Is Self-Publishing on Amazon Free?

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through one, Urgesta AS may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the affiliate disclosure.

Book a free 25-minute call. Tell me where your book is now.

Yes. KDP lets you self-publish ebooks, paperbacks and hardcover books for free. Setting up a book costs nothing, and the printing cost only comes out of print sales. What costs money is making the book good enough to sell: a cover, editing, formatting and ads. I know because I paid for all of them. The rest of this post covers what is free, what is not, and where I spend.

What does KDP charge to publish?

Nothing to publish. In the order you hit them:

1. Ebook: free to publish. You earn a royalty on each sale (ebook royalties).
2. Paperback and hardcover: no up-front cost. Print-on-demand means a book is printed when someone orders it, and KDP subtracts the printing cost from the royalty (paperback royalty).
3. ISBN: KDP’s free ISBN is for paperbacks and hardcovers only, shows the imprint “Independently published” and can only be used on KDP. Ebooks don’t need one.
4. Cover: KDP’s Cover Creator is a free tool.
5. Audiobooks: I have found ACX free to publish on, and a royalty-share narrator costs nothing up front. Check ACX’s terms.

Two more KDP rules are worth knowing. A paperback and a hardcover each need their own ISBN, and an ISBN cannot be reused across formats (KDP, ISBN). And printing cost depends on the marketplace, page count and ink type, not on trim size or cover finish. KDP’s formula is the royalty rate times list price, minus printing cost (KDP, paperback royalty), with 50% at list prices up to $9.98 and 60% from $9.99 on Amazon.com.

Proof and author copies are not free. KDP sells them at the print cost for your book in the marketplace you order from, with shipping and taxes added and no royalties on them. On IngramSpark and Lulu you also pay for any proof copies you order. For the cost of the whole process, read How Much Does Self Publishing Cost? and What Is The Cost To Self-Publish A Book On Amazon?

Should I use KDP’s free ISBN or my own?

KDP’s ISBN page says the free ISBN works only on KDP and cannot be used to publish elsewhere, and that the imprint shows as “Independently published”. You can buy your own ISBN instead, but you must enter the same title, author name and publisher in KDP that you used to register it, or publishing is blocked. If you plan to sell outside Amazon, think about your own ISBN before you publish. It is a cost, but it is the one that keeps your options open. I cover this in the ISBN service.

What did it cost me at the start?

My self-publishing was not free. I paid for editors and cover designers. I paid people to format and they messed it up, then I went back and forth and learned to do it myself. I paid for ads. But putting a book on Amazon itself was free.

To get a rough total for your own book, my free self-publishing cost calculator adds up the editing, cover, formatting and other jobs you choose to pay for.

Can you do the whole thing for free?

Yes. Write, put it in a file, upload, and use Cover Creator. You won’t make sales, so you spend more in lost income than you saved. If you want to start with zero budget, read How To Self-Publish With No Money?. That is a fine way to start if you just want to get your ideas out there, and you can invest time to improve quality.

Why do you usually need to spend to make money?

Because it is hard to optimize a book yourself. Making books people want to buy is a science, and it takes a series of tools. These are the ones I recommend:

1. A market with readers and few books: KDSpy.
2. Formatting: Atticus.
3. A cover from a professional designer. I do cover design and formatting for authors too, so ask about it on a free call.
4. Ads on Amazon, then other platforms.

None of these are free. Many authors earn very little because they publish without a plan, and guidance from someone who has done it helps. That is what my coaching is for. One book will not earn enough. Each book has a chance to sell each day, so keep coming out with books in the right markets and the sales pile up. I show what that can add up to in how much a self-published book makes.

Have you found it was free for you? Tell me in the comments. I answer every one. If you want help getting your book published and selling, book a free 25-minute discovery call.

Listen to this episode on Spotify

Free 25-minute self-publishing call with Chris Baird

Tell me where your book is now. You leave the call with a clear next step for publishing it.

Book your free call

Free, 25 minutes on Zoom, no card needed.