Amazon KDP Print Cost Change 2023

Welcome back to Bound to Writing where I, an indie author, help you to meet your writing and publishing goals. This week’s post is a bit spur of the moment. But I’m sure you all know exactly what I’m going to be discussing. If you publish your books through Amazon KDP, you most likely received an email informing you of the upcoming print cost changes going into effect on June 20, 2023. You may be wondering how this affects you. So I’m going to boil it down to one word – Royalties.

You see, print cost is used to calculate the royalties you receive from the sale of your book. I discuss this in detail in my Calculating Potential Royalties post. Right now this print cost change can be a huge change in your potential earnings. And this isn’t only for the print cost change for KDP, as you may find yourself changing publishers or any other situation that may arise that print costs may change for your book.

To aid you in this process, I’ve created an easy to use worksheet where you can fill in your information, see the differences in costs and royalties, and determine the best choice for you. Find the worksheet for $1 USD on the Bound to Writing Shop or the BoundtoWriting Etsy Shop.

What can you do?

There are three things you will need to do to understand the effect this change will have on your earnings.

Calculate new print costs
Calculate updated royalty earnings
Decide whether you need to change your price
1. Find your ideal new list price

Calculate New Print Costs

Find out what each of your books’ new prices will be and then calculate the print cost. This will tell you how much you’re being charged to print your book. The typical formula used is:

Fixed Price + (Page Count * Per Page Price) = Print Cost

Calculate Updated Royalty Earnings

Next, you’ll want to calculate what your new royalty amount will be. This will help you decide your next steps. The typical formula used is:

(Royalty Rate * List Price) – Print Cost = Royalty Payment

Need help laying out your calculations so you understand the numbers? Try out the Print Cost Change Worksheet available in the Bound to Writing Shop or on Etsy for $1 USD.

Decide Price Change

Once you do all of the calculations, you will then have to determine whether to keep your current list price, change your list price, or if you must change your list price (list price is below the new minimum).

Find Your Ideal New List Price

The same as when you’re setting your list price for the first time, you need to consider your market and the minimum price.

What does that mean? Let me give you an example:

I’m currently selling my book, The Stranger I Knew for 5.50 which is the minimum price for that book. With the upcoming change, I no longer am able to sell this book for 5.50 as the new set minimum is above this price. Now I need to decide what price to sell this book at while still making it fair.

From the graphic above, you can see that by changing the price to $5.75, I’m able to still sell The Stranger I Knew for a minimum price while also feeling confident that people are paying a fair price.

The same goes for books that are sold above minimum price. Make sure you stay along the same price point as other books in the market. Of course you also should pay attention to your royalty, but that’s what the calculations are for! 🙂

So check out the Print Cost Changes Worksheet to help you get the best view of these upcoming changes. Available for $1 USD on the Bound to Writing Shop or on Etsy.

The changing of print costs can be scary, but having the right resources makes it easy and comforting to know your options. So go ahead and do the calculations and prepare yourself for the price changes you face.

Happy Marketing!