Pricing your first ebook feels like a guess. It doesn’t have to be. Amazon’s royalty rules make a few price points clearly smarter than others, and once you understand them, most of the decision makes itself.
How KDP royalties work
On Amazon KDP you choose between two royalty options:
- 70%: for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $12.99, minus a small delivery fee based on your file size.
- 35%: for ebooks priced below $2.99 or above $12.99.
The 70% ceiling was $9.99 from 2007 until July 7, 2026, when Amazon raised it to $12.99 (Publishers Lunch, Authors Guild).
That one rule shapes almost every pricing decision. Drop below $2.99 and your royalty is cut in half.
The delivery fee is charged on the 70% option and depends on how big your ebook file is. For a text-only romance novel it’s small, but heavy images can make it add up, so keep your file lean.
$0.99: the door opener
At $0.99 you earn 35%, about $0.35 a sale. On its own, that isn’t a business.
It works as a strategy:
- a limited-time sale on book one, to bring new readers into a series
- a permanently low-priced series starter that sends readers into full-price books two, three and four
- a launch week price to build early momentum
What doesn’t work is pricing your whole catalog at $0.99 and hoping volume will save you. Without full-price books for readers to go on to, cheap books just earn less.
$2.99–$4.99: the sweet spot
This is where a lot of indie romance sits. You get the 70% royalty, and the price still feels like an easy yes. At $3.99 or $4.99 the book still feels like an impulse buy, and the price signals a professional book.
For a new author, start here.
$5.99–$12.99: premium
Higher prices work when readers already trust you:
- established authors with a loyal readership
- long books, especially in genres like romantasy where readers expect length
- box sets of a completed series
Since the 70% royalty now reaches $12.99, a box set no longer has to choose between a fair price and half the royalty.
For a brand-new pen name, a high price can slow down the early sales you need to get noticed.
Pricing a series
In a series, the money is in read-through, not the single book. A ladder that works well:
- Book one: $0.99 or a low price, to make trying a new author easy
- Book two: around $3.99
- Book three and beyond: $4.99 or more, because readers who’ve come this far are hooked
Keep the steps gentle. Jumping from $0.99 straight to $8.99 makes a lot of readers stop between books. (How do you know if your series can afford a cheap book one? Calculate your read-through.)
What about Kindle Unlimited?
If your book is in Kindle Unlimited, many readers read it through their subscription, and you earn from the pages they read instead of a sale. (Here’s how KU pays.) Your list price still matters for everyone who buys outright, so it’s still worth getting right.
Being in KU (through KDP Select) also gives you two promotion tools: Kindle Countdown Deals, a time-limited discount, and free book promotions, a few days where your book is free.
Pricing in other countries
You set your price in US dollars, and KDP can convert it for each Amazon store automatically. You can also set prices for each store yourself. Converted prices often land on odd numbers, so many authors round them to a clean price in each currency.
When to change your price
- Raise it when a book is selling steadily, has plenty of reviews, or the series has grown.
- Run a short sale to bring new readers into a series, then return to full price.
- Test one change at a time, and give it a few weeks before deciding it worked.
Go deeper
Chapter 14 of Plot. Publish. Profit. covers how to price a whole series and catalog, plus the Kindle Unlimited vs. wide decision.
