My Amazon KDP Account Was Terminated Twice!! Mistakes to Avoid When Publishing Low Content Books
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2021
- My Amazon KDP account was terminated twice and in this video, I talk about what happened, why it was terminated, getting my account back and what I'm going to be doing going forward with low content books.
I also talk about how to avoid getting your account terminated and what you can do if your account is terminated by Amzon.
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Welcome to automation, Artificial Intelligence, and form letters - the trifecta of a "better world". :-) sorry you had so much trouble...glad you got is sorted out...thank you for sharing your lessons-learned.
Thanks so much 😃
yep. I am going through this again, I asked to speak to a supervisor and they disregard that. Nobody in Amazon works together. I also learned today that Amazon publishing and KDP are 2 different companies within Amazon. KDP doesn't care if you are Kim Kardashian, President of USA or an established author.
Being that everything is outsourced India, etc., do you think it's a language thing as well? That they're just sending response emails without reading or understanding?
Wow! What an experience. It has definitely got me thinking whether or not I should proceed with low content publishing. because you are so knowledgeable and if this is happening with someone like you then beginners don't have much chance to survive even after trying our best to stay within the guidelines.
Don't let this experience put you off. At the end of the day, it was just a mistake and as long as you follow the guidelines you should have no issues. I did get my account reinstated both times without any issues.😀
@@MyFreedomEmpire the thing is you didn't make a mistake. What KDP Content Reviewers do, and I wrote about it in a comment on here, but they see accounts that are making money, and that gets triggered in the coding system to do random audit, mind you, they don't look at what the book is about. Just the title, they don't know what Amazon sells- and this happened a couple of years ago, to me, over a cover (it was of a tree lol. they assumed the tree was p**nography. No joke! it was a tree I took a photo of in my backyard) - because the title was "Romance by the tree" or something to that, I told Jeff Bezos whose 'people' who check his email , FWD it to someone higher up and they took care of it and apologize that KDP was in mistake. KDP are not trained right. it is sad, and I am surprised there isn't a class action lawsuit against them for many, thousands daily, wrongful termination. Also they shouldn't be cancelling (Terminating) accounts over a title they didn't like or a blocked book. Again, abuse of power. something needs to be done.
How long is the suspension
@@sarahlimmericak1683 AI is being used more and more with online platforms.Amazon will be no different I'm sure. It wouldnt surprise me one bit if that was a factor in what happened.
It should be illegal for companies to do this. They should be required to at least specifically point out what they are expecting. I see they do this to many people. I think this must be a violation of FTC and probably some other guidelines.
Thank you Caroline for taking us through the tricky process of publishing on KDP and amazon. The story of your struggles to come back into action is challenging and inspiring. You are certainly on the highway to great success. All the best.
Thank you so much!
"The problem was that I didn't really know what the problem was." Facebook ads are the same--they don't tell you what you've done wrong or how to fix it, which makes things quite challenging. Thanks for this video. It's really helpful.
Wow!! I hate those vague replies!! It is like talking to a refrigerator. I have no idea why my book could be misleading to customers, really. They reply the same message again and again... 🤦♀️
Thank you very much for this valuable information. I learn from you a lot ❤
I deleted the draft and I will try to upload again
@Joselyn Lukow have not uploaded yet
Great video Caroline and what an ordeal to have to go through! I can only imagine how much your heart sank when you received that KDP correspondence. Such great advice and I appreciate your transparency. Regards, Romney
Thanks so much 😄
This is insane! I've always known that KDP is NOT something one can truly rely on for this exact reason. They did this to my Merch account, shut it down with no info or reason, and no chance to reestablish it. Really tough, as my sales had been increasing. Now that I'm on KDP, I have the same fear, so I do what I can to be careful and follow the guidelines, however the reality is it really is a shot in the dark. Each reviewer is a different person and they don't all respond the same way to the exact same book/metadata. And someone can sabotage another author by complaining to Amazon, because they are a jealous competitor, or just because they're a troll. You just never know. This is significantly harder to do with a high content book, true ... But I would suggest for everyone who's super reliant on KDP to think twice. Publish books independently, too. You can even publish independently and sell on Amazon (without KDP). KDP can go away in a flash! Thank you for sharing and hope your account stays safe!
Having the option to publish on other platforms is so good and definitely need to make sure we don't rely on just one way to do things. Thank you! 😄
Hey, I got terminated on merch too - no reason given or warning! However, I’m worried that a merch ban means a KDP ban too - I hope a ban on one of their platforms doesn’t equate to a ban on another :/
@@MyFreedomEmpire Yes! Dont forget you can publish elsewhere and and still use Amazon to sell your Fiction Novels the ol'fashion way!
@@mr.pfeiffer7860 I also want to know
My fear is that you even have a few bad apples working within the KDP system itself. It's really sad but some people get a kick out damaging other people's lives and then being able to justify their actions.
I’m very sorry that happened to you. Hearing about it is stressful!! Thank you so much for sharing your story!
My account was permanently closed by KDP this weekend. It was insane. They said that I had published "misleading content" for a journal with my own photography, and the girl's name is Verity. I had over 12,000 titles uploaded using my own photographs and so I just freaked out. I have emailed every day, but they just keep telling me that I am permanently banned. I did not thing wrong. It was a journal and the description was entirely accurate. I think about all the hours that I put into this and it's devastating. It has happened to me before, and it was a mistake they made, for flagging my own photography and they deleted everything from my bookshelf. They said that it was their mistake, and let me in again. But this time - I'm not feeling very confident it will get turned around. I would like to know if there is a way to work around the content review team and get help when they make this insane decision that deeply impacts my life - for literally no reason. I was getting some good traction and it hurts. Perhaps if I wait it out for 6 months I can re-email them and see if they will change their mind. It's really no way to run a business, is it? I feel as though this team could really use some training. It was really nice to hear your story, although, I am not going to be as fortunate as you I think.
*I got same issue too, but lucky my, I got* *my account fixed by someone*
*Why don’t you try if he can be of help*
*He’s on *I*n*s*t*a*g*r*a*m*
*R*e*c*o*v*e*r*y*O*r*a*c*l*e*
*B*E*W*A*R*E OF *S*C*A*M*M*E*R*S OVER HERE
Did you ever get it back? I was terminated this week after 10 years on KDP.
They permanently terminated my account too, a couple of weeks ago. I think that mine was also over a planner. At first it bothered me, but after thinking about it for a few days, I now just think that they;re a corrupt bunch of scammers. I don't want to deal with a company, where I'm constantly worried that I'll just be closed down for no reason I can think of, as they didn't even have the decency to tell me and they'll steal the royalties
How devastating for you. The people behind the scenes at Amazon are idiots unfortunately. Either that, or they are deliberately doing this, for what ends, i don't know. They just stop communicating when they cannot answer your question.
@@Newmexicobirds I feel you. I found out this morning that my account was terminated yesterday because of the same thing, I'm publishing just notebooks and they keep saying there were problems with the title, subtitle or series in 10 (not 1, but 10) of them. What on earth! It's a Notebook with no series and the subtitles were a 15 words description of the product. Like, what is wrong with you guys?? What's there to be wrong?? Am I that dumb?? I'm so frustrated 😮💨
I did have my account terminated and reinstated in the same day. It was on my 100th low content book. I realized later the reason was a trademarked phrase and since then I’ve been checking TeSS and defaulting to no subtitle and a simple word title like Journal. I just published two dream journals so I’m going to change the interiors with a few custom touches since I did purchase the interior from CF. Thanks for your video and so sorry you had to experience this. It is the worst sinking feeling! Please keep us posted on the other options you uncover for Low content publishing.
This happened to mess last week but my account was reinstated. I did my own phrase but added something I honestly didn't know was copyrighted. But I've seen lots of copyrighted books but they're still on Amazon how unfair is that.
When I move forward with re-publishing new books I'm going to be very plain with the titles like that as well, it's the only way to be sure your titles and subtitles aren't going to cause issues. Yeah, it's not a nice feeling to get those termination emails from Amazon lol 🙂
In response to Simone - I think that's what got me even more frustrated is when you see books on Amazon clearly doing the wrong thing - keyword stuffing titles, using copyright and trademarks - obvious ones like Disney - and they all get approved and it feels very unfair.
Help.How I Check if a title or subtitle has trademark or copyright ?what website?
@@MyFreedomEmpire By keeping your subtitle very plain you will definitely miss out on sales - and possibly quite a lot. From my experience the issue is when you have words like 'planner' or something in the pen name. Since I create a couple of pen names that would definitely not be mistaken as keywords i've had no issues - even when repeating a keyword in title and subtitle.
So random but I’m new to this and was wondering how much could someone be making with 100 low content published?
So sorry for what you have gone through.
Thank you for being so transparent and authentic.
This is very helpful.
Yes... it is so difficult not to know what exactly what that was...
I trust that all will be well in all your future books - Low and High Content books.
Wow, I felt bad for what you went through. I am pleased it was resolved, but it gave you a new perspective on other platforms other than Amazon. You live and you learn. Thanks for the intense video.
My story is much more exciting! My account got terminated last year because they thought I used a cover image for one of my books that violate terms and is intellectual property, although this image was from Amazon Free Stock of Images in the Amazon cover creation process! I received the same email like you and I did reply and acknowledged what they wanted but I explained to the support several times that this cover image is from Amazon. The next day they reinstated my account after I declared that I won't publish anything that violates the term, I will follow their guidelines, and I will revise my entire catalogue. After 4 days they unblocked my book and re-published it and apologized for the mistake and inconvenience!!! To date I still have problems with KDP as from time to time, mistakes occur during the review process. I finally realized that the review process is automatically done by a bot!
thank you for sharing your experience. I feel like this is my biggest fear as a self publisher: even if you're been extra careful with your books, there's always the chance to get terminated and, as you said, KDP isn't obliged to give you an explanation whatsoever or admit it was a mistake and reinstate your account. Thanks again!
You're welcome! 😃
@@MyFreedomEmpire what other platforms do you recommend?
That must have been a very scary and frustrating in equal measure! Thank you for sharing your experience. Imagine the number of people who don't ask why or ask for their case to be reconsidered.
Yes, very nerve wrecking! 😄
Whew! That would have been sooo stressful. I love your work, and know how careful you coach us to be, and I have always looked to you for reliable guidance. Keep us posted, because I still look to you for a superior source of training, and will continue to follow your advice. Hang in there, you got this, I am confident you will be a success whichever way you decide to go. Loyal fan here.❤️
Thank you so much! 😃 I think I am going to continue publishing low content on Amazon but I'm also going to branch off onto other platforms as well and I'm really excited to be able to bring other options to everyone else out there too who may want to create more streams of income and not have to just rely on Amazon for sales.
we have to go away to honest company ;)
I just took a nail biting journey with you! I also wouldn't be happy to just continue without a specific reason for what I'd done wrong as it would likely just result in unwittingly making the same mistake again. I'm glad you got reinstated and they admitted to the issue eventually.
LOL glad you came along for the ride! I would never have been able to stop thinking about it if I had never found out what the problem was! 😀
Thank you Caroline for all your work and help. It is really raging to go through such problems. You seem and I am sure that you are an honest lady that delivers good content. I kind of been though a pretty similar story. I tried to open a shop in etsy but since I am from Algeria, and that they do not have such a country on their geography maps lol. My information may have been incoherent somehow. But nothing illegal or weird. I didn't hide my IP etc...
They send me an email... Waou I felt I was a sort of thief or something.
"not interested in your content "
" don't ever try to re-open a shop again
"don't even try with another account "
And the email really seemed to be" personal "
I just wanted to add that I have a few fiction short stories and a novel published by American editors and now I try low content books. This is why I appreciate your work because not everybody shares information with such generosity.
Thank you again.
Kudos to you for staying respectful. Thankful or not for Amazon and intended or not this is nothing short of abusive.
Wow, not the most pleasant experience I can imagine... Very honest video, and all the best for your fiction publications Caroline!
Hey Ben! No, it wasn't fun 😀 Thanks so much!
Amazon customer service can be a little frustrating sometimes when they dont get to the point and tell you what you have done wrong.
I had a friend who had her book blocked and she did not know why. Amazon gave her a list of different things she could fix. She had to email and then phone them to find out what she had done wrong and then she fixed it. It was a problem with her subtitle.
That took a week to fix, when Amazon could have told her exactly what to change on the first day.
Yes, I totally agree, it would save so much time and frustration if they were more specific about issues they have with your books. I'm not sure why they are like that but even in the last email they sent me saying my account termination was a mistake, they put a little paragraph at the end saying Amazon are not obligated to give reasons why they make the decisions they make (I'm paraphrasing but that was basically what it said) lol 🙂
it wasn't that they didn't tell her what she had done wrong - it was literally an error and the KDP robot was going round in circles as it sometimes (often) does. The thing to take away is that, if you have made every effort to follow KDP guidelines to be assertive and demand manual review of your book stating that you think the system has made an error. Otherwise the robot and semi automated resposnes will send you round in circles for days/weeks
Oh, you poor thing! So frustrating! I really hope it didn't happen again. I've just found your channel Andi really enjoy the way you share everything and you're a huge help! Take care 🥰🚙🇨🇦
Thank you so much!!
I started with Amazon KDP yesterday...still in Review ! I had a problem with filling the form out but all went well...Thank u for sharing ...so happy everything turned out well for u too....❤️
Thank you so much! 😃
So horrible that a company can treat their best account holders like disposable doggy bags.
Oh my gosh! I am so sorry you went through that. It has encouraged me to be EVEN more careful.
Thank you!
I believe things happen for a reason. Your experience was a big heads-up and warning to newbies and veterans alike. I saw a book cover for a composition notebook the other day with a Disney character on the front! How did KDP miss THAT but they focused on a word in your subtitle? Things happen for a reason.
The same thing can happen on TH-cam, or any social media platform for that matter. That is one of the reasons you are seeing invitations to join an email list or opt-in to a website. The subscribers are now YOUR customers, and you are no longer subject to the whims of social media and yes, Amazon.
You mentioned other platforms that you could publish on. THAT, I believe, is the silver lining in this cloud you have experienced. Brene Brown talks about the " deviant bee" as someone who leaves the beehive to explore other possibilities and returns to invite the others to participate. After you start your own email list, you might share those other possibilités with others, reminding them that it is not prudent to put all ones' eggs in one basket. Good luck, Beloved
Thank you so much for this lovely comment Cheryl, I really do appreciate it and I totally agree with you. I have been putting off writing fiction books for years (scared of failure I guess) but the thought of NOT being able to publish them made me go Okay, if i get this account back, I'm doing the fiction books. and it really kicked my butt into gear to do what I really want to do. If the account didn't get terminated I might've continued putting that off for many more years. And yes, the thought of exploring other platforms to sell books on makes me exciting to share new information with you guys who watch my channel 😀🙂 Thank you!!
@@MyFreedomEmpire Don't be afraid to write your fiction! I'm almost done with my first book (Rat Bastard Jack) for publication. I'm nervous about it, but I'm more excited! Even if it doesn't let me quit my day job (haha) I'll be ecstatic that I did it! Just go for it and be proud of yourself for the courage it takes! If it helps, I have faith that you can do it! Let the dream begin...!
@@aaronjanusch6090 that’s so awesome! 😁😁
@@MyFreedomEmpire My book, Rat Bastard Jack, is up and for sale on Amazon as of this morning! Woooo! I'm excited 😊! Hope you're doing great!
@@aaronjanusch6090 congrats!
Thank you for sharing, such a useful and honest content😍 Great to know what could happen and how to fix it
Very useful video, thank you! And what a frustrating story, but good to know how you navigated the issue.
Thank so much! Yes, very frustrating.
Hey!! Love your content.. So clear and precise, in the contrary things like that happens a lot with almost every Mega platform, robotic communication is so expected when dealing with such platforms, I so agree thats we must totally never rely on one solution, Happy your doing better now and that it was a misterious mistake lol, I apreciate all the efforts.. Keep growing 🤟💯
Thanks for sharing the story and the tips. Glad you're back in good graces with KDP. Good luck with the fiction project in the works.
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this! A very similar situation happened to me with Skillshare, although the story didn't have a happy ending. I published 2 classes with Skillshare and shared their links on my TH-cam channel, got several people to subscribe. All of a sudden, a month into it, one morning, I could no longer log into my Skillshare account. I send them about 5 emails, no response. Then I used an alternative email address to email them and received a generic email response from them. So it started to look like I was completely blocked! Finally, a personal named Grant replied that my account was terminated for violating Skillshare terms and conditions. Both of my published videos were on personal finance and had been approved by Skillshare for publish! So...it's unknown to me what happened. They don't respond to my emails with requests to clarify what rules I violated that resulted in my termination. I thought Skillshare was a reputable platform but I was clearly wrong. I never received my earnings from them. I'm glad to hear that KDP took the time to at least acknowledge they made a mistake and reinstated your account!
You're welcome! Sorry to hear about your experience with skillshare. It sucks doesn't it when they approve you to do something then change their mind without warning you or explaining.
You poor thing! That is super scary for a creator. Sorry you had to go through all that. Thanks, so much for sharing with us.
Thank you!! 😀
I got my account terminated, less then a month in:( I didn't realize how strict they were with enforcing the TOS and used too many keywords in my titles and also didn't check my titles for trademark issues. Rookie mistakes. I emailed them my mistakes and copied your statement. Hopefully i can get it back my account back because i finally found a side hustle Im passionate in....its soul crushing.
Great info. I love it when the pros can be transparent to show us what not to do as well as what to do. Thanks so much.
You're welcome 🙂
As an author who has already published fiction novels on amazon I would have to admit when I first did low content books I was pretty scared of the same thing, I didn't want anything to mess up my account it is a pity you can't have two accounts one for low content and the other for fiction it would be less stressful lol
That would be good if you could do that wouldn't it!! Totally agree 😀
@@MyFreedomEmpire I actually have one account under my business LLC and another account under my DBA name so essentially they are two separate entities.
Update on my KDP account. KDP closed my account just over 10 days ago, I have had this account for over 7 years with 400 books, I write novels and so decided to do some low content books as well. The email I got from amazon telling me that 3 mindfulness journals that I uploaded are "'missleading"'? I purchased the interior from CF and it seemed fine. I have never had a problem before and I have sent them a few emails and I just get a standard 'we are looking into it'' email back. Now I have no idea what to do or how long it is going to take. And they did this a few days befor they had to pay me for the last 3 months (the xmas period).
Thank you for your informative video. It has put me in an apprehensive state. I spend like most of us countless amounts of hours and effort in creating content online. Being new to KDP I do worry that like a click of a switch my account could be suspended or terminated for no apparent reason. Giving specifics on account suspension would be a good thing for all concerned rather than driving blind. I too would like to move towards high content books at some point and it would be extremely helpful if you could keep us posted of your journey on that one. Thanks again and all the best.
I guess it's the risk we take when we decide to put out business on someone else's platform that we have no control over but I'm excited to share some videos about high content books hopefully soon!
What a frustrating experience. I had a terrible time being an Amazon FBA seller. It's very difficult to get through to anyone who can clarify problems to any satisfactory degree. There are too many sellers and perhaps not enough well-trained employees on the Amazon side.
Yes, it must be hard from their side trying to coordinate trying to communicate with the amount of people selling across Amazon.
I have so enjoy your videos. I'm just getting ready to publish my first medium content book. I have a couple of people I listen to one of them is from australia like you his name is paul marled and he seems like a nice guy. I have screened over the last year. A bunch of content creators for KDP And you and him and a couple of others are really fantastic.
I'm 63 and live in northern Idaho. Near the Canadian border. We have a horse ranch. And we are looking to retire And I want to subsidize our income.
Thanks for your videos and I look forward to learning so much more and making money.
What a horrible experience, sorry you had to go through this, BTW Loving the silver hairs kicking in 😊 looking gorgious as ever Caroline 🖤
They sure are! No hiding them now 😃 Thank you
I will always choose the worse in people. Being that we are all related, family is the worse, I will always bet that one of your competitors complained and KDP probably just jumped on it instead of investigating first. Glad you got it settled.
Thanks a million for sharing this valuable information! Keep up the good work! Love your channel!! #Bahamas🇧🇸
Thank you so much 😀
How scary! How awful. I don't know what I would do! This is stressful without that happening. I hope you are okay, but I think how this must have really made you feel so unsettled. Wow! Hang in there. I know you will make the best decision. You have seemed so level headed to me, and I have used you as a mentor. Hope things will settle down soon.
Thank you so much! 😃
So glad it's all resolved now, but what a nightmare for you! It had to be a mistake, I can't see that you did anything wrong. Onwards and upwards! xx
Thanks Nuria! Glad it's all over with and fixed 😃
It’s amazing that you didn’t cry while sharing your experience! I would! My advice, don’t put your eggs in one basket. You can do both or more! Good luck and great content!
I wanted when it actually happened! LOL Yes, completely agree that we can't rely on just one platform or income source.
Wow!! Got exhausted reading it. Sooo glad I did. Thank you for the time you put into this post. Really helpful. Read lots of the comments too. Great help to me as im yet to actually publish. Cheers
You're welcome! Glad you got something out of the video 😀
it's terrible to hear so many having thier accounts closed down. This is whyit is so crucial to have a plan b. Sell on your own website after getting a good following. I hope that everything works out for you all.
I agree! I am not even going to try convincing Amazon to get my account back. Seems like they are unreliable and can close your account anytime. And if we lose the content and royalty?
Thank you! Thank you! While this has not happened to me on KDP... yet, it is the type of thing that constantly happens to me in everyday life (Murphy's Law is my mantra). I feel your pain, but my head will explode slightly less having heard your story.
You're welcome! Glad I could help...😂😂
This was an emotional roller coaster to listen to! There is no love to business owners or people who are trying to make it out the rat race!!! I’m so sorry that happened to you, I’m just starting out, I will be careful.
Thanks so much for your feedback - don't let it scare you off, at the end of the day it was just a mistake.
@@MyFreedomEmpire - A mistake, maybe. But people who have had heart attacks or strokes and now deal with anxiety and other issues can have repeats or other major health problems over this kind of stuff. Who will be paying their bills or giving them their family life back when a "mistake" was made that causes that much grief? Zazzle also deletes your products if you violate things you didn't realize you violated. If you didn't save all your work on your own computer, it's just gone.
Wow. I'm sorry to hear about your encounter and it's an eye opener. However, put it behind you because it wasn't your fault, it was their error. I appreciate you sharing your experience with us (your subscribers), because what you went through can happen to anyone of us. Wow... Last word, continue to do what you do, YOU DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG, so keep creating content and I wish you all the best for the fourth quarter.
Thank you so much! I think I have made the decision now to continue publishing low content books on KDP, I don't want this to let it stop me especially when I haven't broke any rules or anything like that. Thanks again, really appreciated your kind words 🙂
@@MyFreedomEmpire Excellent and you are welcome. Take care and keep safe.
Hi ma’am how to get account back as KDP stopped responding and book was first published and after two days automatically blocked and message came book blocked as misleading to customers and did not say to reply back
What. Can I do as I made 500 books and I can be kicked for one mistake that even I don’t know what happened
Thanks for sharing all this great information.
You mentioned you had a book really taking off when this happened.
Though eventually you received a message saying it was just an error or something I suspect someone was clicking on the "report this content" to flag your content. Publishing in the dream journal category sound like a rough crowd.
A type of pirating to flag advancing content can move someone else's content to the next level.
On TH-cam pirates use to try and stake a claim the income on channels and video's with monetization by flagging details on a video and the creator had to go through a lengthy, similar process not knowing what caused the suspension. And needing to prove ownership of creative content, some time multiple times. I'm sure many creators lost out to them because they didn't follow up or know what to do.
Since then I think TH-cam changed some of the flag procedures and what happens when content is flagged. But for awhile anyone could claim anything about content and creators were at the mercy of a very opaque email system on the communication end.
Word to the wise.
Stay off Facebook as a lot less of these kinds of hacks happen when you're on a platform that is a parasite. Facebook competes with it's own users content by cannibalizing it.
It's also smart as you mentioned to be aware it's a one way street with a gigantic platform like Amazon.
Getting situated there, investing time and creating content and you begin making money and you can wake up one day and they pulled the plug. It's harsh.
You are so right it is scary for a lot of reasons. It has huge pitfalls because it can shut you down and it can be very complex to solve. My guess is because you removed all content whoever was flagging you stopped. Getting you to remove all content is likely the reason they do it. It's so competitive. Now your careful and tip toeing around which is the opposite of being free to create and publish content.
A big problem is that people have access to all these crazy stats and it's like a game with money coming in. They use the information to try and give themselves an edge. There are those who try to game the system. Even if they don't create something but they happen to say look up the fastest rising categories they might clone a product closely but with a few changes then flag the original to bump it off and even attack originators to get them off a platform.
The emails you get look and sound AI generated by the flagging process so the teams sending out the emails really won't have anyway to know why someone keeps flagging your content. They kinda assume someone thinks you copied them and gives the benefit of the doubt to the flagger. They sort of take that for granted.
If the flagging is repetitive then your account gets knocked offline and you get locked out as yours did. When you got it reinstated because you really weren't in violation of anything they just flag you again and the system sees the previous flag reports. By taking the bulk of all your stuff down and then staying in a smaller lane means your less likely to be pirated.
That's my take. Since so many people are going on and off the platform all the time it's a very hyper competitive platform. And businesses who use to be big publishing houses are now in competition with small, independent, content creators highly motivated to get a library online that earns them money.
Thanks for your insight.
Thanks for your insights. You could be very right about people flagging other's books, there are people out there who would do things like that unfortunately.
Thank you for making this video.
It's given me yet another perspective of stuff that happens at Amazon kdp.
Been struggling to understand all their guidelines, but I just can't get every part of it.
Woah what a crazy ride glad u got your account back!!!!!!!!!!! and ty for talking about it 😃
Thank you!
Thankyou for warning us, it must have been terribly frustrating for you. This is because corporations judge us remotely by algorithms. This is what we now have to deal with, as sentient beings this is very hard to deal with!
Yes, very frustrating!
It seems to be a problem these days with the big companies. I had my FB account of 15 years banned, and the only response I got was that they were not going to tell me and not to ask any more questions as the decision was final. Everything I built up in over a decade was snuffed out without explanation. Glad you got your account fixed. I tried low-content books but failed dismally.
Yikes!! So scary. I'm new to KDP, but just submitted a Dream Journal yesterday! Ha! Thanks for the video, super helpful in case this happens to me, too. Thanks so much.
You're welcome! 😀 😀
Wow, what an experience! Who is running this process at KDP? Sounds like they need to be given guidelines on how to do their jobs.
So sorry this happened to you. I am pretty sure that under most circumstances reviewers are not typing the responses. Hey can only send specific responses based on what they think is the best fit. You have to go up the management chain before getting a human typed response.
Thanks for sharing your story. I will go through my books today.
Thanks so much! Yes, I think majority of emails from Amazon are computer generated and automatic.
This is the type of thing that scares me. I'm sorry you experienced this. So glad your account is fine. 💓
Thank you!
Thanks for the excellent content Caroline!
Thank you 😃
@@MyFreedomEmpire You're welcome!
Wow!!! EXTREMELY bizarre ("You handled yourself quite well" - RESPECT) - Sorry you had to go through that, and I'm happy for you that things worked out. I have been following your videos, "a lot," over the last 30 days or so, so when I seen this video in my timeline, "I jumped on it," lol, thinking like - "Wo, I better check this out, to make sure that I'm not making the same mistakes that she is, with my KDP Business," lmao!
Yes, was a strange thing to happen but glad it all got sorted in the end!
Thank you very much for your valuable info. All the best for your future endeavors.
@MyFreedomEmpire.. Thanks a lot
Thank you Caroline very informative as usual. Looking forward to other print of demand platform this will be excellent. Lots of Love
Thank you!! 😃
OMFG! I would have raged! I would have likely dived into a bottle. Wow. . . so stressful. You have all my best wishes. I would love to know more about the other avenues you pursue.
LOL thanks so much
I'm new to KDP, and so far have done moderate content. I do all my concept for interiors and all my original artwork for the covers. I've thought that most you tuber's mislead people on how easy and fast it is to publish. So far this has not been the case for me. It takes me at least a week to publish my books, maybe it's because I do everything from scratch. For me KDP has been work and nothing fast and easy. I've thought about using a template service, but recently a youtuber said what you said that her account was terminated because of using copyrighted interiors. Then I though about using a freelance art service, like fiver, to help me with my artwork, when I ask the artist about if the work was original they said yes, then I asked if they sold the same artwork to other clients they said yes, and that I needed to change their original artwork a bit. To me what's the point to pay someone and then change the art again, I might as well do my own art. KDP could also look at that as artwork copywriter infringement also. I'm still trying to see how to do KDP fast and easy ...IDK
KDP is not fast and easy unfortunately, it's not a get rich overnight kind of deal. Creating your own interiors is the best way to go if you want to avoid any kind of copyright infringement but making books takes time. Depending on how involved a book is, I sometimes take weeks to make a book and I know other's who do low content books can also take the same amount of time making books. Sorry I don't have a better answer but this business just takes time and effort.
That’s awful! So sorry you had to go through that. Wish they could give more specifics in their guidelines so I don’t unknowingly do something wrong!
Thanks so much 😀 It would definitely be more helpful.
Great video Caroline! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Your video was very helpful for me and thank you for saying what I needed to say to them to get my account Reopened
Thanks for this very useful information!
Thanks for sharing!
It sounds a lot like FB when they dumped my ad account there. The back and forth was horrible.
Still can't do anything there but I'm rather happy about that. It removes temptation.
You're welcome!
I had the same exact thing happen. The reinstated my account this morning however everything in my Bookshelf now shows as unpublished. They were all previously published and had sales. I emailed them to see if they were going to revert back to Published status. Haven't heard anything. Guess I'll give it a day or 2 and see if they change or if I hear back from KDP. So frustrating.
Sorry you went through this too. My books were also all unpublished and most I haven't republished. You will have to do it yourself if you want them published again, I don't think they would do it for you. Hopefully you don't have thousands of books!
Hi, please how long did it take for them to reinstate your account
Oh noooo now I'm scared to upload books (Thanks for the information)
Sorry for that sad experience 😔 thanks for sharing 🙏🕊❤
Thank you!
This is so horrible. The stress and uncertainty they cause to people who are trying to do everything right is just massive. Meanwhile, actual bad actors just don't care - they just create new accounts, act like cowboys, and rinse and repeat.
My account was permanently terminated about two weeks ago. I think it was a mistake so have gone back and forth a few times and eventually they said they will review the matter and get back to be in 5 working days. So far, it's been 9 business days and I haven't heard anything yet.
I really hope to get my account back but I might not. It's so frustrating because if I cared less about my account, I would probably still have it. The first email I received just said there was a problem with one of my books and I should fix it or it would be removed from sale after 5 days. But the email didn't include the name of the book. If I had just left it, the book would have been removed and I guess I would have a black mark against my account but I would still have it. But instead I emailed them to ask which book it was so I could fix the problem. But I guess any email back that wasn't to say I had fixed the problem was the wrong thing to do as the next morning I woke up to the permanent ban email.
In one of the emails back and forth, they did eventually tell me which book it was that caused the problem - a 2020 planner I uploaded in mid 2019. If that information had been in the first email, I would have fixed the problem straight away. If I hadn't cared enough about my account as to ask which book was causing the problem so I could fix it as quickly as possible, I could have just not responded and then seen which book was removed from sale after five working days. But because I do care about my account and I do try to do everything by the book, that's the reason I may have lost my account.
It's just so frustrating when you see things like blatant copyright infringement going without punishment. Why do they care so much about a minor mistake I made three years ago and would have fixed had I known which book was the problem but they don't care about Disney or Marvel infringement.
That's heartbreaking
@@RFCircle Not yet. They haven't replied to any of my emails or messages through the platform in months. The last thing they told me was to expect a response in 5 working days but that was back in December. I suspect no one is even reading my messages, and they're just being thrown in their equivalent of a Spam folder, which is really depressing (and super unprofessional). My next move is to send an email from a different email address but unknown email addresses may receive the same treatment as the addresses of terminated accounts. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try and send a physical letter to someone in KDP but I'm finding it hard to find the names or addresses of anyone who might be helpful. I just wish I knew what it was I did wrong. It's really depressing and frustrating.
@@RFCircle Thanks! The only messaging available to me through the KDP website is under a section in the Contact Us area that is probably only visible if your account has been closed. It has two options - dispute termination and 'other'. I've tried both and got some responses to begin with but I guess they've decided my termination was correct so now ignore all my messages. My original dispute was over how I was terminated because I thought it was because I replied to the alert email to ask which book it concerned. But I have more recently been trying to dispute it based on the book I eventually got them to tell me was the cause. But if no one is reading these messages any more I guess it doesn't matter what I say. It's the not knowing what I did wrong that is the worst. That and the sense of injustice.
@@benlime1235 Hi Ben, any luck? I am in the same boat. Have you found a way to contact KDP? I am not going to give up. Best of luck to you.
@@SharonFitzgerald They did finally reply to one of my messages. All my previous appeals had been based on how they terminated my account less than a day after they said I had 5 days to fix the problem. So I sent a new message and said this was the first time I was appealing the book they identified as being misleading to customers. I went through all the parts of the title and author and explained how I came up with them and how I didn't think they were misleading. They replied to say they would look into it and get back to me in 5 days. This time, they actually did get back to me. But they upheld the termination. I have now contacted a lawyer to help me. They told me what the problem is - I used a phrase on the front cover that I didn't know was an existing children's story. It's totally different art and a different author name but it is legitimately a mistake on my part. They drafted a new appeal, which I sent in but haven't heard back from KDP yet. If you genuinely think you didn't do anything wrong, or even if you did but know how to make it right, I would keep fighting.
My KDP account got terminated out of the blue today!!! Oftentimes, it’s particularly frustrating because a book may be rejected with very little justification and a mere reference to the KDP guidelines. I write only Word Search Books and certainly there would be no logo violations or the like. This is what I wrote to them:
“Please tell me exactly what you are accusing me of. I write Word Search Books. I wrote one about “Seinfeld” which you objected to. It was removed and I never tried to republish it. I also told you explicitly that I had written one about “Married with Children” as a tribute which was approved and I never received any comment or objections about it.
I also wrote one about my university that I attended, but obviously it should be clear that I don’t own the university.
I have used the occasional book title or movie title as clues in my Word Search Books, but only to make them more interesting. I certainly don’t see how that could be a violation.
PLEASE RESTORE MY ACCOUNT!!! I DON’T THINK I DESERVE THIS!!!”
If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I never have made that much money anyways even though I have written more than 90 books. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. A lot of time and money spent advertising my books…
I really think KDP sucks right now!!!
I have suffered this before, it's sad that support team don't give necessary help when we need them. Thanks to my friend who directed me to XSOLVE.1
Who resolved mine chat on 1G
In my experience, large companies use canned responses. Their agents are also not allowed to type anything else. While it is extremely frustrating as a customer,the employees are also frustrated. The amount of emails received in a day is astronomical.
Yes, I can only imagine how many emails they get every day!
Very interesting story !! Thanks, it's very helpful
Thank you for making this video! It must have been very difficult to make about a painful situation. I often worry about just this kind of situation even though I take pains to try to comply with their content policies. Thanks again for taking the time to share. Appreciate all your videos. Good luck!
Thanks so much! I was nervous of the reaction I would get from this video but everyone has been so positive and supportive so I'm glad I made it in the end. 🙂
@@MyFreedomEmpire I'm people are being supportive. You talked about something many of us worry about. And we just have to do the best we can. Good luck with your future fiction books too :)
Dear Caroline, thank you for your great videos.
Week ago I published my first notebooks on KDP, this week when I published a set of journals( unfortunately I published the same book with different cover colors so the customer can select the preferred color) my KDP account got closed. I don't know if it is a suspension or a termination. I tried emailing them twice and I don't know if I will get my account back. I thought to try out Lulu as I needed my journals published for Valentine's. But am I allowed to use the same covers, titles as of the books in my banned KDP account? Or do I have to do them again, if not can I get Lulu account terminated too? Thank you
Good thing you have a solid personal fortitude, and you didn't give up. 👌
Don't take no for an answer!
I don’t know how you can cause so much damage to someone’s business, cause them so much stress and not rightfully be sued for damages. They’re not legally unaccountable just because they own a platform. It’s horrible they can hurt someone’s living so badly and never be held accountable.
What I do recommend is to top publishing for a while (in case you already had a large quantity of book publlished) because this could put on risk the rest of your books. Sometimes one cannot really see the mistakes we made but you can share the book, title and description you used with a friend, just for he, she to take a look and try to find what was wrong with your book. Is is a good idea to turn 180 degrees and publish high content book for a while. Stand by me if you need someone to take a look to that book. Take care
It's what she said in the video: she took all her books down and stopped publishing, she also asked friends what could have been the problem. In the end it turns out they made a mistake and didn't admit to it, instead they made it look like she was the one who made the mistake
Oh, I really hope you keep publishing! Your heart is in it. Hope you are successful!... Please could you give me a list of your favorite other print on demand companies? Greetings from Vienna, Austria 😊
I have decided that I'm going to start publishing again in 2022 but will also be focussing on selling on other platforms too. If you are talking about print on demand books then I'm going to be working with Lulu this year to print books.
Very informative video....I can only imagine all the sleepless nights you had to deal with because of the situation, life of a writer, love it or hate it, just always write about it.... Peace And Blessings
Thank you!
Thank you so much! I felt your frustration all the way. 😢 I would have ended up sending a mean email before they admitted their mistake.
P.S. I love your hair! I’m just now getting my mature hair but it’s not coming in fast enough for me. 😊
Thanks a lot, that was 100% helpful.
unfortunately this is like anything in life it's hard but not for everyone. It's heartbreaking but you just got to figure out how to get better and keep going.
Wow! This story is scary. You were diligent.
Yeah glad it's over and fixed!
When your account is blocked are the previous titles still available to customers or they are not able to order anything that you have published?
I had this happen to me as well last month. It was one notebook that caused the issue, and I went through all the steps you went through. Luckily I'm new on KDP and only had about a dozen books, but I unpublished and republished them with all new titles after my account was reinstated (a "mistake").
Just this week, I pushed up about 6 Christmas-related notebooks and all my notebooks were rejected for the titles - "During our review, we found that the title of the following book(s) might cause a misleading customer experience." I'm now in the process of renaming these as well. Hopefully, they'll accept my title changes without closing my account again!!
UPDATE: I think I realized what the issue might be. The instructions say that we should change the title & subtitle, but they don't give us an option to update the ISBN number. Isn't the bar code associated with the original title & subtitle?? I just sent them an email to confirm this, but I think if I follow their instructions to the letter, my account might be terminated AGAIN (unless I redo these books).
It's so interesting to hear this is a happening to other people too! Glad you were also able to get your account reinstated too.
If you created a whole new listing wouldn't you have been allocated a new ISBN? Or were you able to change the titles and subtitles because your account had been terminated?? I've never been able to change a title or subtitle after a book had been published.
It's very nerve wrecking isn't it! 🙂
@@MyFreedomEmpire What they actually did (this time) was put all my new notebooks back in Draft so I could work on the titles and subtitles, which is why I'm still a little concerned about the ISBN. The first time around, I did actually unpublish everything and started over once my account was reinstated.
What print on demand options can you do spiral bound books with? Ive been.very interested in this. Love this video! Thank you!
You can do this with Lulu. I'm going to be doing some video's on spiral bound books with Lulu shortly. Thank you!! 😄
If you called your books “series”, maybe that’s what they didn’t like, because I heard somewhere that they allow just fiction to be called “series”.
I have a series of coloring books which wasn't the issue. Other low content books I create like journals and notebooks are not in series.
Hi, would you know how amazon checks these books? Do they have around 100 people or more at an office checking books covers online or is it automatic thru a computer? I was just curious.
Hello! I think it would all be automatic through a computer.
@@MyFreedomEmpire ok, thank you!
Hi Caroline, Thank you for the info...yes, I'm ready to publish my journals....and I'm resisting for not making them "perfect"...I got another question, probably very silly (I'm new on this). I live in Australia: do I choose my marketplace US or AU? also I have made a series of low content journals realizing that I cannot publish them in a series...can I publish them one a day (got 10 all different...I'm a n artist)?? thank you
This low content book stuff is crazy. I made one, but not just lines inside a cute cover. I had a unique idea, thought it out and tested it with some friends, then made a single notebook design. It has sold very well, but now, there are at least five copy cat notebooks trying to mimic mine. They have copied my unique title, my description verbatim, and even tried (and failed) to mimic my design. Honestly it’s gross. My notebook sells and theirs doesn’t, but this has left a bad taste in my mouth. Amazon doesn’t even protect against blatant copying unless it’s formally trademarked. It’s bananas.
Thank you for sharing your story with us! Hope it's the last time that you had to deal with this kind of mistake from kdp
You're welcome! And me too!
HI Caroline, could you please give me a tip on what to do - they say that I've used trademark name in my low content book title and gave me an email - which person contacted them to suspend my account. They asked to contact him and compensate for whatever copies have been sold. Should I email him and say that zero copies have been sold, so there are no worries or should I just live on?
Hello. Interesting. Personally, I would wait for that person to contact me or I'd contact them asking them to prove their trademark status but considering that you haven't sold any copies, then yeah you could always just email them to say you have sold zero.
I worked for Amazon for years, so I understand your frustration. Unfortunately, they’ve outsourced their employees and these problems are occurring more often.
Hello! So you have all the inside info!! 😄 That sounds about right, using people who don't fully know or understand the systems is going to cause issues at some point.
I think they outsourced from India...
@@zaknoz yep!
KDP used to be user friendly, but more outsourced they have become, the less communication happens and terminate, without warning happens as well. there has to be better training for these KDP Reviewers.
Amazon Customer support and their account health Team is really losing them customers.
incompetent indian out sourcing is the major cause of this, they keep sending automated replies even without closing remarks! and such bigoted racists they are, if you are Pakistani, you have 50% more chance to get suspended.
and they never tell you what you did wrong! just suspend the account and deactivate it! refer to the guidelines, wtf DEPPA! thats 2000 words, what did i exactly do?
Reply? Nope?
I even openeed a case with subject as *gibberish* and body as *786* still had the same reply
The creator economy badly needs accountability laws and regulations for platforms.
Something like that would be very helpful for creators.
Crazy! Thank you for sharing this (I am a beginner, slowly learning, researching this niche). However as an astrologer I can see here possible influence of astrological factors as well.
My concern with amazon is it seems so random how books are shown in the search and the market gets more and more saturated, people can copy ideas of others. And also wonder how can one do quality control to ensure the quality of printing is good enough?
You're welcome! It does seem random, but all I know is that the more sales you get, the more amazon pushes the book to get more sales. In terms of the printing quality, you can really do any kind of quality control because Amazon prints so many books from so many different warehouse/printing houses that they own you just have to hope that they are consistent with the quality of their book printing.
you can order your own book to check the quality, but we cannot trust amazon abotu income. They close account and you cannot get YOUR money!
I am new to this. I put 'Kawaii' is trademarked (I checked USPTO) which I have in my book title. However, I have to only avoid it if 'books' are in the Goods and Services section right? For example, one of them says 'School bags, shoulder bags...etc' so having it in my book title should be fine right?
Yes, correct.