Talk to usYour royalty determines how much a book sale can contribute toward advertising. Start with the income left after printing or delivery deductions, then compare click costs and conversion. The example inputs are fictional and editable.
Calculate your scenario
Direct-sale break-even limits
- Break-even CPC
- Required conversion rate at your CPC
- Break-even ACoS
- Cost per ad-acquired order
These limits exclude fixed costs, other sales, and assumed downstream income. At the break-even CPC, direct ad sales cover click costs only.
At zero conversion, paid clicks still incur spend and generate no modeled book orders. A zero break-even CPC does not imply a viable campaign.
Monthly contribution and recovery
- Expected ad orders
- Advertising spend
- Direct ad-sale contribution after advertising
- Operating contribution, including other sales and allocated costs
- Contribution after unrecovered prior costs
- Time to recover prior costs from monthly operating contribution
Including your optional downstream assumption
- Additional assumed income from ad-acquired buyers
- Monthly contribution including assumed income
- Contribution after prior costs, including assumed income
- Break-even CPC including assumed downstream income
What if conversion changes?
All other inputs stay fixed. These are sensitivity scenarios, not confidence intervals or forecasts.
| Conversion | Ad orders | Operating contribution | Including assumed income |
|---|
Formulas and assumptions
- Contribution per sale = royalty − additional variable costs.
- Break-even CPC = contribution per sale × conversion rate expressed as a decimal.
- Required conversion rate = CPC ÷ contribution per sale. A result above 100% cannot work under this one-book-per-conversion model.
- Break-even ACoS = contribution per sale ÷ ad-reported sales value per book.
- Monthly operating contribution = (clicks × conversion rate + other sales) × contribution per sale − clicks × CPC − allocated monthly costs.
- Assumed additional income = expected ad orders × your downstream-income assumption.
This is a scenario calculator, not a sales forecast or a tax calculation. It does not infer sales from Best Sellers Rank, predict organic lift, or model payout timing. Returns, withholding, overheads, and other expenses affect the result unless already reflected in your inputs. Changing price may change conversion; compare both together rather than assuming demand stays fixed.
The recovery estimate assumes each future month repeats the operating contribution shown, starting from the entered prior costs. Downstream income may arrive later and is deliberately excluded from that estimate. Use the launch guide to plan cash reserves and testing allowances.
Where to find your royalty
Use the estimated royalty shown in KDP’s pricing screen for the particular format and marketplace, or calculate a representative royalty per sale from your reports. KDP’s paperback royalty guidance explains how the applicable rate and printing costs determine the royalty. A retail price is not your royalty, and the rate alone is not the amount left after printing.
Keep Kindle, paperback, and hardcover scenarios separate when their economics differ. If you intentionally use an average, weight it by your actual format mix. Do not deduct printing again from a royalty that is already net of printing.
For interpretation, read ACoS versus royalties and profit and what to check when clicks do not convert. Adigy automates routine advertising optimization around your goals; these calculations help you choose goals that fit the book’s economics.