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Paperback publishing

Understand paperback price and estimated earnings

Separate printing, shipping, service cost and author royalty before publishing.

4 min readUpdated 2026-07-29

60-second summary

Quick answer

Set a retail price in the paperback panel and read the current example quote. Production, destination, tax and shipping affect the buyer total; royalty is the amount above the applicable print and platform costs.

Before you start

What you need

  • Have an eligible published book with paperback setup available.
  • Decide the pre-shipping Retail price per copy before evaluating the displayed estimate.

Procedure

Complete the task step by step

  1. 01

    Open the book detail page

    Find Paperback price & earnings on the eligible ebook or novel. It is not located in Seller Dashboard.

    Current app screenAutomateed paperback retail price and example earnings panel
    The estimate uses one example destination. The buyer address can change shipping, tax, total and author earnings.
  2. 02

    Set the retail price

    Enter the price for the printed copy before shipping; it is separate from the ebook price.

  3. 03

    Read the example quote

    The current example uses economy mail to Delaware and separates Lulu production and tax, example shipping, the 30% Automateed print-service amount and your estimated royalty.

  4. 04

    Account for the buyer destination

    The buyer receives a live destination quote at checkout, so shipping, tax, total and earnings can differ from the Delaware example.

  5. 05

    Save and verify

    Save the price, wait for setup to become Live, then test the public paperback option and checkout.

Success check

Confirm that it worked

  • The saved Retail price per copy remains visible in Paperback price & earnings.
  • The estimate separates production and tax, example shipping, the Automateed print service amount, buyer total and estimated royalty.

Important notes

  • The initial economy-shipping quote to Delaware is an example rather than a guaranteed buyer total.
  • The quote for the buyer’s actual destination is authoritative because shipping and tax can change the total and royalty.

Troubleshooting

If it still does not work

The estimated royalty is lower than expected

Inspect every displayed cost component and test the buyer destination before changing the retail price; production, tax, shipping and the print-service amount are deducted before the estimate.

The destination quote is temporarily unavailable

Keep the saved retail price, return to Paperback price & earnings later and obtain a live destination quote before treating the example earnings as final.

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