Did KDP Ruin Low Content Books?

About this video

Dale traces how KDP’s stance on low content books — journals, diaries, planners, notebooks and other fill-in books, as distinct from reading books — went from unspoken to officially defined. He discovered the model around 2015-2016, when authors were unsure if Amazon allowed it. Around April 2020, IngramSpark ejected low content books from its distribution network, and because Ingram Content Group also handles KDP Expanded Distribution, low content titles on KDP saw Expanded Distribution greyed out, with some false positives affecting fiction/nonfiction. In early May 2022, via Keith Wheeler’s report, Amazon stated public domain and low content books are not eligible for series pages. Days later KDP updated its help pages (with more detail promised May 17, 2022) to define low content books, clarify that activity, puzzle and coloring books are NOT low content, and add a low content checkbox at upload. Consequences he lists: no free ISBNs for low content books (he theorizes ISBN cost via Bowker adds up at volume), loss of the desktop Look Inside feature, print only (paperback/hardcover, not ebooks), and once you select low content and publish you are locked in unless you delist and republish under a new ASIN. He views the public statement overall as positive: low content is here to stay, just with clearer rules.

Key takeaways

• Low content books are fill-in titles like journals, planners, and notebooks; KDP now says activity, puzzle, and coloring books are not low content
• IngramSpark’s April 2020 policy change led to KDP low content titles losing Expanded Distribution
• As of May 2022, low content and public domain books cannot be put into an Amazon series
• Low content titles get no ISBN and lose desktop Look Inside; they are print-only (paperback/hardcover)
• Selecting the low content box at upload is locked after publishing — changing it requires delisting and republishing under a new ASIN

Episode details: published May 24, 2022 · 8:21 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.

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