Amazon has made headlines again, this time because of upcoming layoffs of workers in its Books area, including the Kindle and Goodreads teams. Because of the announcement, Amazon and publishing people have been expressing concern. But what does it all mean when a company decides to lay off workers?
In this detailed post, we will look into all the details of Amazon Books Division layoffs: the reasons for them, the effect on various departments, how it could influence Amazon’s publishing business, and what it signifies for changes in the Big Tech workforce.
What Happened: The Layoffs Breakdown
In the first days of June 2025, Amazon revealed that less than 100 employees in the Books division had been laid off. While it might appear that this is just a small number when measured against Amazon’s worldwide staff, Kindle and Goodreads are keys to the company’s success in the digital industry.
This notification is part of Amazon’s ongoing efforts to cut costs in its other departments as well.
- Devices and Services (like Alexa)
- Wondery (Amazon’s podcast network)
- Physical and online retail teams
- Corporate communications departments
The reason for books division cuts is linked to the company’s goal of improving how it operates.
Why Did Amazon Lay Off Staff in the Books Division?
Amazon said that its goal was to make operations more efficient and invest more in steps that benefit customers and support future plans. While such wording sounds like how companies usually speak, there are multiple reasons for the company’s actions.
1. Cost Optimization
With Andy Jassy leading the company, Amazon has removed unnecessary staff and made budget cuts to avoid a rise in costs when the economy is shaky.
2. AI Disruption in Publishing
ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude are causing major changes in the content industry. Since they are dealing with disruptions, Amazon may change where their resources are used and remove roles that have become unnecessary.
3. Shift in Reader Habits
It is becoming common for people to read with apps on their phones, listen to audiobooks, or read accounts summarized by AI. The company could consider making changes to its usual ebooks and readers platform (like Kindle) and online review site (Goodreads).
4. Underperformance of Specific Units
Even though Amazon doesn’t share results for each division separately, Goodreads has been regularly blamed for its old website design and a high number of spam reviews. Some of these units may not have achieved the goals for growth that the company wants.
Which Departments Were Affected?
Kindle Team
The Kindle team from Amazon has played an important role in the company’s digital reading strategy. But in recent years, the number of device sales has decreased, and users mostly now choose to read on their phones or tablets by using Kindle.
People in this part of the company worked on content strategy, advertising channels, and development for Apple’s older gadgets.
Goodreads Team
Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads in 2013 did not protect the company from being affected by the layoffs as well. Goodreads has less active users and continues to suffer from fake reviews and few new developments.
Product management and community moderation staff were mainly affected by the changes.
What Does This Mean for Authors and Readers?
For Authors:
- Reduced support: Since they do it all by themselves, authors who publish on their own may not have as many marketing tools and backend help.
- Slower innovation: New features for Kindle publishing might not be released for some time or could be placed after other projects.
For Readers:
- Possible disruption: It is possible that users of Goodreads and Kindle notice recent updates come out more slowly or miss certain features.
- Shift to alternatives: these changes might prompt users to venture out and use different sites or softwares such as StoryGraph, Scribd, or AI-assisted search platforms.
Amazon’s Long-Term Strategy
This action is tied to other important actions before. Since that year, Amazon has focused on changing its organizational structure. Now, the company is concentrating on:
- AI and cloud (AWS)
- Advertising
- Grocery and logistics
- Prime Video and entertainment
Because the Books business does not grow as quickly as before, Amazon may be sending its resources to where growth is higher.
Amazon does not plan to abandon books; instead, it is trying to find new ways to include them in its growing business.
Workforce Trends in Big Tech
There are other companies in the same position. In the tech sector, we have witnessed many businesses making the same changes.
- Meta (cutting 21,000 jobs in 2023–2024)
- Google (layoffs in hardware and advertising teams)
- Microsoft (cutbacks in gaming and VR divisions)
This shows that what matters most to Big Tech companies now is making money, working with AI, keeping their operations streamlined, rather than recruiting an unmatched number of workers.
Employee Reactions and Concerns
It seems from internal information that employees were told about the layoffs by email and offered up to 90 days of severance payments. Several people have raised doubts on LinkedIn about the future prospects of Amazon’s products related to books.
Other experts say that Amazon could end Goodreads and replace it with a new AI-based tool for reading recommendations.
Industry Reactions
Industry analysts have mixed views:
- Optimists believe this is a healthy reset, allowing Amazon to innovate faster.
- Skeptics argue that cutting legacy products like Goodreads could alienate loyal users and diminish Amazon’s publishing ecosystem.
Book publishers and e-book services are keeping an eye on this change to find out if it will impact long-term strategies.
What’s Next for Amazon Books?
Here are a few likely outcomes:
- AI Integration: Kindle and other book services by Amazon will likely have AI-powered recommendation systems in the future.
- Sunsetting Legacy Products: It’s possible that Goodreads will be combined with another service, stopped entirely, or changed a great deal.
- Focus on Audiobooks: Because Audible is expanding, Amazon could allocate extra funding to audio-based content.
- Improved Kindle App: Perhaps new software will be the main area of change, instead of hardware.
Final Thoughts
Layoffs in Amazon Books are a sign of general shifts occurring in both technology and publishing. Even though facing job losses is never easy, this may lead Amazon into creating better quality content thanks to AI.
Being flexible will be most important for authors, readers, and people working in the industry. With Amazon making changes to its approach to publishing, there might be the emergence of advanced apps for reading and better publishing tools.
Keep following Eversoft Creations, as Amazon’s story is not complete and still has things left to happen.
