How Much Do Authors Make? Per Book and Per Year
On Amazon KDP an author keeps $1.99 from a $2.99 eBook, $3.39 from a $4.99 one and $4.99 from a 250-page paperback at $14.99. A traditional contract pays about 10% of list on a hardcover and 7.5% on a trade paperback. Full-time authors made a median $10,000 from books in 2022, the Authors Guild found.
SelfPub Go TeamUpdated 10 min readIn short
- KDP pays 70% on eBooks priced $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com, 35% outside that band.
- Paperbacks earn 60% of the list price from $9.99, 50% below it, minus the printing cost.
- A traditional contract pays 10% of list on hardcovers, 7.5% on trade paperbacks, 25% of net on eBooks.
- Median 2022 book income: $10,000 for full-time authors, $12,800 for full-time self-published authors.
- Ads come out of the royalty: a $14.99 paperback breaks even at about 33% ACOS.
On this page
How much authors make per book on Amazon KDP
On KDP the author’s share is a royalty set by format and price. These are the figures for a sale on Amazon.com, worked out with the same rules as our KDP royalty calculator:
| Book | List price | Royalty rate | Author earns a sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBook | $0.99 | 35% | $0.35 |
| eBook | $2.99 | 70% | $1.99 |
| eBook | $4.99 | 70% | $3.39 |
| eBook | $9.99 | 70% | $6.89 |
| Paperback, 150 pages | $9.99 | 60% | $3.19 |
| Paperback, 250 pages | $14.99 | 60% | $4.99 |
| Paperback, 400 pages | $19.99 | 60% | $6.19 |
| Hardcover, 300 pages | $24.99 | 60% | $5.74 |
eBooks with a 1 MB file, print books with black ink and a regular trim size, buyers in the US. Other stores have their own bands and printing prices, and the calculator has them.
How KDP royalties are worked out
- eBooks: 35% or 70% of the list price. The 70% option is open from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com, and it deducts a delivery cost of $0.15 per MB of the file first.
- Paperbacks and hardcovers: 60% of the list price from $9.99 on Amazon.com, 50% below it, minus the printing cost. A paperback sold through Expanded Distribution to bookstores and libraries earns 40%.
- Printing: a black-ink paperback costs a flat $2.30 to print up to 110 pages on Amazon.com, then $1.00 plus $0.012 a page. The KDP printing cost calculator has color and every store.
That is why the same price pays so differently. A $9.99 eBook earns $6.89, while a 150-page paperback at $9.99 earns $3.19, because KDP takes the printing cost out of the print royalty.
Kindle+ page reads
An eBook in KDP Select is also in Kindle+, the subscription called Kindle Unlimited until October 2026. There the author isn’t paid per copy but per page read, counted in KENP, from a monthly fund. KDP’s help pages showed $69.3 million in total KDP Select author earnings for September 2026.
Amazon doesn’t publish the rate per page; author trackers work it out from royalty reports, and on Amazon.com it ran from about $0.0042 in January 2026 to $0.0054 in September. A complete read of a book of 300 KENP pays about $1.26 to $1.61 at those rates. The KENP calculator works it out for your own book.
Traditional publishing royalties per book
A publisher pays the author an advance and royalties, a percentage of each sale. The Authors Guild’s model trade book contract gives these rates for a large trade publisher:
| Edition | Royalty | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 10% of list on the first 5,000 copies, 12.5% on the next 5,000, then 15% | $2.80 on a $28 book |
| Trade paperback | 7.5% of list | $1.35 on an $18 book |
| Mass market paperback | 8% of list to 150,000 copies, then 10% | $0.80 on a $10 book |
| eBook | 25% of the publisher’s net receipts | Net receipts tend to be about half the list price |
The contract’s own commentary puts adult trade rates at about 10–12%, and children’s books lower. Small publishers often pay on net receipts instead of the list price, which roughly halves the amount at the same percentage.
How much authors make a year
The broadest figures come from the Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey, answered by 5,699 published authors about their 2022 income. Book income there includes advances, royalties and licensing fees.
| Authors | Median income from books, 2022 |
|---|---|
| All authors, part-time included | $2,000 |
| Full-time authors | $10,000 ($20,000 with other writing income) |
| Full-time, commercial markets | $15,000 |
| Full-time self-published | $12,800 |
| Full-time self-published since 2018 or earlier | $24,000, up from $13,700 in 2018 |
| Full-time romance and romantic suspense | $31,725 |
| Full-time mystery, thriller and suspense | $10,000 |
| Full-time literary fiction | $5,000 |
A median is the middle author, so half earned more and half less; a few bestsellers don’t move it. The survey’s own summary credits effective marketing for the rise among experienced self-published authors.
What ads take out of a royalty
For a self-published author who advertises, the ads are paid out of the royalty. Amazon Ads measures them as ACOS, ad spend divided by the sales the ads brought in. At a 25% ACOS, a $14.99 paperback sold through an ad cost $3.75 in clicks: of its $4.99 royalty, $1.24 is left.
The point where an ad stops paying is the break-even ACOS, the royalty divided by the price: about 33% for that paperback and about 68% for a $4.99 eBook. The ACOS calculator works it out for any book, and our guide to what ACOS is explains where to read it in Amazon Ads.
How to see what you actually make
What a book earned is in your KDP reports: royalties per book, store and month, and Kindle+ pages read. Our guide to KDP reports shows which report holds which number. What its ads cost is in Amazon Ads. Subtract one from the other, book by book, and you have what each book really makes.
See what each book earns after its ads.
SelfPub Go reads the KDP report you already download and puts each book’s royalties and Kindle+ page reads next to its Amazon Ads spend, in a desktop app for macOS and Windows.
Download SelfPub GoKDP figures are for Amazon.com as of the date at the top; survey and contract figures are the Authors Guild’s. If a linked page now says otherwise, trust the linked page.
Frequently asked questions
How much do authors make per book?
On Amazon KDP, about $1.99 from a $2.99 eBook, $3.39 from a $4.99 one and $4.99 from a 250-page paperback at $14.99, on Amazon.com. With a traditional publisher, the Authors Guild's model contract pays 10% of the list price on a hardcover, 7.5% on a trade paperback and 25% of the publisher's net receipts on an eBook.
How much do self-published authors make on Amazon?
Per copy, 35% or 70% of an eBook's list price (70% from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com, less a delivery cost), and 60% of a paperback's list price from $9.99, 50% below, minus printing. Per year, the Authors Guild's 2023 survey found a median of $12,800 from books for full-time self-published authors in 2022, and $24,000 for those publishing since at least 2018.
How much do authors make a year?
The Authors Guild's 2023 survey of 5,699 published authors found that full-time authors made a median of $10,000 from their books in 2022, and $20,000 with their other writing income. Counting part-time authors too, the median from books was $2,000.
How much does an author make on a $20 book?
On KDP, a 400-page paperback at $19.99 earns $6.19 a sale on Amazon.com: 60% of the price minus $5.80 of printing. Under a traditional contract a $20 hardcover at 10% of list pays $2.00, and a $20 trade paperback at 7.5% pays $1.50.
Do authors get paid for Kindle Unlimited reads?
Yes, if the eBook is in KDP Select. Kindle Unlimited is now called Kindle+, and KDP pays from a monthly fund by pages read, counted in KENP. On Amazon.com the rate per page worked out by author trackers ran from about $0.0042 to $0.0054 in 2026.
How much of a book's price goes to ads?
Whatever your ACOS is: at 25% ACOS, a $14.99 paperback sold through an ad costs $3.75 in ad spend. Its royalty is $4.99, so ads break even at an ACOS of about 33% for that book and about 68% for a $4.99 eBook.