Earlier this year, a viral TikTok post described how anyone can easily return ebooks to Amazon for a refund, essentially treating Amazon like a lending library. That sparked an online petition by authors demanding that Amazon change its returns policy. Additionally, the Authors Guild in the US and the Society of Authors in the UK began conversations with Amazon’s executive team about the retailer’s very generous and automatic return policy: seven days, no questions asked, in the US; 14 days in the UK.
Last week, Amazon announced it would indeed modify its policy: It will restrict automatic returns to purchases where no more than 10 percent of the ebook has been read. Beyond that point, readers must reach out to Amazon’s customer service if they wish to make a return. The change will go into effect by end of this year. In response, The Authors Guild said, “This process will create a strong deterrent against buying, reading, and returning ebooks within seven days, and readers who attempt to abuse the return policy will be penalized under Amazon’s policies. … We applaud the scores of indie authors who advocated for this change.”
Indie authors have long complained about readers abusing the ebook returns policy. They, perhaps more than anyone else, have been in a position to feel its effects most acutely. When an ebook is returned, royalty earnings are immediately deducted from the author’s balance in Amazon KDP.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
