Self-Publishing With Kindle: Why Formats Matter

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No, in my experience a Kindle edition does not hurt your paperback sales. It tends to bring readers to your sales page and sell the paperback, and different readers want different formats anyway. Here is why I stopped worrying about undercutting myself, how KDP’s price rules work, and which formats to publish first. If you are asking whether Kindle alone is enough, see whether to self-publish to Kindle only.

Will a cheap Kindle book cannibalize my paperback?

You are an author with a first book, or you are working on one, and you wonder if Kindle is the right choice. If your Kindle book is priced in the range Amazon wants, and your paperback sells for $20 or $50, why would anybody buy the paperback? You worry about cannibalizing your own sales, and about a cheap digital file being copied around the internet.

When I started I wondered whether to go straight to the Kindle side or the paperback side. I chose Kindle, but I knew I would make less money per sale unless I made up for it in volume. If you want to see what that trade-off looks like in numbers, read how much a self-published book makes.

What are KDP’s rules for pricing the Kindle book?

Two rules decide how the Kindle price and the paperback price work together. According to KDP, since 7-Jul-26 the 70% royalty option covers list prices from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com (it used to stop at $9.99). And to use the 70% option, KDP requires your ebook list price to be at least 20% below the list price on Amazon of any physical edition. So the paperback price is built into the Kindle price whether you like it or not.

Why does a Kindle version help sell the paperback?

I missed a critical point at first: when you have several formats, the Kindle version serves a different purpose. A mentor told me that Amazon shows your paperback price next to the Kindle price, so the Kindle book looks marked down. A shopper who is interested sees a bargain and may buy the Kindle book. Your paperback price is an anchor.

Here is how it works in practice, in my experience:

1. A shopper arrives out of curiosity and wants to read the sales page, not to buy yet. A cheap Kindle option and a “look inside” lower the risk of checking the book out.
2. Most people who buy paperbacks don’t want a Kindle book, and people who like Kindle books don’t want paperbacks. Some like hardcover, some want audio, some shop outside Amazon.
3. Having several formats signals quality. Who would create a book in five formats if it weren’t good? In my own books, sales went up each time I added another option.
4. If an audiobook buyer sees a Kindle option at a discount, that is another sale.

Your Kindle book drives traffic to the paperbacks. Some people say its main purpose is to sell paperbacks. When you are ready for the print side, here is how to self-publish a paperback book on Amazon.

What do readers want?

People want books in the format they prefer. I am a Kindle and audiobook reader. I love Kindle for fiction because eyes and brain work together in decoding, and doing both Audible and Kindle makes you a better reader. I have 20 to 30 Kindle books queued on my phone, which is handy in places without internet, like the cabins deep in the Norwegian mountains. I don’t own paper books, including my own, and get rid of them as fast as possible. But people who like paperbacks like them, and if you have only a Kindle version, they won’t buy. The same goes for hardcover and audio. For a straight look at what Kindle can and can’t do for you, read the truth about Kindle publishing.

Which formats should I publish first?

Put your book out in as many formats as you can, but not all at once. You will get overwhelmed and accomplish nothing. Start with Kindle, then do the KDP paperback, and expand outward book after book. The process isn’t very difficult, and it is easier if you take it one day at a time.

Each print format needs its own ISBN. KDP offers a free ISBN for paperbacks and hardcovers, but it can only be used on KDP and the imprint is “Independently published”. If you want your own ISBN that works on every store, I can publish your book under my imprint, Urgesta AS, with an ISBN for each format: publish under my imprint.

Have you been worried about undercutting your sales by coming out with a Kindle book? Tell me in the comments.

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