Eligibility
Amazon requires a Confirmation of Copyright letter be kept on file for authors publishing to their site. The purpose of this letter is to verify that you own the copyright for the work you are publishing, which is a requirement to publishing with Amazon. This applies to authors who already have titles live and available for sale on Amazon’s site through our service as well as new users.
At your earliest convenience, complete the steps on our Amazon Checklist page.
KDP Select & EXCLUSIVE Versus Wide Distribution
Amazon’s KDP Select program is focused on exclusive distribution to its Kindle platform—it offers certain perks, such as being paid by “Normalized Page Reads” (as well as for individual book sales) in exchange for authors agreeing to exclusive distribution through Amazon. KDP Select also feeds into Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program, which allows readers to download eBooks from participating authors, as part of a monthly subscription.
In order to benefit from being included in the Kindle Unlimited library, and to receive payments based on normalized page reads, KDP Select requires authors to enroll a book for distribution exclusively with Amazon’s Kindle platform, for a minimum of 90 days.
By our very nature, Draft2Digital is a wide distribution platform, meaning we do not require authors to distribute to any given vendor. Authors maintain complete freedom to add or remove their books to D2D at will, keeping all their rights, and any royalties due from sales. D2D authors can distribute to any or all of our distribution channels, including Amazon’s Kindle platform, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and more—or choose only one or two distribution channels at will.
Because D2D focuses on wide distribution, authors distributing to Amazon through our platform will not be able to participate in the KDP Select program. In simplest terms, the only way to earn money from Amazon’s Kindle platform, when distributing through Draft2Digital, is for someone to purchase a copy of your eBook.
This is identical to the earning potential you have with other D2D distributors, and you maintain all rights and all the freedom to choose where your book is sold.
Amazon Marketing Service Advertisement (AMS Ads)
At this time, Draft2Digital does not support AMS Ads. If you wish to advertise using Amazon’s ad program, you will need to distribute your books directly, via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
Amazon Pricing
We are unable to support free pricing direct to Amazon. If you set your book’s price to free, it will be submitted to Amazon for 99 cents. Amazon may price-match to free, to bring prices in line with other vendors.
This does not affect your free pricing on other platforms. Books priced for free on other platforms, where allowed, will retain their price of $0.00, unless you specifically change the price.
In addition, we can only submit books that meet certain minimum pricing for files sizes: $0.99 up to 3MB, $1.99 for 3MB to 10MB, and $2.99 for 10MB or greater.
Amazon Royalty
Your sales at Amazon may pay different royalties depending on the digital book price you select:
- For eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you will receive a standard royalty (approximately 60% of list price)
- For eBooks priced outside that range (below $2.99 or above $9.99), you will receive a reduced royalty (approximately 30% of list price)
D2D pays 51% royalty for Andorra, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Spain, and Switzerland.
Preorders
Due to conflicts in vendor requirements, Draft2Digital is currently unable to offer preorders for Amazon Kindle. You may still make your book available for preorder through Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Tolino, and Overdrive, using the “Release Date” from your book’s Details page. We are continuing to work toward the ability to add preorders for Amazon, and will update you when that functionality is added. At this time, we will hold any preorder to Amazon until the release date.
Delisting
We are unable to delist a book that is still going through Amazon’s initial review process for newly listed books. This means that if you request a book to go live at Amazon and change your mind, there may be a small delay before you can delist the book from Amazon. This should be no more than 5 days after you publish your book (and normally much shorter), and if it is taking longer than expected please contact Customer Support.