If you're wondering why KU payouts are so low...

[J.J.]

The comics categories are currently flooded with pirated manga, and it's all enrolled in KU. The books have been scanned and translated by pirate sites, and the ones selling on Amazon are stealing from there, swapping covers, and putting a different English title on it to try to hide the theft.

Amazon doesn't seem to let you report copyright issues unless you're the rights holder or represent the rights holder, but I've been reporting a number of titles since last week as misleading, identifying the correct titles and creators of the work. So far, Amazon doesn't seem to be taking any action, choosing to sell pirated books.

If you're selling on Amazon, this affects you because it will create a reputation for Amazon as a place to buy illegal works. And if you're in select, these books are taking money out of your pocket.

I can't link directly to examples since they fall into the erotica category and that would violate Nik's rules ( :D ), but if you go to the New Releases list in Everyday Life comics, there are two examples on the chart as of the date of this post.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-release...

[Nik]

A revealing insight! I would have thought content could’ve been stolen from Amazon, but that the latter hosts stolen goods 🙀…

[J.J.]

It's also full of people turning their video game play into comics and dumping them into KU even though the EULA on the games prohibits commercial use. Last year, the comics charts were flooded with titles from a game called Among US. And when I say flooded, these people were putting out one a day. To chart, these things are moving, and it's likely coming out of the KU pool.

With the video game stuff, you would think a book title with a trademarked name would get the attention of someone at Amazon for additional review, but I had to report it to the company behind the game before it came down. But it keeps coming with whatever new game becomes popular. Go back to the chart and you'll see a lot of titles in the Best Sellers side from a game called Gacha Life. Minecraft's EULA is a little looser on the matter, but the Gacha Life EULA expressly prohibits use of the game for commercial endeavors.

[Nik]

Even more interesting and brings back the question why amazon's vetting is so poor: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...