Amazon terminating accounts of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) users. While this is not new, but the recent development where Amazon is doing this on a large scale is worrisome.
I regret to announce that Amazon just did that to our KDP account which we have operated successfully and with full regards to Amazon terms and conditions for many years now. I believe many of the readers and followers of this blog will be surprised to read this.
Yes, it happened. Amazon just terminated our KDP account for no reason in particular apart from a flimsy one which they sent to us. You will read a copy of this email in this post and will see how vague Amazon can be with their reasons for terminating people’s account and business.
Why is Amazon closing accounts?
Well, only Amazon can answer this. I believe it goes beyond just the usual and vague breaching of terms and conditions they always put forward.
Funny enough, Amazon have refused to reply an appeal letter or email they encouraged authors to send in the Amazon KDP account termination email they sent. Is that not unprofessional? How can you encourage authors to appeal and you have refused to reply the appeal email?
Amazon terminating accounts: Our KDP story
We have been Publishing and selling books on Amazon for over 15 years. We publish essentially:
- Christian books
- Business development books
- Publishing books
Some of our books are best-sellers on Amazon with lots of good reviews and good star ratings. I must say we have been that ‘good boy’ Author that Amazon wants in her bookstore because we try to work according to rules and regulations of Amazon.
We don’t publish public domain books though Amazon wants authors to do this. We don’t publish AI-generated contents. We don’t steak contents of others and publish on Amazon. We are that good boy.
Our CEO, Sesan Oguntade, a very experienced and Professional author and publisher, is a very disciplined person and business man. He is a Christian and he would not always want to breach terms and conditions of organization deliberately.
Watch video: Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.com lends his voice to the termination of Kdp accounts by Amazon. Watch video by clicking the link below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO1c1YPrzEE
40 books published on Amazon
Sesan Oguntade has published over 40 books on Amazon as:
- Ebooks or kindle books
- Paperback books
- Hard copy books
Lots of copies of these books have been sold in the past 15 years. The books have received good star ratings from Amazon customers.
We see no reason why Amazon would terminate such account without a valid reason for doing so. And more annoying is the fact that Amazon has not responded to two appeal emails sent to them to explain why the account was terminated.
Amazon terminating accounts: How it all started
We want our CEO to take it up from here.
I tried to login to my Amazon KDP account on this interesting day and I was greeted with a very funny notice of, ‘Your account has been terminated’ Please see the image below:
That startled me and I reacted immediately to check the Amazon account termination email they sent to my email which I have not checked before I tried to log into my account. Please read the contents of the email below:
Amazon account termination email
Alert from Amazon KDP about your account
Kindle Content Review
To
lettersesan@yahoo.com
Apr 30 at 1:06 PM
Hello,
As a result of a review, we found content and/or activities that are in violation of our Terms and Conditions and are terminating your account effective immediately.
Examples include attempting to publish books that violate our Content Guidelines.
As part of the termination process:
• We will close your KDP account
• You’re no longer eligible to receive any outstanding royalties
• You’ll no longer have access to your account. This includes, editing your titles, viewing your reports and accessing any
other information within your account
• All of your published titles will be removed from sale on Amazon
Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you aren’t allowed to open any new KDP accounts.
You can find our Terms and Conditions here: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200627430
If you believe you have received this message in error or you have information about your account that you would like us to consider, please reply to this email.
Regards,
Amazon KDP
Did you observe how vague and unconvincing the reason for termination is? The content claims I was attempting to publish contents contrary to their terms and conditions.
I was attempting. Okay, Amazon can you show me these attempt I made to publish contents that are against your terms and conditions.
Well, I replied with the following information in an appeal email because I was encouraged to do so by Amazon. Please read the appeal email below:
Appeal email from me
Good evening,
I am surprised to read this termination email.
I have been Publishing books on Amazon for many years now. I don’t think I have published books or have attempted to publish books that violates your terms and conditions.
Please may I know the book or books in question.
I want to believe this account was terminated in error.
I will be waiting to know the exact books you’re referring to.
Thank you for your usual cooperation.
Sesan oguntade.
When I did not receive a response from Amazon to my appeal email, I sent another appeal email after about 5 days. Read the second appeal email below:
Hello,
Thank you for your email.
Earlier I sent a reply to the termination email I received from your end but I have not received a reply.
From your termination email, I read that the reason for the termination is because of the following:
Examples include attempting to publish books that violate our Content Guidelines.
I want to believe this was done in error as I have not made attempt to publish books that will violate your terms and conditions.
For over 15 years I have published and sold books on Amazon and I have been careful with my activities on the platform.
I hope your team will look into this and let me know what I actually did wrong. I would like to know the book or books in question that violate your terms and conditions.
Thank you and have a great day.
Sesan Oguntade.
It is over two weeks now and I have not received a reply from Amazon. I believe the reply will never come!
This is another surprise since st the end of the termination email from Amazon, we have the following information:
If you believe you have received this message in error or you have information about your account that you would like us to consider, please reply to this email.
Regards,
Amazon KDP
It does shows very clearly how Amazon value her customers or partners in business.
Update: Amazon eventually replied after about 5 weeks! I will give you details soon.
Amazon terms and conditions
Since breaching of Amazon terms and conditions is the major reason for Amazon terminating accounts (I got that from carrying out researches online and from fellow authors whose accounts have been terminated’ in this manner in the past), I believe should show some human and professional feelings by trying to give better details or explanation of the actual part of the terms and conditions that was breached by any author.
This is better by just stating a vague and an unconvincing reason and then use that to justify the closing of accounts of authors and especially that of authors who have spent lots of years selling books on Amazon and also making money for Amazon.
This is important because it is possible Amazon got it wrong. Accounts can be terminated in error. Amazon is not perfect. They make mistakes too.
We have seen cases of books sales that were not recorded and nothing was done about it. You need to check for that online and you will how many authors have suffered from this. So it is true that Amazon system is also not perfect!
This is the reason why Amazon should give authors to appeal and a better and more convincing explanation offered for terminating authors’ Amazon accounts. With one or two exchange of emails, Amazon can discover whether it was in error or not.
Need for Account strikes
I also strongly believe Amazon should introduce strikes. A maximum of three strikes for anyone who violates their terms and conditions.
These strikes are warnings for authors. The first and the second strikes will lead to the third strike. Any author with a third strike should have his or her Amazon account terminated.
The truth is that authors can make mistakes. Amazon may be the biggest online store or company in the world but Amazon is not perfect. The same way authors are not perfect too. Amazon should give authors the opportunity to appeal their accounts termination and then warning strikes should be introduced.
How we have published and sold books on Amazon
Well, I am glad for opportunity to work with Amazon. Great platform. We were able to reach out to thousands of people. We sold lots of books.
Amazon is part of our history now and we move forward. I want you to look at our great achievement publishing and selling books on Amazon in pictures:
Some of our published books:
Some of our sales records on Amazon:
One of our best-selling books on Amazon. The Prostitute novel. Read more about Christian romance novel here
Pictures of other best-selling ebooks on Amazon: Find more information about these books and how to order them online here
One of the reviews for our books in Amazon:
Pictures of sales records in Amazon:
Amazon closing accounts: Way forward
What is the way forward for us as a publisher of books? The truth is that we have being preparing for this over the years.
We have never put our eggs in one basket. We have our own online platforms that we have been building over the years. We may not have the huge customer base of Amazon but we are surely not going to start from group zero!
You are presently on one of the platforms reading this blog post. It is our online bookstore in Nigeria. It is the most exciting online bookstore in Nigeria. This website has also sold lots of books and publishing services over the years.
We also have our Christian personal development blog
That website is growing daily in unique visits. Our Christian personal development online bookstore is also filled with information on how you can still purchase our books. A visit will convince. Click to read more
Build your own platform
This should serve as a lesson to you. Build your own platform. Remember how Smashowords was sold to Draft2digital and the new owner decided to close accounts of authors in Africa?
Accounts were closed without authors being informed about the closure. Very unprofessional. The truth is that these guys own their platforms so they can do whatever the like with their platforms.
You should own yours too. You should start your own blog. You should build your own online presence too.
Selling ebooks directly online
The good news is that you can begin to sell ebooks directly online. How?
At our publishing firm here at Sarefat Vision Investment Publishing, we have used other methods to sell ebooks over the years. Probably, God was helping us to prepare for the mess Amazon is putting sincere and law abiding authors into as I have explained so far in this post.
What is selling ebooks directly online?
Selling ebooks directly online is all about selling your ebooks or books directly through your website or through the social media without the need to go through established online stores like Amazon, Draft2digital, Lulu etc.
This strategy offers a new angle to the ebook selling business. It also gives you the opportunity to have your destiny majorly in your own hands.
You won’t wake one day to find your author account canceled just like Amazon and Smashowords did or are doing to authors.
There are different ways we have done this over the years. We have even made more money on our books doing it this way over the years than we made on Amazon and others put together.
I am putting together a post and an ebook to share our experience in this strategy. If you want to know more about this ebook when it is out, please email us now or Whatsapp 08034300979. In your message, let us know you want more information on New Ways to Sell Ebooks Without Amazon.
