Skip to main content

KDP Print Expands Its Distribution Network to Include US Bookstores

Amazon just eliminated one of the few differences between its two POD platforms. Yesterday they announced that authors and publishers who use KDP Print can get their print books distributed to US bookstores.

KDP now offers Expanded Distribution to bookstores in the United States. Through Expanded Distribution, you can distribute and make your paperback book available (this doesn’t guarantee that your book will be ordered) to online retailers, bookstores, and distributors. Learn more about how Expanded Distribution works.

If you enable Expanded Distribution for your paperback, the royalty rate is 40% of the book’s list price effective in the distribution channel at the time of purchase, minus printing costs and withholding. Learn more about paperback royalty rates.

Launched in 2016, KDP Print is Amazon’s intended replacement for Createspace, one that gives authors and publishers a single dashboard where they can manage both their ebooks and POD books.

They haven’t announced a specific date when KDP Print will replace Createspace, but Amazon is expected to reveal that information in a couple months.

Similar Articles


Comments


Karen Myers July 12, 2018 um 9:20 am

But if you were already a CreateSpace AND Ingram user, this means nothing.

CreateSpace’s expanded distribution takes you to US (and other) bookstores, too, by going through Ingram, at the same max royalty of 40% (from which Ingram gets its 15%). I presume KDP is also using Ingram to do this, like CreateSpace.

If you go thru Ingram directly, you can set the rate to 55% (which shows up in their iPage catalogue listing as "REG" (regular), which is what bookstores expect (40% after Ingram’s cut). If you go through CreateSpace (and presumably now through KDP) the rate is 40%, which shows up on iPage as "25%" (after Ingram takes its 15%) and that’s not an attractive rate for bookstores.

So this doesn’t change anything. You are still best advised to always use Createspace/OR/KDP AND Ingram, the former for Amazon-only, and the latter for rest-of-world.

All this announcement does is make the KDP/CreateSpace match closer. It doesn’t eliminate the CS vs KDP advantages, such as inexpensive author copies. Certainly I would panic if I were a CS employee, but it remains the better option for authors.


Julie Carobini @ Indie Author Lifeline July 13, 2018 um 8:28 pm

Maybe things are changing, but I don’t know … I’m pretty doubtful that bookstores would use KDP to stock their shelves unless customers really (really, really) want to buy those particular books. I’ve had a local bookstore owner and the manager of a BN store tell me flat out they would not buy my book from Createspace (Amazon company). So in addition to CS, I use Ingram for distribution.


acflory July 17, 2018 um 6:59 pm

My thanks to both commenters. I’m in the process of setting up my books on Ingram and have been rather confused by the distribution side of things. Full steam ahead now!
p.s. there’s one more thing I’d like to say, the CreateSpace support is light years better than the KDP support. With CS I get answers within 24 hours. With KDP, some answers simply never arrive.
I’ll wait until CS is no longer an option before going all in with KDP.


Ariane August 28, 2018 um 12:39 pm

Today Createspace made the switch to fold into KDP. I just received a letter stating that if I do not enable expanded distribution on Createspace my books will not be published. So basically they are FORCING us into it. I am also set up with Ingram as well and as I understood it, it does very much affect your Ingram distribution. Many European Amazons are serviced through my Ingram arm. As I understand it if you have a double listing with Ingram and CS you will be deleted from these channels. Any info much appreciated. Thank you for this thread. (Medium panic right now)


Laurie Boris December 2, 2018 um 12:37 pm

This is an interesting turn. But I agree with Julie. The local bookstore owners I met think "Amazon" is a four-letter word. Twice I’ve been told flat-out that they would not stock my CreateSpace/Amazon paperbacks.


Luke Barney February 11, 2019 um 11:25 am

Does anyone know how long after you list it as "expanded distribution" until it is actually available for purchase from the large distributors?


Write a Comment