That's right! For every 1 megabyte your ebook file is, Amazon takes 15 cents<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Math Example: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let's say your ebook is 2 MegaByte (MB), then Amazon will charge you 30 cents for every ebook sold. So, if sell 10,000 ebooks a year, Amazon will take an extra $3,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you can reduce your ebook size to 1MB, you'll save yourself $1500. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is because of this, that in this article, I want to show you how you can reduce your ebook size, and save hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have an ebook, that ebook has a file size, usually measured in megabytes. The larger your ebook file, the more Amazon takes out of your royalties to “deliver” that ebook file to the purchaser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is true of all ebooks priced<\/a> between $2.99 and $9.99 (in the United States), a.k.a. the price range where you can receive 70% royalties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note: Amazon does not charge delivery fees if you're receiving the 35% royalty rate)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But how much is this delivery cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it depends on the size of your ebook. Basically, you look at your ebook file size, determine how many megabytes it is, then multiply that number by the delivery cost relevant to your country:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can learn more about Amazon\u2019s <\/em>delivery rates here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s say your ebook has a lot of images and is 10 MB large. In the United States, that would cost an additional $1.50 out of your royalties, in addition to the 30% that Amazon already takes. If you sell 10,000 copies in a year, that\u2019s literally $15,000 in revenue that you are missing out on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, it\u2019s important to know how large your books are, and ways to reduce their size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is relatively easy to find your ebook file size. If you're using a PC, use the following steps. These steps are intuitively similar for Mac as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1:<\/strong> Find your ebook file<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2: <\/strong>Right click it and select “Properties”<\/p>\n\n\n Step 3:<\/strong> Find the section that says “Size”. There you will find the number of megabytes that your ebook takes up.<\/p>\n\n\n Note that the actual file size you see here, may be different than the file size on Amazon. That\u2019s because Amazon has their own compressions that they run on your ebook file, meaning that it may be smaller (or in rare cases, larger) than the original file.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To see this, go to your KDP dashboard, go to your eBook Pricing, where you can see the file size as it will appear in Amazon. This is the final sizing number that is used to calculate your delivery fee.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n This is a great way to find your ebook size, but as many authors will find, you may be surprised by how large your ebook is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let's take a closer look at ways to reduce your file size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we have a good idea of the toll that having a large book file size can do, let\u2019s discuss ways in which you can reduce your file size. There are a number of options, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These steps are going to be very important, especially if you are manually formatting yourself. However, you can also use this information if you are hiring a formatter. It's best to ask them what they did to reduce the file size, and take action to see if you can further reduce it. If you have a formatting software, most of them do this sort of thing or some of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\r\n Write and format professional books with ease. \u00a0Never before has creating formatted books been easier.<\/p>\n Click here to see it in action<\/a> <\/div>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n Honestly, the first question you should ask yourself when designing an ebook is: do you actually need them in the first place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Print books look great with images, especially full-bleed images that can take up an entire page. If you want that, absolutely, go to town on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for ebooks, images simply just don\u2019t look as great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Granted, you may be writing in a specific genre where maps, charts, etc. might be necessary. And in those cases, sure, you can keep the necessary images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in most cases, I recommend asking yourself if you really need those images, or if there\u2019s a way that you could take them out for the ebook file. Maybe package them up and deliver them as a reader magnet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most obvious way to improve on your file size is to use a compressor like the one here at OnlineConverter.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n These kinds of online compressors work well, but they come with a cost. Sometimes using a compressor can mess up the formatting of your ebook file<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So you absolutely need to run your ebook through a previewer to make sure it still looks as good as you remember it. The previewer in KDP (as you are uploading your files) is a good option for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing to keep in mind though is that most formatting software<\/a> will do this for you, but you might want to still see if this works to reduce it further since we can speak for all of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Images are one of the worst offenders in any ebook with a large file size. Now you may think you\u2019re out of the woods there, because you don\u2019t have any images in your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But keep in mind that your book cover, any ornamental breaks you use as scene dividers, and any personal logos you use all take up space. Sometimes a lot of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My favorite way to reduce image cost is to use a free program called Calibre (read our overview of Calibre here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going through the steps with Calibre can seem a bit confusing, but it does a great job of reducing file size, and don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll walk you through the whole process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1: Import your ebook.<\/strong> All you have to do here is select \u201cAdd Books\u201d from the top left and then select your ebook file.<\/p>\n\n\n Step 2: Edit book. <\/strong>Once you\u2019ve imported your book, simply right click it and select \u201cEdit book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Step 3: Compress images losslessly. <\/strong>Once you\u2019ve selected \u201cEdit book\u201d, it will open up a new window. From there, select \u201cTools\u201d from the top menu and then select \u201cCompress images losslessly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Step 4: Compress images. <\/strong>You\u2019ll then see a new window that says \u201cCompress images\u201d. Make sure all the images are selected on the left, and that the box labelled \u201cEnable lossy compression of JPEG images\u201d is checked. Then hit \u201cOK\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n Step 5: Save a copy. <\/strong>Once the compression finishes, you\u2019ll want to save a copy. To do this, go to \u201cFile\u201d in the top menu, and select \u201cSave a copy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s it! You should be able to find the new file, take a look at its Properties, and find that it is significantly smaller than it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If all that seems overly complicated to you, I recommend checking out Atticus<\/a>, which does a base layer of compression over its images (although combining both Atticus compression and Calibre compression will still help you.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might save yourself a ton of time and headache by compressing your images before you even upload them to your formatting program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several free image compressors out there. We like to use Kraken.io<\/a> for our images, but the images already need to be below a megabyte in order to use the free plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTable of contents<\/h2>
Understanding Delivery Cost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to Know Your Ebook File Size<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"finding](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Finding-ebook-file-size.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"finding](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/finding-ebook-file-size-properties.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"finding](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ebook-compression-kdp.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHow to Reduce Your Ebook File Size<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Atticus](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Atticus.png\")
\r\n \r\n <\/a> <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n Formatting Has Never Been Easier<\/h3>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n
1. First, Should You Have Images?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Compress Your File<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ebook-compressor.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n3. Image Compression Option #1: Use Calibre<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"adding](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/calibre-compression-step1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"editing](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/calibre-compression-step2.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Compressing](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/calibre-compression-step3.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Compressing](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/calibre-compression-step4.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n4. Image Compression Option #2: Compress Early<\/h3>\n\n\n
![\"kraken.io](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/kraken-image-compression-1024x484.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
![\"atticus](\"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/atticus.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n