---
title: "Expanded Distribution: KDP Definition"
description: "What KDP Expanded Distribution does for a paperback, who decides whether stores list it, which books it excludes and how its royalty compares."
url: "https://www.superebook.ai/glossary/expanded-distribution"
updated: "2026-10-20"
---

# Expanded Distribution

**Definition.** Expanded Distribution is a free KDP option that makes your paperback available to distributors in the United States and United Kingdom, so bookstores, libraries, academic institutions and online retailers outside Amazon can order it. Its royalty rate is lower than on Amazon's own sales, and the distributors decide whether to list the book at all.

Sources checked October 20, 2026.

## How it works

Booksellers and libraries buy from large distributors, and enrolling hands your paperback to them. To qualify, the book must be live on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, its ISBN (your own or KDP's) must not have been submitted for distribution through another service, and its content must meet the distributors' rules. Hardcovers can't enroll. The royalty is a lower percentage of the list price set in the distribution channel, with the same printing cost taken off, so the minimum price is higher too. KDP can't tell you which stores or libraries bought copies.

## An example

A local bookstore orders your paperback through its distributor after a reader asks for it. You receive the Expanded Distribution royalty on that copy, and it appears in your reports, but nothing tells you it was that store. If the distributor declines the book, KDP removes it from enrollment, with no effect on your account or on the book's sale on Amazon.

## Common mistakes

Enrolling a journal or planner: the distributors don't accept books with frequent lined or blank pages, public-domain content, or unauthorized summaries of other books. Using an ISBN already distributed through another printer. And assuming enrollment puts the book on shelves: KDP says it doesn't mean distributors will accept it or that any store will order it.

## Questions

**Does Expanded Distribution cost anything?** KDP says it's free to enroll. The cost shows up in the royalty, which is a lower share of list price than on Amazon, with the same printing cost deducted.

**Can I see which bookstores ordered my book?** No. KDP says it can't provide details on which booksellers and libraries bought the book; sales appear in your reports without the store's name.

## Sources

- [KDP: Expanded Distribution](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GQTT4W3T5AYK7L45): How it works, US and UK distributors, free enrollment, no hardcovers, the ISBN and content requirements, removal, no store-level data, and no promise of acceptance.
- [KDP: Paperback Royalty](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834330): The Expanded Distribution royalty: a lower rate of the channel's list price, less printing costs.

## Related terms

- [KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)](https://www.superebook.ai/glossary/kdp.md)
- [ISBN](https://www.superebook.ai/glossary/isbn.md)
- [Printing cost](https://www.superebook.ai/glossary/printing-cost.md)
- [Low-content book](https://www.superebook.ai/glossary/low-content-book.md)

## Read next

- [What is KDP Expanded Distribution?](https://www.superebook.ai/guides/kdp-expanded-distribution.md)
- [Self-publishing cost calculator](https://www.superebook.ai/tools/self-publishing-cost-calculator.md)
- [KDP vs Gumroad vs Etsy for selling ebooks](https://www.superebook.ai/guides/kdp-vs-gumroad-vs-etsy.md)
- [All glossary terms](https://www.superebook.ai/glossary.md)