Every month without a book on Amazon is royalties you'll never collect
For coaches, consultants, and creators with proven knowledge: the 70% royalty rate is real, the publishing cost is $0, and the only obstacle is not knowing where to start.
Get the free guide to publish your first bookWhat is Amazon KDP?
Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is Amazon's self-publishing platform that lets anyone publish and sell books globally — with no upfront investment, no minimum print runs, and no need for a traditional publisher. You keep full control of your book and your earnings.
Digital format for Kindle and the Kindle app. Lowest barrier to entry — publish in 24–48 hours.
Print-on-demand physical book. Amazon prints and ships each copy only when a customer orders — zero inventory.
Premium print-on-demand format. Higher perceived value and a higher selling price.
The numbers behind the opportunity
How does KDP work?
Write
Create your manuscript in Word, Google Docs, or any text editor. KDP accepts standard formats.
Publish
Upload your manuscript and cover, set your price and royalty rate, and submit. Live on Amazon in 24–72 hours.
Sell
Your book is available to Amazon's global customer base — the largest book marketplace in the world.
Earn
Amazon pays royalties every month directly to your bank account. No minimum payout threshold.
Why KDP is the lowest-barrier path to publishing
- ✓Zero publishing cost — no setup fees, no minimum orders, no upfront investment
- ✓No physical inventory — print-on-demand means no boxes in your garage
- ✓Passive royalties — your book sells while you sleep, in 40+ countries
- ✓Keep your rights — you own 100% of your work at all times
- ✓Kindle Unlimited: earn per page read — a second income stream beyond direct sales
Amazon KDP
- $0 to publish
- Live in 24–72 hours
- Keep 100% of rights
- Earn up to 70% royalty
- Kindle Unlimited: additional income per page read
- Global reach from day one
Traditional publishing
- Agents, pitching, years of waiting
- 12–18 months to publication
- Publisher owns key rights
- 8–15% royalty on list price
- Limited distribution until proven
What you actually earn per sale
No estimates — real numbers from KDP's official royalty structure.
70% × $9.99(60% × $14.99) − $4 printing≈ 200 pages readMonthly income formula
(units × royalty) + (KENP pages × rate) − ad spend⚠70% royalty requires your eBook to be priced ≥20% below your print edition on Amazon
Fiscal note
Amazon collects VAT from buyers via reverse charge — you don't handle it directly.
W-8BEN not filed: IRS withholds 30% of royalties. With your tax ID declared (Spain-US treaty): 5% or 0%.
Estimate your KDP earnings
Adjust the sliders and see your royalty potential in real time.
Format
Royalty plan
Per sale
$6.99
Monthly
$699
Annual
$8,392
* Estimate only. Does not include taxes, ad spend, or delivery fees.
5 technical mistakes that make you invisible on Amazon's algorithm
KDP doesn't always reject your book — sometimes it just buries it. These are the mistakes no tutorial tells you about.
Accented characters take 2 bytes in UTF-8, not one. If you fill the keyword box counting characters, you've likely exceeded the limit. The A10 algorithm silently ignores the entire box — with no warning whatsoever.
Always count in bytes, not characters. Avoid accents, commas, and words already in your title. One byte over and all your keyword work is wasted.
A PDF is a page snapshot — it doesn't reflow to screen size. Kindle readers can't resize the text. The experience is so bad it generates mass returns, and those returns destroy the dwell time Cosmo tracks to the millisecond.
Always export as .epub or use KDP's automatic conversion from .docx. PDF is only for print, with a 3.2mm bleed on every side.
25% of categories in the KDP panel have no real buyer-facing page on Amazon. You publish convinced you found an empty niche — and you're actually in a digital graveyard no one can navigate to.
Before choosing a category, search for it manually on amazon.com. If it doesn't appear as a browsable section, don't use it.
Amazon charges $0.15 per megabyte of your final file on the 70% plan. A book with high-res images can weigh 6 MB — that's $0.90 deducted before you see a cent. At a $3.99 price point, you're essentially working for free.
If your file exceeds 3 MB, compare both plans. The 35% plan eliminates the delivery fee and may net you more than the 70% plan after fees.
Amazon requires you to declare AI use. If their filter detects it and you didn't disclose, your account gets permanently suspended. Even disclosed, low-quality AI covers trigger the uncanny valley — strange fingers, unnatural lighting. Buyers' brains reject the image in milliseconds, tanking your click-through rate.
Always declare AI use in the dashboard. If budget is tight, a simple human-made cover outranks a mediocre AI one by 22%.
Over 1 million independent authors publish their books on Amazon KDP
Source: ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors), 2023
What you need to publish your first book
5 things to prepare before you hit Publish. Most first-time authors get stuck on #3.
- 1KDP account with legal name, bank account, and completed tax interview
- 2Manuscript in DOCX, EPUB, or KPF — validated in Kindle Previewer
- 3Cover: JPEG or TIFF, 2560 × 1600 px, RGB, max 50 MB
- 4Title, description, and 7 keyword fields ready — no prohibited terms
- 5Price decided: calculate your royalty at 35% and 70% before choosing
No risk. If Markfolio isn't for you, we'll refund you.
When you're ready to publish your book on Amazon KDP, Markfolio is here to help. And if within the first 30 days you decide it's not what you need, we'll refund 100% — no questions, no forms, no hassle. Just an email to support.
See Markfolio plansGet the free KDP guide
Everything you need to go from idea to published book on Amazon — without paying a publisher or managing inventory.
Inside the guide:
- ✓17-point pre-publication checklist
- ✓Book description template (no prohibited terms)
- ✓Royalty spreadsheet calculator
- ✓Step-by-step W-8BEN guide for non-residents
This guide is for you if:
- ✓You have knowledge you teach (or want to teach)
- ✓You want passive income without creating paid courses
- ✓You've never published a book
Not for you if:
- ✕You write fiction or already publish on KDP