I have here an ongoing email exchange with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) that I find mind-boggling.
Let me set the stage first.
KDP is what authors use to self-publish books and short stories. A self-published author will use just KDP. A traditionally published author may use KDP to publish additional material. I used it for Road Brothers, the Book of the Ancestor story Bound, and my short story During the Dance.
So, two months ago I hit 'publish' on a collection of three short stories, a Snorri story (Red Queen's War), a Jalan story (Red Queen's War), and a Nona story (Book of the Ancestor). When you publish something it needs to be cleared, and Amazon says that typically takes under 72 hours.
A week later I get this:
We have temporarily suspended your KDP account because you have published titles with intentionally misleading metadata. We don’t accept content that is meant to advertise, promote, or mislead, because such content may lead to inaccurate or overwhelming search results or impair our readers' ability to make good buying decisions.
You can see the violations reflected in the following title(s):
The Devil You Know: 3 short stories - One from The...
Mark Lawrence id XXXX
Before we can reinstate your account, we need you to do the following:
1. Reply to this message with the following declaration: “I confirm that I have read and will comply with the Content Guidelines https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672390 and the Metadata Guidelines https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G201097560, and that I will remove any previously published titles that do not meet these guidelines”; and
2. Review your catalog and remove any titles that do not comply with these guidelines
Until we receive a response from you regarding this issue, your account will remain blocked.
As a reminder, violations of our Content Guidelines may negatively impact your account status and you may also lose access to optional KDP services.
If you have questions or believe you've received this email in error, reply to this message.
Regards,
Amazon KDP
So ... immediately they are saying I have to "Review your catalog and remove any titles that do not comply with these guidelines" before they will unblock my account... but I would need access to my account to do that...
The 'crime' they're accusing me of concerns - if you follow the link - 'willfully misleading metadata'. More on that later.
So I reply:
Without acknowledging the stupidity of their request they unblocked my account. But since the only item they had complained about was still 'in review' and you can't alter anything on a book in review, I had to email them again. I'm telling them that I think they're complaining about me referencing books I didn't write & I'm telling them that I did write those books:
In any case – I believe the title in review will need to be taken out of review before I can do anything with it. If that could be done, or you could let me know how to edit it while it is in review, I would be very grateful.
To which I got the following reply which confirms the block is over those book references and explains how I can prove I wrote them:
During
our review, we found that the following book(s) may cause a misleading
customer experience because the title and/or
author listed in the book details
closely matches another known work and/or author.
The similarity between your
work and the other work/author could impair a
customers' ability to make good
buying decisions.
The Devil You Know: 3 short stories - One from The
Book of the Ancestor, two
from The Red Queen's War
Lawrence, Mark (AUTHOR) : XXXX
Items that can cause a misleading customer
experience include:
• Similarity of the contributor name to another
author
• Similarity of the title to a previously
published book
• Similarity of the cover to a previously
published book
To publish the book(s), review Amazon for works
with similar title and/or
author information and follow one or both of the options
below:
Option 1: Similar Book Title
If your book title is similar to another known
work, then you will need to
confirm that your book is sufficiently
differentiated from the known work.
Sufficient differentiation may include one or more
of the following:
• Your work is in a different category/genre than
the known work
• The book cover design of your book is
significantly different than the known work
• The main title is a short phrase or common term
• The book subtitle and/or description is
significantly different than the known work
Reply to this message with confirmation of how
your book(s) is sufficiently differentiated or how you plan to differentiate
your work from the other known work.
Option 2: Similar Author Name
If you are the known author or authorized to publish
their work(s), reply to this email and provide us with further
documentation and/or verification.
Acceptable documentation/verification may include:
• A signed copy of the agreement between the
author and the previous publisher
• A successful claim of the Amazon Author Central
page for the known author using the same KDP account where the book(s) is
being published
If you are not the known author, then you will
need to confirm that your book is sufficiently differentiated from the known author.
Reply to this message to verify that you are the
known author or to confirm how your author name is sufficiently differentiated or
how you plan to differentiate your work from the other known author.
For more details about KDPs eBook metadata
guidelines, visit Help:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G201097560
OK, so we've taken a step forward. They're telling me the problem definitely is that the metadata (which I can't change because the book's in review) mentions Red Queen's War & Book of the Ancestor, and that's the problem, because they don't think I wrote those.
I reply to say that I've already taken the action they're asking me to do - claim the Author Central page for those books - and I did it years ago:
Dear XXXX - as I've said in a number of previous emails, I am the same Mark Lawrence who wrote the books that your review is objecting to me referencing.
Looking at your "Option 2" I choose: "A successful claim of the Amazon Author
Central page for the known author
using the same KDP account where the book(s) is being published"
And I do that knowing that I *already own* the
Mark Lawrence Amazon.com Author Central account that has those books that your
review objects to listed against it.
Moreover, my KDP account *takes me to* that Author
Central account where I am fully logged on and able to access all features.
So I am at a complete loss as to how you want me
to 'successfully claim' an Author Central account that I successfully claimed
many years ago under the same Amazon account as my KDP account and using the
same email address...
My only guess as to the source of your confusion
is that the Author Central account is on Amazon.com and the KDP account was
set up whilst I was living in the UK and may be associated with
Amazon.co.uk. But one leads to the other through the KDP account, both use the same email
address, and I'm not sure what more you want from me.
So, now things start to get FRUSTRATING. They reply with basically a cut & paste to say they are UPHOLDING their decision and if I want to change their mind I can ... claim my Author Central page :
Thanks
for your message regarding the following book(s):
The Devil You Know: 3 short stories - One from The
Book of the Ancestor, two from The Red Queen's War
Lawrence, Mark (AUTHOR) : XXXX
We've reviewed your book(s) and are upholding our
previous decision. The book(s) impairs customers' ability to make good buying
decisions because of the following:
• Similarity of the contributor name to another
author
To have your book(s) reconsidered for publication,
reply to this message with
confirmation of how your book(s) is sufficiently
differentiated or how you plan
to differentiate your work from the other known
work.
If you are the known author or authorized to
publish their work(s), provide documentation and/or verification.
Acceptable documentation/verification may include:
• A signed copy of the agreement between the
author and the previous publisher
• A successful claim of the Amazon Author Central
page for the known author using the same KDP account where the book(s) is
being published
If you are not the known author, then you will
need to confirm that your book is sufficiently differentiated from the known author.
Sufficient differentiation may include one or more
of the following:
• Your work is in a different category/genre than
the known author
• You are using your real/legal name and including
a middle name or initial
• The book description clearly indicates that the
work is from an author other than the known author
• The cover design of your book is significantly
different than the work(s) of the known author
I reply (& bear in mind - they take up to 5 working days to consider each of my emails):
Dear XXX,
I am bewildered by your reply and feel that you have missed vital components of the email you are replying to.
You tell me I need to "A successful claim of
the Amazon Author Central page for the known author using the same KDP account where
the book(s) is being published"
I have already told you that I have a successful
claim on the Author Central page - it's mine, I claimed it years ago, I have
used it, it is registered using the same email / Amazon account as my KDP account.
You reply telling me exactly the same thing you
told me in the first place, i.e that I need to make "A successful claim of
the Amazon Author Central page for the known author using the same KDP account where
the book(s) is being published".
You don't deny that I have already done that
(though by repeating yourself you imply such a denial). You don't suggest a method
to prove my already established ownership, or resolve this apparent difference of
opinion over something that should be easily verifiable fact.
A great first step would be for you to acknowledge
that I am telling you I own the author central page for the Mark Lawrence who
wrote the books referenced in the short story I'm attempting to publish on KDP.
You don't have to admit this is true (it is) but please at least indicate that
you have seen me say this.
Then check if it is true and come back with either
"it looks as if someone else
controls it" (they don't) or "oh, yes,
so you do".
I feel that if I could actually talk to someone,
this matter could be resolved very quickly. I've asked repeatedly to be called
about it but just get these emails.
I've been told that attempts were made to call me
but I have no missed calls and
my phone works.
Could you, or someone else, please call me on (UK) XXXX
In the mean time I finally got in contact with KDP by phone. When you click the "call us" button, this pops up
BUT, despite asking you for the number to call you on ... they do not call you on that number ... they call the number listed on your account. So ... why the FUCK ask for a number? In my case the account phone number was out of date. When I finally figured this out, I updated it.
Now ... it turns out that the people dealing this issues like mine are not contactable by phone in any way. And the people who are contactable by phone don't know anything about it. However, by persisting I was put through to a tier 2 staff member who was able to at least see that I owned the Author Central page as well, to put a message through to the team I've been dealing with, and to say he saw no problem and that the book/stories should be published very soon.
Hooray.
And then the reply to my email arrived - the one above where I encourage the person to read the text of my email and if they only did one thing let it be to acknowledge that I am saying I own the author central page that they say will serve as the proof required:
Thanks
for your message regarding the following book(s):
The Devil You Know: 3 short stories - One from The
Book of the Ancestor, two from The Red Queen's War
Lawrence, Mark (AUTHOR) : XXXX
We've reviewed your book(s) and are upholding our
previous decision. The book(s) impairs customers' ability to make good buying
decisions because of the following:
• Similarity of the contributor name to another
author
To have your book(s) reconsidered for publication,
reply to this message with confirmation of how your book(s) is sufficiently
differentiated or how you plan to differentiate your work from the other known
work.
If you are the known author or authorized to
publish their work(s), provide documentation and/or verification.
Acceptable documentation/verification may include:
• A signed copy of the agreement between the
author and the previous publisher
• A successful claim of the Amazon Author Central
page for the known author using the same KDP account where the book(s) is being
published
If you are not the known author, then you will
need to confirm that your book is sufficiently differentiated from the known
author.
Sufficient differentiation may include one or more
of the following:
• Your work is in a different category/genre than
the known author
• You are using your real/legal name and including
a middle name or initial
• The book description clearly indicates that the
work is from an author other than the known author
• The cover design of your book is significantly
different than the work(s) of the known author
By this point I feel that either the guy is actively trolling me or I am talking to a bot...
I replied with the following, and that was today:
Dear XXXX – I continue to feel that you are not reading my emails.
I have spoken to the tier 2 KDP team who agree that I do own the
Mark Lawrence author central page that lists the books referenced in the story
in review on my KDP page. They can see it. They were confused by your objection
and very confused that you continue to uphold it. They told me to expect my
story to be published within 48 hours.
The only way forwards that I can see is for you to read the points
I am making and to respond to them. Let’s start with one simple question:
Do you deny that I own the Mark Lawrence author central page?
Please note that I will be pursuing this matter through multiple
other routes and including the record of our transactions in those other
communications.
I would also be very grateful if you could pass this matter on to a
colleague as we are not making progress.
Many thanks,
Mark
