In case you don’t have time to read all of the detailed complaints at the links below, here are some snippets:
“I’ve honestly never known such a poorly run company. I wouldn’t have bothered even setting up if I’d read these reviews.”
“Evil empire.”
“Total scumbags. Stay away.”
“KDP is the worst publisher on earth.”
“It’s a dictatorship.”
“…to make matters worse, they took all of my past due royalties (for books not related to this book as it was never even published).”
“…you closed my account and are denying me the sales I already made.”
“Amazon will tell you they can keep your royalties.”
“We should be able to give half stars because they don’t deserve a full one.”
“Amazon KDP is the absolute worst!!”
“This whole experience affected my sleep pattern and gave me anxiety. It is not a good feeling when injustice is done against you.”
“When I leave my number and they say we will call you back, they never do even though they say they did.”
“The book isn’t listed and has been out for 3 weeks. Can’t seem to find a phone number to contact you…”
“I spoke with a rep and he overtalked me and did not assist.”
“We lost access to our kindle account and they are still selling our book without our permission, and without paying our royalties.”
“I wrote more than 100 letters and called support 7 times. It looks like Amazon embezzled my money and intellectual work.”
“If I order 10 copies of my children’s book half will be good, the other half will have inconsistent white borders at the bottom or sides.”
I get emails saying I have been paid royalties by KDP but there are no records of this payment anywhere…”
THERE ARE MANY MORE COMMENTS BELOW!
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. Also below 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.
Wrongful termination of account
“This whole experience affected my sleep pattern and gave me anxiety. It is not a good feeling when injustice done against you.”
I unfairly had my account terminated by…
“…to make matters worse, they took all of my past due royalties (for books not related to this book as it was never even published).”
“It’s a dictatorship, it’s shocking how they treat people.”
“Amazon will tell you they can keep your royalties.”
“All of my royalties are also ‘not being paid’ – that’s theft, Amazon has received money from my writing and has terminated my account without reason and kept the money.”
We lost access to our kindle account…
“We lost access to our kindle account and they are still selling our book without our permission, and without paying our royalties.”
KDP is the worst publisher on earth
“If I order 10 copies of my children’s book half will be good, the other half will have inconsistent white borders at the bottom or sides. I go through the same exact issue every month and it’s never resolved. It just happens again the following month. If you are a children’s book author, please do yourself a favor and avoid Amazon KDP.”
“I’ve honestly never known such a poorly run company. I wouldn’t have bothered even setting up if I’d read these reviews.”
It looks like Amazon embezzled my money and intellectual work
“I wrote more than 100 letters and called support 7 times. It looks like Amazon embezzled my money and intellectual work. I ran out of energy to fight the KDP AMAZON bureaucracy…“
Amazon KDP is the absolute worst!!
“I recently published a book and it was moving very well. Day 7 I login to check sales everthing is good. I login 10 minutes later bc I am obsessive like that and it says my account is closed, my book will be taken down and they get to keep my royalties..”
“When I received the books, I quickly found many were misprinted – the contrast of the misprinted books was not checked and almost all the pictures in the book were muddy and dark…”
THINK HAVING AMAZON KDP PUBLISH YOUR BOOK WILL ENSURE YOUR BOOK IS ALWAYS IN STOCK? THINK THE PRINTING QUALITY WILL BE GOOD? THINK YOU’LL GET GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE? THINK AGAIN!!
Below are comments taken directly from their own author messaging board.
Temporarily Out of Stock Notice Keeps Coming up for Clients
“A notice keeps coming up stating that my book is temporarily out of stock, and they will be emailed with an estimated delivery date as soon as they have more information. Of course, no one has reported having received an email, many have given up. I am furious…”
AND
“My experience is similar. No one has been able to purchase my book because this message keeps coming up. Temporarily out of stock.”
Consistently Low Quality Print/Faded & Grainy Text
“But all of my author copies, and earlier proofs even prior to publication, have had these white streaks through the letters, as well as some of the images...”
Account kdp ban error, please help me
“…my account was closed because it was ‘related to a KDP account we previously closed.’ I swear I have never had any other accounts. I publish books under my author name from the account in my name. I always get automatic responses and can’t talk to anyone for attention…”
“…why can’t KDP/Amazon do a better job of quality control when authors and illustrators put so much hard work into their books? This is the third time this has happened..”
Author Copies: Are You Getting a lot of Damaged Copies, too?
“I order hundreds of author copy paperbacks from Amazon, and I’d say that 9 out of 10 of the packages I receive come with damaged books because the packaging has been done very poorly…”
“It keeps saying ‘In review’ and that they’ll be ready within weeks but that never turns out to be the case. We ended up taking my books off and putting one back on to see if it’d speed up the process somehow. There has been no change since October…”
“I can’t find a phone number or an email and the ‘Help’ page sends me in circles and loops back to the help page.”
“I had a story featured this month, I have lots locked reads, but no royalties from them. What’s going on?”
Read many, MANY more complaints at:
And:
- And, Even MORE Complaints about Amazon KDP!
- MORE AMAZON KDP COMPLAINTS! – Why Complain When You Can DO Something About It?
- Amazon KDP Terminates ANOTHER Author’s Account, AND Keeps Her Royalties!
- Authors Are Moving to BookLocker After Amazon KDP Randomly Terminated Their Accounts
- MORE AMAZON KDP COMPLAINTS! Poor print quality, incorrect sales reporting, dismissive customer service reps, and more!
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.
ASK ANGELA!
Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.
About The Author
Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).
Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.
WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.
BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."
Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.
PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!
Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.
Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)
See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.
ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy
BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks
ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750
ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/
Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/
Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE
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