You’ve uploaded your ebook, picked your royalty rate, and set the price—only to find out Amazon’s skimming a little off the top. What gives?

If you’ve ever been surprised by Amazon’s KDP delivery fees, you’re not alone. These charges can eat into your royalties without warning—and for many indie authors, they’re the difference between a book that pays out and one that bleeds cash. Let’s break down how these charges work, when they apply, and how to keep more of your hard-earned royalties.

💰 What Are KDP Delivery Charges?

When publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing and selecting the 70% royalty option, Amazon deducts a delivery fee based on your ebook’s file size. In the U.S., the standard rate is $0.15 per MB.

That means:

• A 1MB file = $0.15 per sale
• A 6MB file = $0.90 per sale
• Multiply that by a thousand downloads, and you could lose hundreds in royalties

And yes—it comes out of your cut, not Amazon’s.

🧠 How File Size Impacts Your Royalties

Let’s look at a basic royalty breakdown:

• Book price: $4.99
• Royalty rate (70%): $3.49
• File size: 5MB
• Delivery cost: $0.75
• Actual payout: $2.74—not $3.49

Those numbers may not seem huge per book, but scale that across sales and you’re looking at a real impact.

🖼️ What Causes Large Ebook Files?

Images are the biggest culprit. Even a handful of high-resolution illustrations or photos can balloon your file size. Other troublemakers include:

• Full-bleed image spreads
• Embedded fonts that weren’t subset properly
• Exporting from Word or Canva without compression
• Using interactive elements that don’t compress well
• Having your eBook’s cover embedded as high defininition (300dpi) instead of compressed (72dpi)

 ✂️ How to Reduce Your Ebook’s File Size

You don’t have to sacrifice quality—just design smart. Here’s how:

1. 1. Compress all images using TinyPNG or ImageOptim.
   2. Use JPEGs for photos, and PNGs only when necessary (like logos or transparent backgrounds).
   3. Strip unnecessary metadata and flatten image layers before export.
   4. Ask your formatter (that’s me) to optimize for Amazon’s delivery specs.
   5. For illustrated books, consider a fixed-layout EPUB for wide distribution and price the Amazon version differently.

🧮 Should You Ever Choose the 35% Royalty Option?

Surprisingly—yes. If your book is image-heavy (cookbooks, children’s books, travel guides, etc.), the 35% royalty rate has no delivery fee.

It might pay more net than the 70% option after charges are deducted. Always run the numbers.

👊 Keep Your Royalties in Your Pocket

Delivery charges are Amazon’s way of encouraging authors to keep file sizes small—and while that’s understandable, it can catch authors off guard. The good news? You don’t need to obsess over compression or formatting quirks. You just need someone who knows how to design books that are both beautiful and bandwidth-friendly.

Looking to maximize your royalties and look like a pro doing it? Let’s talk book design.