KDP royalty calculator
What a paperback actually earns on Amazon.com once printing is paid for. Printing cost depends on page count, ink and trim size — large trim costs more per page, which is the part most calculators skip.
The rates
Printing cost = fixed cost + (page count × per-page cost), except for short black-ink books, which are a flat rate. Large trim means more than 6.12" wide or more than 9" tall — so 6×9 is regular trim, but 7×10, 8×10 and 8.5×11 are not.
| Ink & trim | Up to 110 pages | Above that |
|---|---|---|
| Black, regular trim | $2.30 flat | $1.00 + $0.012/page |
| Black, large trim | $2.84 flat | $1.00 + $0.017/page |
| Premium colour, regular | $3.60 flat to 40pp | $1.00 + $0.065/page |
| Premium colour, large | — | $1.00 + $0.08/page |
| Standard colour, regular | — | $1.00 + $0.0255/page (72–600pp) |
| Standard colour, large | — | $1.00 + $0.0402/page (72–600pp) |
Will the cover print?
Page count decides the spine too, and a spine that is even a little wrong gets the wrap rejected. The spine calculator gives the exact cover size for the same book — and flags the 0.06" that several popular calculators add and Amazon's documentation does not.
Why puzzle books price the way they do
A puzzle book is black ink, so printing is cheap: a 120-page 6×9 costs $2.44 to print. The trap is page count. Every extra puzzle adds a page and a bit over a penny, and solutions pages add more — so a 200-puzzle book is not twice the margin of a 100-puzzle one, it is twice the print cost with the same list price.
The other trap is large trim. Going from 6×9 to 8.5×11 for bigger grids raises the per-page cost from $0.012 to $0.017 — about 40% more per page. Worth it for a large-print book people will pay more for; expensive by accident otherwise.
Making a puzzle book?
Puzzle Press generates the whole paperback — word search, sudoku or maze puzzles with solutions — plus the matching cover, and shows the printing cost and royalty for the book as you build it. Free to use — pay only to remove the watermark.
Make a book freeSee a finished book (PDF) · and its cover — made with it, nothing mocked up.