Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing unit launched in 2007, concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to be used by authors and publishers to independently publish their books directly to Kindle and Kindle Apps worldwide. Authors can upload documents in several formats for delivery via Whispernet and charge between $0.99 and $200.00 for their works. These documents may be written in 34 languages.

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) was in open beta testing in late 2007 and the platform was promoted to established authors by e-mail and by advertisements at Amazon.com. In a December 5, 2009 interview with The New York Times, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that Amazon keeps 65% of the revenue from all e-book sales for the Kindle. The remaining 35% is split between the author and publisher. After numerous commentators observed that Apple's popular App Store offers 70% of royalties to the publisher, Amazon began a program that offers 70% royalties to Kindle publishers who agree to certain conditions.

Amazon has the KDP Select publishing option that requires 100 percent exclusivity — e-book publishing under this option cannot be sold anywhere else. While under KDP Select, an author can offer the book free for five days or discount it for up to seven days through a countdown deal, while still earning 70% royalties. Outside of limited deals, e-books permanently priced below $2.99 only get 35% royalties. All KDP Select books are included in Kindle Unlimited, which is a monthly subscription that allows unlimited reading of e-books.

Amazon has reported the Kindle version of Fifty Shades of Grey sold more than double that of Amazon's print sales of the book, and, in June 2012, the Kindle edition became the first ebook to sell more than one million copies on Amazon.

Amazon initially paid authors in its KDP Select program a set fee per book, provided a reader read at least 10 percent of the book. This drew criticism from authors of longer works because a reader would have to read more of their books in order for the authors to receive any payment, while those who wrote shorter books could receive the fees easier. In July 2015, the company changed its Kindle Select payment structure to a per-page model. Every time an author's e-book is borrowed and pages are read, the author earns a share of a monthly fund, which was $1.2 million in April 2014 and $11 million in July 2015.

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