Apple Books for Authors vs Kindle Direct Publishing
February 05, 2026 | Author: Laura Candler
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A self-publishing platform for the Apple Books ecosystem. Books can be published through an iTunes Connect account. Authors get 70% royalties on each e-book, regardless of price and can publish books for free. The platform provides tools for preparing books for publication, including converting from Word to EPUB, KF8, or PDF, creating covers, formatting files and creating beautiful page structure. It also makes it easy to convert a book into an audiobook with digital narration.
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Platform for publishing own books in Amazon Kindle - the largest bookstore, which accepts wide range of categories (fiction, business, children's books, comics, romance, etc.). Amazon takes a 30% commission on book sales, or 65% if the book is not within the recommended price range. For paperback books, the commission of KDP is approximately 40% of the price after deducting printing costs. Publishing a book is quite simple and takes only a few minutes - for formatting the file and adding metadata/pricing. KDP provides authors with free and simple self-publishing tools, giving them control over their book's content, design, price, audience and advertising. Authors retain ownership of their content and can make changes to their book at any time. Authors can also participate in the Kindle Unlimited subscription server and receive royalties for every page read.
Apple Books for Authors vs Kindle Direct Publishing in our news:
2014. Amazon unveiled kids book creator software for Kindle Direct Publishing
Amazon is expanding its Kindle Direct Publishing business to support the needs of children’s books authors through a new program it’s calling “KDP Kids.” Along with the program, which is aimed at helping authors prepare, publish and distribute books in the Kindle Store, Amazon is also releasing a new tool, the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator. This tool will allow budding children’s book authors to create chapter books and illustrated children’s books that are able to take advantage of Kindle features like text pop-ups, explains Amazon in an announcement about the new services. After the book is finalized, authors can also use the tool to upload the book to KDP while also stipulating the category, age and grade range filters needed to get the book listed correctly. The book creator tool doesn’t just have to be for new authors looking for a way onto Amazon’s Kindle platform, however, but could also support established authors looking to convert their books into a Kindle format in order to expand their reader base.
