Amazon Raised the KDP Royalty Cap to $12.99. Here Is What Changed.
Kindle Direct Publishing authors can now earn the 70% royalty rate on ebooks priced up to $12.99. The previous ceiling was $9.99. The change took effect July 7, 2026 and is the first expansion of the price band in 19 years.
Effective July 7, 2026, Amazon expanded the 70% royalty option for Kindle Direct Publishing. The price band that qualifies for the higher rate now runs from $2.99 to $12.99. It previously ran from $2.99 to $9.99.
Ebooks priced between $10.00 and $12.99 previously earned authors 35% royalties. They now earn 70%. That is the first change to the price ceiling since 2007.
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What the $9.99 Ceiling Actually Did
For 19 years, KDP authors who wanted the 70% royalty rate had to keep their ebook prices at or below $9.99. Authors who priced above that threshold dropped to the 35% rate.
That ceiling created a specific pressure for authors working in longer-form genres. A 150,000-word fantasy novel, a comprehensive narrative non-fiction work, or a multi-book romance series finale at $12.99 would have earned the author roughly half of what a $9.99 price point returned under the higher rate. Many authors priced down specifically to stay within the 70% band, accepting a lower per-copy price to protect margin.
That trade-off is now gone for prices up to $12.99.
What Does Not Change
The 35% royalty option still exists and its price ceiling is unchanged. Authors who want to price above $12.99 will continue to earn 35% on those titles.
Delivery fees still apply under the 70% option. KDP charges a per-megabyte delivery fee based on file size. For text-only novels this fee is negligible. For illustrated books, heavily formatted books, or books with embedded images, the delivery fee can meaningfully reduce actual earnings even at the 70% rate. Authors repricing into the $10 to $12.99 range should calculate their effective royalty after delivery fees, not before.
No existing titles are automatically repriced. Authors who want to take advantage of the new ceiling need to log into KDP and update their pricing manually.
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Why the Timing Matters
The KDP price band has not moved since 2007. Digital publishing looked entirely different in 2007. The ebook market was in its first years of commercial existence. The $9.99 ceiling predates the dominance of indie publishing, the rise of Kindle Unlimited, and the entire economic structure that self-published authors now navigate.
The increase to $12.99 brings the ceiling closer to where the market has been pricing literary fiction and long-form non-fiction for years in print. It does not bring it level with those categories. A hardcover novel retails between $25 and $35. A $12.99 ebook is still well below that. But the 70% rate at $12.99 versus 35% at $10.99 is a meaningful difference in monthly earnings for an author with consistent sales.
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Sources: Good e-Reader, Publishers Lunch, Jane Friedman, Self-Publishing Advice, KDP official help pages, selfpub Substack