# KDP Account Terminated



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

I had this email today: We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. Systematic accounts are those that facilitate illegitimate reading or borrow activity . While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate the Kindle platform and/or Kindle programs is not permitted. As a result of the irregular borrow activity, we have removed your books from the Amazon store and are terminating your account and your Agreement effective immediately.

As part of the termination process, we will close your account(s) and remove the books you have uploaded from Amazon. We will issue a negative adjustment to any outstanding royalty payments. Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open new accounts and will not receive future royalty payments from additional accounts created.

If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]


I have emailed Amazon (including Mr Bezos) to outline my position, which is that I have done nothing to 'manipulate' the Kindle platform and wouldn't know how! I have also outlined my credentials in my field and asked that he intervene to investigate the matter. I released the book in question (which is my 5th title) in October 2016 and whilst sales have been lacklustre, it has been giving a decent showing in KU. Reads started showing up on my blue graph at the end of October (about 3 weeks after launch) in the US, followed by the UK and Canada in November and Australia in December. Earnings have been in the high 3 figures each month, but certainly not setting the world on fire! It's nowhere near 'all-star' levels and definitely not enough to risk my reputation and KDP account of 4 years.  I don't understand what they think I've been up to, I haven't promoted outside of the usual (Bknights and Bargain Booksy) and my own email list. 

Keeping fingers crossed that my account will be reinstated. Any suggestions?


----------



## AuthorX (Nov 11, 2014)

That's terrible...

I remember this same thing happened to someone roughly 7-8 months ago maybe. The only advertising that person had done was through BKnights. 

I don't remember if that person ever got their account back.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

Yes, I've been reading Pauline's thread. She did get her account back. I'm not suggesting that BKnights has done anything untoward, in fact he refunded me when my promo with him tanked.


----------



## Nic (Nov 17, 2013)

I hope you'll get it reinstated. I'm currently trying to help an ESL author deal with KDP support and that experience has been hair-raising so far.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

Thank you. I have pointed out that it would be highly ironic if a specialist in online safety were to be engaged in fraudulent online activity to promote a book about avoiding fraudulent online activity...


----------



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

Glad I'm not in KU because, wow. We have no control over some third party choosing our books to hide nefarious activity behind.


----------



## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

That's awful. It seems Amazon is actually trying to do something about the scammers, judging from some things that have been happening lately. Unfortunately, they tend to get people who are innocent caught in the crossfire.

Keep working on getting your account back, and remember to escalate any response that doesn't do that through the email you received, not by sending a new one. Use the option that the response was not helpful, or however it's worded. From what I've read, this sends the issue higher up the customer service ladder.


----------



## bknights (May 4, 2014)

So sorry this happening to you- we looked into our records and the book in question was promoted 4 months ago- the rank was in the 100,000s and it was higher after the promo- i.e. no sales or borrows so we refunded your order as we always do.


----------



## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Glad I'm not in KU because, wow. We have no control over some third party choosing our books to hide nefarious activity behind.


No kidding. For at least some of us, it appears that KU has become FU.

Of course, if some fake popularizing sites want to hide their activity by _purchasing_ my works, I'm all for that!


----------



## Awasin (Aug 7, 2015)

bknights said:


> So sorry this happening to you- we looked into our records and the book in question was promoted 4 months ago- the rank was in the 100,000s and it was higher after the promo- i.e. no sales or borrows so we refunded your order as we always do.
> 
> _Edited to remove link and other identifying info. Drop me a PM if you have any questions. - Becca_


No kidding!

Your other books - with the same branding - are ranked in the millions. They didn't get a sale between them even with the increased visibility of this title.

It never occurred to you, OP, that something was amiss?


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

Not greatly, no. I did have occasion to contact KDP support recently over a search issue, they checked over my account and resolved it the same day. There was no suggestion at that point that anything might be amiss. Ultimately, KU is there to facilitate borrowing, this title has borrows. That shouldn't be a surprise or cause for concern, should it?


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

crystalweb said:


> Not greatly, no. I did have occasion to contact KDP support recently over a search issue, they checked over my account and resolved it the same day. There was no suggestion at that point that anything might be amiss. Ultimately, KU is there to facilitate borrowing, this title has borrows. That shouldn't be a surprise or cause for concern, should it?


It is when you have a book so greatly out performing everything else and you say you have nothing advertising the book. It's not something that the vast majority of readers are going to want, short stories on Internet security? That's a very specific thing . . .

I am very sorry your account was closed, and I am hoping that if you truly don't have anything giving you "guaranteed" borrows running that it gets fixed, pronto. But your book is performing very oddly for no marketing push compared to the rest of your catalog. If it was just organic interest, you would see other books doing well as well residually from people liking your omnibus.


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

crystalweb said:


> Ultimately, KU is there to facilitate borrowing, this title has borrows. That shouldn't be a surprise or cause for concern, should it?


You'd think not, but there has been a lot of scamming lately. One scam in particular involves employing click farms to bump up page reads. These click farms often try to disguise their activity by paging through other books by innocent authors, and unfortunately these authors tend to get caught in the crackdown, as Amazon invariably takes the sledgehammer approach and bans any accounts it deems to have been involved. I see your book is doing very well in the US, which seems a little unusual since it's quite UK-oriented. It's possible you've been a victim of one of these sorts of scams.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

Whilst I haven't used the 'traditional' marketing routes, I did say in the OP that I have promoted to my own lists. My lists include thousands of educators, childcare professionals, fostering service providers and schools across the territories that the book is performing well in. My subscribers are clearly in my target market, concerned with the care of children.


----------



## Learning by lurking (Jan 17, 2016)

If you get your account back you may wish to unpublish from other storefronts. I found it just now on Google Play and Lulu. Having it at other stores and in Select is a no no.

_Edited to remove book title. Drop me a PM if you have any questions. - Becca_


----------



## lincolnjcole (Mar 15, 2016)

crystalweb said:


> Not greatly, no. I did have occasion to contact KDP support recently over a search issue, they checked over my account and resolved it the same day. There was no suggestion at that point that anything might be amiss. Ultimately, KU is there to facilitate borrowing, this title has borrows. That shouldn't be a surprise or cause for concern, should it?





crystalweb said:


> Whilst I haven't used the 'traditional' marketing routes, I did say in the OP that I have promoted to my own lists. My lists include thousands of educators, childcare professionals, fostering service providers and schools across the territories that the book is performing well in. My subscribers are clearly in my target market, concerned with the care of children.


Keep in mind that even with thousands of people on your lists, how many of them do you think have a KU account and happened to borrow THAT exact book? If you think they are all legitimate borrows out of YOUR list, then maybe you should reach out to the list and ask how many have KU and borrowed your book and use that as evidence to amazon. However, the fact that it is the only book getting that level of traction it seems more likely something else is happening.

The thing you would need to watch out for is that KU farming groups might be trying to use you as cover.

Lots of fake accounts borrow and 'read' a bunch of books to make the accounts loading those books a lot of money. It isn't a far stretch to imagine those accounts picking random legitimate books to also borrow and 'read' to associate with real accounts to try and trick amazon's system from noticing anything is amiss. If they only picked the fake books, it would be easy to track, so they toss in some real books as well to try and mix it up. Maybe you were picked as one of thos books.

Most likely they would pick random titles that aren't in popular categories and probably would go unnoticed by Amazon if they sold a decent number of books. More than likely, if your books aren't selling well and one randomly starts generating a lot of unexplained KU borrows and pages read and you aren't promoting it, something strange is going on.

The problem is, when amazon flags those fake accounts that are doing the grafting, your book is associated, and they don't know whether or not you were a cover for the actual thieves, or one of the thieves. Once you report it and they investigate I'm sure they will find out that there is no link between you and the farming group they will give you your account back, but in the short term just know that it 'looks' bad. Most likely the thieves already collected their money, closed their accounts, and disappeared and you're left holding the bag because you have, essentially, stolen money.



Learning by lurking said:


> If you get your account back you may wish to unpublish from other storefronts. I found it just now on Google Play and Lulu. Having it at other stores and in Select is a no no.
> 
> _Edited to remove book title. Drop me a PM if you have any questions. - Becca_


Yeah, this could also be a negative checkbox for the amazon team when investigating, but it will probably result in a warning for now.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

lincolnjcole said:


> Keep in mind that even with thousands of people on your lists, how many of them do you think have a KU account and happened to borrow THAT exact book? If you think they are all legitimate borrows out of YOUR list, then maybe you should reach out to the list and ask how many have KU and borrowed your book and use that as evidence to amazon. However, the fact that it is the only book getting that level of traction it seems more likely something else is happening


I assumed (I know...) that the visibility of the title was resulting in more borrows, which maintained visibility, which resulted in more borrows... Unreasonable? I'm not a publishing guru, have limited experience of the KDP platform and celebrated in the moderate success of a title. More fool me I guess


----------



## CraigAPriceJr (Feb 27, 2016)

Another reason I'm glad I'm straying toward publishing wide.


----------



## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

Let's keep in mind that a lot of people on this board (myself included) struggle to effectively market our books and it seems almost like there's no rhyme or reason to when (or whether) a promotion might bear fruit. To expect the OP to see an influx of borrows amounting to 3 figures and assume something is amiss is uncharitable; it's not as though her non-performing book suddenly got an All-Star Bonus. 

I myself, and many authors I know, have asked in private loops and groups, "I had a weird surge of sales/rank/page reads/whatever the last two days, what do you guys think?" and the answer is usually "Maybe one of the blogs picked it up or something." I have never advised anyone, nor heard anyone else advise anyone "Better contact KDP and tell them you're making too much money and they should look into it."

We WANT to move books. When our books start to move it feels like we've done something right, not that something must be wrong.


----------



## Guest (Jan 12, 2017)

lilywhite said:


> I myself, and many authors I know, have asked in private loops and groups, "I had a weird surge of sales/rank/page reads/whatever the last two days, what do you guys think?" and the answer is usually "Maybe one of the blogs picked it up or something." I have never advised anyone, nor heard anyone else advise anyone "Better contact KDP and tell them you're making too much money and they should look into it."
> 
> We WANT to move books. When our books start to move it feels like we've done something right, not that something must be wrong.


This is where something like Google Alerts can help you. I can usually easily identify an unusual uptick in sales based on a blog post or article, and it will show up in Google Alerts.


----------



## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

I am guessing a lot of the people on your email list are Kindle Unlimited subscribers. But why would they only read that book? Doesn't make sense at all.


----------



## devalong (Aug 28, 2014)

crystalweb said:


> Whilst I haven't used the 'traditional' marketing routes, I did say in the OP that I have promoted to my own lists. My lists include thousands of educators, childcare professionals, fostering service providers and schools across the territories that the book is performing well in. My subscribers are clearly in my target market, concerned with the care of children.


I wonder if some schools are using the book in a classroom? It looks like a great book for that purpose, actually. Can schools use KU? A high number of borrows/reads from a school (often have 100s of users connecting from one IP) might trigger something at Amazon?


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> This is where something like Google Alerts can help you. I can usually easily identify an unusual uptick in sales based on a blog post or article, and it will show up in Google Alerts.


Perhaps it's just me, but I have set up numerous Google Alerts for dozens of authors, and get very few alert notifications from Google. Even with some of my higher profile authors I'm lucky to get one alert per month. Maybe something's broken, or maybe it's necessary to renew the alerts to keep them active. Odd.


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Colin said:


> Perhaps it's just me, but I have set up numerous Google Alerts for dozens of authors, and get very few alert notifications from Google. Even with some of my higher profile authors I'm lucky to get one alert per month. Maybe something's broken, or maybe it's necessary to renew the alerts to keep them active. Odd.


Most of the Google alerts I get for my books are from torrent sites.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

I'm sorry this has happened to you, crystalweb. 



crystalweb said:


> Earnings have been in the high 3 figures each month, but certainly not setting the world on fire! It's nowhere near 'all-star' levels and definitely not enough to risk my reputation and KDP account of 4 years.


Are your KENPs super short? If my book were ranking like the one BKnights mentioned, I'd be making in the mid-four figures/month, just on the one. With the high rank and income only in the hundreds, it sounds like a lot of people are borrowing the book but not that many are reading it. That's not how the KU click-farms operate.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

The book is only 147 Kindle pages long! It's not a massive tome, which I would make sure it was if it was going to be enrolled in a click farming operation!


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

So ... does that come to something like 5,000 to 6,000 page reads per day (totally not a math person, here)? If so, that's 30 to 40 people a day reading the whole book. It does seem like a lot for a specialized subject aimed at kids, and for a book with no reviews across three months.

Not to be all paranoid-sounding, but is it possible someone has targeted you?


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

There or thereabouts, but spread across four countries - As someone earlier in the thread mentioned it's also targeting schools and other child orientated professions including social work, childminders etc and it's entirely possible that schools are using it. We did see a dip corresponding with school holidays. It's possible someone's having a pop, but I would have no idea who that might be!


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

crystalweb said:


> There or thereabouts, but spread across four countries - As someone earlier in the thread mentioned it's also targeting schools and other child orientated professions including social work, childminders etc and it's entirely possible that schools are using it. We did see a dip corresponding with school holidays. It's possible someone's having a pop, but I would have no idea who that might be!


Yes, I'm thinking devalong's idea might be the best -- that schools are using that book. Or it could be that the title is being shared in parenting groups. But it seems like there should be some trace of that kind of recommendation/word of mouth when you Google. Even if it started with your list, people would start mentioning it on parenting blogs and such. Maybe do some very targeted Googling and see if you can find those kinds of teacher/parent recommendations out there? That'd be something to show Amazon.

And yeah, using KU click-farms as a way to attack someone has always struck me as a little unlikely. Someone who was really, really in the know would need to have it out for you. I mean, I'm reasonably clued in to indie publishing, and I wouldn't have a clue on how to hire a click-farm.

Edited: Because I am typo-city today.


----------



## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

What I'm not getting about this thread is the book is still up for sale, as are the other books by this author.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Maybe one department is lagging another, but it's interesting they say they've removed your books, and yet your books are still available in the store._ (Ah, I see others had that same question, as I was typing.)_

Spiking a day or a few days is one thing, but has your rank been prolonged in the #3000s? If prolonged, that speaks to other than click-farming. But no reviews, especially if there was word-of-mouth pushing the books among parents or teachers, at that rank is particularly odd. A #3000 rank takes about 70 sales+borrows to hit and about 40 per day to maintain.

In any case, I actually first saw the books that comprise the omnibus available in Kobo and Scribd. That they're being found in other stores too is going to be a second big problem for you to deal with. Even if they restore your account, they might not restore your KU money.

How are sales at the other stores? You mentioned your outreach is worldwide. Is Kobo Canada, for instance, moving the individual books there?


----------



## SC (Jan 6, 2017)

CraigAPriceJr said:


> Another reason I'm glad I'm straying toward publishing wide.


Same. I haven't published yet, but I'm planning on going wide. Reading things like this only reinforces that choice.


----------



## jchance (Oct 15, 2016)

bknights said:


> So sorry this happening to you- we looked into our records and the book in question was promoted 4 months ago- the rank was in the 100,000s and it was higher after the promo- i.e. no sales or borrows so we refunded your order as we always do.
> 
> Your issue might be with this title LINK


You know, the OP posted after this and didn't say anything. A mod's posting, and didn't erase the link though mods often do. But I'd like to point how incredibly irresponsible it was for you to out this author with a link when she didn't offer that link herself. She might not care, but for future reference, a lot of people _would_.

Not cool.


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I believe she is a he by the way.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

jchance said:


> You know, the OP posted after this and didn't say anything. A mod's posting, and didn't erase the link though mods often do. But I'd like to point how incredibly irresponsible it was for you to out this author with a link when she didn't offer that link herself. She might not care, but for future reference, a lot of people _would_.
> 
> Not cool.


Gosh, I didn't notice the OP hadn't identified the book. Apologies! Will edit.

ETA: I think I removed all the book identifiers from the thread. BKnights had already edited their own post.


----------



## Seneca42 (Dec 11, 2016)

It's clearly click farming. 

You released the books individually and then as an omnibus (all roughly at the same time). The individual books are ranked 2M and 3M respectively. But the box set is ranked 2,000 in paid with zero reviews after having been out 2 months? And it's selling at $5.99?

* you've got 17 people following your page on FB (so you likely don't have 50,000 subscribers on your email list)
* you've got zero reviews on Amazon after 2'ish months (despite thousands of readers?)
* you're breaking KU rules by publishing on other platforms (lulu, scribd, google, B&N, kobo, itunes, etc.)
* On top of all this you're an Internet expert... but you didn't think anything was unusual with one book going gangbusters despite no evidence you were getting readers? 

It's also clear you've tried to market this online on variou sites. 

I'm completely guessing, but I wouldn't be surprised if you signed up for some "guaranteed" service who click farmed you to death. 

Either that, or some scammers decided to target you for some reason. 

But either way, it's beyond clear that your book has been click farmed up the ranks. And you should have known something was up as well. But, technically, it's not your job to know, it's Amazons. 

So if you really had no role in this, plead your case to them. I'm sure Amazon if they look deeper will be able to sort it out. 

This may be the biggest mess I've seen yet with KU


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Folks,

We're discussing this thread. Feel free to PM one of the mods if you have questions while we discuss.

Betsy
KB Mod

_
After consideration, we're going to re-open this thread. With a caution:

The OP has been clear about the promotions he has run: his own email list, BKnights, and Bargain Booksy. Members should please refrain from suggesting he's not been honest about that and, rather, address what he can do to help get the issue resolved. -- Ann_


----------



## RichardMMulder (Jan 16, 2017)

crystalweb said:


> I had this email today: We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. Systematic accounts are those that facilitate illegitimate reading or borrow activity . While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate the Kindle platform and/or Kindle programs is not permitted. As a result of the irregular borrow activity, we have removed your books from the Amazon store and are terminating your account and your Agreement effective immediately.
> 
> As part of the termination process, we will close your account(s) and remove the books you have uploaded from Amazon. We will issue a negative adjustment to any outstanding royalty payments. Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open new accounts and will not receive future royalty payments from additional accounts created.
> 
> ...


@crystalweb I received the same exact email on Thursday. It took a few days of active negotiation, but I just got reinstated last night. Please join our Facebook group where we are discussing the results of this. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1132459036786385/permalink/1383846874980932/


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Richard, 

welcome to KBoards!  Glad you got reinstated--would love to have you post here!

Betsy


----------



## RichardMMulder (Jan 16, 2017)

I'm in the process of creating a petition. It will be posted to this new Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuthorOutcasts/


----------



## AaronShep (Nov 18, 2011)

If you can't get your account reinstated, a decent alternative is to republish through Pronoun.com. (They have their own KDP account.)


----------



## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Scary! Makes me shudder to think how easy it is to lose it all in a single day. I have books that are wide, but that isn't really the point. Amazon still makes up the greater portion of my income.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

RichardMMulder said:


> I'm in the process of creating a petition.


I saw this posted in another FB group a little while ago. The poster turned off comments, and just left it there. Which I've complained to the admin of the group about. Post a contentious issue, stop anyone commenting about it, and run away really fast. Not a good look.

I read a lot of the petition, but you leave me with the solid thought wondering what exactly people have been doing to get hit by Amazon.

I for one am glad Amazon is cracking down, and our KU payment rate has improved since they did.

I was interested to read some of the suggestions here about what might be happening.

I cant see any point to your petition. What would be better is to exhaustively find out what each person affected by Amazon on this issue has been doing as far as marketting, and general strategies, trying to find a commonality which you can present to Amazon to say 'these people are victims, not perpetrators'. At the moment, Amazon obviously cant tell the difference. Someone has to tell them how to do that.

I have to say, I found the overall tone in the petition to be offensive to those of us who make a good living from KU, and who are quite dependent on it.

The title, "Kindle Unlimited is Toxic to Authors", is basically offensive. It is only a very tiny sub-set of authors being affected here, and as I said, the whole piece of writing just leaves me wondering what those affected are doing which is being singled out by Amazon. Which of course is not what you are trying to convey.

My advise is re-write the whole thing using facts, without emotion, and appealing for further information to help Amazon tell the difference between scammers and victims. Anything else is just p*ss ing in the wind, and just going to upset more people than it helps.

And seriously, I do want to know what is being done by authors to attract Amazon's attention like this, so I never do it. You have to be doing something, even if you dont know it yet. It might be something really simple, or something common you all do, which the rest of us dont. So seriously, build a site to explore and investigate the problem with those affected, instead of winging and throwing lightning bolts and name calling, which does you no good at all.

Amazon are doing the right thing by KU authors. They might be getting it wrong too often, but at least they are trying. HELP THEM get it right, instead of calling them toxic.

Edit: Afterthought: I for one would like to see the 90 day blue lines for both of you who went through this. It would also be interesting if instead of a petition, you asked for people to upload their blue lines. Maybe comparison will find what Amazon is thinking is a problem, and lead to a suggestion to them.


----------



## Mimi Emmanuel (Nov 6, 2016)

So sorry to hear that. I read a post about this somewhere with a similar story. You would think that Amazon would have to show proof of this alleged fraudulent activity. Innocent till proven guilty.. right?

It's hard to imagine that any author would put their reputation at risk this way. I sure hope that your books get reinstated soon.


----------



## Laran Mithras (Nov 22, 2016)

If you get your account back, *get out of KU*. It isn't worth the hassle and risk.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Folks,

We understand that there are strong feelings here on both sides of whether KU helps or hurts authors...and it's appropriate to state one's opinions.  Let's be respectful of people who believe differently. And let's not take personally things not meant personally.  <--not aimed at anyone, just trying to keep things from going bad.  We've been here before.


Betsy


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

More and more reports like these seem to be surfacing with alarming speed. While some of these reports I've seen look to be written by tuna *meant* to be caught in the net who are obviously and pathetically trying to pass themselves off as dolphins, a few do appear to be actual dolphins. While I don't personally know Adam, the author of the below post, a trusted, long-time online acquaintance has vouched for him.

If his claims are true -- and while I have plenty of reason to doubt MANY of the claims of innocence I've seen around the web recently (not at all speaking to anyone who's posted in this thread!) -- I have no reason to doubt his.

http://adamdreece.com/2017/01/16/amazon-com-vengeful-simplistic-god/

Yes, yay for Amazon taking action against scammers. This is a GOOD thing. We recognize it being a GOOD thing. However, for a technology company specializing in security and electronic forensics tools with its Web Services operations, they seem to catch up an inordinate number of dolphins.

This isn't that hard. Especially when folk are reporting suspicious behavior both from what they see in the store to their own online accounts.

Catch too many dolphins and/or a few well-connected ones, and the PR fallout will take more person-power to manage than putting a few well-trained humans in place to preemptively make sure they don't get caught in the first place.

And add my vote to any communication between affected (and unaffected, for that matter) authors and Amazon be based on reason, facts and data.


----------



## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

The scary thing is that some of the spikes people are talking about happening before their accounts get nuked aren't even that big. They're the kind of bump you'd expect to see after promoting on a moderate sized list.


----------



## SnickersBabe (Jan 9, 2017)

So how does an innocent KU author (whose not engaged in any scams) protect themselves from this type of stuff? Or is there no way at all.


----------



## Desert Rose (Jun 2, 2015)

SnickersBabe said:


> So how does an innocent KU author (whose not engaged in any scams) protect themselves from this type of stuff? Or is there no way at all.


When Amazon is holding authors accountable for the actions of others, on a public storefront where the authors have no control, and without any option for a defense or outside investigation, there really isn't any way to protect yourself beyond not being in KU.


----------



## J. B. Cantwell (Mar 26, 2014)

Last night I pulled all of my titles from auto-renewal on KU because of all this. There's no reason to think I might be targeted, and yet these events keep on happening to other authors. 

I wrote a detailed email to both KDP support and to my personal KDP rep. I still have two pre-orders that are now stuck in KU. I'll report back when I get a response.

For those who have been reinstated, have you had your comments and star ratings restored as well?


----------



## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

J. B. Cantwell said:


> Last night I pulled all of my titles from auto-renewal on KU because of all this. There's no reason to think I might be targeted, and yet these events keep on happening to other authors.
> 
> I wrote a detailed email to both KDP support and to my personal KDP rep. I still have two pre-orders that are now stuck in KU. I'll report back when I get a response.
> 
> For those who have been reinstated, have you had your comments and star ratings restored as well?


Remember back when you began to write, and began to learn how to edit? Remember those passages of yours that were lively, but had problems?

Remember how, after you edited out all of the problems, there was no life left in the passages?

That's what KU feels like to me now--edited to death. (Though it _still_ has problems, on top of being edited to death.)


----------



## Seneca42 (Dec 11, 2016)

So it seems relatively safe to assume the scammers are now fighting back against Amazon's anti-scam efforts by attacking legit books. 

Which then leads to the question... how did Amazon not see this coming? I get they might not have been able to stop it, but at least they could have thought about this possibility and come up with a response beyond simply banning legit author accounts. 

But more importantly, why in the world is anyone subjecting themselves to the insane world of KU? Not only were there months and months of KU page read glitches, now you could find your account deleted. 

Amazon has herded authors into an episode of Saw, where everyone is trapped in a room hoping not to die first


----------



## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Dragovian said:


> When Amazon is holding authors accountable for the actions of others, on a public storefront where the authors have no control, and without any option for a defense or outside investigation, there really isn't any way to protect yourself beyond not being in KU.


An author I know unpublished her book and email kdp support immediately when she got a 50k read spike from a book that was averaging 2-3k a day. The only options are those that hurt the authors bottom line.


----------



## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

Seneca42 said:


> Amazon has herded authors into an episode of Saw, where everyone is trapped in a room hoping not to die first


Okay, I sprayed coffee all over my desktop. Stoppit! LOL


----------



## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

Seneca42 said:


> Which then leads to the question... how did Amazon not see this coming? I get they might not have been able to stop it, but at least they could have thought about this possibility and come up with a response beyond simply banning legit author accounts.


The same way they haven't seen any of the other long string of problems and scams that have come along, even though in many cases we were talking about the possibility of them here long before they ever showed up. _They didn't bother looking._ They don't care about individual authors. They don't care about much of anything that doesn't directly cost *them* money. All that really concerns them is getting more KU subscribers who will spend more money in the store buying tennis shoes and televisions.



> But more importantly, why in the world is anyone subjecting themselves to the insane world of KU? Not only were there months and months of KU page read glitches, now you could find your account deleted.


Because in some cases it's the difference between making a living and making nothing. I had my Olivia Blake catalog wide for a year, and my sales on the distributors outside of Amazon were steadily shrinking despite marketing and new releases. I moved the entire catalog into Select and despite a 50% decline in sales on Amazon due to the loss of my permafrees _my income still went up_. For all that there are well-documented problems and risks, they only seem to be affecting a relatively small fraction of people enrolled in Select. And frankly there are always risks. Erotica authors have been dealing with this kind of nonsense from Amazon for years. Or some guy in an internet cafe on the other side of the world could file DMCA takedown notices with Amazon on your entire catalog tomorrow and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. If it happens, Amazon is going to yank the books and send you a nastygram and maybe nuke your account for violations. They don't care. There are a million more of you out there, and your books are just widgets to them.

This is business as usual at Amazon. But if you don't bet, you can't win.


----------



## JulianneQJohnson (Nov 12, 2016)

I can't help but wonder if there's a certain promoter that is being used by those effected, and that promoter is not on the up and up.  However, I might just want to believe that.  The idea that a victim has in some way caused something to happen, or took some risk or another is comforting.  The rest of us want to feel safe.  We want to be able to say, "That can't happen to me!"  It's human nature, but it's flawed.  We all know that sometimes negative things happen to people who have done nothing at all wrong.  Don't assume you are not at risk. 

Check for suspicious spikes in your page reads and alert Amazon.  Take your books out of UK if you see movement that is obviously questionable.  Of course, some writers are being targeted through only modest spikes, easily explained by an honest promotion.  If you lose your account, tell Amazon.  Go through the channels, and don't stop until you get eyes on your problem.  The more writers bring this to Amazon's attention in a clear and businesslike way, the more they will be able to refine how they catch spammers, and the more willing they will be to listen to writers who got caught in the crossfire through no fault of their own.

Now, I'm no expert, but I thought this so I'll say it.  Don't use promotions that promise reads.  I know it sounds like common sense, but to the newbies like me, it might not be obvious.  Check promotions sites reputations, and not testimonials on their own websites.  Check here, check at Absolute Write, be full of snoopiness. I'm still not implying that vigilance will make you bullet-proof, but do what you can to protect your work.  If a promotion sounds too good to be true, it likely is.


----------



## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Everybody wants to throw the blame on the authors for using suspicious promos, but I know for a fact that some authors have unexplained  spikes when they haven't done any promos for months.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

JulianneQJohnson said:


> I can't help but wonder if there's a certain promoter that is being used by those effected, and that promoter is not on the up and up.
> .....
> Now, I'm no expert, but I thought this so I'll say it. Don't use promotions that promise reads. I know it sounds like common sense, but to the newbies like me, it might not be obvious. Check promotions sites reputations, and not testimonials on their own websites. Check here, check at Absolute Write, be full of snoopiness. I'm still not implying that vigilance will make you bullet-proof, but do what you can to protect your work. If a promotion sounds too good to be true, it likely is.


I've had the same thoughts. And the advise is good.

A promotion should deliver both sales and reads, otherwise it will look suspicious to Amazon. The sales might be free downloads. But the absence of one, with only getting reads, has to be suspicious.



JalexM said:


> Everybody wants to throw the blame on the authors for using suspicious promos, but I know for a fact that some authors have unexplained spikes when they haven't done any promos for months.


Nobody is throwing blame. We are looking for a cause. If there is one, it could be something so simple most people dont know they are doing it, or doing it causes something which Amazon is targeting. If you dont ask questions, you never find the cause. You cant ask about causes without someone feeling like they're being blamed, but its not the intention.

Its the spikes without promotions which need even more investigation, than the ones with. But both need to be investigated.

What if there was a promotion by someone else thinking they were doing a good deed for the author, and the author had no idea it was being done. I did a promotion for an author as a christmas present, and found out yesterday someone else did the same in a different media at the same time as I did. Neither worked at all, so no effects either way. The author didn't know either promotion was happening at the time. So it is possible that some well meaning person, has done some promotion without the author knowing, and its backfired on the author. We wont know unless people investigate and ask their fan base questions.

No one is going to ask questions unless we push them past the "I didn't do nothing" response.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

TimothyEllis said:


> Its the spikes without promotions which need even more investigation, than the ones with. But both need to be investigated.


We've heard from quite a few people that Amazon is not reporting page-reads they feel must've gotten, based on their books' ranks, and we've had one recent report of a month's worth of page-reads showing up and then disappearing. Is it possible there could be Amazon glitches that mistakenly add page-reads as well as ones that take them away?


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

Becca Mills said:


> We've heard from quite a few people that Amazon is not reporting page-reads they feel must've gotten, based on their books' ranks, and we've had one recent report of a month's worth of page-reads showing up and then disappearing. Is it possible there could be Amazon glitches that mistakenly add page-reads as well as ones that take them away?


Anything is possible, but I would have expected them to check on that first.

But then, the whole process is probably automated, which is why its making mistakes. My opinion of IT people these days is pretty low.


----------



## kling44 (Feb 25, 2016)

All these accounts shutting down may just be that Amazon is trying to scare people away from joining KU.  I know it is working well in my case.  For a new author, this is something he really does not need to worry about.
It really does not matter whose fault it is.  Really.  In the end, one side is hurt and the other glows at how powerful it is. And scary.  If Amazon wanted to be a decent guy, they could always send e-mails where they tell the owner of the closing account that something strange is going on and that it may need to proceed with some drastic measure.  But this, 'shoot-first-never-need-to-ask-questions-anyway' mode is just upsetting.  At least to me.  I know many of you here make a decent living through KU platform, and are ready to jump and defend your bread giver.  Yet, what if you end up on the same shit list?  I mean, at least we should know what it is that gets us there - on that shit list, right?  Why secrecy?  Unless, Amazon is doing something not completely right, and it just does not care to correct it.
So, to you Amazon tough guys.  You are big,  The biggest.  Don't need to smack us around just to show how big you are.  Be nice.  Regardless how easy it is not to.


----------



## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

JalexM said:


> Everybody wants to throw the blame on the authors for using suspicious promos, but I know for a fact that some authors have unexplained spikes when they haven't done any promos for months.


I had a spike a few months ago, not enough to cause an eyebrow lift, but double my usual amount. It was straight after I had posted on my author page, reminding people about the KU free trial. But I also got an email from some promotion company telling me they had added my book, without my permission, to various book clubs. They said it would cost me $100, but never came back with an invoice (which I wouldn't have paid anyway). If there are people like that out there, it is hardly the author's fault.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

Hi folks,

I stepped away from this thread when it started to turn nasty. I am comfortable in and confident of my innocence. For those who are curious, my platform is built upon my many years of work in education, governance and social care. Most of my clients do not have corporate access to social media and therefore do not connect with me through those channels. Being an 'author' is but one hat that I wear.

My account was reinstated on Monday, however my books have yet to reappear in the Kindle store and I am chasing that as I type. Despite my requests I have yet to be furnished with any evidence of 'unusual' borrow or reading activity and still am at a loss as to how/why/if this occurred.

I would like to thank the numerous other authors who lost their accounts on or around the same day for their support (including the person who reported a KENP spike in reads to Amazon and was told by an account executive that all was in order.)  I hope that they all get reinstated.

I don't know where all of the oceanic references come from by the way, I don't know if I'm a prawn, a tuna or a dolphin. What I am is an honest author who just wants to sell a few books along the way.


----------



## TheLass (Mar 13, 2016)

That's great news crystalweb, I hope your books reappear in the store soon.


----------



## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

crystalweb said:


> Hi folks,
> 
> I stepped away from this thread when it started to turn nasty. I am comfortable in and confident of my innocence. For those who are curious, my platform is built upon my many years of work in education, governance and social care. Most of my clients do not have corporate access to social media and therefore do not connect with me through those channels. Being an 'author' is but one hat that I wear.
> 
> ...


I'm relieved to hear you were able to recover your account. No one should have to go through this kind of nonsense.

It's unfortunate that some people assume an author has done something wrong when this happens. I think the working theory that scammers target some legit books in an attempt to mask their activities is a good one, and in such a case, the books involved would have to be by authors unconnected with the scams.

That said, there have also been cases of authors unknowingly using promoters that used click farms, so it's important for new authors in particular to be cautious, as Julianne suggests. Also, it's not just the size of the unexpected spike, since some people have pointed out cases of relatively small spikes getting an account banned. It's KU spike with relatively flat sales that seems to look suspicious to the bots and that might indeed indicate click farm activity, at least in the cases I've read about.

As for Amazon, yes, there's no question at least a few live humans should be involved in making a determination to close an account, and it's also true that author account closure should be a last resort, only attempted when there is solid evidence against the author (like books without real content but with lots of pages). Otherwise, punitive actions should be reserved for the scam customer accounts doing the "reading."


----------



## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

PhoenixS said:


> While I don't personally know Adam, the author of the below post, a trusted, long-time online acquaintance has vouched for him.
> 
> If his claims are true -- and while I have plenty of reason to doubt MANY of the claims of innocence I've seen around the web recently (not at all speaking to anyone who's posted in this thread!) -- I have no reason to doubt his.
> 
> http://adamdreece.com/2017/01/16/amazon-com-vengeful-simplistic-god/


I know Adam IRL. He belongs to the Calgary Steampunk and SFF communities.

I do have an update about this: Adam has had is account reinstated, along with all of his reviews (so he didn't lose them). Amazon also apologized for taking this action against him. However, he has lost the affects of the ads he was running and, therefore, it's basically be wasted money for him. So that's very disappointing.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Bill Hiatt said:


> As for Amazon, yes, there's no question at least a few live humans should be involved in making a determination to close an account, and it's also true that author account closure should be a last resort, only attempted when there is solid evidence against the author (like books without real content but with lots of pages). Otherwise, punitive actions should be reserved for the scam customer accounts doing the "reading."


There is some logic in an instant ban, though. A scammer is not going to take the trouble to fight the case, so they're gone. A genuine author will fight, and escalate and explain and escalate some more until they reach a human with the power to take decisions, who will be able to determine that yes, this one's legitimate. Any softer action, like warnings, will just drag the process out, encourage scammers to plead their case too, and take a lot more human intervention. This way, humans only get involved in the handful of legit cases. The dolphins, as Phoenix has it.


----------



## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> There is some logic in an instant ban, though. A scammer is not going to take the trouble to fight the case, so they're gone. A genuine author will fight, and escalate and explain and escalate some more until they reach a human with the power to take decisions, who will be able to determine that yes, this one's legitimate. Any softer action, like warnings, will just drag the process out, encourage scammers to plead their case too, and take a lot more human intervention. This way, humans only get involved in the handful of legit cases. The dolphins, as Phoenix has it.


Guilty until proven innocent always works.


----------



## Laran Mithras (Nov 22, 2016)

JalexM said:


> Everybody wants to throw the blame on the authors for using suspicious promos, but I know for a fact that some authors have unexplained spikes when they haven't done any promos for months.


I've had this ever since I pulled all my books from KU. Some are still coming out, though few remain. In those, I'm seeing very wild spikes. For me, this is beyond suspicion. This smells bad.

I'm the author who has used exactly one promotion: AMS, and it's still running and not on the books effected. Am I dodging a bullet? Maybe. Is it glithcy and I'm getting "caught up" on page reads I was docked for the last several months? Possibly.

All I know is, KU seems like a game of Russian Roulette. I might get away with being clean every cycle, but what about the next? And being my income is largely being an author, I find KU an unacceptable risk.

Which is why I recommended the OP get out. I wish the best of luck to those who need to stay in.


----------



## Seneca42 (Dec 11, 2016)

PaulineMRoss said:


> There is some logic in an instant ban, though. A scammer is not going to take the trouble to fight the case, so they're gone. A genuine author will fight, and escalate and explain and escalate some more until they reach a human with the power to take decisions, who will be able to determine that yes, this one's legitimate. Any softer action, like warnings, will just drag the process out, encourage scammers to plead their case too, and take a lot more human intervention. This way, humans only get involved in the handful of legit cases. The dolphins, as Phoenix has it.


To further support his stream of thought... businesses always weight the costs of a diferent actions. Is more good generated than bad?

None of us know the extent of the scamming issue. I suspect it's HUGE. If some guy was making $3M off it, then there had to be others. So if you're Amazon and losing millions to scammers... that has to be stopped at any and all costs, period, end of discussion.

Now, will genuine authors get caught up in this process (especially if the scammers fight back by targetting them?). Of course. But that's a mess that 1) you can clean up and 2) doesn't cost you money.

Authors are trapped in a war between Amazon and the scammers and in war there is collateral damage. That's just how it is.

So I think you are probably very correct in their logic. Authors are a secondary concern, their #1 priority is stopping the scammers.


----------



## dianapersaud (Sep 26, 2013)

Seneca42 said:


> To further support his stream of thought... businesses always weight the costs of a diferent actions. Is more good generated than bad?
> 
> None of us know the extent of the scamming issue. I suspect it's HUGE. If some guy was making $3M off it, then there had to be others. So if you're Amazon and losing millions to scammers... that has to be stopped at any and all costs, period, end of discussion.
> 
> ...


Pu-lease. On a random search today I found at LEAST 5 scammy books. If Amazon really wanted to, they would pay a few people to sit down and look at the books being published. Especially anything with "bonus" content. Or more than 3 books. Or 600 pages.

Heck, software could probably create a list of those books to be looked at by a REAL LIVE PERSON.

But Amazon CHOOSES not to do this.

This isn't the first time this has happened. It's been going on for well over a year.

Technology isn't always the ONLY solution. Nor is it always the best solution.


----------



## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

Assuming that the majority of authors who have lost their accounts have been the random targets of scamouflage (scammers scraping books from promo sites to use as camouflage for their scammy tactics), there's really not a lot we can do to combat the problem other than stop doing promo which isn't remotely viable for a lot of us. 

Knowledge and authors supporting other authors is our best tool. When we decide to make a noise, our voices are heard. Adam proved that. Let's stop casting shade on the victims and start casting light instead.


----------



## Seneca42 (Dec 11, 2016)

dianapersaud said:


> Pu-lease. On a random search today I found at LEAST 5 scammy books. If Amazon really wanted to, they would pay a few people to sit down and look at the books being published. Especially anything with "bonus" content. Or more than 3 books. Or 600 pages.
> 
> Technology isn't always the ONLY solution. Nor is it always the best solution.


That's not their business model. I mean, for better or worse, they are a technology company. They don't fix problems by throwing people power at it, they fix it by making the tech better. That's how all tech companies behave... don't band-aid it with people, fix the actual problem (with the tech) so it goes away for good.

I really don't get why people keep expecting Amazon to operate in any other way.

As for them really caring about scammy books... it's clear they do. Most of the KU glitches came right after the big media storm around the guy who took them for $3M. Now authors are getting accounts deleted. They are throwing everythign they have at this issue (short of human readers, I acknowledge).

You may have found 5 scammy books, but there were thousands before. There may still be. I'm not saying the problem is fixed, just that they are attacking it.

And I'm not sure what human readers would really solve anyway. The scammers could easily swamp that process by increase the fake books they input into the system.

The simple reality is Amazon built a BAD system. KU is flawed at its core. It always will be. They'll plug one hole in the dam, but another will spring up. The problems will never go away, because a subscription service can always be gamed.


----------



## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

crystalweb said:


> I had this email today: We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. Systematic accounts are those that facilitate illegitimate reading or borrow activity . While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate the Kindle platform and/or Kindle programs is not permitted. As a result of the irregular borrow activity, we have removed your books from the Amazon store and are terminating your account and your Agreement effective immediately.
> 
> As part of the termination process, we will close your account(s) and remove the books you have uploaded from Amazon. We will issue a negative adjustment to any outstanding royalty payments. Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open new accounts and will not receive future royalty payments from additional accounts created.
> 
> ...


Lets say you were getting consistently around 80,000 KU reads a day and then you suddenly in one day went up to 300,000. I can see that might cause them to look at your account.

They are looking for inconsistencies. Even with an ad burst you shouldn't jump up more than maybe 20,000.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

crystalweb said:


> I stepped away from this thread when it started to turn nasty. I am comfortable in and confident of my innocence. For those who are curious, my platform is built upon my many years of work in education, governance and social care. Most of my clients do not have corporate access to social media and therefore do not connect with me through those channels. Being an 'author' is but one hat that I wear.
> 
> My account was reinstated on Monday, however my books have yet to reappear in the Kindle store and I am chasing that as I type. Despite my requests I have yet to be furnished with any evidence of 'unusual' borrow or reading activity and still am at a loss as to how/why/if this occurred.


Wonderful news! I hope your books reappear without much delay.

As I recall, Pauline Creeden wasn't given an explanation, either. I'm sure it's extremely frustrating. Heck, it's frustrating for the rest of us, too -- everyone'd like to know what triggers these events. Since we have no info to work with, there's little we can do to stay safe.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

lostones said:


> Lets say you were getting consistently around 80,000 KU reads a day and then you suddenly in one day went up to 300,000. I can see that might cause them to look at your account.
> 
> They are looking for inconsistencies. Even with an ad burst you shouldn't jump up more than maybe 20,000.


Yes, but its when the reads go up, but the sales dont, that they seem to be targeting.



Bill Hiatt said:


> That said, there have also been cases of authors unknowingly using promoters that used click farms, so it's important for new authors in particular to be cautious, as Julianne suggests. Also, it's not just the size of the unexpected spike, since some people have pointed out cases of relatively small spikes getting an account banned. It's KU spike with relatively flat sales that seems to look suspicious to the bots and that might indeed indicate click farm activity, at least in the cases I've read about.


And this is why we need to ask authors caught up in this what they are doing to promote their books.

If we can identify common promoters, we can have a thread here advising people not to use them if they are in KU.


----------



## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

"... your books are originating from systematically generated accounts."

I just cannot believe that at this late date Amazon still doesn't have anti-bot features in their signup procedures.

That'd be the first and easiest way to attack the fraud issue without hitting legitimate authors.

And as I've posted before, if Amazon were to charge a $1, one-time fee per title uploaded, they could, at the reported rate of 3000 new titles per day, hire several college-educated humans at $50,000 per year to examine uploads for legitimacy. This, BTW, would be a _great_ at-home, PC-based, sit-around-in-your-skivvies job. I'd apply.


----------



## crystalweb (Oct 24, 2016)

My books are back!

I have today written to Jeff Bezos - An extract of my letter is below:

Dear Mr Bezos,

On Thursday 12th January I received an email from "[email protected]" advising that my KDP account had been terminated because:

"we have detected that borrows for your (my) books are originating from systematically generated accounts"

I immediately appealed this on the grounds that I have done nothing to manipulate the KDP platform and would not know how to do so. I responded fully to requests for further information and received another email advising that more time was needed to investigate. On Monday 16th January I received an email informing me that after reviewing my response it had been decided that my account would be reinstated. Yesterday my books finally reappeared in the Kindle store. Monday's email stated that :

" because we have detected that borrows for your books originated from systematically generated accounts, you are not eligible to receive last month's KU and KOLL royalties"

and warning me that:

"if future manipulation of the Kindle platform and/or Kindle programs is detected, your account will be terminated and outstanding royalties withheld."

Whilst I am appreciative of the reinstatement of my account and my books, I would like to address this situation with you directly and discuss both the proposed withdrawal of December's royalties and the threat of termination in future.

There seems to be a contradiction in play here. Your Company has accepted that my account should be reinstated, presumably on the grounds of innocence of any wrongdoing. However, even in light of this reinstatement, there appears to be, at least from the tone of the email advising of that reinstatement, a suggestion that I have done something wrong. I have done nothing to manipulate the KDP platform, yet I am being threatened with account termination if I do it again? I am also being penalised to the tune of a whole month's worth of royalties. I am either innocent, in which case I should be paid for the reads accrued on my account, or I'm not, in which case my account should have been terminated.

I maintain my innocence. Whilst I do not have access to the in-depth data held by Amazon, an analysis of my KENP read graph shows natural peaks and troughs, which can be attributed to certain events. For example reads dipped in the days following the US election and in the build-up to Thanksgiving, recovered during my Kindle Countdown deal which I promoted via Bargain Booksy and Digital Bookspot, dipped to zero on both Christmas Eve and Boxing Day (whilst having a reasonable showing on Christmas day as Kindles would have been a popular gift item) and dipped again over the New Year public holidays where people would have been celebrating with their families. This is not indicative of automated reads carried out by robots. Robots do not follow news events, celebrate public holidays or prioritise family and friends over reading.

I am of course aware that manipulation of the platform does occur. I have seen the 'scammy' books published on the platform which divert royalties from genuine authors and I am supportive and appreciative of Amazon's efforts to protect the interests of its readership, protecting them from unsatisfactory experiences, and the pecuniary interests of genuine authors who suffer when the KU pot is diluted by these scammers. Indeed only yesterday I was approached via Facebook by an outfit offering paid Amazon reviews. I immediately reported this to KDP, providing the web address in order that Amazon may take appropriate action.

I am further aware (following intensive research on the experience of other authors) that it is possible that the publishers of these 'scammy' books may target innocent authors to camouflage their activities. Whilst in the absence of evidence this is purely conjecture, I have to question the legitimacy of using the sledgehammer of account termination in these cases, without any warning. The books which clearly seek to manipulate the KU platform are, almost without exception, massive tomes stuffed with nonsense. The books of the authors who have contacted me to offer support and share their own experiences of account termination on or around the same date as my own are quality works which have obviously taken a great deal of time, effort and love to create. The differences are clear to any human reader.

Exclusivity to Amazon via KDP select has its benefits, but the reliance upon Amazon for authors' income requires trust and confidence on both sides. Your ability to pull our accounts, unpublish our books and withhold earnings at the merest hint of impropriety, without warning, the presentation of evidence or the opportunity to protest our innocence before the fact creates a massive imbalance of power in this business relationship. That power comes with a responsibility and I would ask that you review your procedures in this regard to prevent the immense stress and financial impact that your actions can have on small business people like myself.

Please, take the time to flick through some of my work. I am a genuine author, with genuine credentials. Also please consider that the book in question has a Kindle equivalent page count of only 147 pages. If I were to be engaged in nefarious activity to garner illicit page reads, would it not be more likely that the length of the book would approach the payout limit of 3,000 pages, as opposed to less than 5% of the maximum?

I would submit that a mistake has been made by Amazon in my case and ask that my eligibility to receive all royalties be reinstated with immediate effect. I have done nothing wrong and need to be paid for my work.

The letter goes on to list my credentials and repeat my request that I get paid.


----------



## cvwriter (May 16, 2011)

That is an excellent letter, Crystal. Very well-spoken. So glad you got your account back. I hope the same for your royalties.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Not to be indelicate, Crystalweb, but while that's a terrific letter to address the scambot issue (it really is -- many kudos for it!), it does appear that there was KU manipulation on your part -- although not of the systematically generated sort -- by the presence of your individual books in other stores while your bundled version was in KU. I mentioned in an earlier comment that the punishment for that might well be the withholding of KU royalties for that book. That is, indeed, a clear violation of the KU T&Cs. So, two totally different issues, one of which you seem to be absolved of, but the other still an infraction, which might well have been caught during a review of your account.


----------



## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Yeah, you're playing with fire here.

This line (emphasis mine): "if future manipulation of the Kindle platform *and/or Kindle programs is detected*, your account will be terminated and outstanding royalties withheld," is probably warning you that they know you broke KU exclusivity rules.

So you were cleared of the bot activity, but you are guilty of the breaking the exclusivity rule. If I were you, I'd let that dead horse lie and get your books back in line with_ all the rules _before you lose your account again.


----------



## James Worlock (Mar 24, 2016)

This raises the question, for me, of whether authors need to be wary about their competitors using blackhat tactics against them. E.g, send blackhat traffic to your rival's book, and boom, one less rival. Has anyone heard of such a thing happening, or is there anything in place to prevent it?


----------



## Seneca42 (Dec 11, 2016)

This thread had descended into madness.  

Op emails bezos saying they did nothing wrong, meanwhile is in KU and wide at the same time? In addition, wants to be paid out for the click farms someone did to their book?  (which was like 200 in paid in box set form, but in individual book form was 3M in rank - it was obviously click farmed)... and demands they be paid for those reads? 

Op got lucky that they reinstated the books and didn't seem to notice they are violating KU policy. That little email they sent will likely result in a closer inspection and they'll get booted again. 

pure madness.


----------



## Desmond X. Torres (Mar 16, 2013)

Joseph M. Erhardt said:


> "... your books are originating from systematically generated accounts."
> 
> *I just cannot believe that at this late date Amazon still doesn't have anti-bot features in their signup procedures.
> *
> ...


Uh... YEAH. (I'd apply too, but only if I can wear my bathrobe as well.


----------



## BigPhilly (Jan 4, 2017)

I'm very happy to see you got your account back. Sadly, the Amazon TOC are written in a manner most favorable to Amazon and we have little bargaining power. That said, these types of problems are occurring often enough to make this deal Reason Number 55,675,987 to go WIDE. As in any other investment, diversification is important.


----------



## Tess McCallum (Jan 3, 2017)

Colin said:


> Perhaps it's just me, but I have set up numerous Google Alerts for dozens of authors, and get very few alert notifications from Google. Even with some of my higher profile authors I'm lucky to get one alert per month. Maybe something's broken, or maybe it's necessary to renew the alerts to keep them active. Odd.


No, it's not just you. My experience is that Google Alerts is very hit and miss. Every now and again I google my titles, series name and author name just to see what comes up and I've found direct references to one or a combination of these keyword terms, yet I received no alert. Go figure?


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Tess McCallum said:


> No, it's not just you. My experience is that Google Alerts is very hit and miss. Every now and again I google my titles, series name and author name just to see what comes up and I've found direct references to one or a combination of these keyword terms, yet I received no alert. Go figure?


Perhaps I'll set up an alert for "Google Alerts" and see if it produces any results.


----------



## RichardMMulder (Jan 16, 2017)

Hello all. Some of you may be aware of the petition I created regarding this issue. We currently have 325 signatures. Please add your support! https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com-kindle-unlimited-is-toxic-to-authors

Here's the letter that will be delivered to Amazon.com and to Jeff Bezos:

Letter to
Amazon.com
CEO, Amazon.com Jeff Bezos
We would like to bring to your attention a problem with the way the Kindle Unlimited Program is being administered. Legitimate authors are being hurt by being lumped together with scammers -- and when innocent authors can't sell their books through Amazon, Amazon loses money.

When innocent authors' accounts have been reinstated, your company also issues the following disclaimer: "Please note that because we have detected that borrows for your books originated from systematically generated accounts, you are not eligible to receive last month's KU and KOLL royalties." Again, when accounts are reinstated, this infers that Amazon agrees that the author was innocent of any wrongdoing. So why punish them by withholding the payout of legitimate sales? This is an unfair business practice that needs to change immediately.

The core issue here is the fact that since your algorithms can determine when there is "suspected illegitimate borrow activity" then this same system should be able to filter out KENP from said suspected borrowers. If there is no such ability to filter out these suspected accounts, then we propose an alternative option: simply exclude KENP that has been read by borrowers in their 30-day trial period. This should eliminate a large host of these "scammer bots" and help Amazon save face.

In its current form the KDP Select program is extremely risky to authors, and needs a complete overhaul. The overall purpose of this letter is to strongly suggest that your company needs to adopt the following process when suspected illegitimate borrow activity is identified:
1) Flag the detection and give an initial notice to the publisher of this situation;
2) Freeze the royalties for the suspicious page reads involved;
3) Offer the publisher an opportunity to defend themselves via human contact with a KDP representative;
4) come up with a resolution that may include loss of royalties, temporary suspension of publisher account, and up to permanent termination of account.

In the event of a dispute, a much better business practice would involve a temporary freeze on royalties while both sides talk and try to resolve the issue. If no response comes from the Author, then Amazon.com can reasonably assume that the account is fraudulent.

Please remember that Independent Authors make up the very heart of the Kindle Unlimited program, and it is our works that made the KU program attractive in the first place. Simply casting us aside over a possibly false positive flag of bot usage and consequently removing our works from your platform would reduce the number of available titles, and in the long run, reduce the value of the KU program to subscribers.

Thank you for your time,

Richard M. Mulder
Co-Producer of the SciFan™ Magazine
Owner of SciFan™ Entertainment
Author of The Fifth Horseman Series


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

RichardMMulder said:


> In its current form the KDP Select program is extremely risky to authors, and needs a complete overhaul. The overall purpose of this letter is to strongly suggest that your company needs to adopt the following process when suspected illegitimate borrow activity is identified:
> 1) Flag the detection and give an initial notice to the publisher of this situation;
> 2) Freeze the royalties for the suspicious page reads involved;
> 3) Offer the publisher an opportunity to defend themselves via human contact with a KDP representative;
> 4) come up with a resolution that may include loss of royalties, temporary suspension of publisher account, and up to permanent termination of account.


I think the biggest issue is Amazon's assumption of guilt. For them, you are guilty until proven innocent, and it's very difficult to prove a negative.

I would add that a first offense would result in a warning and removal of suspicious page reads from the sales reports. Period. That assumes innocence on the part of the publisher, while still not allowing the publisher to be paid for fraudulent page reads.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Welcome, Richard. Off the cuff, that seems to me like a pretty good proposal (though, rather cynically, I'm wondering if anyone at Amazon will actually read it). Maybe others will see problems with it that I don't? True, it means sacrificing income from readers' first thirty days, but perhaps that's a good trade-off to clean up the program. Given that people could be KU members for years and years, the percentage of reads lost would be relatively small.

Could you possibly make a new URL for the petition and have "amazon-com-kindle-unlimited-is-toxic-to-authors" redirect to it? That URL seems unnecessarily antagonistic, given the constructive spirit of the letter. It gave me the impression that a rant was to follow.


----------



## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Becca Mills said:


> Could you possibly make a new URL for the petition and have "amazon-com-kindle-unlimited-is-toxic-to-authors" redirect to it? That URL seems unnecessarily antagonistic, given the constructive spirit of the letter. It gave me the impression that a rant was to follow.


Agreed ^. That URL seems to conflict with the professional tone of the letter.


----------



## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

RichardMMulder said:


> If there is no such ability to filter out these suspected accounts, then we propose an alternative option: simply exclude KENP that has been read by borrowers in their 30-day trial period. This should eliminate a large host of these "scammer bots" and help Amazon save face.


I suspect Amazon implemented this policy on Amazon.com KU accounts on or about Sept. 1, 2016. And yet the scammers are undeterred.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Gator said:


> I suspect Amazon implemented this policy on Amazon.com KU accounts on or about Sept. 1, 2016. And yet the scammers are undeterred.


What makes you think so, Gator? Do you think that's the reason for the page-read drop some folks noticed at that time?


----------



## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

Becca Mills said:


> Do you think that's the reason for the page-read drop some folks noticed at that time?


I think it's one of the multiple reasons for the reduction in some KDP publishers' KENP earnings. Authors like Amanda Lee, who have a significant portion of their fans who are long-time KU subscribers, didn't notice the drop. Authors who don't already have a large fan base and rely on KU subscribers to build that fan base, particularly new subscribers who are looking for new authors (to them) to borrow their books, have seen significant drops in their monthly KU page reads. I also don't think the "no pay-outs for 30-day free trial KU subscribers" policy is being applied universally, so it's kind of hard to test my theory.

I think it's a policy intended to combat the scammers, but the scammers earn many times the $9.99/mo cost per KU account, so it's not much of a deterrence.


----------



## SomeoneElse (Jan 5, 2016)

Gator said:


> I suspect Amazon implemented this policy on Amazon.com KU accounts on or about Sept. 1, 2016. And yet the scammers are undeterred.


I feel like they would have to tell us that.

I'm also a bit confused that we want this - it comes straight out of our pockets. It means we give our books away for free to anyone who just signed up - and not just our first-in-series as a taste, but everything we've enrolled in KU. Upthread there was a guess that this is a tiny percentage, but we don't know how many people join the program just for the first month and quit (is the first month still free? Because if so, I would expect a lot to do this.) Even if not, I expect most are more active in their first month.

I recall musicians being outraged when Spotify suggested it wouldn't pay artists while members were having free trials. They fought against it, and I believe won. Yet we're petitioning to have this money taken away from us?

I respect trying to deal with the issue, but if dealing with the issue means an unlimited number of real readers could read all of my work and I get absolutely nothing, that's not a solution at all to me.


----------



## ChaztheSpaz (Jan 22, 2017)

crystalweb said:


> Keeping fingers crossed that my account will be reinstated. Any suggestions?


Open a business account. 
It may be that your "enemies" are working to get you banned.


----------



## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

LSMay said:


> I feel like they would have to tell us that.


Other than the TOS and the KU help topics, Amazon isn't very forthcoming with info about KDP accounts. For clarifications, one must contact KDP support, which is automated by Amazon's "machine learning" AI. Hence, the form letters one receives that just aren't helpful if the question deviates, even slightly, from the expected ones.



> I'm also a bit confused that we want this - it comes straight out of our pockets. It means we give our books away for free to anyone who just signed up - and not just our first-in-series as a taste, but everything we've enrolled in KU. Upthread there was a guess that this is a tiny percentage, but we don't know how many people join the program just for the first month and quit (is the first month still free? Because if so, I would expect a lot to do this.) Even if not, I expect most are more active in their first month.


The "money coming straight out of our pockets" has been happening since Day 1 of KU. You probably didn't notice it because it's part of the monthly KDP Global Select Fund distributions. If you do the math, you'll realize that the payout per KENP would be a tiny fraction of a penny higher if Amazon didn't pay for the KENPs read by nonpaying KU subscribers.

By modifying a single line of code, the KENPs attributed to "free trial" KU subscribers would no longer be counted for payment from the monthly Global Fund. Only the KDP publishers whose eBooks were read by these nonpayers that month would be affected, not every single KDP Select enrollee who received a Global Fund payment for that month.



> I respect trying to deal with the issue, but if dealing with the issue means an unlimited number of real readers could read all of my work and I get absolutely nothing, that's not a solution at all to me.


You'll get something, because most KU subscribers pay a fee and a tiny fraction of the annual Amazon Prime membership fees probably gets added to the monthly KDP Select Global Fund for Prime member borrows. The monthly payout is just diluted a bit by the nonpayers.


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

In the spirit of trying to help, I'd like to point out that you use the word "infers" where you actually mean "implies." If you want to make the best impression you can I'd make sure your language is as exact as possible.


----------



## SomeoneElse (Jan 5, 2016)

Gator said:


> Other than the TOS and the KU help topics, Amazon isn't very forthcoming with info about KDP accounts. For clarifications, one must contact KDP support, which is automated by Amazon's "machine learning" AI. Hence, the form letters one receives that just aren't helpful if the question deviates, even slightly, from the expected ones.
> 
> The "money coming straight out of our pockets" has been happening since Day 1 of KU. You probably didn't notice it because it's part of the monthly KDP Global Select Fund distributions. If you do the math, you'll realize that the payout per KENP would be a tiny fraction of a penny higher if Amazon didn't pay for the KENPs read by nonpaying KU subscribers.
> 
> ...


You are correct that Amazon can change the payout on a whim, but I still get paid equally for every page recorded, whether the reader paid Amazon or not. For every person who reads my book(s), I get paid. No one reads them without me getting something. I can look at that payout and decide if it's worth it.

If I'm not paid for any reader with a free trial, then a theoretically unlimited number of people on free trials could read my book(s) without me being paid for those reads. I don't think we have the data to estimate how many is reasonable, but even so, that's not a system I would want to take part in.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

RichardMMulder said:


> Letter to
> Amazon.com
> CEO, Amazon.com Jeff Bezos
> We would like to bring to your attention a problem with the way the Kindle Unlimited Program is being administered.


You're fine until there, but the rest is terrible.

You fail to mention what is happening to start with, and anyone reading this isn't going to have any idea what you are addressing.

Explain the issue of accounts being terminated without any prior contact. 
Explain why some many authors are innocent and are being reinstated.
Explain the situation of not being paid, and why this is wrong.
State what you want them to do.

Be methodical, detailed, without being verbose, and completely unemotional.

This kind of thing, probably needs to be drafted by a lawyer.

If I was getting this letter, I'd bin it about 1 sentence in as being complete waffle, since it fails to identify what the problem is.

You want a letter which will be taken seriously, which clearly outlines the problems, why they are happening and what should be done about it.


----------

