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KDP Select Ebooks Can Go to Libraries, and Library Royalties Are Growing

Amazon's KDP Select terms allow public library distribution, and Draft2Digital says its library royalties grew about 24% year over year from January to April.

The Publishing Times Staff · October 31, 2026 · 3 min read

Authors who keep their ebooks in Amazon's KDP Select, the program behind Kindle+, can also sell those ebooks to public libraries, and one distributor says library income is now growing faster than anything else it handles. Amazon's KDP Select enrollment page states that during the 90-day enrollment period, "the Kindle eBook can only be distributed through KDP and public libraries."

Those three words, "and public libraries," were added to the page in September 2025 with no press release or formal announcement, Indie Author Magazine reported at the time. Before that, as Draft2Digital puts it, KDP Select exclusivity meant a book "was shut out of libraries."

What the numbers show

Draft2Digital, which distributes ebooks to library platforms, reported the trend on its blog. Comparing January through April 2026 with the same months of 2025, it said library royalties grew "roughly six times faster than the aggregate of our retail and subscription partners," up about 24% year over year. The library share of its total royalties rose from around 10% to more than 12%, according to the company.

Draft2Digital did not say how much of that growth came from KDP Select titles. Those are Draft2Digital's own figures, drawn from its own catalog, and no independent count of KDP Select books in libraries has been published.

How it works

The exception covers only the ebook, and only library channels. Amazon's help page says authors "can continue to distribute print, video, or other formats" elsewhere, while the enrolled ebook stays limited to KDP and public libraries. Draft2Digital tells authors to select library channels only, "not competing retail stores or subscription platforms." ACX audiobooks are "not eligible to be distributed through public libraries at this time," the same page says.

Distributors that let authors pick library channels on their own include Draft2Digital and PublishDrive. Draft2Digital lists OverDrive, Hoopla, BorrowBox, cloudLibrary and Vivlio Libraries among its library partners. PublishDrive's help center says authors who want to stay in Kindle Unlimited "can still distribute it exclusively to libraries via PublishDrive without any conflict," and names OverDrive, Baker & Taylor, Hoopla, Odilo and Bibliotheca among its partners.

Checks before opting in

Getting into a library platform does not mean libraries will buy the book. Draft2Digital's publishing guidance, as quoted by Indie Author Magazine, explains that library services provide a catalog to library staff and "each library chooses which of those books to make available to their patrons."

Draft2Digital's post also points out that print is still how most library patrons read, and it recommends getting print editions into a wholesaler libraries buy from. It suggests choosing either IngramSpark or Draft2Digital Print for that, not both, because the two use the same wholesale route.

Authors who already sell through a distributor should check that their ebook settings cover library channels only before enrolling. Sending a KDP Select ebook to a retail store, even by accident, would break the exclusivity terms.

Sources