With so many authors wanting to do things themselves and not paying for formatting, as well as people offering these services who aren’t as experienced, I’m seeing a lot of excessively large file sizes. Some books, like picture books or nonfiction books may by necessity have a lot of images and be larger files. It is still possible to take steps to reduce file size.

Why should authors worry about file sizes? According to Amazon’s KDP help pages, when authors utilize the 70% royalty option for books priced between $2.99-9.99, amazon calculates the royalty including the delivery cost.

(List Price – Applicable VAT – Delivery Costs)*70%=applicable royalty

Those costs can add up. For books in the US it is $0.15 per MB, so if your book is 5 MB, something not uncommon, then you are having $0.75 deducted from the cost of your book.

$2.99-0.00-.75 = $2.24 * .70 = $1.56

$2.99-0.00-.30=$2.69 * .70 = $1.88

For a reduction in file size you earn a lot more money. The $0.32 per copy may not seem like a lot; however, it can add up quickly. Make sure that you’re getting files as small as possible. Between 1-2MB is ideal. If you are having extra images put into your books, ask if the formatter is using low resolution images and find ways to make your file sizes smaller. You’ll earn more money per book sale and that’s always a good thing.