Do you have to disclose AI-generated content on Amazon KDP? How we classify every part of a book before we publish

We publish short eBooks through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and we use AI tools somewhere in almost every production run — sometimes to draft, sometimes only to check a draft we wrote ourselves. Those two situations are not the same in KDP's rules, and the difference decides what we have to declare when we press publish. On 10 November 2026 we re-read KDP's official Content Guidelines from the top, and this article is the checklist we now work through, part by part, before any of our titles goes live. Every rule below comes from that page as it read on that date; where the guidelines are silent, we say so instead of guessing.

What does KDP actually require you to disclose?

KDP requires publishers to inform Amazon about AI-generated content — text, images, or translations — in two moments: when you publish a new book, and when you edit and republish an existing book. AI-generated images explicitly include cover images, interior images, and artwork, so the rule reaches well beyond the manuscript itself. You answer for the whole book, not just for the chapters.

The same section draws the line that matters most: you are not required to disclose AI-assisted content. Everything else in this article is about telling those two categories apart correctly, because the form itself will not make the judgment for you. The guidelines also state that the publisher stays responsible for checking that all AI-generated and AI-assisted content follows the content guidelines, including intellectual property rights. Disclosure is a declaration, not a permission slip.

What counts as AI-generated?

KDP's test is who — or what — created the content in the first place. Text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool are AI-generated. The sentence we underline in our own notes is the one about editing: content an AI tool created still counts as AI-generated even if you applied substantial edits afterwards. Rewriting an AI draft until it sounds like you does not move it into the assisted column.

In our workflow, that definition captures more than first drafts. An AI-produced cover illustration is AI-generated. An AI translation of our own English manuscript into another language is AI-generated, even though the underlying book was ours. An AI-drawn interior diagram is AI-generated even if we relabel every element by hand afterwards. If the tool made the thing, we declare it.

What counts as AI-assisted, with no disclosure required?

The other side of the line is content you created yourself, where AI tools only helped you improve it. KDP's examples are editing, refining, and error-checking your own text or images. Brainstorming is in the same column: if you used a tool to generate ideas but then created the text or images yourself, KDP treats that as AI-assisted, and it is not necessary to inform Amazon about it.

This is the column most of our routine work falls into — a spelling and consistency pass over a chapter we wrote, an outline we argued with and then discarded half of, a title brainstorm where we kept none of the suggestions word for word. The honest test we apply is simple to state and harder to fudge: could we point to the moment we made this content ourselves? If the answer is yes and the tool only polished it, it is assisted. If the tool produced the first version of the thing a reader will see or read, it is generated.

How do we classify the six parts of a typical book?

Because a book is not one piece of content, we classify it in parts before we answer anything. This is the table we fill in for each title, using only the two definitions above:

• Manuscript draft written by us, checked by an AI tool: AI-assisted. No disclosure for this part.
• Chapter first drafted by an AI tool, then heavily edited by us: AI-generated. The substantial-edit rule keeps it in this column.
• Cover artwork produced by an image model: AI-generated. Cover images are named in the guidelines.
• Cover lettering and layout we composed ourselves over that artwork: the layout work is ours, but the book still contains AI-generated imagery, so the title is declared for its images.
• Translation produced by an AI tool from our own text: AI-generated. Translations are named alongside text and images.
• Outline and chapter ideas from a brainstorming session, with all final text written by us: AI-assisted. Ideas alone do not make the finished content AI-generated.

One generated part is enough to change the answer for the title. We do not average the book. If any text, image, or translation in the published files is AI-generated, we inform KDP about that category when we publish or republish.

Does disclosing make the content allowed?

No, and this is the part of the page publishers skip. The guidelines place responsibility for guideline compliance and intellectual property rights on the publisher for AI content of both kinds. A correctly declared book can still fail on other grounds. The same guidelines say Amazon does not allow descriptive content that misleads customers or does not accurately represent the book, and treats that as a poor customer experience. So our description, title, and cover have to match the actual book whether or not any part of it was AI-generated.

That is also why we keep a source log for each title — which parts were generated, which were assisted, what we checked, and when — in the same spirit as the evidence-first workflow we described in our operating model for small digital publishers. If Amazon asks for more information about a book before it goes on sale, which the guidelines say it may do, the log is what we answer from. Disclosure without a record behind it is just a memory, and memories are exactly what fail under deadline pressure.

What is our pre-publish checklist?

Before a title is submitted, we work through five steps:

1. List every part. Manuscript, cover, interior images, and any translation, each on its own line. 2. Classify each part as AI-generated or AI-assisted using the creation test: who made the first version a reader will see? 3. Apply the substantial-edit rule. If a tool created it, editing does not reclassify it. 4. Check the whole book against the rest of the guidelines — rights, accuracy of the description, and content quality — not just the AI section. 5. Record the answers with the date in the title's source log, and repeat the classification whenever we edit and republish, because that is the second moment the guidelines name.

Pricing is a separate decision from disclosure, and we keep it separate: our companion guide on KDP eBook unit economics works through why a royalty rate is not the same as profit. More guides in this series are collected on the eBook Publishing hub.

Do you have to disclose AI content if you edited it heavily?

Yes. Under the definition we read on 10 November 2026, content created by an AI-based tool remains AI-generated even after substantial edits. The amount of editing does not change the classification; who created the content does.

Do you have to disclose it if AI only proofread your book?

No. If you created the content yourself and used AI tools to edit, refine, or error-check it, KDP classifies that as AI-assisted, and you are not required to inform Amazon about it. The same applies to brainstorming where you wrote the final content yourself.

Does KDP ban AI-generated books?

The Content Guidelines we read do not ban AI-generated books. They require you to inform KDP when a book contains AI-generated text, images, or translations, and they hold you responsible for that content meeting all of the guidelines, including intellectual property rules. A book can still be rejected or removed for other guideline failures, AI-related or not.

What about an AI-generated cover with a human-written book?

You still disclose. AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork, so a human-written manuscript with an AI-produced cover contains AI-generated content, and the title should be declared for its images when you publish or republish it.