Every self-publishing platform advertises a royalty rate, and on most of them, that number is a ceiling reachable only inside a specific price band, not the rate an author should expect on every sale.
Amazon KDP is the most quoted and the most misunderstood. Ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 earn a 70% royalty, but Amazon deducts a delivery fee of $0.15 per megabyte on every sale in that band, a cost that scales with file size and affects image-heavy books more than plain text. Price a book outside that window, above or below, and the royalty drops to 35% with no delivery fee at all. The effective rate on a typical 70% title after delivery costs usually lands closer to 55%-65%.
Apple Books pays a flat 70% at any price point, including free and under $2.99, with no delivery fee and no exclusivity requirement attached. Kobo matches that 70%, but only between $2.99 and $12.99 USD equivalent. Step outside that range and the rate falls to 45%.
IngramSpark distributes to retailers rather than selling directly, so its ebook royalties run 45%-60% depending on which retailer fills a given order. IngramSpark also raised its global distribution fee from 1.5% to 1.875% effective February 1, 2026, alongside a 1%-3% increase across most print production costs, and revisions that were previously free within the first 60 days now cost $25 each.
Draft2Digital, an aggregator that distributes to multiple retailers from a single upload, takes roughly 10 percent of the net royalty a retailer pays, netting out to a blended rate around 60% of list price across the stores it reaches. As of 2026, new accounts pay a one-time $20 activation fee, and accounts earning under $100 in net royalties over a twelve-month period pay a $12 annual maintenance fee, starting May 14, 2026, based on account anniversary date.
The pattern across all five platforms: a book priced to maximize the royalty tier on one platform can fall outside another platform's top tier entirely. Pricing one book for every retailer usually means paying the difference somewhere.
Pricing one book for every retailer usually means paying the difference somewhere, and that is worth knowing before you set a single list price.