• Some Amazon KDP authors have had their author accounts and their books suddenly terminated.
• Authors continue to report printing and binding issues.
• There are complaints about long delivery times (weeks) for copies authors order for themselves.
• Some authors have accused Amazon KDP of not paying their royalties.
• The stories about very bad customer service seem endless.
• And, much more!

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In case you don’t have time to read all of the detailed complaints at the links below, here are some snippets:

“Worst Customer Support I Have Ever Experienced”

“This e-mail stated that they would be keeping ALL of my royalties…”

“I have never experienced—or even imagined—a company and its associates being so utterly negligent, incompetent, and indolent…”

“Why did Amazon just close my 10 year old account”

“…today they randomly closed my account”

“They still have not paid me royalties and i doubt they ever will.”

“I wrote to Amazon’s legal department and included copies of all of my unanswered emails, questions, postings etc. about the situation.”

“KDP is killing my business and I need help!”

“What a sordid company this is.”

“Amazon printed and shipped the wrong contents for my paperback using my cover. The book received many 1 star reviews…”

“It’s been nothing but a headache.”

“Why a book with a printing cost of $13.90 and a sale price of $24 only gets $.50 in royalties?”

“Do not use KDP!”

“KDP is horrible, please believe all the negative reviews.”

“Go elsewhere people!”

“Horrible customer service”

“I keep getting passed around to customer service representatives”

“I agree with all the negative reviews”

“The worst customer service possible”

“Since Amazon took over, it’s been a nightmare to deal with them. My payments have started to fail a year and a half ago…”

“AUTHORS BEWARE”

“Something very wrong is going on at Amazon and kdp.”

“four random (not consecutive) pages fell out in the first few chapters. They weren’t glued at all.”

“One of my books that has been for sale since 2019 was just sent to a buyer with a chapter added that I didnt write.”

“the interior illustrations looked terrible — white vertical lines running through them”

“Now almost two months have passed without a response and satisfactory replacement.”

“If i could give less than one star I would.”

“You should also be wary of any company that makes it impossible to simply email them with complaints and concerns.”

“This is devastating.”

“Yesterday my account got locked.”

“Several authors in the FB groups I’m a part of have had up to half their KENP page reads from Amazon for certain months”

“Unfortunately, scams abound with Kindle Unlimited”

“Recently, I have had severe problems explaining copyright law to KDP staff.”

“…most of them are unable to do their job correctly…”

“…I haven’t received any help in having my book restored”

“I keep receiving an email to say I have too many blank pages, but there are none in my manuscript.”

“Setting up is certainly not for the average person.”

“…my income is plummeting…”

“Amazon certainly isn’t worth it any more.”

“All of a sudden, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided to put my payments on HOLD.”

“I’ve been working on this problem for more than a year.”

“Ever since switching my kdp to their select program, I haven’t received any royalty payments.”

“I will also remark that KDP’s website is not terribly good at showing a way to contact the company/division directly..”

“my report shows a sale, but no royalty for the sale is shown.”

“Six weeks to receive five author copies?”

“I ordered author copies of a hardcover weeks ago, and they haven’t shown up yet.”

“…the average is 2-5 weeks, longer for hardcover, if available at all.”

“Both books showing up as will ship in two days, clearly not true.”

“The email I did get was saying my order would be delayed another month.”

“The result is a search specifically for my title yields a page full of similar unrelated books, but not mine…”

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Thinking about publishing your book through Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)? You might want to think again after reading the quality, customer service, royalty, and numerous other complaints below. Our parent company, BookLocker.com, competes with Amazon KDP. However, we reject numerous manuscripts each year. When we do, we NEVER recommend authors use Amazon KDP.

Amazon KDP was previously called CreateSpace. Before that, it was BookSurge. No matter how many times they change their name, the complaints from authors continue to stack up.

Below are quotes from websites that allow people to post complaints about companies. Below those are complaints  posted directly to Amazon’s KDP author discussion board on their site. These are definitely eye-opening! And, this is just a drop in the bucket. There are NUMEROUS complaints in Amazon’s system, and elsewhere, written by their own authors.

All complaints listed below were posted just within the past six months. We have not corrected errors in the quotes below.

Worst Customer Support I Have Ever Experienced
The title summarizes how I have been treated by KDP over the last 9 months. I have never experienced—or even imagined—a company and its associates being so utterly negligent, incompetent, and indolent in their refusal to fix a situation. There are some pretty awful businesses out there, but KDP is the absolute worst…

I would NOT recommend Kdp Amazon
What a sordid company this is. Self-publishing is notoriously difficult but once you manage it, you can’t order author copies. You should also be wary of any company that makes it impossible to simply email them with complaints and concerns.

DO NOT USE KDP!
They gave me a measly 2 days after sending the blocked title notification e-mail before sending another e-mail stating that my account was terminated, not suspended, TERMINATED as a result. This e-mail stated that they would be keeping ALL of my royalties, all of which absolutely did not come from any sales of the blocked title in question, that was never published…

Horrible Customer Service
As a author, I have been working with KDP since October 29, 2021 to resolve an issue regarding covers to several books. I keep getting passed around to customer service representatives, and always get the same pat answer: will contact you when it is resolved…

I agree with all the negative reviews
I agree with all the negative reviews. They just robbed me too. I hope they enjoy their profit cause I won’t be getting mine!!! Don’t use KDP if you don’t have to. Be cautious!

The worst customer service possible
I have had my account with KDP for many years, from before they were reincarnated as KDP from CreateSpace, and have published with them 27 titles. Since Amazon took over, it’s been a nightmare to deal with them. My payments have started to fail a year and a half ago, apparently “because my name is incorrect.” I have resubmitted my bank details, at KDP’s request, about a dozen times, but the issue hasn’t been resolved. Since October 2020, I have called their customer service quite a few times, and have emailed them back-and-forth probably over a hundred times. The customer service system is completely incompetent — reps have been shuffling me from one person to another, all with generic replies, and no one who is actually interested in resolving the issue…

If you publish your book via a company…
Amazon KDP are very unhelpful and just cut and paste generic responses. AUTHORS BEWARE.

Authors beware
Authors beware! The recent jump in negative reviews are accurate. Something very wrong is going on at Amazon and kdp. I’ve sold many books on Amazon for many years without problems. Their customer service has always been helpful. Not anymore.

SCAM
SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!! My book was supposed to be taken down a couple of years ago, and when i searched for it i couldn’t find it so i thought it had been. Turns out they never took it down, they were still selling it and i was getting zero royalties. I only found out my book was still up because someone on social media reached out to me that they’d purchased one. I reached out to KDP and for the last month have been getting the run around and pushed off. They still have not paid me royalties and i doubt they ever will. Worst decision i ever made was doing anything with them.

HOW KDP AMAZON HURTS AUTHORS
That is my unfortunate KDP experience that pressed me to write this review. I recently ordered proof copies of my books for review purposes. But when the shipment arrived, all the covers were smudged with fingerprints. I contacted kdp, who requested photo proof of the damages that occurred. Now almost two months have passed without a response and satisfactory replacement. Can you imagine readers and libraries receiving defective books while kdp neglect to offer adequate and timely solutions?

User has no control over own work
You, as a publisher, have zero control over your own work. I’ve been simply trying to get my two DRAFTS deleted, and I can’t. When you upload your book, the format is MASSACRED and your work becomes completely unreadable. This happened to me, and I can’t even unpublish it. Not to mention when you enter your bank account info, it CAN’T BE DELETED, EVER. I regret ever trying to use this website. It’s been nothing but a headache.

KDP, run by militants – AVOID
If i could give less than one star I would. After 20 years of running my website i decided to turn it into a book. They have closed my account as I apparently have duplicate account, I DO NOT. They have no complaints or appeals team. All my work is lost in their system. AVOID

KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING
I published an adult coloring book in 2018 signing a contract with Createspace. I made very little profit because my book was pushed back as far as 8 pages when ppl searched for it. After the original contract expired, KDP took over the contract and I LOST ALL ACCESS to my book… When I finally threatened legal action they blocked me.

After changing my phone number I cannot…
After changing my phone number I cannot access the money side of my account. Twice I have sent a copy of my driver’s licence to facilitate a supposed “two step” verification process. Very very poor customer service. I can’t find any other way of drawing their attention to this.

I have published a book and it in my…
I have published a book and it in my first week I sold a few copies, but no sales show on my account. Amazon takes the profits and does not compensate you for it.

KDP is horrible
KDP is horrible, please believe all the negative reviews. You won’t be able to reach anyone when issues come about. There emails responses are generic after a day wait. They will block your account for any and everything. Go elsewhere people!

Amazon – I am not getting a text on my phone so I can access my KDP account
I write books and I have a KDP account but your two step verification process isnt working. I have published six books on Amazon most of which were through creative before creative was closed.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PAYMENTS (OR LACK THEREOF…)

Why does KDP puts payments on HOLD?
For past two years, I received my royalty payments perfectly. No issues! All of a sudden, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided to put my payments on HOLD. The only explanation I get is that my bank is not valid or that there has been a typo! I have updated all my information which is exactly correct. My bank name, address, branch number, etc. is all there and is exactly the same. The bank is valid; it has not moved or changed its name. Why in heaven’s name when something was working great, did someone have to tamper with it. And, why has someone in KDP not got the common sense and courtesy to rectify this? They keep expecting me to change something that doesn’t need changing. The issue has been created on their end. I have always in past been quite pleased with the quick and decent service I’ve received. This is quite unacceptable. I hope someone can shed some light.

not paid for more than a year
I’ve been working on this problem for more than a year. They pay me for some countries but not others. I only get part (Most) of my royalties since November 2020. One time I got all my royalties (July 2021) so that proves I have all the bank info correct.

Royalty Inquiry
Ever since switching my kdp to their select program, I haven’t received any royalty payments. Why is that??

We are unable to verify your banking details.
We have been self-publishing books via KDP for a very long time – about 20 years. Yesterday, we received a message from KDP with the subject line: We are unable to verify your banking details. There are no other details other than to sign in and set up a new payment method. We haven’t changed anything regarding payment through our bank during that 20 years. We set it up once and it has worked perfectly ever since. I’m trying to locate someplace where I can email/talk directly with someone at KDP to find out more about what their problem is. I will also remark that KDP’s website is not terribly good at showing a way to contact the company/division directly to discuss the solution to a problem that I think is on KDP’s end.

AND

I have had the same thing as did another author friend. I also have been publishing for a while–2014–using exactly the same bank account, with never an issue on deposits at any time.

AND

I have locked two threads recently in ‘Payments’ because I have experienced the same issues. Indeed, this happened to me twice in a 12-month period. My bank details had not changed in any way.

AND

This is precisely what happened in my case. It is ludicrous and even more ludicrous is KDPs utter lack of transparency in telling affected users just why this happens.

AND

I wonder. Adding insult to injury, I had a small UK payment for back-owing royalties sent in April, which cleared into my bank account, normally, as usual, on the 21st…2 days after Amazon informed me that my bank account details had an ‘issue’. I’ve since found another of my writer friends in the UK is also having exactly the same issue–same bank account since 2009.

AND

My account details (Traditional UK Bank Current Account from one of the top 3 banks) have not changed for years and, as the poster notes, there is nothing from KDP to say why there is a problem.

Royalties ???
Why a book with a printing cost of $13.90 and a sale price of $24 only gets $.50 in royalties? Why waste the time publishing the book, and working your butt off to promote it ? I know you’re going to say Amazon deserves all that profit, but hey, we write the books…

No royalty posted for sale
I’ve never had this happen before: my report shows a sale, but no royalty for the sale is shown. It’s not a situation where it’s a foreign sale where no royalty is earned because of currency conversion, VAT taxes, etc.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT SLOW FILE PROCESSING

Book Cover Changes in Review 20+ days
I’m fairly new to this, but I have never had a book cover change stuck in review for over 20 days – is this normal?

How long it takes for a Book to be published
I would like to know how long it takes for a published book to be reviewed,because i published my first Notebook on the 5. February but till today it’s still being reviewed

ACCOUNTS CLOSED WITH NO NOTICE

Why did Amazon just close my 10 year old account
This just happened a couple hours ago. Now I see incoming complaints that mirror my own. I have 13 active eBooks out there and suddenly someone or something had closed my account with no explanation. I’ve sent complaints to their contact site but i am more than skeptical that Amazon doesn’t really care about me or any of you.

Account Terminated
hello, i just got a message from KDP “We are terminating your account effective immediately because you have multiple accounts, which is a violation of our Terms and Conditions. Also, this account is related to an account that was terminated due to violations of our Content Guidelines.” however, i have never had any other accounts – just one with my real name. i had 35 published books illustrated with my own art and photography and all copyrighted. i did not how else to reply to them except that i never had any other accounts and have never broken any KDP rules. they never sent me any warning or anything else prior to this. i don’t even understand what they are talking about and how to appeal my case because i have no idea what is going on.

Account Randomly Closed?
I’ve been with kindle Vella since launch and today they randomly closed my account.

Account temporarily on hold
I can’t even manage my sales report. My books are meanwhile still LIVE on sale. This is devastating. I can’t contact them by mail because I can’t login the kdp account. I had to create another kdp account using a different email address. Still, I tried contacting them with the new account and I was told to contact them using the email address associated with the on hold account.

my account closed can i reopen again???
i got this email from kdp what should i do now have a chance reopen my account again or the end???plz any experience user advice me

Case #11807050
Yesterday my account got locked. There was a book that was blocked from publication days after it was published.so i asked the review team about the block .i got a reply that “book(s) causes a misleading customer experience because it impairs customers’ ability to make good buying decisions” This is the first time I encountered a problem like this. I could not change the book title or even give the opportunity to changeit,or delete the book completely and now my account is closed

KENP COMPLAINTS

KENP page reads removed
Several authors in the FB groups I’m a part of have had up to half their KENP page reads from Amazon for certain months getting a vague email suggesting their has been suspect activity on their accounts.

AND

Unfortunately, scams abound with Kindle Unlimited, and have since its inception, especially when they went from book-based to page-based royalties, a change made in response to other scams. Many babies have gone out with the bathwater, innocent writers whose books provided “camouflage” for click-farm e-books.

KENP are not charged
I ask for advice or help, KENP are not charged, my employees, having read my books, expressed their opinion, while the statistics say that no one has read anything. My friend, who is also the author, has the same problem, please tell me what is the reason for this? Books are available for KU and I’m sure my books have been read

REVIEWS NOT BEING PUBLISHED

Why aren’t my reviews being published?
I’ve posted this question before and gotten no answer but I’ll try again. I wrote a book called (REMOVED BY WRITERSWEEKLY). A woman who really liked the book, wrote a review but 1. it wasn’t posted for about two weeks after she wrote it and then suddenly it was posted and; 2. After it was posted, it was removed. There was absolutely no reason for this review to be removed. I kept emailing the “communities” for over a month, and got no response except to state that they only respond to questions by reviewers themselves. I wrote to Amazon’s legal department and included copies of all of my unanswered emails, questions, postings etc. about the situation.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT KDP CUSTOMER SERVICE (OR LACK THEREOF)

KDP is killing my business and I need help!
Am I the only one having a nightmare experience with Amazon’s KDP? I ordered author’s copies only to find out that they were the old version from before I made some grammatical corrections. Turns out they had an innovatory of the old version and would not update my books until that inventory was depleted. I have since given away countless books that were wrong (shame on me for not double checking) but what’s worse, I had to be the one to suggest they destroy that inventory, which they said they were doing and would rush me out replacement copies. That was a month ago! Just found out they have not done that, have no intention to do that, as they have since “changed their policy.” Worse, got worser! This means I have no choice but to purchase retail copies, which is a no-no so as it does not appear I am trying to increase my retail sales. SOS! Anyone? Customer service is useless- as are managers and sr. managers.

Are you having problems with copyright and KDP staff?
Recently, I have had severe problems explaining copyright law to KDP staff. They seem to no longer understand US copyright law.

Chaos Service
I have produced a bound edition with many pictures. Since january I changed roundabout 100 Emails with the so called „service“. I believe they often do not read the content and answer wrong. Often they do not anwer at all. They are very friendly but most of them are unable to do their job correctly. Finally I could publish my book. When the book preview finally was very okay I ordered a sample copy. Nearly all the pictures covering two pages in the sample had a broad white edge and the offset (one picture on the even and on the odd page) was miserable. So is the paper. Why do they produce such bad books and offer such a bad service?

KDP Support Asked me to Register my Copyright with US Government Before Publishing
So when submitting my Kindle version of my paperback (absolutely original work), which is a “print replica” of the paperback (which is already published through KDP-Print), I get these robotic emails saying that my content resembles what is freely available on the internet, and they request me to send them proof that I own the work. OK, fine, I do not know how to comply to that request. How do I prove I own an original work that I produced on my own computer and submitted for publishing? So I talked to KDP support, the gentleman told me to go to https://copyright.gov and register it there, and then provide them with the certified copyright. I go there and WOW, its $45 and a seven month wait to register a book’s copyright, with a 10 day window to submit my document or the book will not be published. I definitely feel like I am being given a royal run-around. Before you ask: It is 100% my own work, not taken from anywhere, partially or otherwise! And I have successfully published 12 well-reviewed books on Amazon over the last four years, print and kindle.

False copyright infringement complaint
I’ve recieved a copyright infringement notice for a copyright term “75 Hard” that appears nowhere in my book, title, or description. In short, I am not infringing on that copyright. I’ve emailed the ip-inquiries email address stating that, with copies of my manuscript and the description and title as they appear on Amazon and I haven’t received any help in having my book restored.

Unable to publish as there is too many blank pages, but there are no blank pages!?
Hi everyone. I am currently having some problems with publishing my children’s book. I keep receiving an email to say I have too many blank pages, but there are none in my manuscript. Every page has an illustration or text and I have even added page numbers ‘just in case’. I have contacted KDP and they keep requoting the same line.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT KDP’S SYSTEM

For an author who is not too tech savvy… Setting is not as easy as it sounds.
Is there a professional at Amazon who can set up the author’s book on Amazon for a fee? Setting up is certainly not for the average person.

Strike Through Pricing
I want to sell my books at $18.99. I put that price in on the bookshelf update and it has updated to that price, well, kind of, I noted that in the US marketplace there is a strike through on my $18.99 to make it around 2/3rds cheaper! I know I must have agreed that somewhere a few months ago, I believe I was told by Amazon I’d make more money that way. I haven’t. HOW DO I REMOVE THAT STRIKE THROUGH OPTION?? I can’t find any way of doing it, meanwhile my income is plummeting…

Book price changed
The price of one of my books is set by me at $9.99 but it is showing cheaper on the book site and I have not been able to change it. Why is that?

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PRINT QUALITY

Amazon printed & shipped paperback wrong contents right cover!
Amazon printed and shipped the wrong contents for my paperback using my cover. The book received many 1 star reviews because of this Amazon error and they refuse to remove the 1 star reviews referring to this error. So sales have stopped. These terrible reviews also show up on my ebook and those sales have also dropped. Amazon printing has made this error and two years of hard work creating this paperback book and ebook has become a very negative kdp experience. I have been publishing ebooks on kdp since 2008 and maybe it’s a hobby I should just drop as the aggravation caused by Amazon certainly isn’t worth it any more. It seems kdp customer service has certainly deteriorated over the years. Either they do not care or they just do not understand what they have done.

Book Published with Content I didnt Approve
One of my books that has been for sale since 2019 was just sent to a buyer with a chapter added that I didnt write. In the middle of the book was a chapter written by a Satanic cult writer… Super angry and frustrated over this!

Interior illustrations too dark and have white vertical lines running through them
I’ve ordered 5 copies of the book over the past two weeks. With two of them, the interior illustrations looked fine, but with the other three, the interior illustrations looked terrible — white vertical lines running through them, and some of them extremely dark and illegible.

Quality of interior text in proof copies
I just received a proof copy of a new book, and the quality of the interior text is disappointing… The recent proof copy has much lighter text and is on a different paper stock.

AND

KDP will tell you that their proof machines are different than their production machines, but you’re left with the reality that if the proof isn’t good, you can’t reasonably guess that a retail copy would be good.

AND

As I was giving it a read-through, four random (not consecutive) pages fell out in the first few chapters. They weren’t glued at all.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT SHIPPING TIMES

Is this normal now? Six weeks to receive five author copies?
Until now, I’ve received small shipments of author copies in about 10 days. Now I’ve ordered five copies and expected USPS delivery is a little over six weeks.

Extremely delayed shipping
I recently published my latest book on February 26th, and immediately ordered forty personal copies to sell to several local bookstores and retail outlets. I then received an email saying I would receive my books on March 13th to 15th. I went out and pre-sold all forty books. Then, three days later, I get an email from Amazon telling me I will receive my order on April 20th. Several of my friends ordered the book and received it in a few days. I’ve seen a copy, but I have to wait another six weeks to get mine. I’d like to hear your experience.

AND

I ordered author copies of a hardcover weeks ago, and they haven’t shown up yet.

AND

Author Copies are printed as time becomes available. Some are lucky enough not get such copies in 1-2 weeks, but the average is 2-5 weeks, longer for hardcover, if available at all. Never sell what you do not have in hand.

AND

I ordered copies of my own books 2 weeks ago, was promised them in two days, then was told they’d be two more days, then another two day delay, then ‘we’ll let you know’. Just tried to order another indie author’s book and it’s going through the same delaying process. Both books showing up as will ship in two days, clearly not true. These are books I ordered as a paying customer, not as author copies, since with ‘prime’ no-shipping fee its cheaper.

Damaged Hardback Cover Issues
I ordered 3 – Hardback copies from KDP. I was waiting for my order for 2 months and I still hadn’t received an email saying they had been printed. The email I did get was saying my order would be delayed another month. That’s when I canceled my order. Something funny is going on with KDP. I received an email verifying my order was canceled the next day. Two days later I received an email from KDP saying the order had just shipped three days after cancellation… The other two had six inch indentation scratch marks across the entire book cover. Since these were printed on a glossy cover you can imagine how terrible they both looked. I could never sell them in that condition…

JUST BECAUSE KDP PUBLISHES YOUR BOOK DOESN’T MEAN AMAZON WILL GIVE YOUR BOOK PRIORITY IN THE SEARCH ENGINE ON AMAZON’S SITE

Amazon Search Results
How can consumers find your KDP book when Amazon’s search does not display results specifically for your book? ?I was told by Amazon text support that the search engine prioritizes warehouse available products, NOT title matches. This actively discourages KDP book sales (published on demand) vs books sitting in Amazon warehouses. The result is a search specifically for my title yields a page full of similar unrelated books, but not mine, giving my customers the impression that my book is unavailable. Is that fair? How can we get equal priority in search to warehouses books?

Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.

Follow Angela: twitter | facebook | linkedin

Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/

HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

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