# Creating a separate Amazon account? (Not why you think)



## RJD2 (Jul 18, 2016)

I have to imagine I'm not the only person who's faced this scenario, so I wanted to see what other people have done. I'm just about to start my publishing journey, and about to set up a KDP account, but here's my dilemma:

I've got my long-time personal Amazon account that I've used as a consumer, and my whole family uses it for shopping (to take advantage of my Prime account). But now that I'm about to be publishing, I don't really want my parents and brothers being able to poke around in my earnings and all that.

It would be nice to create a separate account for my author platform, but I've heard the stern warnings not to make a second account to try to trick Amazon and I take those seriously. (And as far as I can tell from the KDP help instructions, you can't create a separate password from your consumer and KDP sides of your account)

The only alternative I can see is kicking my family out of my account and making them get their own Prime account. (Which is a little cold and I'd like to save them the $100 but whatever haha). Am I missing something here or am I interpreting this correctly?


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## Nic (Nov 17, 2013)

AFAIK it is no problem having a separate consumer and seller account. It is only generally forbidden to have several seller accounts.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Your KDP account is tied to your personal Amazon account (and you can't make more than one), but it's not the same account. They're connected by your financial information, but separate. So your family would have to log into your KDP account to see your earnings, etc. They can't get to that account from the Amazon shopping site.

I hope that makes some kind of sense, LOL. My family (and sometimes extended family) uses my Prime account frequently, but they've never seen my KDP account. It works out fine. 

ETA: At least, I think so. It's been a very long time since I set up my KDP account and I don't remember exactly how it went. But I know that no one but me can get into my KDP account.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2016)

I created an entirely separate Amazon account for my business - it's under my business and pen name. This is, as far as I can tell, within the terms of service as I'm not publishing or selling under my personal account and I never use my author account to purchase or do anything on the actual Amazon site. You aren't attempting to trick Amazon, simply keeping your accounts separately.

I'd definitely do it if I had a family account. Last thing you'd want is one - nosiness and two - family leaving reviews that reflect poorly on you as an author.

(though I admit, unless you live in the same house, yeah, I'd also make them get their own account because if you don't all live in the same house, that is a violation of Amazon's TOS on your personal account)



Sonya Bateman said:


> Your KDP account is tied to your personal Amazon account (and you can't make more than one), but it's not the same account. They're connected by your financial information, but separate. So your family would have to log into your KDP account to see your earnings, etc. They can't get to that account from the Amazon shopping site.


If they know the username and password, then they could. Amazon.com and KDP.amazon.com use a single authentication system and the same log in is used for both. The footer of the main Amazon site has links to just about all other Amazon sites, including KDP. Ditto ACX. CreateSpace is the only one with a standalone user registration system, as far as I can remember.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

It's not a problem.

I think it becomes a problem if you have two KDP accounts under the same tax id. I just set up a second one for my co-written work, but we filed for an EIN and used that for the tax id. I queried Amazon first and got the go-ahead. But honestly, I have an entirely separate personal account from both of the publishing accounts, too.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Anma Natsu said:


> If they know the username and password, then they could. Amazon.com and KDP.amazon.com use a single authentication system and the same log in is used for both. The footer of the main Amazon site has links to just about all other Amazon sites, including KDP. Ditto ACX. CreateSpace is the only one with a standalone user registration system, as far as I can remember.


Ah! You're right, of course.  I just never log out of Amazon or KDP, so I rarely enter the password for either (pretty much only when I'm checking an order status on Amazon  ). And my family knows I write books and self-publish them, but they don't get into the technical details so they (probably) wouldn't even think of looking at the KDP account.


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## Jewelzee (Apr 22, 2015)

You're also allowed to extend your Prime privileges with one other family member. There's a spot where you can do that in account settings, and it gives their Amazon account Prime access through you without having to share accounts at all.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200444180


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## RJD2 (Jul 18, 2016)

Thank you everyone!


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## wheart (May 26, 2016)

Make sure to use a different *email address*. In 2012 when I asked KDP Support if I could have a separate account they wrote the following back to me:



KDP Support said:


> Hello,
> 
> You may certainly have another KDP account, with a different email account.
> 
> ...


Now, that was in 2012, but as others above have stated that they've done it, hopefully KDP still honors what was said in that email I received.


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