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Understanding KDP Reports: A Guide to Your Amazon Sales Dashboard
After you’ve published your book on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), your focus shifts from creation to business. The central hub for your new author business is the KDP reporting dashboard. This is where you can track your sales in near real-time, monitor your earnings, and gain the data-driven insights you need to grow your career.
For a new author, this dashboard can seem like a confusing collection of graphs and acronyms. But understanding your KDP reports is a crucial skill. This guide will demystify the key reports, explain what the numbers mean, and show you how to use this powerful tool to make smarter marketing decisions.
Key Takeaways & Summary
- Your Author Business Hub: The KDP reporting dashboard is your primary tool for tracking your book’s sales, page reads, and royalties on Amazon.
- The Two Key Graphs: The two most important, near real-time reports are the “Orders” graph (for paid sales) and the “KENP Read” graph (for Kindle Unlimited page reads).
- Earnings vs. Orders: The main dashboard shows you the number of sales, while the “Earnings” report shows you the actual royalties you have earned.
- Data for Smarter Marketing: These reports are not just for tracking income; they are for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, like Amazon Ads.
The Main Dashboard: Your Daily Snapshot
When you click the “Reports” tab in your KDP account, you’ll land on the main dashboard. This is your go-to page for a daily health check on your book’s performance.
The “Orders” Graph
What it is: This graph shows the number of paid units (both ebook and paperback) that have been ordered each day. It updates throughout the day, making it the closest thing to a “live” sales tracker.
What to watch for: Spikes in this graph can often be directly correlated with a marketing activity, like the day you launched an ad or ran a promotion.
The “KENP Read” Graph
This graph is only relevant if your ebook is enrolled in KDP Select.
What it is: KENP stands for “Kindle Edition Normalized Pages.” This graph shows the total number of pages that Kindle Unlimited subscribers have read of your books each day.
Why it’s crucial: You get paid for every single one of these pages from the KDP Select Global Fund. For many authors, income from KENP can be even greater than income from direct sales.
The “Earnings” Report: Seeing the Money
While the main dashboard shows units and pages, the “Earnings” report is where you see your actual income.
What it is: This detailed report breaks down your royalties for the month. It shows your earnings per book, per marketplace (e.g., Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk), and per royalty type (paid sale vs. KENP).
How to use it: This is the official report that determines your monthly payment. It’s the best place to get a clear, accurate picture of your total income and see which of your books and which international markets are performing the best.
The “Payments” Report: When You Get Paid
This report shows you a history of all the royalty payments Amazon has sent to you and when to expect the next one.
The 60-Day Payout Schedule: KDP pays royalties on a monthly basis, approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which the sales were made.
Example: All royalties earned during the month of March will be paid out at the end of May.
This report provides the ultimate financial clarity for your author business, a topic often discussed by professional author organizations like the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
Using Your Reports to Make Smart Decisions
Your KDP reports are a powerful business intelligence tool.
Measure Ad Performance: When you run Amazon book ads, you can directly compare your ad spend to the sales showing up in your Orders report to gauge effectiveness.
Track Promotions: You can see the immediate spike in sales and KENP reads from a KDP free promotion or Countdown Deal, allowing you to measure the ROI of your marketing efforts.
Make Strategic Decisions: The data in your reports can help you decide which books in your series to promote, which international markets to target with ads, and when it’s time to release your next book.
Understanding these reports is a key part of our Amazon KDP publishing services, as it empowers our authors to grow their careers.
Short FAQ
Q: Why is there a difference between my “Orders” and my “Earnings”?
A: The Orders report shows the number of units sold. The Earnings report shows the royalty amount you receive from those sales, after Amazon has taken its share.
Q: What is the “KDP Select Global Fund,” and how does it affect my earnings?
A: This is the large pot of money Amazon sets aside each month to pay authors for KU page reads. The per-page payout rate can fluctuate slightly each month depending on the size of the fund and the total number of pages read by all subscribers.
Q: How often should I check my KDP reports?
A: While it can be tempting to refresh them constantly, a healthy habit for most authors is to check them once or twice a day to monitor trends and the performance of any active ad campaigns.
