KDP Author Copies: How Many Can You Order, How Long They Take, and Can You Resell Them?

You can order up to 999 author copies of a live KDP paperback or hardcover in a single order, you pay KDP’s print cost, and you are free to resell them. KDP does not publish a fixed delivery time. Here is how ordering works, what it costs, what affects delivery, and when I would use IngramSpark instead.

How many author copies can you order on KDP?

KDP’s help page says the maximum is 999 author copies per order, and proof copies are limited to 5 (KDP: order a proof or author copy). The pages I read do not set a limit on how many orders you can place, only on the size of each one.

The book also has to be live. KDP only allows author copy orders when the book is in Live or Live with unpublished changes status, and the option can take an extra 24 hours to show up after you publish.

How do you order them?

1. Open your KDP Bookshelf and find the paperback or hardcover.
2. Click Order Author Copies. If the book is Live with unpublished changes, use the three-dot menu on the book instead.
3. Enter the quantity.
4. Choose the Amazon marketplace that matches where the books are going.
5. Click Proceed to checkout and pay in that marketplace’s cart.

Pick the marketplace by shipping destination. The US and Brazil use Amazon.com, for example, and Japan orders have to use Amazon.co.jp. If your zip code is not supported in the store you chose, the copies will not be added to your cart.

What do author copies cost?

You pay the author price, which KDP says you work out by multiplying the print cost of your book in your selected marketplace by the number of copies (KDP: cost of proof and author copies). KDP says this is the lowest price it can offer for your book and it cannot give extra discounts, so ordering 500 copies does not make each one cheaper.

Shipping is on top. KDP says these orders do not qualify for free or Prime shipping, and the cost depends on the destination, the Amazon store, the number of items, the speed and the weight and size (KDP: shipping cost). It gives no formula, but the total shipping cost is shown on the last page of checkout. You can stop there if you only want a quote.

How long do author copies take to arrive?

KDP gives no fixed number of days. It says its manufacturing and delivery estimates depend on the quantity you order and the delivery speed you select, that manufacturing times change with total order volume, and that choosing faster shipping does not speed up printing (KDP: when will my copy arrive).

So a large order takes longer to print than a small one, and paying for express shipping only speeds up the delivery leg. If you need books for an event, order well ahead and look at the estimate at checkout before you pay.

One more thing: author copies are prints of the live book. Edits you have saved but not published are not in them, so click Publish and let it go live before you order (KDP: Proof and Author Copies).

What do I do if a reader gets a badly printed or damaged copy?

Start with what is yours to fix. KDP prints and ships author copies, so a damaged or misprinted one is a claim to KDP, not something you repair yourself. KDP has two help pages for it, one for copies that came damaged and one for copies with printing errors.

The clock matters. KDP says: “Within 30 days of receiving damaged proof or author copies, contact us about a refund.” Once more than 30 days have passed since the delivery estimate, the shipment is no longer eligible. So open the box when it arrives.

For printing errors, KDP asks for images of the defect through its contact form, the Product ID (the number under the barcode on the last interior page) and your ASIN or ISBN. It also lists things it treats as normal variance: blank pages, white space at the gutter, a shift of up to 0.125” (3.2mm) and covers that curl a little in dry storage. Typos and blurry images that are already in your manuscript are not printing defects either.

A copy printed before your latest edits can look like a fault when it is not. KDP says you can check the printing date inside the copy.

Those two pages do not describe a replacement, only refunds and an investigation, so I would not promise a reader a swap. If the copy was an author copy you resold, the reader’s problem is first yours, because you sold it. Keep a few spare books for exactly that.

Can you resell author copies?

Yes. KDP says you are welcome to resell or give away author copies you ordered. The catch is that royalties do not apply to author copy purchases or resales, and the orders do not appear in your KDP reports. Your past orders are in your normal Amazon order history.

That makes author copies a way to buy at print cost and sell at your own price at events, talks or from your own site. I cover the practical side in can you sell directly to readers?.

Is it safe to buy my own book on Amazon, and why is there a limit of 3 copies?

For author copies, yes: ordering them through your KDP account is the normal route, and KDP says you are welcome to resell or give them away (KDP: Proof and Author Copies). I could not find any Amazon or KDP page that states a limit of 3 copies, so I will not repeat that number as a rule.

Some authors say in public forums that the normal retail checkout stopped them at three copies of their own book. No Amazon page I have found confirms it, so I cannot tell you what Amazon allows when you buy your own book at retail. What KDP does publish is the author copy limit: up to 999 per order, at print cost. If you need more than a copy or two, that is the route to use. Those orders earn no royalty and do not show in your KDP reports, so they cannot be used to push your sales numbers up.

When is IngramSpark a better way to get a big print run?

Author copies are print on demand, so they suit orders from a handful up to a few hundred copies. If you want a large run, or hardcovers and a print service level you can pick, IngramSpark has publisher direct orders. IngramSpark says only you as the publisher can order books directly from it (IngramSpark FAQs).

Its 2026 rate card says publisher direct orders carry print fees at list rates, an order handling fee and shipping calculated at the time of order. Economy paperbacks usually print in 3 to 5 business days and hardcovers in 7 to 10, and Rush adds a 30% print surcharge (IngramSpark 2026 rate card). Those are estimates, and they vary with volume. IngramSpark has its own print cost calculator, so price your exact book there before you decide. My comparison of the print options is in IngramSpark, Lulu and KDP Print compared.

If you only want one copy for yourself or your family and don’t plan to sell, read how to publish a book just for yourself.

KDP’s help pages also cover the other side of the process, from the first upload to the printed proof, in how to self-publish a paperback on Amazon.

If you are not at the paperback stage yet, my free 12-step checklist walks you through the whole route from manuscript to published book: get the self-publishing checklist.

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The checklist is the 12 steps I follow for every book I publish, from choosing a profitable niche with keyword research to setting up the marketing machine. It is free, and you get it straight away.

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