How royalties work on Chiify

When you sell a book, three parties get paid: the retailer (who hosts the store), Chiify (we distribute), and you. Here's how the math works.

Step 1 — Retailer cut

Each retailer takes a percentage of the cover price. This is set by the retailer, not Chiify:

For library borrows via OverDrive, the math is different — libraries pay a fixed license fee per copy, you get a percentage of that.

Step 2 — Chiify commission

After the retailer takes their cut, Chiify takes our commission on what's left:

• Free plan: 10%
• Starter, Pro, Lifetime plans: 0%

Step 3 — You get the rest

That's it.

Worked example

Your $4.99 ebook sells on Amazon Kindle (in the 70% royalty range).

If you sold 100 copies that month: $314 on Free, $349 on any paid plan. That's a $35/month difference, $420/year — which more than pays for Pro ($100/yr) and pays back Lifetime ($300) in about 9 months.

When does the money arrive?

Sales data arrives from retailers on a delay:

• Amazon: 60 days
• Apple: 35 days
• Kobo: 45 days
• Google Play: 45 days
• Most others: 30–90 days

This is industry standard — every aggregator has the same delays. We pay you monthly on the 15th for all sales that retailers reported through the prior month.

Tracking your earnings

Your Sales page shows:

• Earnings per book per month
• Filter by date range, retailer, country
• Export CSV for tax records

Your Payouts page shows:

• Account balance (sales that are reconciled and ready to pay)
• Pending balance (sales not yet reported by retailers)
• Payout history