Every week I read what Amazon announces, what challenges authors are running into in the KDP Community, and what the industry is reporting. Then I tell you what it means for you: one writer with one book and a real message to deliver.

September was busy.

Amazon cut how many new titles you can create each week, gave you a much longer runway for pre-orders, and replaced its previewing tool. Meanwhile the forums filled up with books stuck in review, books blocked over review activity, and well-meaning helpers publishing someone else's book the wrong way.

None of this is a reason to panic. Every one of these changes rewards the same writer: the one who plans the work and then works the plan.

New titles are now limited to 2 per format per week

What changed. Since Monday, September 21, Amazon reduced the number of titles you can create from 10 to 2. Now you can create 2 new titles per format each week: 2 eBooks, 2 paperbacks, and 2 hardcovers. The count resets every Sunday at midnight. Books you already created or published are not affected by this new limitation.

What it means for you. If you are publishing one book in one or two formats, this limit will almost never affect you. If you plan to launch a book with multiple paperback versions - a standard paperback, a large-print paperback, and a study guide or workbook - you're out of luck due to the new two paperbacks per week limit.

Your next step. Write your full format list today and give each title a creation week. Three paperbacks means two weeks, so build that into your launch calendar now. Read Amazon's announcement.

eBook pre-orders can now run 18 months out

What changed. For pre-orders set up on or after September 2, you can set a release date up to 18 months ahead and postpone it twice, for up to 6 months total beyond the original date. Your first cancellation carries no penalty. A second cancellation suspends your ability to set up or postpone pre-orders for 6 months. Pre-orders created before September 2 keep the old rule: one postponement, up to 30 days.

What it means for you. This is a gift and a trap. The gift is a long runway to build a launch list while you finish the book. The trap is that a pre-order is a public date. Amazon's own announcement calls it "a promise to readers," and breaking that promise twice costs you.

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty. (NKJV | Proverbs 21:5)

A pre-order set in haste is a promise your manuscript cannot keep yet. The question is not whether you want the book out by Easter. The question is whether your draft, your edit, and your cover can meet that deadline.

Your next step. If you are still writing your first draft, don't set a pre-order yet. Finish the draft, book your editor, then pick a date with at least a month of runway. Read Amazon's announcement.

Kindle Previewer 4 Released

What changed. Kindle Previewer 4 is out. It is a separate install from Previewer 3, runs on Windows 10 or later and macOS 12 or later (including Apple silicon Macs), and updates Enhanced Typesetting so your preview matches what readers see on Kindle devices.

Your next step. Install it before your next upload and page through your whole eBook, not just chapter one. Look hardest at block quotes, Scripture references, footnotes, and anything you formatted by hand. Read Amazon's announcement.

One number: Kindle Unlimited paid out $69.4 million for August

That is down from July's $71 million, according to Author Media. If your book is in KDP Select, check your Prior Months' Royalties report. If it is not, this changes nothing about your plan. Amazon's August update.

Challenges Authors Face

These are reports from authors in the KDP Community, not Amazon policy. I include them because patterns in the forum usually show up in your inbox a few weeks later.

Books are sitting in review longer

Several authors in the Managing your Book forum report titles sitting "in review" for a week or more, and one reports a title stuck in draft for over three weeks. Experienced contributors note that some reviews run up to 10 business days, and weekends and holidays do not count.

Another author worries a cover change took a month to appear with Christmas sales on the line.

Your next step. If you want your book under a tree this Christmas, work backward. Upload your final files at least a month before you need the book live, and order your author copies early. One of the threads.

Books are being blocked over review activity

An author with eight years on KDP reported three books blocked in one week for alleged review manipulation. By their own account, they had left star ratings on some of their own books years earlier, and their appeals came back without specifics. That is one author's story, not a ruling from Amazon. The lesson still holds.

Amazon's Customer Reviews policy allows free or discounted copies, but you cannot require a review in exchange or try to influence it, and offering anything beyond the book, like a gift card, invalidates the review.

Your next step. Never rate or review your own book. If you ever did, remove it today. Before launch, brief your launch team in one sentence: a free copy, an honest review, no strings. The thread.

Helping someone publish? It belongs in their account, not yours

This one hits close to ministry. A helper in the forum published the book of an 89-year-old man who spent over 30 years in prison ministry. They uploaded it through their own KDP account, with his bank details attached.

The most helpful answer was blunt:

• each author needs their own account,

• you can't log in to someone else's KDP account, and

• whoever publishes the book is the publisher of record, responsible for the taxes, the royalties, and the content.

Your next step. If a pastor, a parent, or a church elder asks you to "just put their book up," help them open their own KDP account and sit beside them while they upload their book.

If you already published someone else's book under your account, unpublish it, send them the files with a written reversion of rights, and walk them through their own setup. The thread.

Scammers are still using the KDP name

A thread that started in July is still collecting stories. One author paid for a $299 "press release distribution" package from a company with KDP in its name. Amazon's own scam warning is plain: publishing with KDP is free, KDP does not sell editing or formatting, it never asks for your password or bank details outside your own account, and real support comes only through the Contact Us form.

Your next step. If a company with "KDP," "Kindle," or "Amazon" in its name contacts you and wants money, treat it as a scam until you can prove otherwise. Report it using the steps in Amazon's warning.

Around the Industry

Amazon posted the title limit in the KDP Community and nowhere else. Dale L. Roberts points out that no email went out. If you wait for Amazon to tell you about a change, you will find out when an upload fails.

That's why this weekly Self-Publishing News brief exists.

Author Media also reports that about 3.5 million self-published titles came out in 2025, up nearly 39 percent in a year. More books means more noise. A vague book disappears.

A book with a clear message for a clear reader cuts through it. If you're interested in learning more about writing a book with a clear message for a clear reader that delivers one transformation, then contact me about The Di Armani Method for Christian Non-fiction Writers. That's the process I teach, for that specific reason - cutting through the noise.

Your Checklist This Week

• List every format and companion title you plan to publish, and give each one a creation week inside the KDP dashboard.

• Hold off on a pre-order until the draft is finished and the editor is booked.

• Install Kindle Previewer 4 before your next upload.

• Check that you have never rated your own book. If you have, remove that rating immediately.

• Give your launch team the one-sentence review rule.

• If you are publishing a book for someone else, move it into their account.

The News Is Not the Work

Every change this month carries the same message underneath it.

Amazon is slowing volume and rewarding writers who plan. That's good news if your book has a clear message, a clear reader, and a finished draft. It's bad news if your book is still living in your head.

You can read KDP news every week and still never finish your book. Reading about Publication Highway is not the same as driving down it.

If you can see that your book needs a real plan with a launch date you can actually keep, that is what my Writer's Clarity Call is for. In one conversation I will help you name your message, your reader, and your next mile marker on your journey down Publication Highway.

Book your Writer's Clarity Call

Then open the document and write today.

Christopher di Armani
Your Christian Writing Mentor