50 Problems with Amazon KDP

About this video

Dale walks through 50 problems with Amazon KDP, with workarounds for many. Royalty issues lead: ebooks earn 70% only when priced between $2.99 and $9.99, minus a delivery fee, and only in nine of 13 regions — Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico pay 35% regardless unless the book is in KDP Select; outside that price band the rate is 35%. Other gaps include no universal book links (he suggests Books2Read or BookLinker), no print pre-orders, no scheduled promo pricing even though price changes can take up to 72 hours, and no way to delete books (only a newer archive feature). Print complaints include hardcovers requiring more than 72 pages with only five trim sizes and no expanded distribution, expanded distribution limited to the US and UK side of Ingram Book Group’s network of over 40,000 retailers while KDP keeps enough to leave authors 40% minus print fees, poor hardcover quality control, slow author-copy fulfillment of one to two weeks versus two to three days for customers, and proof copies watermarked on the front cover. Account-risk complaints dominate the middle: vague suspension and termination emails, copy-paste email support, random termination allowed under the terms, false copyright takedowns with no proof required, review manipulation crackdowns that hit innocent authors, and no three-strike or arbitration process. He also covers KDP Select exclusivity, a KDP Select Global Fund that reached $50 million while per-page pay stayed at less than half a cent, ghost categories (Publisher Rocket and Kindlepreneur detected 27% of categories do not really exist), region-locked category selection from the 2023 system, limited analytics beyond sales and page reads, a poor Cover Creator, no co-author payment splitting (Draft2Digital offers it free), no team access, DRM locked in permanently, and traditional publishers getting features like animated covers and extra images that indie authors cannot use. His recurring solutions are to diversify beyond KDP to platforms like Draft2Digital, Kobo Writing Life, Apple Books, Google Play Books, IngramSpark, BookVault and Lulu, and to use tools such as Publisher Rocket and the free ReaderScout extension.

Key takeaways

• KDP ebook royalties are 70% only between $2.99 and $9.99 and in only nine of 13 regions; Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico pay 35% outside KDP Select
• KDP lacks universal book links, print pre-orders, scheduled promo pricing, book deletion, co-author payment splitting and team account access
• Expanded distribution uses only the US and UK side of Ingram’s 40,000-plus retailer network and pays 40% minus print fees, so Dale suggests going directly to IngramSpark
• Suspensions and terminations come with vague emails, no direct contact channel and no appeals or three-strike process, which is why he urges diversifying off KDP
• About 27% of categories in the 2023 selection system are ‘ghost categories’ that cannot produce a bestseller tag; Publisher Rocket is his suggested way to spot them

Episode details: published March 23, 2024 · 42:55 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: Amazon KDP Review: Is KDP Worth It in 2024? · Next: KDP Select Review: Worth It in 2024? →

All Dale L. Roberts videos · Dale L. Roberts profile · Dale L. Roberts on YouTube