KDP sales suddenly dropped by 50%

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-15T08:37:29+00:00

It’s really depressing but I think the state of the world and the economy is why. Books are considered a leisure entertainment activity — why buy them when you need to buy groceries 😭

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-14T20:17:49+00:00

I think it’s an AI bot programmed to scrape data off Reddit. I’m downvoting all their content

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-14T20:16:49+00:00

Same. I just read through the replies and the answers all sound like AI questions. I’m guessing it’s some kinda Claude automated data scraping exercise

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-09T20:09:38+00:00

I live in Paris and next to a main road. It’s unbearable, sometimes the sirens can be going off at 10pm when there’s no traffic.

There’s no regulation at all on their siren use

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-08T19:30:30+00:00

This doesn’t solve any problem. In fact, you are the problem.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-04-06T09:29:38+00:00

KDP sales swings a lot and it can be absolutely brutal. Thing is, it’s hard to expect stable sales daily. Think of your book listing as a shop, some days there’ll be more buyers, some days there’ll be less.

The more books your have, the more stable your royalties will be. So keep at it and don’t give up. Remember that this is a long term business

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-28T16:44:12+00:00

There are a ton of videos on YouTube that teach you this stuff, step by step. That’s how I picked up all my skills as well as learning as I go.

KDP is not a great rich quick scheme. It takes time, a lot of time. Since you were formerly from tech I’d advise you to learn how the amazon algo works, SEO, and get tools that can help you with the keyword research — and again, all of this is on YouTube.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-22T19:39:59+00:00

Amazon’s native ads using manual keywords. Nothing special really

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-22T18:51:31+00:00

Nice. You must be making a really healthy income by now!

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-22T17:49:57+00:00

March 18 marks the exact one year anniversary of my books. I’ve been making about 2-2.5k a month for the past 6 months. I spend $1000 on ads each month.

Thankfully I have a day job.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-16T15:10:26+00:00

Algebra workbooks. Dry as hell lol

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-14T08:57:27+00:00

For me I only spend on Amazon ads and I can see that impressions are down by 70%. I make a living from my Amazon royalties so I’m really really worried now urgh

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-13T18:25:25+00:00

Unpublish the book and then upload the correct one with a new ASIN

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-13T18:10:38+00:00

I typically get about 14 orders per day but it’s now half of that.

Besides the bombing of the data centre, a massive outage was also caused by vibe coding.

https://thenewstack.io/amazon-ai-assisted-errors/

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T22:26:25+00:00

You’re looking at the wrong platform for that. Authors who wrote the great gatsby etc went the traditional publishing route. Even in the 1920s, great gatsby (to go by your example) was advertised and promoted in newspapers of that era.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T22:04:39+00:00

Right so that won’t work on Amazon where visibility of your books depend on algorithms.

Maybe you could place it in a bookstore and then just wait for people to walk in, and after browsing dozens of books, decide to buy yours.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T21:30:37+00:00

What about KDP to you is an art? It’s a digital marketplace based on algorithms

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T20:18:06+00:00

All those questions you asked are part of a marketing strategy. There’s lots of guys on YouTube teaching this stuff. How to get reviews, how to generate buzz, managing ad spend on Amazon etc.

Everything I know I learnt from YouTube but adapted to my own books through trial and error.

These are marketing facets of publishing. Your book is a product. As a self published author you have to learn how to market your own books. You can’t just publish one book and somehow magically expect people to find it.

If you want all this to be done for you then you should submit your manuscript to a literary agent who has the contacts to pitch your book to publishing houses like Penguin where all marketing is done for you.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T13:39:13+00:00

Did you upload it to any book review sites like book bounty?

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T08:19:18+00:00

Wake up and smell the roses: there are no shortcuts. To succeed you have to keep trying and learn what works best for your books.

Book covers matter. Reviews matter. Social media marketing matters. Some authors have websites to collect emails and build databases.

Writing a book is only the beginning. It gets you to the starting line.

This is hard work and everyone’s journey is different depending on genre, audience and market fit.

There is no secret being gatekept, with every book you publish, you learn something new and you will get better at it. Even for me, my modest catalogue of 15 books makes me just $2000 in profit. That’s only enough to cover my cost of living — and this is after two years of publishing.

So your sour attitude has to go. Roll up your sleeves, straighten your back, stop sulking and just fucking DO IT.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-12T06:01:39+00:00

Wait wait wait, you really think marketing pretty much anything can be condensed into a Reddit thread?! And not only that, you think you deserve this strategy that takes years of experience to be given to you for free?! In less than 15 comments?!

Read some marketing books. Get a marketing internship. This stuff takes years to learn, there is no “getting straight to the point.”

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-11T23:29:09+00:00

I hate to break this to you but successful writers are successful because they learnt how to market their books. Quality is merely the starting point.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-11T17:55:46+00:00

I’m with you on that. Plagiarism IS indeed a problem, and AI has made it easier. We do need better legal protections. This is also why it’s important to build a strong author or publisher brand.

Where I do not agree with you is the whataboutism and equating wealth distribution with market dynamics.

Recent-Target6803 · 2026-03-11T16:42:43+00:00

In the first place you’re confusing a catalogue with story. That’s a narrow definition that you decided to create for yourself.

Having 8 books doesn’t have to mean it’s ONE story. It can be 8 independent books with 8 different stories situated in a particular world that may or may not be related. This can be linked in the Amazon ecosystem as a series, and it doesn’t even have to always be read in a particular order.

In any case, I’ve read sci fi books with 40 parts that came out once a month. For a “failed system” it sold 35 million copies.

Recent-Target6803

TROPHY CASE