Pirated Books on Amazon KDP

About this video

Prompted by subscriber Tom McAuliffe — who published a print book through Draft2Digital for Amazon distribution in December 2022 and found third-party sellers listing it at a much higher price in July 2023 — Dale Roberts distinguishes two separate problems. The first is high-priced third-party resale: to legitimately sell a book a seller must obtain a copy, often via wholesale through Ingram, which also fulfils print for KDP expanded distribution and Draft2Digital, but his theory is many sellers list without holding stock, mark up the price and shipping, and only order a copy once they make a sale, possibly using Amazon Prime to drop-ship — a practice he dislikes, while noting some sellers genuinely hold used copies and run legitimate businesses. The second, more serious problem is outright piracy: sellers steal the manuscript, by photocopying the print book or converting the ebook to print, sometimes keeping only the cover and putting unrelated content inside, targeting books that are selling. To detect trouble he recommends Reader Scout, a free browser extension that reports price changes, new reviews and follower count every 24 hours; a price change can reveal a third-party seller entering the listing, and a sudden run of low reviews complaining about formatting, printing or wrong contents can signal a pirated copy. To verify, he advises checking whether a price change is Amazon’s own (price-matching or a glitch — contact Amazon), treating ‘used’ listings as lower concern, checking a ’new’ seller’s storefront history and feedback (a new seller with no feedback is a red flag), and ordering a copy through the suspect seller to compare its quality against your own. Confirmed infringement should be reported via the KDP dashboard’s Contact Us route under content and rights notifications / copyright infringement, or through the distributing platform or Amazon Author Central support if the book reaches Amazon another way.

Key takeaways

• Separate the two issues: high-priced third-party listings are often a no-stock markup/drop-ship scheme (though some used-copy sellers are legitimate), while true pirates steal the manuscript and may put unrelated content behind your cover.
• Use the free Reader Scout browser extension to get 24-hour alerts on price changes and new reviews; either can be the first sign a third-party seller or pirate has entered your listing.
• Watch review text, not just price: a cluster of low reviews citing bad formatting, bad printing or the wrong book can indicate buyers received a pirated copy.
• Verify before reporting: check the seller’s storefront history and feedback, be most suspicious of ’new’ listings from sellers with no feedback, and order a copy through them to compare quality with your own edition.
• Report confirmed piracy through KDP’s Contact Us > content and rights notifications > report copyright infringement, or via your distributor / Amazon Author Central support if you did not publish through KDP.

Episode details: published July 30, 2023 · 7:17 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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