KDP, KDP Select, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital or ACX? This tool is a decision tree over the platforms' published terms, not a quiz with weights. Set your formats, exclusivity tolerance, prices and distribution goals; it runs the per-unit maths at your numbers and shows every rule that fired, each linked to the term page it came from.
KDP with KDP Select enrollment
$3.28 per unit
70% option at your price
Why this path (the rules that fired)
You accept ebook exclusivity, so KDP Select applies: the Kindle eBook must be exclusive to the Kindle Store for each 90-day enrollment period (print and audio can be sold elsewhere). [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
Select enrollment adds Kindle Unlimited page reads: a share of the monthly KDP Select Global Fund based on pages read for the first time. [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
At $4.99 your ebook sits in the published 70% band, netting $3.28 per sale after the delivery fee (assumes a 2 MB file; larger files pay a higher delivery fee, which the royalty calculator models). [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
KDP paperback
$4.39 per unit
60% of list minus printing cost
Why this path (the rules that fired)
KDP's published paperback royalty is 60% of list at $9.99 and above (50% below), minus printing cost. At $14.99 that is the 60% rate. [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
Printing a 300-page black-ink book costs $4.60 on KDP's published US table, netting $4.39 per sale. [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
You did not ask for bookstore distribution, so the zero-upfront KDP paperback covers the Amazon channel without IngramSpark's unpublished fees. [term source: kdp.amazon.com]
This is a rules trace over published platform terms, not advice or a prediction. Change an answer and the same rules re-run; identical answers always produce identical output.
Everything runs in your browser from terms baked into the page. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
The published terms behind the rules
Every rule in the tree reads from a published term page, fetched and verified on the dates logged in our sources file. The load-bearing ones:
KDP Select requires the Kindle ebook to be exclusive to the Kindle Store for each 90-day enrollment period, which auto-renews unless you opt out. Print and audio can be sold elsewhere. Enrollment puts the book in Kindle Unlimited, where it earns a share of the monthly KDP Select Global Fund based on pages read. (KDP Select enrollment terms)
KDP ebook royalties: 70% of list minus delivery cost inside the published price band, otherwise 35% of list. (KDP ebook royalty page)
Draft2Digital publishes its royalty-to-author shares of list price: 60% on Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Tolino at every price point, and 60% via D2D to Amazon inside the $2.99 to $9.99 band (30% outside it). (D2D royalty rates page)
IngramSpark pays list price times one minus your wholesale discount (40% to 55% in the US), minus the unit print cost. Its print-cost tables and market access fee are not published openly, so the tool never invents them. (IngramSpark discounting guide)
ACX's new royalty model (effective2026-05-26) pays 50% on exclusive audiobooks and 30% non-exclusive. (Audible's new royalty model)
Pair the recommendation with theroyalty calculatorto model monthly earnings on your chosen path, and thecost benchmarksto budget the production spend first.
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