Your paperback pricing on KDP and IngramSpark has to be high enough to cover each platform’s printing cost and any other deductions, so that each sale earns you something, or at least breaks even. You can choose the same list price on both. Or you can choose different prices so that you earn the same amount for each copy sold.
Key Terms
This article relies on a handful of terms related to pricing a paperback on KDP and IngramSpark:
Prices and Earnings
- List price: the retail price you set for your book. It is the price shoppers see unless the retailer selling the book (Amazon, or another online or physical store) chooses to sell it for less.
- Printing cost: what the platform charges to print one copy.On KDP, it depends on the page count, the ink (black or color), the paper type, the Amazon store the order comes from, and the trim size (the page dimensions). Trim size works in two bands: KDP’s printing cost tables price “Regular Trim Sizes” and “Large Trim Sizes” separately, with large meaning “More than 6.12 inches (155.5 mm) in width or more than 9 inches (228.6 mm) in height.” IngramSpark calls it the print fee. And its compensation calculator works it out from the trim size, the interior color and paper, the binding, the cover finish, the page count, and the market (the country or region of sale).
- Royalty rate: a percentage KDP applies to your list price as the first step in working out your royalty: 60% or 50% on Amazon.com, depending on the list price. It is not what you earn per copy, because the printing cost still has to come off.
- Royalty: what KDP actually pays you for each copy sold: the list price multiplied by the royalty rate, minus the printing cost.
- Compensation: IngramSpark’s word for what it pays you for each copy sold, after its deductions.
- Market access fee: a charge of 1.875% of the list price that IngramSpark takes on each copy sold through the stores and wholesalers it supplies. Its pricing help page calls the same charge a distribution fee.
IngramSpark Settings
- Wholesale discount: an IngramSpark setting. It is the percentage taken off your list price to set the price stores pay for the book (the wholesale price) so they can resell it at a profit. You choose the percentage.
- Returns: unsold copies of a book returned by a bookseller to the distributor. On IngramSpark you choose whether your book is returnable.
- Short discounted: IngramSpark’s label for a title with a wholesale discount below 53% in the US.
Selling on Both Platforms
- Price matching: Amazon selling your paperback below your list price to match a lower price for it at another store.
- Expanded Distribution: KDP’s option to make your paperback available to bookstores and libraries through the distributors they buy from.
How Do KDP and IngramSpark Work Out What You Earn per Copy?
KDP and IngramSpark both start from your list price, take off a share for the store and the cost of printing, and pay you what is left:
- KDP: list price, multiplied by the royalty rate (60% on Amazon.com for list prices of $9.99 or more, 50% below that), minus the printing cost. What is left is your royalty.
- IngramSpark: list price, minus the wholesale discount you choose for stores, minus the print fee, minus the 1.875% market access fee. What is left is your compensation.
The list price at which KDP’s royalty rate moves from 50% to 60% is different in each Amazon store; KDP’s paperback royalty page lists them (as of October 2026). IngramSpark lists its deductions on its pricing help page.
The two worked examples below use different made-up figures, because each platform sets its own printing cost. Your real figures will differ, and each platform shows them when you set the book up.
Worked Example: KDP
Take a list price of $15.99 and a printing cost of $4.50, for a copy sold on Amazon.com:
- Multiply $15.99 by the 60% royalty rate to get $9.59.
- Subtract the $4.50 printing cost. Your royalty is $5.09.
This is why the term royalty rate can mislead. The rate is 60%. But the royalty you receive is $5.09, about 32% of the list price, because the printing cost comes off after the rate is applied.
Worked Example: IngramSpark
Take a list price of $17.99 and a print fee of $5.20. The market access fee is 34 cents (1.875% of $17.99).
- With a 55% wholesale discount: take 55% off $17.99, which leaves a wholesale price of $8.10. Subtract the $5.20 print fee and the 34 cents. Your compensation is $2.56.
- With a 40% wholesale discount: take 40% off $17.99, which leaves $10.79. Subtract the same $5.20 and 34 cents. Your compensation is $5.25.
Only the wholesale discount changes between the two.
Whatever list price you choose has to leave something after these deductions, or a sale earns you nothing. KDP builds this in with a minimum list price: “KDP uses a minimum list price to ensure the royalties you earn are always enough to cover the cost to print your book.”
You do not have to do the sums by hand. KDP calculates your printing cost in the Rights & Pricing section of your title setup. And its Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator shows your minimum list price in every currency. IngramSpark’s compensation calculator shows the print fee and your compensation for each market once you enter the list price and discount.
What Do IngramSpark’s Discount and Returns Settings Change?
IngramSpark’s wholesale discount and returns settings affect whether bookstores will order your book and how much you keep from each sale. A higher discount with returns is what bookstores look for; a lower discount with no returns increases your compensation, but at the risk of making the book unattractive to bookstores.
What IngramSpark Says
On its pricing help page, IngramSpark says:
- “We recommend offering a 55% wholesale discount in all markets, but a minimum of 40% is acceptable.” (IngramSpark uses “markets” for the countries and regions it sells in.)
- The reason it gives: “Bookstores and retailers want to receive their standard trade discount,” meaning the discount they are used to getting from publishers.
- “If you offer a wholesale discount lower than 53% in the US, your book will be considered a ‘short discounted’ title, and many bookstores will not order it.”
- You can make a book non-returnable, or returnable with the copies either sent back to you or destroyed. Which of these you can choose depends on the market.
Worth knowing if you make your book returnable: bookstores can send back copies they have not sold. And when they do, Ingram charges you the wholesale price of each returned copy, as IngramSpark’s returns information page explains. The charge comes out of your compensation, or is invoiced if your compensation does not cover it. And a shipping charge per copy is added if you have chosen to have returned copies sent back to you. Because the charge is the wholesale price rather than the compensation you earned, one returned copy can cancel out the compensation from more than one sale; in the IngramSpark example above, that is $8.10 against $2.56. This is the trade-off behind the returns setting: allowing returns makes the book more attractive to bookstores, and in exchange you carry the cost of any copies they send back.
What Authors and a Bookseller Report
These reports come from threads on r/selfpublish:
- A bookseller filters on the discount. In the thread “How much wholesale discount do you put on Ingram Spark books?” (2023), an independent bookseller wrote that they leave out books below their discount threshold when choosing what to stock, but will still order a single copy for a customer who asks for it. An author in the same thread sets a lower discount with no returns and tells readers they can ask their local bookstore to order the book.
- Online stores may still list the book. In the thread “IngramSpark set Return = No, worth it to set Wholesale Discount = 55%?” (December 2023), one reply said online bookstores list a book even when it is non-returnable with a low discount, and that a non-returnable book might as well carry the smallest discount allowed, since no store will stock it anyway. Another author in that thread said that without the full wholesale discount, the chance of getting into a bookstore is close to zero.
- One suggestion: start at 40%. In the r/selfpublish thread “Ingramspark pricing: Need help with setting retail price and wholesale discount” (September 2026), one reply advised starting at 40% and offering a higher discount only to a store that asks for it.
Choosing Your Settings
The choice comes down to where you expect the copies to sell:
- If bookstore or library sales are part of the plan: use the setup IngramSpark recommends, a 55% discount with returns. In the US, a discount below 53% means many bookstores will not order it, as IngramSpark itself warns.
- If you expect to sell mainly online: a lower discount and a non-returnable book leave you with higher compensation per copy.
What Changes When Your Paperback Is on Both KDP and IngramSpark?
When the same paperback is on KDP and IngramSpark, the two platforms connect in three ways: through the prices you set, through where IngramSpark sends the book, and through one KDP setting you leave switched off.
- The prices can match, or IngramSpark’s can be higher. Each platform has its own independent list price field. One price everywhere is the simplest to keep track of. But some authors set a higher list price on IngramSpark to offset the impact of the wholesale discount on their compensation per copy.
- A lower price elsewhere can lead Amazon to lower the price it charges for your book. KDP’s print book pricing terms allow Amazon to sell your paperback below your list price “to match a third party’s sales price.” Your royalty is still calculated from your list price. The reverse is not true: Amazon does not price up if the price is higher elsewhere.
- IngramSpark’s print distribution includes Amazon. IngramSpark’s help page “Can I Remove Amazon as a Distribution Channel?” says print distribution works on an “all or nothing” basis. So you “cannot selectively remove Amazon while keeping other print distribution channels active.” For ebooks, it can remove Amazon on request.
- Leave KDP’s Expanded Distribution switched off. KDP’s Expanded Distribution page says, “Your book’s ISBN must not have been submitted for distribution through another service,” and IngramSpark’s help page on using both platforms says, “Just be sure you don’t select the Expanded Distribution service they offer.”
How Do You Choose the Price Itself?
There is no formula for a paperback’s list price. A simple order of work, built from the printing cost and from what similar books sell for:
- Find your printing cost on each platform. KDP and IngramSpark each show it during setup, once you have entered the page count, the trim size, and whether the interior is black and white or color.
- Decide what you want to earn per copy. In the r/selfpublish thread “How to Set a Price for First Book” (September 2026), one author said they set their paperbacks up to make about $2 per sale so the price does not climb too high, and that others aim for $3 to $4.
- Check the result against comparable books in your genre, which another reply in the same thread recommends as the baseline.
- Adjust later if you need to. On KDP, a new list price for a paperback takes “72 hours to 5 business days depending on the significance of the change,” according to KDP’s timelines page. IngramSpark processes changes to the price, wholesale discount, and returns setting once a week: according to its price change help page, changes submitted in the week up to 11:59 p.m. US Central Time on a Thursday are applied the next day and then sent to the stores it supplies.
Changing Your Price Later
The first-time author who started the r/selfpublish thread in step 2 did not know a price could be raised after publication. It can. If you think you may change it, leave the price out of your barcode, because a printed price can only be changed by uploading a new cover; our post on the price add-on in a book barcode explains how that works.
A paperback on KDP and IngramSpark has a list price on each platform, a printing cost on each, and, on IngramSpark, a wholesale discount and a returns setting. Work out your earnings on each platform before you settle on a price, choose the discount and returns setting according to whether you expect bookstore sales, and remember that the list price, discount, and returns setting can all be changed later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to charge the same price on KDP and IngramSpark?
You do not have to charge the same price on KDP and IngramSpark, because each platform has its own list price. If your paperback sells for less at another store, Amazon may lower its price to match, as KDP’s print book pricing terms allow.
What wholesale discount does IngramSpark recommend?
IngramSpark recommends a 55% wholesale discount in all markets and accepts a minimum of 40%. In the US, a discount below 53% makes your book “short discounted,” and IngramSpark’s pricing help page says many bookstores will not order it as a result.
Can I change my paperback’s price after it is published?
You can change a paperback’s list price after publication on both KDP and IngramSpark. KDP says a new paperback list price takes 72 hours to 5 business days to appear. IngramSpark applies price, discount, and returns changes submitted in the week up to 11:59 p.m. US Central Time on a Thursday the following day.
Can I use KDP Expanded Distribution if my paperback is also on IngramSpark?
Not for the same ISBN. KDP’s Expanded Distribution page requires that your book’s ISBN has not been submitted for distribution through another service. And IngramSpark tells authors who use both platforms not to select Expanded Distribution.
Does a 60% royalty rate on KDP mean I earn 60% of the list price?
No. KDP applies the royalty rate to your list price and then takes off the printing cost. So your royalty is always less than the rate suggests. On a $15.99 paperback with a $4.50 printing cost, a 60% royalty rate pays a royalty of $5.09, about 32% of the list price.
What happens if a bookstore returns my book?
If a bookstore returns your book, IngramSpark charges you the wholesale price of each returned copy, taken from your compensation or invoiced if your compensation does not cover it, plus a shipping charge per copy if you have chosen to have returns sent back to you. A non-returnable book avoids returns, but bookstores may be unwilling to stock it.
