# Amazon cracked down - Removed thousands of titles yesterday



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

> Amazon removed thousands of books from their site yesterday.
> Books were removed because of three keywords located in the title's information page in the keywords section: Free, Bestseller and Kindle. It didn't matter if your book was free, an Amazon bestseller, or a Kindle eBook; Amazon pulled the plug.


https://badluckdetective.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/taking-a-bite-out-of-amazon/


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Did they? Where does this sort of data even come from?

They didn't contact me. I've got "free" in my permafrees. Nothing happened.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

This baffles me.  Why not just delete the keywords?


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

I'm pretty sure if this was true, there would have been a whole mess of "They deleted my book" posts on kboards.


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## SasgoraBooks (Aug 27, 2015)

It's in their terms that "free" is a prohibited keyword, they've been sending out mass warnings recently. Just because you've fallen through the cracks so far you shouldn't risk getting the ax over a stupid keyword. Amazon is ruthless.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

It looks like from the comments section if you remove the offending word or phrase, they'll load it back up in 24 hours.


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> I'm pretty sure if this was true, there would have been a whole mess of "They deleted my book" posts on kboards.


That's true!  I think I might have used "free" as a keyword in the past. All my books are still up, but I now I feel the need to check some of the keywords just to be safe.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Hey, I'm just sharing the news. If you have questions, contact the blogger. Maybe she'll direct you to the forums.


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## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> I'm pretty sure if this was true, there would have been a whole mess of "They deleted my book" posts on kboards.


I know two people who had books yanked. As soon as they removed the offending words and published again things seemed fine.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:

Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Lisa Grace said:


> Hey, I'm just sharing the news. If you have questions, contact the blogger. Maybe she'll direct you to the forums.


I know you're just sharing, but I think the whole post is a bit rubbery, to say the least. There are a good number on the forum who have free in their keywords. I know they were warning people not to have kindle unlimited in their keywords a while back, but they were sending out messages.

As to Amazon being ruthless, NO they're not. They're just a big company with a lot of automation. You know the saying "To err is human, but to completely eff things up requires a computer?" Yeah, that. Automation will mean that some people get punished while they never received the warning. Because computers. Contacting KDP will always help.


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## SasgoraBooks (Aug 27, 2015)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:
> 
> Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


Now that's thinking outside the box. I'm not sure Amazon uses blurb text as searchable terms though?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Edward M. Grant said:


> Life would be easier if they _were_ ruthless, because we'd know what is and isn't allowed, rather than having to guess.


True that.

I think sometimes Amazon's left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. As I said, that's typical for a very large company.


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## Maarika (Apr 19, 2015)

Why not just write a scrip or something that would not even allow users to input those prohibited keywords, thus preventing anyone from even using those words in their keyword field? Like you would get an error if you tried to use those specific keywords. I don't know how their system works but that seems like a fairly simple thing to implement imo. It isn't unrealistic, is it?


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

Maarika said:


> Why not just write a scrip or something that would not even allow users to input those prohibited keywords, thus preventing anyone from even using those words in their keyword field? Like you would get an error if you tried to use those specific keywords. I don't know how their system works but that seems like a fairly simple thing to implement imo. Isn't not unrealistic, is it?


Compared to the complexity of KDP, it would be a breeze.


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## Anonymously Anonymous (Sep 25, 2015)

Does anyone know if the word FREEDOM is allowed?


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## Anonymously Anonymous (Sep 25, 2015)

> That's not on any naughty or no go list that I know of.


Okay, thanks. I'll leave it for now but will keep an eye on it.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:
> 
> Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


Yes, she is.....


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

telracs said:


> Yes, she is.....


Speaks the lady herself.


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## SasgoraBooks (Aug 27, 2015)

Maarika said:


> Why not just write a scrip or something that would not even allow users to input those prohibited keywords, thus preventing anyone from even using those words in their keyword field? Like you would get an error if you tried to use those specific keywords. I don't know how their system works but that seems like a fairly simple thing to implement imo. It isn't unrealistic, is it?


You made the mistake of thinking logically and coming up with a simple and elegant solution. Amazon is a large corporation, they are not capable of logical thinking or simple solutions. I work for a large corporation and know first hand this is true of the corporate world. It drives me crazy on regular basis.


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## Gentleman Zombie (May 30, 2011)

They definitely have been sending warnings out about this. I got notified about three very old books - and I complied immediately. It doesn't pay to try to buck the system with Amazon. Just do what they ask .. most times you'll be OK.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

If you have any words (free, KU, kindle, best seller, etc) that have nothing to do with the CONTENT of your book, you're on borrowed time. Best to remove them and not have the books yanked (even temporarily).

I also know several people whose books were removed from sale until they fixed the keywords.


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## benwest (Oct 22, 2015)

Someone should tell the dude who was on Simon Whistler's podcast today...


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Kathelm said:


> This baffles me. Why not just delete the keywords?


I once took the wrong advice and put kindle unlimited in my keywords; Amazon wrote to tell me to remove it. Then they went through all my other books, which all had kindle unlimited among the keywords, and asked me to go through and remove them all. It did not take any of my books down, although it would have had I ignored them. Perhaps this is what happened? I also had free in my permafree book for six months without query.

I have a friend who tends to imagine a scenario and convince herself it is fact. Perhaps this blogger is of a similar disposition.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:
> 
> Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


That could well depend on the efficiency or otherwise of the software used to scour the words. Facebook turned down my ad for my six book series about Bloody Mary (Queen Mary I of England) because they think I am advertising alcohol. I am still waiting for a reply.

As to the words free and kindle unlimited and others, I have seen so-called sales training courses which tell you to use those words. Thank goodness they were free.


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## Gone Girl (Mar 7, 2015)

We miss you, Harvey Chute.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> As to Amazon being ruthless, NO they're not. They're just a big company with a lot of automation.


Shiftless, senseless, pitiless...


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

They sent me a warning and I'm glad they did. It gave me a chance to update all  my keywords for 19 books which took some time. I found an old short story with 'free' as a keyword from when it was permafree and thought that might be the only offending one. 

I didn't bother to check my 6 translations and they pulled one because it had 'Português kindle'. I changed it and took out the word 'kindle'. It was back up the next day.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Doglover said:


> Facebook turned down my ad for my six book series about Bloody Mary (Queen Mary I of England) because they think I am advertising alcohol. I am still waiting for a reply.


Really? Sorry, it probably isn't a laughing matter to you, but this made me chuckle in a head-shaking disbelief sort of way.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Sam Kates said:


> Really? Sorry, it probably isn't a laughing matter to you, but this made me chuckle in a head-shaking disbelief sort of way.


Don't worry, Sam, you are not alone. Many on the Facebook ad group think it hilarious as well. I have been able to change the copy to read 'the Brutal reign of Queen Mary I' but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I am planning a video ad at the end of the month and I really wanted to use the nickname. If they bothered to read the copy they would see it is not about vodka and tomato juice with a dash of Worcester sauce!


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Doglover said:


> Don't worry, Sam, you are not alone. Many on the Facebook ad group think it hilarious as well. I have been able to change the copy to read 'the Brutal reign of Queen Mary I' but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I am planning a video ad at the end of the month and I really wanted to use the nickname. If they bothered to read the copy they would see it is not about vodka and tomato juice with a dash of Worcester sauce!


And perhaps a drop or two of Tabasco.

What a crazy world this can be.


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2015)

If it did happen, then good. It is high time Amazon enforce its own policies. Keywords should only be for the actual content of your book. Unless your book is how to become a bestseller, bestseller should not be in the keywords. 

Amazon search is completely broken. And it is broken because A. everyone just does what the heck they want regardless of the TOS and B. to date Amazon has allowed everyone to do just whatever they want without consequences. 

And the problem is that this isn't just a books issue. It is about trying to find ANYTHING on Amazon. The entire store is becoming impossible to use unless you have a manufacturer product number to search with. Amazon used to be my first place to go to find stuff for the office. I used to be able to get replacement florescent bulbs, emergency back-up batteries, replacement parts for tools, and all sorts of stuff for our workplace easily. Now it just takes too long to find anything so I just go to Grainger or MSCDirect or another vendor. 

As a customer I love Amazon, so I desperately hope they are taking action to clean their house.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Hah!  Who else just ran to their bookshelf to make sure they didn't have that word on their permafrees?


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Sam Kates said:


> And perhaps a drop or two of Tabasco.
> 
> What a crazy world this can be.


Well, I don't drink so I only know the basics. I am sure I am going to use bloody Mary together with the chalice and some brain dead dipstick is going to be quite sure it is advertising alcohol! We shall see.


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## Roberto El Duque (Mar 4, 2015)

CarlaBaku said:


> I wonder if they'll start enforcing their title-stuffing policies at some point.


I really hope they do. It is a huge bugbear of mine. I know I am losing out on search visibility to subtitle stuffed books, that quite clearly do not have the subtitle on the book covers, or even on their title pages. This is supposedly a big no-no, but in moments of despair, I often start thinking "if you can't beat them join them..." I have resisted the temptation so far!


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## Roberto El Duque (Mar 4, 2015)

Patty Jansen said:


> Did they? Where does this sort of data even come from?


Not sure where the author got it from, but I had noticed that the number of kindle books on Amazon had passed the 4 million point recently. Today it has fallen to 3.95 million, so somewhere in the region of 10k have been removed I think.


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## Word Fan (Apr 15, 2015)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Amazon search is completely broken. [...] The entire store is becoming impossible to use unless you have a manufacturer product number to search with.


That is just hyperbolic nonsense! I do hundreds of searches a year, for all sorts of things, and have no trouble finding what I want along with suggestions for possible substitutes, which I sometimes buy instead.

Amazon is great. Imperfect, yes, but still very easy to use.

_Edited. PM me if you have any questions. --Betsy/KB Mod_


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## Chinmoy Mukherjee (Apr 26, 2014)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:
> 
> Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


That means you are screwed, Amazon can not ignore these keywords?


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Roberto El Duque said:


> Not sure where the author got it from, but I had noticed that the number of kindle books on Amazon had passed the 4 million point recently. Today it has fallen to 3.95 million, so somewhere in the region of 10k have been removed I think.


Where can you see the total number of kindle books available?


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Quiss said:


> Hah! Who else just ran to their bookshelf to make sure they didn't have that word on their permafrees?


Me. And I did remove Free from the subtitle. They've been pretty strict about it not being in the keyword list for a long time, though. This is one of the reasons I posted this thread. Once upon a time, Amazon was okay with just about any keywords that increased traffic. And in my case, free is true because it's a permafree that's been free for years.


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## jay_owen (Jan 1, 2015)

Is there a master list anywhere detailing words to avoid in the keywords?  having read a few threads it seems to be:

free
KU
kindle
kindle unlimited
best seller
*any reference to an existing title or author i.e. "Harry Potter"

Any others words or categories?

What about things like "New York Times" or other accolades?  I assume they should be avoided (not that I qualify anyway!)


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## 80593 (Nov 1, 2014)

jay_owen said:


> Is there a master list anywhere detailing words to avoid in the keywords?
> 
> What about things like "New York Times" or other accolades? I assume they should be avoided (not that I qualify anyway!)


Keywords should only be about content, so accolades, awards, etc. should be avoided as well. Basically, if it's related to the book as a product, rather than as a story, it's out.

Edit: Here's the relevant quote from their guidelines, emphasis mine:



> Examples of items that are prohibited as search keywords include but are not limited to:
> 
> • Reference to other authors
> • Reference to books by other authors
> ...


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

What Jen said. Just as yourself if the keyword describes what's actually *in* the book and you should be fine


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Doglover said:


> Facebook turned down my ad for my six book series about Bloody Mary (Queen Mary I of England) because they think I am advertising alcohol.


Rewording, or re-ordering maybe?

The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, England's *Bloody Queen* Mary, is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short-lived Protestant reign of her half-brother. During her five-year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Rewording, or re-ordering maybe?
> 
> The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, England's *Bloody Queen* Mary, is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short-lived Protestant reign of her half-brother. During her five-year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.


I have reworded it, Mark, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. I have a video ad planned which would be much better with the nickname, but that and the communion chalice is going to convince whoever it is that it is about booze. Ridiculous. I don't understand why I have heard nothing about the appeal though. I mean do they take any notice? They only have to read it to see they are wrong.


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## BlinkFarm (Oct 25, 2015)

I am now craving a Bloody Mary. Preferably a free one.


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## jenminkman (Mar 2, 2013)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> I'm pretty sure if this was true, there would have been a whole mess of "They deleted my book" posts on kboards.


They actually pulled five of my books. AFTER I removed the offending keywords 'free' and 'gratis' (= free in Dutch). They forgot to mention that I also needed to remove the 'kindle' keyword AND they did this after I emailed KDP support and asked them whether my books were all okay now. They said yes... five days alter, they told me I hadn't taken action and pulled five of my freebies, effectively killing my rankings. Thanks, Amazon


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## Roberto El Duque (Mar 4, 2015)

Sam Kates said:


> Where can you see the total number of kindle books available?


Go to amazon.com > kindle store. On the left hand pane it says *Kindle eBooks (3,949,76* as of right now.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Right around two thousand a day are being published, so just maintaining rank is a mark of success.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Roberto El Duque said:


> Go to amazon.com > kindle store. On the left hand pane it says *Kindle eBooks (3,949,76* as of right now.


Well, well, I didn't know that was there. Thank you!

ETA: There are just over 4m on the UK site, which surprises me. I'd have thought there's be more on the US site.


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## Roberto El Duque (Mar 4, 2015)

Sam Kates said:


> Well, well, I didn't know that was there. Thank you!
> 
> ETA: There are just over 4m on the UK site, which surprises me. I'd have thought there's be more on the US site.


I don't remember the disparity being like that when I last looked and it is the sort of thing I would have noticed, so my guess is that the 10k or so books taken down haven't come off the UK site yet?

One big thing that I don't understand about KDP/Amazon is the weird way the stores and products are linked / not linked. I mean multiple Author Centrals, one product listing for all stores, price matching in some regions but not others etc etc. It just doesn't make sense. Either integrate or separate I say. [/derail]


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Roberto El Duque said:


> I don't remember the disparity being like that when I last looked and it is the sort of thing I would have noticed, so my guess is that the 10k or so books taken down haven't come off the UK site yet?


That makes sense. And, yeah, my first comment was a little on the dim side. Thinking about it, you'd actually expect the number of books on each site to be almost identical.



Roberto El Duque said:


> One big thing that I don't understand about KDP/Amazon is the weird way the stores and products are linked / not linked. I mean multiple Author Centrals, one product listing for all stores, price matching in some regions but not others etc etc. It just doesn't make sense. Either integrate or separate I say. [/derail]


I'm with you. I tried setting up an author bio on Author Central on the Japanese site and gave up as I couldn't even guess (unlike on the German and French sites) what buttons I needed to click. No biggie, but puzzling.


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## adanlerma (Jan 16, 2012)

Word Fan said:


> That is just hyperbolic nonsense! I do hundreds of searches a year, for all sorts of things, and have no trouble finding what I want along with suggestions for possible substitutes, which I sometimes buy instead.
> 
> Amazon is great. Imperfect, yes, but still very easy to use.
> 
> _Edited. PM me if you have any questions. --Betsy/KB Mod_


Ditto that. I haven't had any problems finding anything from fascia rollers to T size tshirts to books on Amazon.


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## adanlerma (Jan 16, 2012)

Lisa Grace said:


> Me. And I did remove Free from the subtitle. They've been pretty strict about it not being in the keyword list for a long time, though. This is one of the reasons I posted this thread. Once upon a time, Amazon was okay with just about any keywords that increased traffic. And in my case, free is true because it's a permafree that's been free for years.


Lisa, if it's permafree then free can be in the keywords? I have one book that's been free for years, health and fitness stuff for seniors, but I can remove the keyword if need be. Thanks!


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Sam Kates said:


> I'm with you. I tried setting up an author bio on Author Central on the Japanese site and gave up as I couldn't even guess (unlike on the German and French sites) what buttons I needed to click. No biggie, but puzzling.


If you view it in Chrome right click and click on translate. I'm doing this a lot (although I normally use Opera) as my Japanese themed novel has hit #7 in Epic Fantasy two slots below some bloke called Tolkien. Admittedly that's just one sale, but world domination approaches.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

Doglover said:


> I have reworded it, Mark, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. I have a video ad planned which would be much better with the nickname, but that and the communion chalice is going to convince whoever it is that it is about booze. Ridiculous. I don't understand why I have heard nothing about the appeal though. I mean do they take any notice? They only have to read it to see they are wrong.


Years ago, a friend tried to create a user name on a forum of "Honkeytonkangel". It was rejected as being racist.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

I went to my KDP dashboard and checked my keywords. They were fine, but it's been so long since I've uploaded those books I truly didn't know what I'd used. While I was there, I adjusted them for better words.
Thanks, Lisa, for the reminder as I would've hated going through the turmoil of having them pulled, as well as now they are current!


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Kay Bratt said:


> I went to my KDP dashboard and checked my keywords. They were fine, but it's been so long since I've uploaded those books I truly didn't know what I'd used. While I was there, I adjusted them for better words.
> Thanks, Lisa, for the reminder as I would've hated going through the turmoil of having them pulled, as well as now they are current!


This is why I posted here. I found FREE on my subtitle of one of my books, and since I belong to a half dozen "secret" groups where info. seems to hit first, I thought I'd share so others could check their books too.

This will be the last time though that I share red-hot happening news since I've been piled on in this and the latest thread about sharing as it didn't occur *publicly* first. Be aware that because this is a public forum you don't get news first. And that lots of successful indies have no desire to share their *secrets* of marketing. Lots of talk goes on in secret groups that you don't see, and those groups don't show up on searches. If people like me stop sharing (and several have, like Joe Nobody and ten or so others who pay attention to trends), you won't get it until someone like Passivevoice posts, and most marketing information he won't share because it doesn't fall within the parameters of what he covers.


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## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

jenminkman said:


> They actually pulled five of my books. AFTER I removed the offending keywords 'free' and 'gratis' (= free in Dutch). They forgot to mention that I also needed to remove the 'kindle' keyword AND they did this after I emailed KDP support and asked them whether my books were all okay now. They said yes... five days alter, they told me I hadn't taken action and pulled five of my freebies, effectively killing my rankings. Thanks, Amazon


Same here. Very annoying especially when take the trouble to investigate, are given incorrect info from Support yet are lumped in with other so-called 'offenders' regardless.


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## Mindy54 (Oct 26, 2015)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Suppose I had a blurb that said something like:
> 
> Mindy was a free-spirit who liked to kindle the flames of controversy.


Great name for a protagonist, just sayin'  And yes, we Mindy's tend to kindle a few things!


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Lisa Grace said:


> This is why I posted here. I found FREE on my subtitle of one of my books, and since I belong to a half dozen "secret" groups where info. seems to hit first, I thought I'd share so others could check their books too.
> 
> This will be the last time though that I share red-hot happening news since I've been piled on in this and the latest thread about sharing as it didn't occur *publicly* first. Be aware that because this is a public forum you don't get news first. And that lots of successful indies have no desire to share their *secrets* of marketing. Lots of talk goes on in secret groups that you don't see, and those groups don't show up on searches. If people like me stop sharing (and several have, like Joe Nobody and ten or so others who pay attention to trends), you won't get it until someone like Passivevoice posts, and most marketing information he won't share because it doesn't fall within the parameters of what he covers.


I'm really seeing any piling on here, Lisa. A couple people expressed skepticism, which is not an unreasonable reaction to new info. Boyd, Amanda, Monique, and others backed you up.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Lisa Grace said:


> This is why I posted here. I found FREE on my subtitle of one of my books, and since I belong to a half dozen "secret" groups where info. seems to hit first, I thought I'd share so others could check their books too.
> 
> This will be the last time though that I share red-hot happening news since I've been piled on in this and the latest thread about sharing as it didn't occur *publicly* first. Be aware that because this is a public forum you don't get news first. And that lots of successful indies have no desire to share their *secrets* of marketing. Lots of talk goes on in secret groups that you don't see, and those groups don't show up on searches. If people like me stop sharing (and several have, like Joe Nobody and ten or so others who pay attention to trends), you won't get it until someone like Passivevoice posts, and most marketing information he won't share because it doesn't fall within the parameters of what he covers.


I understand completely your decision not to post anymore. Some of the responses you've gotten were totally unnecessary. This is exactly why I don't help anymore. There is always someone who wants to argue every tiny little unimportant point.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

As Becca said people were skeptical and questioned the OP. There was backup. It's a thing. People are using the "news". Although this wasn't the first time it's been posted about here. Her OP was true. Her other thread "news" thread was discredited. People were skeptical and it was absolute baloney. Still not sure why it was posted. Just odd. 

So she's batting .500 recently in news veracity. On par with most major news organizations.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Mercia McMahon said:


> If you view it in Chrome right click and click on translate. I'm doing this a lot (although I normally use Opera) as my Japanese themed novel has hit #7 in Epic Fantasy two slots below some bloke called Tolkien. Admittedly that's just one sale, but world domination approaches.


Thanks for the tip.

Hmm, Tolkien... rings a bell. Pipe-smoking, studious-looking chap.


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

Roberto El Duque said:


> Go to amazon.com > kindle store. On the left hand pane it says *Kindle eBooks (3,949,76* as of right now.


I don't use the numbers listed in the links in the left pane, because they don't keep up with the numbers on the pages linked to. Following that link in the left pane will show the total number of Kindle eBooks mid-page:

*1-16 of 3,978,702 results for Kindle Store : Kindle eBooks*.



Roberto El Duque said:


> Not sure where the author got it from, but I had noticed that the number of kindle books on Amazon had passed the 4 million point recently. Today it has fallen to 3.95 million, so somewhere in the region of 10k have been removed I think.


The number of items in the Kindle Store exceeded 4 million not long ago, but the number of eBooks hasn't yet. There's no significant drop from one day to the next (not even in KU, for those interested), which shows that the KDP publishers got those titles back up quickly:

* PACIFIC
DATE	TIME EBOOKS KU*
26 Oct	2359 3,949,468	1,128,407
27 Oct	2359 3,952,454	1,129,780
28 Oct	2359 3,955,360	1,130,448
29 Oct	2359 3,957,815	1,131,340
30 Oct	2359 3,959,541	1,131,948
1 Nov	0600 3,961,960	1,133,293
2 Nov	0300 3,963,592	1,134,054
2 Nov	2359 3,966,465	1,135,422
3 Nov	2359 3,967,040	1,135,172
5 Nov	0500 3,970,378	1,135,093
5 Nov	2359 3,974,588	1,136,248
6 Nov	2359 3,976,736	1,137,230
7 Nov	2359 3,978,339	1,137,913


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## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

oakwood said:


> With the risk of sounding flippant..  I'm always amazed at how nobody ever reads the manual, or evaluates the risks of not reading the manual. Buy a new car and never realize it requires regular oil changes. File a tax return without checking instructions. Buy a ticket only to be stopped at airport because visa is required.. all it takes is to research BEFORE the deed.
> 
> As to KDP usage and rules.. the instructions are clear as can be:
> 
> https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A294SHSUYLKTA6


Seems KDP support don't read the manual either then. Easy to take moral high ground if you haven't been on wrong end of Zon's random rule changes...


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

oakwood said:


> With the risk of sounding flippant..  I'm always amazed at how nobody ever reads the manual, or evaluates the risks of not reading the manual. Buy a new car and never realize it requires regular oil changes. File a tax return without checking instructions. Buy a ticket only to be stopped at airport because visa is required.. all it takes is to research BEFORE the deed.
> 
> As to KDP usage and rules.. the instructions are clear as can be:
> 
> https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A294SHSUYLKTA6


It's not so straightforward as that. Amazon has changed these rules numerous times since many of us opened our KDP account years ago and read the then current rules. So we knew all the rules ... and then Amazon keeps changing them or adding to them.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Gator said:


> It's not so straightforward as that. Amazon has changed these rules numerous times since many of us opened our KDP account years ago and read the then current rules. So we knew all the rules ... and then Amazon keeps changing them or adding to them.


Tis true, but people are still ignoring the now published rules and acting like some keywords should still be fine when they clearly are not.


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## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

Monique said:


> Tis true, but people are still ignoring the now published rules and acting like some keywords should still be fine when they clearly are not.


In all fairness, if Amazon support aren't clear on the rules - as is the case when mere days before the cull they confirmed all of my titles were fine - then how can authors realistically keep up? Kudos to you if you routinely go back & familiarise yourself with the ever-changing T&Cs


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

KaiW said:


> In all fairness, if Amazon support aren't clear on the rules - as is the case when mere days before the cull they confirmed all of my titles were fine - then how can authors realistically keep up? Kudos to you if you routinely go back & familiarise yourself with the ever-changing T&Cs


I was talking about the currently published rules which are pretty straightforward on the issues discussed in this thread. But I'll take the kudos!


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

KaiW said:


> In all fairness, if Amazon support aren't clear on the rules - as is the case when mere days before the cull they confirmed all of my titles were fine - then how can authors realistically keep up? Kudos to you if you routinely go back & familiarise yourself with the ever-changing T&Cs


Self publishing is a business and Amazon is required (and does) send notifications when changing their T&C's. Many people choose not to follow them when they see the T&C's not being enforced, but Amazon certainly has the right to hold authors to the terms they were clearly informed of when they set up their account to sell on Amazon's platform.

Gaming the system is great as long as you get away with it. But when the cleanup comes, you get the consequences.

Even if your book is titled, The Unlimited Adventures of Bob the Free Slave and his Dog, Kindle, if you read the terms you can plainly see these words are not allowed in your keywords.


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2015)

MyraScott said:


> Self publishing is a business and Amazon is required (and does) send notifications when changing their T&C's. Many people choose not to follow them when they see the T&C's not being enforced, but Amazon certainly has the right to hold authors to the terms they were clearly informed of when they set up their account to sell on Amazon's platform.


Amazon's TOS is fairly straightforward all around and you are correct that they do alert us to changes when they are made. It is up to us, as professionals, to understand those changes if we decide to do business with Amazon. The problem is that often Amazon doesn't enforce the rules, due, no doubt, to an issue of manpower and priorities. Because of this, people think it is okay to ignore the rules because others get away with it. It is the same reason people fly through a 45 mile per hour zone at 60. It is the same reason people jaywalk. It's why people do a lot of things. They take a calculated risk to ignore the rules because they see others doing so, but then blame others when they get caught instead of owning up to the fact that it is their own fault.

I was raised to know that the poor behavior of one person doesn't justify the poor behavior of another. Or, as every mother has ever said to a child, "If they were all jumping off a bridge, would you?"


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## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> Self publishing is a business and Amazon is required (and does) send notifications when changing their T&C's. Many people choose not to follow them when they see the T&C's not being enforced, but Amazon certainly has the right to hold authors to the terms they were clearly informed of when they set up their account to sell on Amazon's platform.
> 
> Gaming the system is great as long as you get away with it. But when the cleanup comes, you get the consequences.
> 
> Even if your book is titled, The Unlimited Adventures of Bob the Free Slave and his Dog, Kindle, if you read the terms you can plainly see these words are not allowed in your keywords.


Gaming the system? Can you explain in what universe clarifying the rules and getting the OK from Amazon re your current keywords can be construed as 'gaming the system'?


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