Net Royalties are defined as the total royalty paid by each distribution channel, and are determined by the Suggested Retail Price and Retailer Discount you choose. The print cost of your book will also impact the amount of royalties you earn, which itself is affected by the size, page count, interior colour, and binding type of your book. Here's the formula:
- Suggested Retail Price [SRP]* − Retailer Discount − POD Print Cost = Net Royalties
Tellwell authors on the Managed 100 distribution program earn 100% of net royalties.**
Once the page count of your typeset interior draft is set and you've chosen a distribution model, Octavo will prompt you to set the pricing and retailer discount for your book, then calculate your expected net royalties for each edition and market. For more info, check out our article How do I choose a price for my book?
For eBooks, you'll generally earn 60–70% of the list price in royalties, depending on the distributor and retailer involved. To qualify for KDP's 70% royalty rate, price your eBook within these ranges per market:
- $2.99–$9.99 CAD and USD
- £1.77–£9.99 GBP
- €2.69–€9.99 EUR
- $3.99–$11.99 AUD
eBooks have no print cost, though KDP deducts a small "delivery fee" from royalties based on the file size of your Kindle eBook. For eBooks distributed through Draft2Digital to retailers like Apple Books, you'll earn approximately 60% royalties.
*Note: Ingram deducts a 1.5% “Market Access Fee” from the royalties of every paperback or hardcover sale through this channel. The 1.5% is calculated based on the SRP, which means that if the SRP is $20 USD, $0.30 will be deducted from the royalties for each book sold in the US market. KDP does not have this fee.
**Note: All projects started after September 1, 2025 are on Managed 100 by default. Projects started before this date had the choice between Managed 85 (85% net royalties) and Managed 100 (100% net royalties).
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When will I receive my royalty payments?
Where do I find my sales information and how often do I receive it?