Keep Your KDP Account Safe
Keep Your KDP Account Safe
Oftentimes I hear of authors having their Amazon KDP accounts suspended or banned. This is a serious problem which can fill any author with dread and if it happens to you it can be devastating. Keep your KDP account safe and abide by the rules.
You don’t want to fall into the trap of having your account suspended or terminated, do you?
Positive customer experience
Your goal is to create a positive customer experience. Ensure your book content doesn’t mislead customers.
When KDP suspends an account they may have identified a possible violation of Amazon’s terms of service.
Suspension and termination
According to Kindlepreneur a suspension is far less serious than a termination. With a suspension, there is a good chance that the author’s account can be reinstated.
How do you know if you have a problem? You will find out when you try to log into your account, or else you will receive an email from KDP.
Tips for keeping your account safe
Here are 9 tips on how to keep your account safe so let’s look at some common reasons for getting your account suspended or terminated.
1. Duplicate content
Duplicate content. This often happens with no or low-content books such as puzzle books, colouring books, and line journals. Non-fiction books can have a problem if the content consists of PLR or royalty-free content.
Also, it can apply to templates. If you use the same template over and over again you will need to modify it, change it, and make it unique.
When republishing a book there is a proper process for doing this. Usually, you would need to significantly change the content of the book. Simply unpublishing and then republishing the exact same book is against KDP’s Terms and Conditions so it’s a good idea to chat with KDP Support and seek advice on how best to do this.
2. Plagiarism and violation of copyright
You cannot use someone’s intellectual property without acknowledging the source; you need to create original material. Obviously, it is not only against Amazon’s policies, but it is also illegal to use another person’s copyrighted material in your work. This includes copyrighted images, text, images of public figures without their permission, etc.
3. Keyword stuffing
Be wary of keyword stuffing. This is when you put many keywords separated by commas into a title or sub-title. The end result is a title that looks messy and cumbersome.
4. Multiple accounts
Having multiple accounts under one entity is a “No, No”. This means you cannot have multiple accounts as an individual.
5. Ripping off a successful book
If attempting to model a book on a successful book be careful. A design could be too similar, a title could be too close to an existing one like Rich Father Poor Father (from Rich Dad Poor Dad), or making your author name a slight variation of someone famous like Steven King (Stephen King).
6. Metadata manipulation
An example of metadata manipulation is putting your book into irrelevant categories to get a Best Seller Badge.
7. Reviews
There is an accepted method for getting customer reviews so if you do things like organising fake reviews this can get you into trouble.
8. Trademark violations
Trademark violations are something to avoid. Don’t use names like Disney, or Pokemon and if in doubt check for Trademarks.
Do your best to abide by Amazon’s Terms and Conditions and keep your account safe. A word of advice: avoid putting all your eggs into one basket. Diversify your publishing efforts so if something adverse happens and you can no longer publish on Amazon publish and market your books on other platforms such as IngramSpark.
Learn more about self-publishing on Amazon and IngramSpark and discover my system for self-publishing. Register for my free, live masterclass and secure your ticket now by clicking the green button below.
Marji Hill
Author and Coach