Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
If you’ve opened the Kindle store lately and wondered why half the titles read like someone copy-pasted their search history, congratulations: you’ve hit Amazon’s latest aesthetic. Instead of crisp, memorable titles, readers are scrolling past listings like “A Dark Addictive Thriller for Fans of X & Y (A Totally Gripping Novel Book 1).” It’s the literary equivalent of a social media post with more hashtags than substance. Facing this bleak reality, a recent r/kindle thread made the rounds as users commiserated.
Have you noticed keyword-packed titles in the Kindle store? 53 votes Yes, I have noticed. 57 % No, I haven't noticed. 30 % No, I don't use a Kindle. 13 %
Titles turning into SEO strategies
Book titles used to have vibes. Personality. A little mystery, even. Now, some sound like they were drafted by a marketing intern getting paid per keyword. Kindle users say the trend is impossible to ignore, and the result is a browsing experience that feels like scrolling through an overcrowded search engine.
Recently, Reddit user Alert_Astronaut4901 shared a screenshot of an aggressively SEO’d title alongside the simple plea: “I wish Amazon would stop doing this with book listings.” The thread quickly filled with commentary from Kindle owners equally annoyed. It’s not that the books themselves are terrible; plenty are probably enjoyable, but when titles are stuffed with tropes, comps, and every genre tag available, it’s hard to feel optimistic about the writing inside.
Kindle users have gone to Reddit to lament the excessive SEO keywords popping up in book titles.
The unglamorous truth is that Amazon built a system where keyword-heavy titles often perform better. Self-published authors, small presses, and hybrid writers all rely on Amazon’s discoverability tools, and the platform leans heavily on keywords, even in places that were never meant to be optimized. When your business lives or dies by whether a stranger can find your book, the title field becomes less a creative canvas and more a strategic battleground.
One Redditor explained it succinctly: “Indie authors have to game the Amazon algorithm harder… they don’t have the money or reach publishers do.” Another got straight to the point: “If a clean, normal title gets buried but a keyword-stuffed one gets boosted, Amazon is basically encouraging it.”
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