If you’ve been anywhere near a self-publishing group this week, you’ve seen it. Amazon cut how many books you can put up on KDP, and the internet has gone full doom and gloom.
Geoff asked about it in our community today. It’s a good question, so here’s the answer for everyone: what changed, what it means, who it hurts, and why I think it’s a net win if you’re one of ours.
What actually changed
Since Monday, September 21, KDP limits new titles to two per format per week. Amazon’s help page puts it like this: “we limit the number of titles you can create at the same time to 2 per book format each week.”
Per format is the key bit. Ebooks, paperbacks and hardcovers each get their own count. So in one week you can create:
- 2 Kindle ebooks
- 2 paperbacks
- 2 hardcovers
That’s two complete books, every format, every week. The count resets every Sunday at midnight UTC.
A few details worth knowing:
- It counts creating a title, not hitting publish. From what we’ve seen, a draft you set up and never finish still uses a slot.
- Your live books aren’t touched. Neither are updates to them.
- It’s per account. From what people who’ve read the announcement closely are saying, that’s all languages and marketplaces combined.
Two a week works out to 104 books a year in every format. Hold that thought.
Geoff’s large print question
Geoff’s example was a novel in paperback plus a large print edition. Large print is its own paperback title, so yes, that uses both paperback slots for the week.
But the ebook and hardcover slots are still open. And the large print edition doesn’t have to go up the same week as the standard paperback. Put it up after Sunday’s reset. Readers won’t notice a week. Amazon’s counter will.
Why Amazon did it
Amazon’s official reason is “to ensure a positive experience for all authors.” That’s it. They don’t mention AI.
But you don’t need a decoder ring. Look at the history:
- September 2023: three new titles a day, brought in alongside Amazon’s AI disclosure rules.
- Later: ten per format per week.
- Now: two per format per week.
Every step squeezes volume, not quality. Nobody writing real books was ever near three a day. The people this is aimed at are the ones uploading mountains: journals, coloring books and novels nobody really wrote and nobody will ever read.
AI itself isn’t the target. Amazon’s rule is simple. If your text, images or translations are AI-generated, you tell them when you publish. If you only used AI to edit, refine or brainstorm, you don’t have to. Disclose it and you’re fine. Amazon isn’t against AI books. It’s against the slop factories.
Why it’s a net win for you
Here’s my take.
Two books a week is more than enough. It’s plenty for me. And as far as I know, even our most productive members, the ones who’ve been with us since the very beginning, publish fewer than two books a week.
In the training I recommend 60 to 90 days between books on the same pen name, and at least 30 days between new books in a series once the first three are out. Not everyone follows that, and that’s your call. But even if you go a lot faster, you’re nowhere near 104 a year.
Had a monster week and finished three books? Stagger them. Two now, one next week. Nobody will know.
A little bonus tip. The limit sits on creating a title, not on publishing it. From what we’ve seen, a draft you set up in August and publish in November never touches November’s count. So get in the habit of creating the KDP draft when you start writing a book, not when you finish it. Then when a busy week comes, the slots are already spent on weeks you weren’t using. One word of caution: don’t go setting up dozens of empty placeholders just to hoard slots. That’s exactly the kind of thing that gets a loophole closed.
And here’s the part the doom crowd misses. If you use the frameworks and the training, you’re not producing slop. You’re producing books worth buying, reading and owning. Every slop factory this slows down is less noise on the shelf you’re trying to sell on. Fewer junk titles in your category means your book is easier to find.
That’s not a problem. That’s a gift.
Who it does hurt
Straight up: some people will feel this.
- Backlist uploads. Want to add hardcovers to 40 existing books? That’s 20 weeks now.
- Translations. Every language edition is a new title, so a book in five languages takes planning.
- Low-content and puzzle books. I know a lot of you love your puzzle books. If you were used to putting up ten a week, those days are over.
The fix is the same in every case: plan and stagger. Keep a simple calendar, use your two slots per format every week, and let the Sunday reset do the work. It’s slower. It’s not the end of anything.
The bottom line
Two books per format per week. For anyone writing real books, it’s a speed limit you’ll never hit. For the slop factories, it’s a wall.
Keep writing good books. Stagger when you need to. Let the noise thin out.
It’s a nothing burger. And for you, it might even be good news.