Amazon Just Put a Speed Limit on Publishing

Since the advent of the Kindle, Amazon positioned itself as the alternative to oldpub gatekeepers’ arbitrary publishing restrictions.

Now, Amazon are the ones imposing new limits.

As of September 21, Kindle Direct Publishing now limits users to creating two new titles per format per week. If you are unfamiliar with KDP, that’s two eBooks, two paperbacks, and two hardcovers. For reference, the previous ceiling was ten.

Amazon claims they implemented the new restrictions to maintain “a positive publishing experience for all authors.”

Translating from Corporate to Human, what Amazon means is “We are fighting a desperate rearguard action to maintain a shred of credibility amid the A.I. flood.”

It’s all in the timing. Amazon first imposed stricter publishing limits in 2023, when LLMs were first going mainstream. Around the same time, KDP started requiring authors to disclose A.I.-generated text, images, and translations.

File that requirement under “Too little, too late.”

Read the full post on Substack.