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KDP Expanded Distribution: eligibility, royalty and restrictions

Checked against Amazon’s pages on 2026-11-09. Not affiliated with Amazon.

What is KDP Expanded Distribution, who can use it, and what royalty does it pay?

Expanded Distribution is a free KDP option that offers your paperback to US and UK distributors so bookstores, online retailers, libraries and academic institutions can order it. It pays 40% of the list price minus printing cost, is not available for hardcovers, and excludes certain trim sizes, languages and content types, including journals, coloring books, puzzle books and public domain works.

Key facts
Cost to enrollFree
Royalty40% of list price minus printing cost
FormatsPaperback only
DistributorsUnited States and United Kingdom
ISBNKDP-assigned or your own, not used with another distribution service
Excluded languagesHebrew, Yiddish, Japanese
Time to reach booksellersUp to eight weeks

Free calculator: KDP royalty and printing cost calculator

Terms on this page: Expanded Distribution

Eligibility

Any KDP publisher can enroll regardless of where they live, but the paperback must be available on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, and you need US distribution rights for the US program and UK rights for the UK program. KDP notes these requirements come from its distributors. A book that is rejected or later removed loses only its enrollment; your KDP account and Amazon listings are not affected.

Content and format restrictions

Distributors currently do not accept, among others: books with frequent lined or blank pages (journals, notebooks, planners, calendars), unauthorized summaries of other books, interiors needing heavy ink coverage, public domain content, coloring books, poorly translated or excessively repeated content, and a long list of niches that includes puzzle books, word search, sudoku, crosswords, activity and workbooks, joke books and several diet and crypto topics. Hebrew, Yiddish and Japanese paperbacks are excluded.

Trim size matters too. For example 8.25 x 6, 8.25 x 8.25 and 8.25 x 11 in are not eligible with any paper, and large trims are not eligible on cream or groundwood paper. Changing paper type can change eligibility.

Royalty and worked example

The royalty is 40% of the list price in that channel minus printing costs, taxes and withholding. Using KDP’s example of a $15, 333-page black ink paperback with a $5.00 printing cost: (0.40 × $15) − $5.00 = $1.00, versus $4.00 on Amazon.com. KDP’s Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator does not include Expanded Distribution estimates, and enrolled books have a different minimum list price.

Reporting and payment

Sales show up about 30 days after month end. KDP’s payment page says these royalties are paid about 90 days after month end, while the Expanded Distribution page says about 60 days after the month distributors report the sale. Changes to price or content can take up to eight weeks to reach other retailers.

Amazon changes these rules; the linked KDP help pages are the authority.

Questions

Do I need my own ISBN for Expanded Distribution?
No. The paperback can use a KDP-assigned ISBN or one you bought, as long as that ISBN has not been submitted for distribution through another service.
Does enrolling guarantee bookstores will carry my book?
No. Distributors decide whether to list it and booksellers and libraries decide whether to order it, and KDP can't say which ones bought it.
Will copies sold through Expanded Distribution look the same?
Not always. They may be printed by third parties, with minor differences such as paper thickness or color shade.

Related tools

Sources

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