A group of academics, writers, educators, researchers, publishers, and members of the international intellectual community is asking Amazon to add Greek to Kindle Direct Publishing, the company’s self-publishing service for digital and print books.
The appeal was reported by ERT, based on information from APE-MPE, and was organized through the International Hellenic Association. In their letter, the signatories ask Amazon to reconsider a policy that leaves Greek outside the list of languages formally supported by KDP.
For writers and small publishers, KDP is not a small tool. It allows books to be uploaded directly to Amazon and made available to readers in different countries. For authors working outside large publishing houses, it can be one of the few practical ways to reach an international audience.
That is why the absence of Greek has drawn concern.
Amazon’s current KDP language list includes more than 45 supported languages. Among them are several regional and minority languages with far fewer speakers than Greek, including Cornish, Manx, Corsican, Romansh, and Northern Frisian. Greek, spoken by millions in Greece, Cyprus, and around the world, is not listed.
The signatories argue that this is difficult to explain only through commercial or demographic logic. Greek is not only a national language. It is one of the oldest written languages still in use, with a literary and intellectual tradition that runs from Homer and classical philosophy to the New Testament and modern Greek writing.
But the letter is not only about the past. It also presents Greek as a living language used today by authors, students, teachers, researchers, publishers, and readers.
The concern is practical, not only symbolic. Without formal KDP support for Greek, Greek-language books become harder to publish, manage, and distribute reliably through one of the world’s most visible self-publishing systems. That can affect literature, school materials, historical studies, children’s books, religious texts, academic work, and community publications.
The appeal also comes after UNESCO moved to recognize February 9 as World Greek Language Day, honoring the contribution of Greek to world culture and heritage. The date honors Dionysios Solomos, Greece’s national poet, whose “Hymn to Liberty” became the Greek national anthem.
In their letter, the academics ask Amazon to make Greek-language publishing available through KDP, provide reliable support for Greek-language books, reaffirm its commitment to multilingual publishing, and work with Greek scholars and institutions on the future of Greek-language publishing.
Behind the specific request is a larger question. In the digital age, languages do not depend only on schools, libraries, bookstores, churches, newspapers, or homes. They also depend on the tools people use to write, publish, search, buy, and read. When a language is missing from those tools, its reach becomes smaller.
For Greek, that absence is especially noticeable. The language has given the world words and ideas still used every day, from democracy and philosophy to history, ethics, dialogue, politics, and philanthropy. Yet the question raised by the letter is not whether Greek has an important past. It is whether Greek will have enough room in the systems where books now circulate.
Amazon operates one of the most influential publishing systems in the world. The scholars behind the appeal argue that this influence carries a responsibility to make room for linguistic and cultural diversity, especially when the language in question is both ancient and very much alive.