It’ll never happen to me, I thought. I’m a stickler for the rules, so my Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account was surely safe from being terminated. I spent so much time and energy making sure that everything was tiptop, aboveboard—so much so that, when I saw the email moments after waking up, I thought it was spam.
It was not.
Barely three months after publishing my debut novel, Compliant Hearts, Amazon decided to terminate my KDP account.
Don’t Panic at the Disco
Writing is difficult. A lot of writers will tell you that they don’t love writing as much as having written. I’m no exception. So when I got the email and realised that Amazon had, indeed, terminated my account for allegedly breaking their rules of service by having two accounts (something which, I assure you, I didn’t have) I was heartbroken to say the least.
I honestly, truly couldn’t believe it. And, of course, I panicked.
My writing career was over before it even started. All my royalties of my debut were forfeit. I was a failure as a writer. I looked at the pieces and wondered if I should pick them back up.
In short, I was being my usual dramatic self.
And So I Wondered, ‘Why Me?’
There are many reasons why Amazon might ban your account. While I never got a concrete answer for why exactly my account had been banned, what the name or email of the other account could’ve possibly been, I suspect it had something to do with bots.
Now, you’ll quickly find out—if you don’t already know—that a lot of Amazon’s security flags are patrolled by automations (also called bots). I like to imagine these as cute little things, roaming the cyber web and making sure that things are running the way they’re supposed to.
The issue? They don’t have the same discernment as a person and, occasionally, might go on red alert and start policing for reasons that have nothing to do with keeping the peace.
These can range from someone else logging into a KDP profile on your wifi, even if they are using a different computer, to (what I suspect happened in my case) the same email address being used for different Amazon regional variants. (I live in South Africa and we recently got amazon.co.za.)
Helpful Resources
The first thing I can say? Don’t post on the KDP Community forum. They are not helpful, they will tell you that you did something wrong (even if you swear you’re innocent) and they will judge you as only people on the internet might.
Now, I can’t blame them that much. Prison is full of people who swear they’re innocent, you know? But some of us actually are, and it doesn’t help when we try to find a solution, only to be met by ridicule, suspicion, and criticism that isn’t constructive.
Reddit is a much better and safer option, in my opinion. In fact, this post was a lifeline throughout the process and inspired me to start this blog. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you refer to it, especially the document linked in the answer with the most upvotes.
How’d I Get It Back?
As some of you might have already noticed, I did, in fact, manage to get my account restored.
How? Well, all my emails were pretty much met with the same generic replies—except one: the one with supporting documents.
When I say I’d invested time and money into the first book, I mean it. I’d registered a business for the tax benefits it offers us in South Africa, I’d undergone all of Amazon’s verifications and read through all the related rules. So when I sent the email that finally met with success, I’d decided (as the Reddit document had suggested) to provide as much proof as I could that I was an honest and Amazon-Law-abiding citizen. I provided 10 documents as proof, from the confirmation email that Compliant Hearts had been published, all the way to my tax records and business registration.
And that’s the email that worked.
A few days later, I got a response that my account had been reinstated and a warning that I should be careful going forward not to break the Ts&Cs (which I hadn’t in the first place).
A Lesson Learned
At the end of the day, if this happens to you, it’s going to suck. You might’ve been on the train to work or just woken up, gotten the email, and had the panic set in. My advice? Don’t let it ruin your day like it ruined mine. You might be guilty, you might not, but it’s important to know that it’s not impossible to get back your account.
Keep your chin up, let your readers know, and start sending those emails to Amazon.
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