Hello Angela,
I know you covered this issue a year or so ago, but these KDP terminations of Indie Authors’ accounts have continued to skyrocket!
It just happened to me, and I’ve been self-publishing for 12 years. As in the previous case you profiled, I received some template message for one title stating it violated “book details” and that I needed to unpublish and correct the violation. They didn’t tell me what book detail I purportedly violated. The email was sent around 8 p.m. on June 17th. I didn’t check my emails until the following day around noon. Five minutes prior to that another email had come in from the KDP Content Team stating my account was now terminated and that all of my accrued royalties would not be paid. In this email, they stated the reason as being “violation of content guidelines.”
I am retired and the royalties from my thirty plus titles have helped to supplement my income. I was confused and sought to find out the details of the termination, but with my KDP dashboard being disabled, the only link for help was one to appeal the termination. Of course, over the span of the next two days, I did use the link to send multiple requests for clarification. It got to the point I was groveling, but each time I sent a message on the appeal link, a couple of hours later, I would receive yet another AI email from a different “representative” assigning a different case number, and stating they needed more time to look into the matter. At first they said it would take 1-3 business days; then it became 5 business days, and before it was over, there were an assortment of case numbers. Two weeks later, I am still in the same situation. I have however done some research on my own using TrustPilot to see the reviews for KDP Amazon. Wow! The amount of accounts terminated over the past two years is astounding.
I also saw that several class action lawsuits have been filed against Amazon KDP, Amazon Prime, and Amazon Audible over the past couple of years. Some of them include allegations of non-payment of royalties. There is also a pretty big class action involving 17 states along with the FTC about antitrust violations. This has been going on for years and it’s only getting worse.
Thank you on behalf of Independent authors (who over the past 15 years have helped to build KDP’s e-book platform to dominance) for shedding the light on this. Amazon KDP used the Indie Author segment of their e-book and paperback platforms to reign in the Big Five Publishers in order to drive those books’ pricing down, and to increase volume to KDP’s sales and ultimately their own profits up. Once they succeeded, and then allowed traditionally published books into the Kindle Unlimited program, the writing was on the wall for Indie Authors.
The mid-level Indies have become of no use to KDP any longer and the e-book giant is doing their best to purge them from the platform.
This is despicable behavior in my humble opinion, and I hope that more Indie Authors who’ve had this happen, or are at ultimate risk for having this happen to them, will coalesce and get a class action lawsuit in process. The legality of withholding royalties earned is criminal.
Andrea Smith
USA Today Bestselling Author
Hi Andrea,
Can you please send me links to where you found info. about lawsuits currently pending against Amazon KDP?
How much money do they owe you in royalties? Or, can you even see that now since they have disabled your account?
Thank you and God bless!!!
Angela
Hello again, Angela.
I have just learned today from a legal thread that ultimately Amazon will pull my audiobooks from the Audible platform. I have quite a few listed on that platform.
Authors Sue Audible for Back Royalty Payments
Amazon accused of audiobook monopoly in author class action
Amazon must face narrowed lawsuit over eBook prices, US judge says
US judge sets October 2026 trial for FTC antitrust suit against Amazon
Amazon.com fights DC’s bid to revive antitrust lawsuit over pricing
FTC lawsuit over Amazon’s Prime program set for June 2025 trial
FTC ‘Dark Patterns’ Lawsuit Against Amazon Progresses
Regarding your question about my unpaid royalties: Amazon, as you know pays in 60 days. So, at the end of June, I should’ve received my April royalties. I can’t access the exact amount, but usually my ebook royalties run around $500-$600 per month. I did receive my ACX royalties of around $150.
Here’s the other thing that REALLY screwed me over… I had just gotten a Featured Deal on BookBub for one of my 4-book box sets – in the Romantic Suspense category, which has a very large subscription base! It was to run this weekend. I’d already paid them for the featured deal. However, after the first few days with trying to find out the problem with the one title I have under a pen name that was the problem, I notified BookBub and let them know my Kindle version of the book wouldn’t be available. They were very understanding and returned my money.
Hope this helps!
Andrea
Thank you, Andrea, for allowing us to publish your letter! If other authors have been terminated by Amazon KDP, and wish to speak with Andrea, please send your contact information to me RIGHT HERE and I will forward that to Andrea.
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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/
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pls keep us updated
amazon has waay too much power and needs to be split up into many competing separate companies