Is Your KDP Account Banned? WATCH THIS!

About this video

Dale Roberts addresses what to do if a KDP or CreateSpace account is suspended or terminated, arguing Amazon can do this with no real recourse and keeps its guidelines ambiguous so it can make up the rules when it serves them. He distinguishes a suspension — typically for a policy violation, essentially a slap on the hand lasting as long as Amazon deems necessary, sometimes followed by reinstatement with a warning, and sometimes part of a two-strikes-then-termination pattern — from a termination, which can be immediate with only a canned response. For a suspension he advises waiting it out and only giving information when specifically asked. For a termination he recommends: 1) file an appeal, noting it has taken some publishers upwards of three months or more to get accounts back, communicating by email or call since the account is inaccessible; 2) consider alternatives — Lulu, IngramSpark or Nook Press for print, and for ebooks Lulu, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, PublishDrive, BookRix and others, or publishing direct to Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Google Play — while warning not to republish content from a blocked account through aggregators, which vet for it; and 3) do it yourself via a website where you self-fulfil orders and use an email list. He stresses building an email list so you do not rely on Amazon for your payday, and finding out precisely why the termination happened so you do not repeat it.

Key takeaways

• Amazon can suspend or terminate a KDP/CreateSpace account without having to give a reason, and its guidelines are kept ambiguous.
• A suspension is usually a temporary penalty for a violation; a termination can be immediate, and during a suspension you should only provide information when specifically asked.
• If terminated, file an appeal — Roberts says some publishers have taken three months or more to get accounts back.
• Move to alternatives such as Lulu, IngramSpark and Nook Press for print and Draft2Digital and others for ebooks, but do not try to republish blocked-account content through aggregators.
• Build an email list and consider selling and self-fulfilling through your own website so Amazon is not your sole source of income.

Episode details: published March 28, 2018 · 5:11 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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