How Do I Check the Sales of My Book on KDP?

 Monitoring the sales of your book is a critical part of your self-publishing journey on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Whether you're tracking your first few sales or managing a portfolio of titles, KDP provides built-in tools to help you understand your sales performance, royalties, page reads, and reader behavior across global marketplaces.

Amazon offers real-time dashboards, downloadable reports, and analytics that are accessible from your KDP account. In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn exactly how to check your sales, understand your earnings, interpret KDP reports, and make strategic decisions based on the data you see.

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1. Where to Find Your Sales on KDP

Once you've published your book, Amazon KDP provides all your sales data via your KDP Dashboard.

Step-by-Step:

1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com

2. Sign in to your KDP account

3. From the top navigation bar, click on “Reports”

You’ll land on the Sales Dashboard, which is your main hub for tracking performance.

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2. Understanding the KDP Reports Section

The KDP Reports interface is divided into several key sections:

A) Sales Dashboard (Live, Real-Time View)

This is the default page under the “Reports” tab. It shows you:

• Books ordered (paid and free)

• Pages read (for Kindle Unlimited and KDP Select titles)

• Royalties earned (estimated earnings)

• Marketplace breakdown (e.g., .com, .co.uk, .de)

• Graph of sales over time

You can filter by:

• Book title

• Format (eBook, paperback, hardcover)

• Marketplace

• Date range (Last 7 days, 30 days, custom)

This dashboard is best for getting a quick overview of your book’s performance.

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3. Types of Metrics You’ll See

i. Units Sold

The total number of paid units your book has sold on Kindle or in print.

ii. Free Units Ordered

If your book was offered as a free promotion (through KDP Select), this tracks how many readers downloaded it.

iii. KENP Read (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages)

If you’re enrolled in KDP Select, readers can access your book via Kindle Unlimited (KU) or Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL). Amazon pays you based on the number of pages read, not downloads.

This metric is crucial for authors with large KU readerships.

iv. Royalties

An estimate of how much money you’ve earned during a selected period. These are not yet paid royalties, but what you will be paid if all transactions are finalized.

Note: Royalties are shown before taxes and bank conversion fees.

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4. Advanced Reports Available on KDP

Beneath the Sales Dashboard, you’ll find additional report types:

A) Prior Months’ Royalties

Use this to view finalized royalty reports from previous months. This includes:

• Units sold

• Royalties earned (in your local currency)

• Marketplace breakdown

• Payment date

You can download detailed reports in Excel format (CSV) for accounting or recordkeeping.

B) Payments

Shows a history of:

• All royalty payments made to your bank account

• Amounts, currencies, and payment dates

• Payment status (Processing, Paid, etc.)

This helps confirm whether you've been paid for a given sales period.

C) Promotions

If you run Free Book Promotions or Kindle Countdown Deals, this section shows:

• Start/end dates

• Total free units downloaded

• Performance of active promotions

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5. How Often Are Sales Updated?

• Real-time sales data (within a few minutes to an hour) is shown in the Sales Dashboard.

• Royalties and KU page reads may take up to 24 hours to update.

• Finalized royalties are posted monthly, typically by the 15th of the following month.

• Payments are issued 60 days after the end of the sales month (e.g., sales made in January are paid at the end of March).

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6. Can I Track Sales by Country or Marketplace?

Yes. From your Sales Dashboard, you can filter or view graphs by:

• Amazon.com (US)

• Amazon.co.uk (UK)

• Amazon.ca (Canada)

• Amazon.de (Germany)

• And others (India, Japan, Australia, etc.)

This allows you to track international sales, which is helpful if you're marketing globally.

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7. Tips to Make the Most of Your Sales Data

a) Track Trends Over Time

Use the graph view to monitor how your promotions, ads, or new releases impact sales.

b) Match Marketing Campaigns to Sales Spikes

Did you run an Amazon ad or BookBub promo? Use the dashboard to match the date of your campaign with spikes in sales to see if it worked.

c) Compare Book Performance

If you have multiple titles, compare how each is performing. Which is selling better? Which is driving KU reads?

d) Identify Underperforming Titles

Use the data to spot books with low sales, then assess:

• Is the cover unattractive?

• Is the description weak?

• Are the keywords ineffective?

• Are there no reviews?

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8. External Tools for KDP Sales Tracking

If you want to go beyond KDP’s native tools, some external platforms offer expanded analytics and sales management.

Examples:

• BookReport (now subscription-based): Visual sales dashboard that syncs with KDP

• Publisher Rocket: Helps you optimize keywords and categories (not live sales tracking)

• Kindlepreneur Royalties Calculator: Estimates earnings based on royalty rate and price

• Author Earnings spreadsheets: Manual but effective for tracking month-to-month performance

Be cautious with third-party platforms—never share your login credentials.

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9. How Are Royalties Calculated?

For eBooks:

• 70% royalty (in eligible countries) on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99

• 35% royalty outside that price range or in unsupported countries

For paperbacks and hardcovers:

• Royalty = 60% of list price – printing cost

For Kindle Unlimited (KU) reads:

• Amazon pays from a monthly global fund

• Your share is based on the number of pages read (KENP) relative to other authors

Each month, Amazon posts the KENP rate per page, e.g., $0.0046 per page.

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10. What About Refunds or Returns?

KDP does not show individual returns, but they are factored into your final royalty report under "Net Units Sold."

Returns are rare for eBooks but may occasionally occur for paperbacks due to shipping issues or customer dissatisfaction.

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11. Mobile Access to Sales Data

You can also check your sales via mobile browser:

• Log in to kdp.amazon.com from your phone

• Navigate to the “Reports” tab

• The dashboard is mobile-optimized and functions similarly to the desktop version

As of now, Amazon does not have a dedicated KDP mobile app, though third-party apps may exist (use caution).

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Conclusion

Checking your book’s sales on KDP is simple, but interpreting the data strategically is what empowers you to grow. Whether you're watching for spikes during a launch, tracking Kindle Unlimited page reads, or analyzing your global reach, the KDP Reports dashboard offers robust, real-time insights.

By reviewing your reports regularly, adjusting your strategies based on performance, and paying close attention to trends, you’ll become not just a writer—but a data-savvy publisher. And with each insight, you’ll be more prepared to write, release, and sell your next book even more effectively.