Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Starting June 20, 2023, Amazon is increasing printing costs for books sold on its platform. So, if you have books on KDP, you’ll have to adjust the prices to accommodate for the increase.
That is if you want to receive the same royalties as before.
How Much Are Printing Costs Going Up on Amazon?
According to the official release from KDP, and the provided cost list for paperback and hardcover books, the increase isn’t really all that massive.
Generally speaking, the printing costs will increase by about $0.15 per book across the board with the exception of hardcover books under 108 pages.
Also, the price for premium color ink paperbacks of 24 to 40 pages will increase by only $0.05.
For example, my book at 134 pages costs $2.45 currently to print. After June 20th, it’ll go up to around $2.60. That’s not an overly dramatic increase overall.
Adjusting Books for the Printing Costs from Amazon
Amazon suggests that you log into your KDP accounts and adjust your pricing ahead of time. Sometimes, it can take a while before the new price of a book is adjusted in the marketplace.
It can take three to five days before the changes take hold on Amazon.
If you have a lot of books under your author profile, you can use the one-time bulk update to adjust all of your prices at once. However, you have until June 19th to use this tool.
According to Amazon, these changes can take several weeks to implement. So, if you want to adjust your selling prices for the new printing costs, you should probably start today.
What Does This Mean for Royalties?
The new printing costs won’t affect books sold prior to June 20th. That means you’ll still make the same amount per sale until then. A book sold on the 21st, however, will reflect the new cost.
For those who only sell a book or two per month, this change really isn’t going to make much of an impact. Though, there are probably authors out there who struggle for every penny in sales.
But if you sell 1,000 copies per month, this will mean a difference of $150 worth of income if you don’t adjust your prices.
Will I Adjust for the Printing Costs of My Amazon Book?
Speaking for myself, I have no intention of changing the price of my book on Amazon. And not just because I don’t sell a lot of copies as it is.
Even if I were a best-selling author on Amazon, I still wouldn’t raise prices. This is because I don’t believe in passing the increase on to consumers.
I know that’s not very capitalist of me. But keep in mind that I am more of a philanthropist.
Sure, I’d like to make more money from book sales. However, I view that as an issue I would have to address by writing a better book and doing a bit more marketing overall.
I’m not going to put the burden on someone who is interested in reading my book. Besides, to me, $0.15 per book isn’t outlandish. I’d still make about $2.30 per sale, which is more than I had yesterday.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get paid for your efforts. I’m 100% behind writers getting what they deserve. But for me personally, I have no intention of changing prices because the printing service needs to pad its bottom line.
It simply gives me a reason to start looking elsewhere for print-on-demand services and selling my books directly from the website and other venues.
Contrary to Amazon’s belief, it’s not the only platform to sell books.
What Do You Think of Amazon Increasing Printing Costs?
Now, Amazon states that the reason the prices are going up is because of increased labor and supplies. Then again, that’s the same excuse every corporation gives when hiking costs.
To some extent, it may be true. But the skeptic in me is just thinking of how greedy Amazon already is when it comes to everything it does across the board.
How much of an impact will the printing costs make on your Amazon sales?
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