What’s Your Cut? Understanding the Amazon KDP Print Cost Changes

What’s Your Cut? Understanding the Amazon KDP Print Cost Changes

 

First of all, DON’T PANIC!

Yes, KDP’s printing costs are going up for most print books, effective June 20, 2023. But for the most common trim sizes, the increases are quite modest.

And for color printing inside, the costs are actually going down!

Let’s look at the three changes KDP announced, so you can consider whether you need to change your retail pricing on any books you’ve already published and how to think about pricing new books going forward.

 

“Regular” Trim Sized, Black and White Interior

The change that will affect all books is the increase to the “fixed cost” of printing. For books distributed through Amazon.com, it’s only 15 cents per book.

And that’s the only increase for regular sized black and white interior books.

Here’s an excerpt from the KDP Printing Cost Tables showing the cost changes for regular trim sizes across the various Amazon marketplaces for books up to 108 pages (we’ll come back to this 108 page threshold):

 

For regular sized books over 108 pages, the same increase of 15 cents per book fixed cost applies, while the existing per-page cost of $0.012 (for Amazon.com) stays the same:

 

What’s “regular” sized?

KDP explains it from the other end, by telling us what “large” trim sizes are:

“A large trim size is either more than 6.12 inches (155 mm) in width or more than 9 inches (229 mm) in height. Note: a 6” x 9” book is a regular trim size.”

That note that the standard trade paperback size of 6″ x 9″ is safely in the “regular” category means that most indie published fiction and nonfiction books will only see this 15 cent per book increase.

FYI, the other trim sizes offered by KDP that will also qualify as regular are:

• 5″ x 8″ (12.7 x 20.32 cm)
• 5.06″ x 7.81″ (12.85 x 19.84 cm)
• 5.25″ x 8″ (13.34 x 20.32 cm)
• 5.5″ x 8.5″ (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

If you have an existing book published through KDP in any of these trim sizes, you need to consider whether the 15 cent decrease in your royalty share is enough to justify making a corresponding increase in the retail price of your book.

You’ll want to think about how the change might affect sales, or if your readers will understand and support your need to earn a living. Or whether most buyers will even notice.

 

“Large” Trim Sized, Black and White Interior

Printing costs for the larger trim sizes are going up more, because KDP is increasing both the fixed cost for all page counts and the per-page printing cost for books over 108 pages.

Here’s where it starts to get complicated. For books with 24-108 pages, the new fixed cost is going up by 69 cents per book, with no per-page cost:  

 

 

So your decision on any existing book will be whether you want to lose 69 cents of your royalty, or adjust your retail pricing by some or all of that amount.

For books over 108 pages, the fixed cost increase drops back to 15 cents. And the per-page cost goes up only half a cent for the Amazon.com marketplace:  

 

But remember this time it’s an additional half cent per page. So you have to multiply the new per-page cost by the number of pages in your book, then add the fixed cost to get your new total printing cost.

If you have a large trim size book with 200 pages, it currently costs $3.25 to print. After June 20, that will become $4.40 (200 pgs x .017 = $3.40 + $1.00 fixed cost).

Now you’re looking at a reduction of $1.15 per book in your royalties.

That requires a harder look at the possibility of increasing your prices.

BTW, if you hate fussing with the math, KDP has been promising a new “before and after” royalty calculator that has not appeared as of this writing. But the folks behind the Atticus book design software have created a nifty substitute that you can try here.

 

Rethinking Your Book Strategy?

Instead of focusing on costs and pricing, you could consider another strategy that might be lurking behind Amazon’s thinking here.

Remember that 108 page threshold? And the cutoff at the 6×9 standard trade book trim size?

Perhaps your existing book could be reformatted to become two or more “regular” sized books?

And going forward, perhaps we should all be thinking in those terms. Shorter, smaller books.

I’ve heard some (including Yvonne) argue that a good length for nonfiction books is trending below 150 pages and I know many tricks to get that down to 108 without sacrificing a quality reading experience.

Especially if we’re thinking in terms of a series of books on a related topic.

Is Amazon using the power of the purse to push us where we should be leading ourselves?

 

Getting colorful!

And now for a bit of good news: the KDP announcement includes decreasing the printing costs for color interior. The cost for their Premium Color interior is going down only slightly, but the cost of Standard Color interior printing is going down significantly:

Sticking with a 6″ x 9″ book with 200 pages, the current Standard Color printing cost would be $8.05 per book (200 x .036 = $7.20, plus 85 cents).

After June 20, it will be down to $6.40 per book (200 x .027 = $5.40, plus $1.00 fixed cost).

That throws another wrinkle into the thought process. If we’re thinking about a series of short books, can we peg them at 108 pages and then feel free to do color inside?

That would make the Standard Color cost $3.92 per book vs. the flat Black and White cost of $2.30.

If you bump beyond 108 pages, say to 140, the comparison becomes $4.78 for color vs. $2.68 for BW, so the difference is becoming more significant.

But a quality nonfiction book with an important message and actionable information should fetch in the range of $18-$24 at full retail. We strongly recommend to our authors that they price based on the value the reader can get from the book (and also to leave room for the inevitable discounting that Amazon will do without asking). That also leaves room for the author to sell at a discount at speaking events, or for bulk sales.

Food for thought, eh?