Where Authors Get Amazon KDP Policy News

Amazon’s own KDP Help pages and the notices inside a KDP account are the policy record. The Publishing Times explains those pages, with the official link, in a weekly Friday dispatch.

Where do authors get Amazon KDP policy news? From Amazon first. The record is the public KDP Help center and the messages inside a signed-in KDP account. The Publishing Times then explains a change in plain English and links that official page. The email is a weekly Friday dispatch, not a daily alert.

What changed

The useful habit in 2026 is still the one authors skip: read Amazon’s page before a forum thread, a Facebook group, or a “Publishers Weekly alternative” that is actually selling reviews. Policy news is the rule Amazon published. Promotion news and paid-review offers are different jobs.

A current worked example is the ebook price band. Effective July 7, 2026, Amazon expanded the 70% royalty option’s list-price range on Amazon.com from $2.99–$9.99 to $2.99–$12.99, with equivalent changes in other KDP marketplaces. Authors are not required to reprice. The desk write-up of that change, with the official link, is the July 2026 price-band explainer.

Secondary sites can be useful after the primary page is open. They are not a substitute for it. KDP community threads are discussion. They are not the rule.

Official source

Start here, in this order:

KDP Help — the public help center
Content Guidelines — what Amazon says it will reject or remove
eBook List Price Requirements — the live price-band rules, including the July 7, 2026 change
The notifications inside kdp.amazon.com when you are signed in — account-specific messages Amazon does not always mirror on a public blog

If a help page and a secondhand summary disagree, the help page wins. If Amazon edits the page later, the live page wins over this article. The Publishing Times is not Amazon and does not send KDP’s own email.

Who it affects

Anyone with a book in KDP: ebook, paperback, hardcover, and KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited. Authors who also sell wide still need Amazon’s record for the Amazon edition. A change to ebook list price does not automatically rewrite print royalties, audiobook terms, or the Kindle Unlimited per-page rate. Those have their own pages.

What to do this week

Open the official help page for any change you heard about secondhand. If the rumor is about the 70% band, open the eBook List Price Requirements page and then the desk explainer.
Check the royalty option and list price already on the book. Do nothing if they are already what you intend.
Take the weekly digest once. Friday’s email is the Weekly Dispatch. The Sunday Weekend Read is a column on the site. The signup is the same list as the homepage and the Weekend Read. Free. This page does not state a subscriber count.

What it does NOT mean

It does not mean The Publishing Times replaces the KDP dashboard. It does not mean a daily email. The dispatch goes out on Friday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time to confirmed subscribers and covers pieces published on the site over the prior seven days. A week with nothing publishable sends no email.

It does not mean a paid review, a Kirkus-style review program, or a BookBub deal. Those are promotion or review products. This desk is an indie KDP and self-publishing news briefing.

It does not mean The Publishing Times is Publishers Weekly. Publishers Weekly is a trade magazine. Authors looking for indie platform news — what changed on KDP, who it affects, and what it does not mean — are in a different aisle. Read the comparison on the weekly digest page.