Will you give your books away? By Brendan Conboy
If you sell your Paperback books via Amazon KDP, changes are afoot? Ebooks aren’t affected. An author currently receives a 60% royalty minus print costs, but this will change on 10th June. These changes may see you giving your books away. At the very least, you could see a reduction in royalties.
If you have paperback books priced at £7.99 or less, be aware.
The new royalty rate will be 50% less print costs.
Example
· Trim size: 6" x 9"
·
Page count: 300 pages
·
Print type: Black & white interior, white paper
·
Marketplace: Amazon.co.uk
·
List Price: £7.99
Current Royalties (Before June 10, 2025)
- Royalty
rate: 60%
- Printing
cost (UK):
approx. £3.60
- Royalty Calculation:£7.99 × 60% = £4.79£4.79 − £3.60 (print cost) = £1.19 royalty per sale
New Royalties (After June 10, 2025)
- Royalty
rate: 50%
- Same
printing cost:
approx. £3.60
- Royalty Calculation:£7.99 × 50% = £3.995£3.995 − £3.60 = £0.40 royalty per sale
⚠️ Important Note:
If your printing cost + 50% of list price
exceeds your list price, your royalty will be £0 — or Amazon may
reject the pricing.
With these changes imminent, I will certainly be reassessing my KDP bookshelf. One little trick I learnt working for charities was to ‘re-package’ a project or a service. This helped to bring fresh funding in for the work. If you have small books, you may consider republishing them together as a bigger volume. This works well for poetry collections.
My two autobiographical books are not affected by the new pricing, but a third, semi-biographical book would be. I had been considering combining these three books for a while, and the price change announcement kicked me up the backside.
Am I foolish to repackage? I don’t think so, as the reader has a much better deal, and the profit margins are slightly better.
So, here is the repackage:
+ 
+ 
=
I am interested in hearing any ideas that you may have for coping with the KDP changes.
Brendan Conboy aka Half Man Half Poet is the author of 16 published books including two fascinating autobiographies, The Golden Thread and I'm Still VALUED. In 1986, Brendan invited Jesus into his life and God blessed him with the gift of rhyming words. He used that gift as a Christian Rap artist for 25 years and has written 6 poetry books including the entire Book of Psalms in Rhyme. He has 3 published novels - Issues, Invasion of the Mimics and Legacy of the Mimics. He is the creator of Book Blest
Yes, I’ve been considering what to do with this as well. I would put the price up for your individual titles and offer them in one volume as well, which makes it cheaper for readers buying multiple. The world is changing, and at some point, readers have to accept that books are more expensive. Quite frankly, they are worth it! In no other industry would you get paid SO BADLY for so much work! The more of us that price realistically (you must price at 3–4x print cost to make a profit on Ingram ) the better it is for everyone. It changes the expectation. I don’t sell many paperbacks, perhaps because I put the price up, but I don’t think it made much difference! I focus on ebooks and those PBs I sell in person, rather than via Amazon or Ingram, I discount (because I can when there’s no middle man.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Natasha. You are absolutely right, we need to price our books realistically and that means for more rather than less. If something is priced too cheaply, people assume it is rubbish. I like your guide of 3-4x print cost.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Brendan, about KDP. Thank you. It serves as a reminder and a call to action for those of us who might have forgotten! What is the way forward for our paperbacks? Already, e-books are far more popular. We will price our books realistically, and the Holy Spirit will breathe over them. May God's will be done. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sophia. As of September 2024, paperbacks were 75% of the market. Though ebook sales are on the increase, paper is still the preference of most readers.
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