Start from KDP's own printing cost formula, not a guess: for a black-ink paperback on Amazon.com, $2.30 flat covers 24–110 pages with no per-page charge, and $1.00 fixed + $0.012 per page covers 110–828 pages — a 300-page book costs $4.60 to print, KDP's own worked example. Royalty is (50% or 60% of list price, depending on list price) minus that printing cost — the same 300-page book at $9.99 nets $1.39 per sale. More interior pages raise printing cost directly; they don't automatically justify a higher price.
The printing cost table (black ink, Amazon.com)
| Page count | Printing cost |
|---|---|
| 24–110 pages | $2.30 flat (KDP's table lists 110 in both bands) |
| 110–828 pages | $1.00 + ($0.012 × page count) |
| Example: 300 pages | $1.00 + (300 × $0.012) = $4.60 |
This is KDP's published formula for standard black-ink paperbacks sold on Amazon.com; other marketplaces and ink types (color) use different rates.
Interior pages: 80 · within the supported range (24–300)
Working from cost to price
KDP's royalty formula is (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost = royalty, where the royalty rate is 50% or 60% depending on where the list price falls within the marketplace's range. KDP's own worked example: the same 300-page book listed at $9.99 nets (0.60 × $9.99) − $4.60 = $1.39 per sale at the 60% rate. The minimum allowed list price is set by dividing printing cost by the royalty rate — the price floor is defined so a book can never sell for less than it costs to print, regardless of what an author might otherwise choose.
Why page count is the number to start from, not the last one
Because printing cost scales directly with interior page count above the 110-page threshold, a coloring book's page count decision (see the page-count guide) isn't just a content or shelf-presence choice — it sets the cost baseline every pricing decision has to clear. A single-sided book doubles interior page count for the same number of drawings (see the single-vs-double-sided guide), which moves it through this cost table faster than the same drawing count built double-sided would.
What the formula doesn't decide
KDP's cost and royalty formulas tell you what a given page count and list price will actually net — they don't tell you what buyers will pay for a coloring book in a specific category. List price still has to sit somewhere a buyer browsing that category finds reasonable next to comparable books, and the maximum allowed list price varies by marketplace (up to $250 on Amazon.com per KDP's pricing page) far above what any coloring book buyer would pay. The formula sets the floor and shows the trade-off; it doesn't set the number.
Putting it together
A practical order: settle on a page count from the typical ranges for the audience (see the page-count guide), read the resulting printing cost off KDP's table above, then check candidate list prices against the royalty formula to see what each nets — rather than picking a price first and hoping it covers the cost. Because CrayonMill's page-building tools cover the 24–300 interior-page range, that's the band worth running through the calculator above before finalizing either the page count or the price.
Sources
Last verified 2026-09-04. Updated 2026-09-04.