobo too, skip it, because it locks your ebook to Kindle.

What do the other stores pay?

Lots of authors publish the ebook and paperback on KDP, then add Apple Books and Kobo directly or through Draft2Digital if they skip KDP Select.

How to self-publish a book on KDP

1. Finish the book and get it edited. Readers forgive a plain cover before they forgive typos.
2. Get a cover made. It’s the one thing worth paying for if you can’t design.
3. Sign in to KDP with your Amazon account and fill in your tax and bank info so you can get paid.
4. Add the book: title, description and keywords, then upload your manuscript and cover.
5. For the paperback, take KDP’s free ISBN unless you want your own.
6. Pick your price and royalty option, then hit publish.

Then the real work starts: getting people to find it.

The smarter way to get paid from a book

Very few authors live off royalties. A lot of people who make money from a book do it by using the book to sell something else.

Say you run a bookkeeping business. A short book on handling small business taxes helps your ideal client, shows you know your stuff and costs them a few bucks. Put a free checklist or template on your website and mention it in the book. Readers who download it join your email list, and some of them hire you later. One new client can be worth more than a year of royalties.

Same goes for a blog or a coaching side hustle. If you don’t have one yet, here’s how to start a WordPress blog.

Like writing but want to get paid this month? Getting paid to write articles pays per piece, and there are more digital side hustles that pay faster than a book.

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