Amazon kdp rolled out a big change that affects your book’s paperback and hardback royalties as a published author.
In 2022, authors witnessed changes like the removal of ebook selection for low-content books, the launch of an enhanced Amazon kdp dashboard, and A+ content for better visual marketing amongst others.
With the intensity of the new update, it’s safe to assume Amazon Kdp will announce more changes before year-end, which may favorably or adversely affect your publishing journey.
While speculating on the future surprises Amazon is yet to spring on us, let’s talk about the big change Amazon rolled out this year.
Increase In Amazon Kdp Print-On-Demand Service Cost
This change took effect from 20th June 2023 on Amazon Kdp.
In a newsletter released by Amazon, they attributed the change in print-on-demand service costs to the rapid increase in the cost of printing materials and labor.
Although no one can fault Amazon for this change, note that it significantly affects your royalties as a published author on Kdp.
Meaning, the price change will chop off a huge chunk from your current royalty.
To cushion the effect of this change, Amazon made a considerate provision for bulk updates before June 20th.
This allowed authors to increase their paperback and hardback prices automatically while maintaining the amount of royalty they previously earned.
If you are an author and you haven’t visited your dashboard in a while, I suggest you pay a visit soon to make adjustments if you missed the bulk updates.
Implications of The Increase In Amazon Kdp Print-on-Demand Cost To Publishing Authors
These new updates severely affect the publishing journeys of authors in the following ways:
- To get more royalties for already published books, writers must increase the prices of their paperback and hardback books.
- To publish paperbacks at reduced printing costs, writers have to either reduce the page counts of their books or use a smaller trim size.
- To republish old novels/books at a cheaper rate instead of upgrading to Amazon’s new rate, writers have to publish it as a new edition, with a lower trim size.
In the short run, writers may experience low sales of their books until readers become more accustomed to the increase.
How To Guard Against The Increase In Amazon Kdp Print-on-Demand Cost While Publishing.
To cushion the effect of the high printing cost from your end as an author, experiment with a mix of the following:
- Different trim sizes.
- Varying manuscript page counts.
- Typesetting and formatting your book.
Before now, Amazon charged printing costs evenly without bias to trim size used or word counts. Now, there’ve been slight changes to this approach. Larger trim sizes like 6×9 or 8.5×11 books with large page counts will accrue more cost.
To guard against high printing costs for your books, use smaller trim sizes like 5×8 or 5.5×8.5. Also, you can decrease your font size to 13, 12.5, or 11.5, depending on your choice.
While formatting & typesetting your book, use fonts that won’t take up too much paper space but are still clear and pleasing to the eye.
Also, minimize the graphics within your book if you must use custom them to save you from high printing costs.
Endnotes:
Amazon did nothing wrong by increasing the cost of its print-on-demand services.
As a publishing author, work with the current trends and keep your paperback printing cost at a minimum by using smaller trim sizes, reduced word counts, appealing fonts, and professional typesetting.
If you’re yet to adjust your book prices on Kdp, visit your dashboard to do so.
I hope this helps.