What Is KDP Select, and Is It Worth It? (2026)

KDP Select suits some books and costs others readers. This guide explains the rules, how Kindle+ pays, and how to work out whether it’s worth it for your ebook. If you’d rather have it set up for you, our Amazon publishing setup covers the Kindle ebook and its KDP Select choice.

How KDP Select works

You enroll a draft ebook from your KDP Bookshelf, or a published one from the Marketing page, and it stays enrolled for 90 days at a time.

• Ebooks only. KDP Select covers the Kindle ebook. You can keep selling print, audio, video or any format other than a digital ebook anywhere, KDP says. For an audio edition, see how to make an audiobook.
• Exclusive in digital form. While enrolled, you can’t sell or give away the ebook, or a substantially similar book, in digital form anywhere else, including other ebook stores and your own website. The one exception is public libraries: KDP’s enrollment page says the ebook can be distributed through KDP and public libraries.
• Samples are allowed. You can share up to 10% of the book on other sites as a sample.
• It renews by itself. Every enrolled ebook renews for another 90 days unless you untick automatic renewal. Turning it off doesn’t end the current term.
• It’s free. There’s no fee to join or to use the promotions.
• Your rights must be exclusive. Public-domain books and content you license non-exclusively can’t be enrolled.

To set up the ebook itself, follow our guide to publishing on Amazon step by step.

How Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) pays you

Kindle+, formerly Kindle Unlimited (KU), is Amazon’s reading subscription. When a subscriber reads your enrolled ebook, you’re paid for the pages they read for the first time, from a monthly pot called the KDP Select Global Fund.

1. Your pages are counted in KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages), a standard page that works the same on every device. KDP shows your book’s count, its KENPC, on the Promote and Advertise page of your Bookshelf.
2. Each month Amazon sets the fund. It reported $66 million for August 2026 in its KDP Community forum. The higher “total author earnings” figure on the KDP Select page is a different number that includes bonuses.
3. The fund is shared by pages read. Your share is your pages read divided by all KU pages read, worked out marketplace by marketplace. You can earn for up to 3,000 pages per customer per title, and you can’t offer readers anything, such as money or bonus content, in return for reading in KU.

Amazon doesn’t publish a per-page rate. Written Word Media, which tracks it, reports US payouts of about $0.0042 to $0.0052 a page from March to August 2026. At those rates, a full US read of a book with a 300-page KENPC earns you roughly $1.27 to $1.55. Sales of the same ebook still pay the usual 70% or 35% royalty, as our ebook royalty math shows.

KDP Select also raises your royalty on ebook sales to customers in Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico to 70%, if your list price meets the 70% requirements. They drop back to 35% when you leave.

KDP Select promotions

Each 90-day term gives you one type of promotion: a Kindle Countdown Deal or Free Book Promotion days, not both.

Unused days don’t carry over to the next term. Many authors pair a promotion with an Amazon launch plan, because a deal works best when readers hear about it.

Is KDP Select worth it?

KDP Select is worth it when Kindle+ reads earn more than you’d make selling the ebook in other stores. That depends on your genre, how much of the book readers finish, and how many copies you’d sell elsewhere.

Try it for one term, check your KENP reads and sales in your KDP reports, then decide at renewal.

Joining, leaving and going wide

To join: remove the ebook from every other ebook store first (public-library distribution can stay), allow time for the stores to delist it, then enroll.

To leave: untick automatic renewal. The ebook stays enrolled, and exclusive, until the current term ends. You can cancel yourself only within three days of a term starting; after that, KDP’s instruction is to contact them. Unpublishing doesn’t get you out early: it pauses the term, and the ebook stays exclusive for the remaining days after you republish. A pre-order can’t be cancelled until it’s released. When you leave, unused promotion days are lost and the royalty in Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico returns to 35%. Readers who already borrowed the book can finish it, and you’re still paid for those first-time pages.

To go wide: once the term ends, you can list the ebook on other stores. See selling your ebook wide for the platforms.

When to get help

Enrolling takes a minute. The decision takes more thought: your genre, your series plan, your price and your launch. Our Amazon tier ($249) publishes your Kindle ebook in your name, and the Online Stores tier ($549) adds four more ebook stores and an Amazon paperback if you go wide.

KDP Select questions authors ask

Does KDP Select include my paperback?

No. KDP Select covers only the Kindle ebook, and print editions are never part of the exclusivity. Your paperback, hardcover and audiobook can be sold anywhere while the ebook is enrolled, including through IngramSpark for bookstores and libraries. See how authors split print through KDP and IngramSpark.

Can I sell the ebook on my own website while enrolled?

No. While enrolled, Amazon has the exclusive right to sell and distribute the ebook in digital format, so you can’t sell or give away the full ebook anywhere else, including your website. You can share up to 10% as a sample, and print copies can be sold anywhere.

Can I leave KDP Select early?

You can cancel yourself within three days of a term starting. After that, KDP’s instruction is to contact them, so the usual route is to untick automatic renewal and leave when the 90-day term ends. Unused promotion days are lost, and the 70% royalty in Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico drops to 35%.

How much does Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) pay per page?

Amazon doesn’t publish a fixed rate. It shares a monthly fund, $66 million for August 2026, across pages read in each marketplace. Written Word Media reports US payouts of about $0.0042 to $0.0052 a page from March to August 2026, so a full US read of a book with a 300-page KENPC earns roughly $1.27 to $1.55.

Related reading: How to self-publish on Amazon · Self-publishing platforms compared · Amazon KDP vs IngramSpark