Blog · Updated 30 September 2026

Publishing an AI-assisted book on KDP: how to answer the AI questions

When you publish on Amazon KDP you are asked whether AI generated your book’s text, its images and any translation. This guide explains what each question covers for a book written with Shadow Writer, which tools to name, and why editing the book afterwards does not remove the question. The one-page version is here.

1. What KDP asks

On the Content page of a KDP title, Amazon asks you to declare AI-generated content. As recorded from a live KDP Content page on 9 September 2026, the form:

  • asks about text, images and translation as three separate questions;
  • requires you to disclose “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards”;
  • asks you to name which tool you used, in free text, up to three names;
  • warns that a book that is not disclosed can be removed without warning, and that repeated breaches can close the KDP account.

That is Amazon’s summary of its own rule, paraphrased. If the form in front of you says something different, the form wins.

2. Two different disclosures — do not mix them up

The KDP question is a field on Amazon’s dashboard. It is internal to Amazon: it is not printed in your book and it is not shown on the product page. KDP requires you to answer it.

A notice inside the book is a separate thing. KDP’s question does not ask for one. Shadow Writer adds no AI notice to your book unless you turn one on: the copyright page on Export has an optional line, off by default, that says “Portions of this book were created with AI assistance.” Whether to print it is your choice, and it does not answer KDP’s question for you.

KDP’s disclosure is private to Amazon. It does not replace any reader-visible marking another law may require where you sell.

3. What makes a Shadow Writer book

To answer honestly you need to know which parts of the book a model produced. For a book written here:

  • The text is drafted by a writing model, pinned for the whole book so the voice does not change halfway. The free plan and the paid plans use different drafting models.
  • The cover art, if you use our cover, is made by a cover-art model. Shadow Writer then letters your title and pen name onto it.
  • The pictures inside a picture book, a comic or a coloring book are generated too — not only the cover.
  • Translation is not done. Shadow Writer writes in English and does not translate.

The exact names of the drafting model and the cover-art model that made your book are shown in the KDP note on your book’s Export page once you are signed in. Those are the names to type into Amazon’s form.

4. Answering, question by question

For a typical book — generated here, and not rewritten for the most part by hand — the truthful answers are:

Text

Yes — entire work, with minimal or no editing. For the tool, name Shadow Writer AI and the drafting model shown on your Export page.

Images

Yes, if you use the cover we made. Name the cover-art model shown on your Export page for the art, and Shadow Writer AI for the title lettering on top. For a picture book, a comic or a coloring book the pictures inside are AI-generated as well, so the answer is yes for those books even with a cover of your own. If you commissioned or drew every image yourself, answer from the images you actually upload.

Translation

No — unless you translated the book yourself with another tool, in which case answer for that tool.

5. If you edited the book

Amazon is explicit that you disclose even after substantial edits. If you rewrote large stretches by hand, you still declare that AI generated the text. How you describe how much of the work is AI-generated may change with your edits; naming the tool does not go away because you edited.

Shadow Writer shows your edit share on each book — how much of it you changed by hand. That figure is a record to help you answer, not a legal conclusion, and no percentage in it is a promise about how Amazon, or anyone else, will classify the book.

6. What we do, and what we do not

  • We make the files: a print-ready interior PDF, a Kindle EPUB where the kind of book has one, and the cover.
  • We do not upload to KDP for you. You upload the files yourself.
  • We do not fill Amazon’s form, pre-tick a box, or submit a disclosure on your behalf. The answers are yours to give.
  • We add no AI notice inside your book unless you turn on the optional copyright-page line.

Where this comes from

The three separate questions, the “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards” requirement, the three-name tool field and the removal and account-termination warning were read from a live KDP Content page on 9 September 2026. The “entire work, with minimal or no editing” answer is the answer recorded in the same notes for a book generated here. The model names on your Export page are the models Shadow Writer actually uses. Amazon’s rules are Amazon’s, and they change; check the form each time you publish.

Guide. Last updated 30 September 2026. Not legal advice.