Pricing is arithmetic first and judgement second. Do the arithmetic so you know what each sale earns, then use your judgement about what readers in your genre will pay.
Paperback: the formula
Royalty = royalty rate x list price - printing cost. On Amazon.com the rate is 60% when the list price is $9.99 or more, and 50% below that. Printing cost depends on page count, ink, paper and trim size. For a black-ink book in a regular trim size with more than 110 pages, KDP's published Amazon.com formula is a fixed $1.00 plus $0.012 per page.
Worked example
Take a 300-page black-ink paperback in a regular trim. Printing cost is $1.00 + (300 x $0.012) = $4.60.
- At $14.99: 0.60 x 14.99 = $8.99, minus $4.60 = about $4.39 per copy.
- At $12.99: 0.60 x 12.99 = $7.79, minus $4.60 = about $3.19 per copy.
- At $9.99: 0.60 x 9.99 = $5.99, minus $4.60 = about $1.39 per copy.
Each price drop of two dollars costs you about $1.20 per copy, so the question is whether it brings in enough extra sales to make up the gap.
Hardcover
KDP pays 60% of the list price minus the printing cost. For a black-ink hardcover on Amazon.com between 110 and 550 pages, the published formula is $5.50 plus $0.012 per page. A 300-page hardcover costs $5.50 + $3.60 = $9.10 to print, so it needs a much higher list price than the paperback.
Ebook
KDP offers a 70% and a 35% royalty option. The 70% rate applies only inside a price band ($2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com) and only in eligible territories, and KDP deducts a delivery cost per megabyte first. Large image files raise that cost, so compress images before you upload. See our ebook royalty article for the details.
Check the price against the market
Search your category on Amazon and note the paperback prices of books with a similar page count. If your calculated price sits far above them, look at cutting the page count, the trim size or the ink type rather than just cutting the price.
Other platforms
Barnes & Noble Press, IngramSpark and Lulu each use their own printing costs and wholesale discounts, so the same list price earns a different amount. The royalty calculator shows them side by side.