Blog Version: The Week That Changed Indie Publishing: KDP Royalties, Book Pirates, and AI Audio T...

For Week Ending July 10, 2026

Amazon just expanded KDP’s 70% royalty all the way to $12.99, and what that means for box sets. The book piracy war exploded across social media and indie authors threw down hard. An author found an AI-narrated version of her book on Spotify, and she didn’t put it there. The EU passed private message surveillance despite a majority voting against it. Xbox cut 3,200 jobs because of terrible storytelling. And the Summer K-lytics report reveals Fantasy pulling $4.5 million a month while 179,000 new titles flood the genre. Check out the blog version for sources and links.