Amazon KDP

Kindle Direct Publishing is the shortest route from a finished manuscript to a book somebody can buy, and the audience on the other side of it is the reason most self-published authors start here. Publishing costs nothing. The royalty band is the thing to read before setting a price, because it changes what you earn by half.

Publishing costs nothing. The 70 percent royalty option applies to ebooks listed between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com, a band widened from $9.99 in July 2026, with equivalent bands in other marketplaces. Outside the band the rate is 35 percent, so a $19.99 book earns less per copy than a $12.99 one. Delivery costs come off the 70 percent option.

An author whose readers are on Amazon, and anybody testing whether a book sells before investing in wider distribution. A writer who wants to be in libraries and every other store is describing Draft2Digital.