On 7 July 2026 Amazon widened the 70% royalty band for Kindle ebooks from $2.99-$9.99 to $2.99-$12.99, with equivalent changes in the other KDP marketplaces. That ceiling had not moved since 2007. The $2.99 floor is unchanged, the 35% option is unchanged, and nothing happens to your listings unless you go and change them.
The delivery fee still comes off the 70% rate, at $0.15 per MB on Amazon.com and £0.10 per MB on Amazon.co.uk, so a chunky file still costs you more per sale than a slim one. The rule that your ebook must be at least 20% below the list price of any physical edition on Amazon also still applies, and for a lot of titles that rule, not the new ceiling, is what caps you.
The change worth making this week
If you have anything currently listed between $10.00 and $12.99, it is sitting on the 35% option because that was the only option available when you set it. Switching it to 70% in Rights and Pricing roughly doubles the royalty without changing the price the reader pays. A bundle at $11.99 earned $4.20 a sale at 35%. On the 70% option it earns $8.39 before delivery costs. Amazon does not do this for you, so it is worth an hour with your bookshelf open.
A 90,000-word novel
At $9.99, a novel with a 1MB file earns $6.99 less $0.15 delivery, so $6.84. At $12.99 the same book earns $9.09 less $0.15, so $8.94. That is $2.10 more per sale, about 31%, which means you can afford to lose just under 24% of your unit sales before the move costs you money.
For most genre fiction that trade is not close. Readers in thrillers, romance and fantasy are used to $4.99 and $5.99 for a single novel, and units also feed your ranking, your also-boughts and your ability to run price promotions later. A standalone novel is usually the last thing to push towards the new ceiling. The exception is a single title with no series behind it, a niche audience and no cheaper substitute, where the sale is driven by the subject rather than the price.
A three-book boxed set
Sets are where the old ceiling really bit. Above $9.99 you dropped to 35%, and at 35% you needed $19.99 to match what a $9.99 book earned at 70%. So sets bunched up at $9.99 whatever was inside them. That cliff has now moved: above $12.99 you drop to 35% and need $25.99 to match the $9.09 that $12.99 pays.
A three-book set moving from $9.99 to $12.99 goes from $6.84 to about $8.79 a sale, once you allow roughly $0.45 of delivery fee on a 3MB file. Buying the three books separately at $4.99 each would cost the reader $14.97 and earn you about $10.02, so the set is still a discount you are choosing to offer. Compress your images before you reprice, because the delivery fee scales with file size and sets are the biggest files you sell.
A nonfiction title
Business, self-help and reference buyers are the least price-sensitive group on Amazon, and many of them expense the purchase. If your nonfiction ebook has been parked at $9.99 for years, $10.99 or $11.99 is the obvious test. Check the paperback first. With a $14.99 paperback, the 20% rule caps the ebook at $11.99 and a $12.99 ebook loses the 70% option entirely. You need a $16.99 paperback before $12.99 clears that rule.
What it does to the direct-sales argument
At $12.99 through KDP you keep about $8.94. Through your own shop, after a platform cut of around 5% and card fees, you keep somewhere near $11.60. At $4.99 the gap between the two is under a pound a sale. At $12.99 it is closer to $2.70, so every price rise makes the direct channel worth more per unit, not less.
One argument for direct has narrowed, though. Selling omnibus editions and multi-book bundles above $9.99 without the 35% penalty used to be a real reason to open a shop. That reason now applies above $12.99 rather than above $9.99.
The ladder across Amazon, wide and your own shop
Kobo pays 70% on anything from $2.99 upwards, and the Authors Guild notes that Apple Books and Barnes and Noble Press pay a flat 70% at every price point, so the wide retailers never had this ceiling in the first place. Your ladder now looks like a $12.99 cap on Amazon, no cap wide, and no cap direct, with the best margin at the end you control. Keep your direct price level with or above your retail price, since Amazon can price-match downwards, and use bundles, signed hardbacks or bonus content to make direct the better buy instead of a lower number.
The Toolchest gives you the author website, mailing list, direct ebook store, ARC distribution and press kit for one flat monthly fee, so the direct rung of that ladder does not cost you five subscriptions to hold up. See what is in it.