AMAZON ACCOUNT SUSPENDED

[Kasumi_Lee]

I just tried to log into my Amazon KDP account and found that it has been temporarily suspended. I then received the following email from Amazon:

We have temporarily suspended your KDP account because we found content that violates our Content Guidelines in the cover images of the title(s) listed below:

Hello, Master: A WMAF Interracial Workplace Breeding Romance Story

Our guidelines state that we don't sell content that contains pornography or material we deem inappropriate or offensive.

To have your account reinstated, please take the following steps:
1. Reply to this message with the following declaration: "I confirm that I have read and will comply with the Content Guidelines (https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672390), and I will unpublish any previously published titles that do not meet these guidelines."; and
2. After reinstatement, review your catalog and unpublish any titles that do not comply with the Content Guidelines.

Until we receive a response from you, your account will remain suspended.

As a reminder, finding additional violations of our Content Guidelines may negatively impact your account status and could result in the suspension or termination of your KDP account.

Hello, Master is the eBook which Amazon recently blocked. They ALREADY blocked this book and have now blocked my account to punish me for content they've already removed from the site. At least they finally deigned to tell me what was wrong with the ebook, and I get to find out in one of the worst possible ways. Obviously, I've emailed back with the declaration, now I'm just waiting for them to reinstate my account so I can unpublish any stories with cover images that feature any bare skin.

The anger and anxiety I'm feeling right now is really indescribable. There are all manner of bare-breasted cover images all over the kindle store, and all kinds of vile garbage that Amazon turns a blind eye to, but a topless woman covering her breasts with her bare hands is considered pornography? Fuck Amazon and its fucking sick joke of a content review system through all the nine circles of hell and then into the ground below that circle.

I'm never publishing anything on Amazon KDP ever a-fucking-gain.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I don't buy from Amazon. I hate monopsonies.

--Annie

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

So, they care about marginal cover art, but not content? Asking because I've started looking into what it takes to publish there.

 

[lovecraft68]

So, they care about marginal cover art, but not content? Asking because I've started looking into what it takes to publish there.

The best analogy of amazon as far as their rules and enforcement is they're just like lit.

They have rules, but look around and you will see countless titles that break them. Titles, descriptions, cover art etc...but then out of nowhere they will block a book citing the rules that for some reason they ignored for all those other books.

Complaining to them is basically useless because you'll get the same standard reply over and over.

To show you the games they play in their TOS they mention "offensive content" and describe it as "If you find it offensive, we probably will too."

They also say they allow no pornographic material which if enforced would mean by rights no erotic e-books should be there, but there's hundreds of thousands.

Now, for publishing there. You have two choices.

You can see everyone breaking the rules and selling and give that a go yourself (example, incest is not allowed there, but go look for mommy and daddy titles and see what you find) you'll sell for a time, but once they block you there is no coming back.

Or, you can follow the rules which is all about being vague. You can have hard core content, but they want a fairly tame cover, tame description, but inside can be as XXX as you want. That's the game, they sell what they pretend they don't so if you wrap your work up nice nice they're fine with it, you sell less than the rule breakers, but you keep your account.

I can tell you it is frustrating to see people making bank putting out "Fucking mommy's ass" while you're making a few sales a month because you follow the rules, but again, amazon only does this for so long before they go on one of their witch hunts and wipe all those people out.

I'll also tell you I've had an account there for 12 years and I'm not lying when I say even after all these years any time I upload an e-book I expect it to be my last. I've seen too many publishers and authors get banned for no reason to ever really trust them.

 

[nice90sguy]

I know nothing about self-publishing. I'm guessing Amazon is simple, and potentially allows a huge audience. But what are the alterantives, which allow more freedom in erotic content?

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

So, they care about marginal cover art, but not content? Asking because I've started looking into what it takes to publish there.

Apparently so, although on a good day it's impossible to know for certain. This suspension is the first time they've ever given a specific reason. When the book was blocked, they actually refused to provide details.

As for publishing there, I'd say go through Draft2Digital and steer clear of Amazon altogether, but based on my recent experience if you want to publish through KDP, make sure your cover image model is wearing a burqa.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I know nothing about self-publishing. I'm guessing Amazon is simple, and potentially allows a huge audience. But what are the alterantives, which allow more freedom in erotic content?

Draft2Digital. Their customer service isn't especially friendly or efficient, but at least they have clear and specific content guidelines. If they reject your cover or content, they'll also tell you clearly what the problem is. Having acquired Smashwords, D2D also allows you to publish taboo content through them.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The best analogy of amazon as far as their rules and enforcement is they're just like lit.

They have rules, but look around and you will see countless titles that break them. Titles, descriptions, cover art etc...but then out of nowhere they will block a book citing the rules that for some reason they ignored for all those other books.

Complaining to them is basically useless because you'll get the same standard reply over and over.

To show you the games they play in their TOS they mention "offensive content" and describe it as "If you find it offensive, we probably will too."

They also say they allow no pornographic material which if enforced would mean by rights no erotic e-books should be there, but there's hundreds of thousands.

Now, for publishing there. You have two choices.

You can see everyone breaking the rules and selling and give that a go yourself (example, incest is not allowed there, but go look for mommy and daddy titles and see what you find) you'll sell for a time, but once they block you there is no coming back.

Or, you can follow the rules which is all about being vague. You can have hard core content, but they want a fairly tame cover, tame description, but inside can be as XXX as you want. That's the game, they sell what they pretend they don't so if you wrap your work up nice nice they're fine with it, you sell less than the rule breakers, but you keep your account.

I can tell you it is frustrating to see people making bank putting out "Fucking mommy's ass" while you're making a few sales a month because you follow the rules, but again, amazon only does this for so long before they go on one of their witch hunts and wipe all those people out.

I'll also tell you I've had an account there for 12 years and I'm not lying when I say even after all these years any time I upload an e-book I expect it to be my last. I've seen too many publishers and authors get banned for no reason to ever really trust them.

From everything I've heard about KDP; this here is pretty good advice, @Kasumi_Lee. It's also why I said years ago, on my other account, when they were shadowbanning books, that I would not do any erotic covers, and would make them look more like romance, or some other genre. Covers are the quickest way to get their attention.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I know nothing about self-publishing. I'm guessing Amazon is simple, and potentially allows a huge audience. But what are the alterantives, which allow more freedom in erotic content?

I'll add that some folks are using Medium. I don't know too many other options, other than making your own digital publishing site.

 

[lovecraft68]

I know nothing about self-publishing. I'm guessing Amazon is simple, and potentially allows a huge audience. But what are the alterantives, which allow more freedom in erotic content?

Amazon is the easiest to upload by far. The issue with them is the topic of vague and inconsistent 'rules' but if you're writing what I'd call 'general erotica' and keep your covers tame, you should be fine.

Just don't fall into their stupid exclusive programs, very few make anything on them and you give your book away while its first out, then when the period passes, no one is buying because duh, it was free for thirty or ninety days.

Just sell it straight up, and also publish on other sites, no reason to sell in just one place

 

[lovecraft68]

I just tried to log into my Amazon KDP account and found that it has been temporarily suspended. I then received the following email from Amazon:

Hello, Master is the eBook which Amazon recently blocked. They ALREADY blocked this book and have now blocked my account to punish me for content they've already removed from the site. At least they finally deigned to tell me what was wrong with the ebook, and I get to find out in one of the worst possible ways. Obviously, I've emailed back with the declaration, now I'm just waiting for them to reinstate my account so I can unpublish any stories with cover images that feature any bare skin.

The anger and anxiety I'm feeling right now is really indescribable. There are all manner of bare-breasted cover images all over the kindle store, and all kinds of vile garbage that Amazon turns a blind eye to, but a topless woman covering her breasts with her bare hands is considered pornography? Fuck Amazon and its fucking sick joke of a content review system through all the nine circles of hell and then into the ground below that circle.

I'm never publishing anything on Amazon KDP ever a-fucking-gain.

Can we see the image they rejected?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'm experiencing something 180 degrees different with KDP.

I have a story there that includes in the description "a teasingly erotic friends to lovers romance". It contains only "fade-to-black" inferences of anything sexual.

When I check its details in KDP, its categories remain: Romance - Enemies to Lovers, Romance - Contemporary, and Romance - Workplace Romance. There is also nothing in the keywords regarding anything sexual or erotic.

On the book's Amazon sales page, it is listed as: Kindle Store>Kindle eBooks>Literature & Fiction>Erotica, or in paperback; Books>Literature & Fiction>Erotica

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm experiencing something 180 degrees different with KDP.

I have a story there that includes in the description "a teasingly erotic friends to lovers romance". It contains only "fade-to-black" inferences of anything sexual.

When I check its details in KDP, its categories remain: Romance - Enemies to Lovers, Romance - Contemporary, and Romance - Workplace Romance. There is also nothing in the keywords regarding anything sexual or erotic.

On the book's Amazon sales page, it is listed as: Kindle Store>Kindle eBooks>Literature & Fiction>Erotica, or in paperback; Books>Literature & Fiction>Erotica

Is your point that they added the 'erotica' category/Tag?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Is your point that they added the 'erotica' category/Tag?

Exactly.

They took a non-erotic story and are classifying it as erotic. It hasn't seemed to impact the sales yet, so I'm not sure if I'll fight it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Exactly.

They took a non-erotic story and are classifying it as erotic. It hasn't seemed to impact the sales yet, so I'm not sure if I'll fight it.

I'd say its not worth it. Another fun issue with Amazon is when you call attention to yourself even for something legit, it can go bad because they get ticked off and start looking for things to punish you for.

There an old joke about never wanting to appear in court on the day the judge had a fight with their spouse. There's a bunch of people working for Kindle and some of them are fine and others are tool bags and you never know who you're getting.

There's also a lot of people playing the game of categorizing their work as romance to avoid the extra scrutiny of erotica, so maybe they're doing this to more romance books because of it.

All we can know, is that we'll never know.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Can we see the image they rejected?

Here's a link to the Smashwords book page. In this version, if you look carefully at her panties, there's a patch of black ink that I added to give her crotch a bit more coverage. Smashwords/D2D's reviewers said they could see a tiny bit of pubic hair poking out, which you'd have had to squint hard to notice, but I covered it up anyway. Amazon was fine with (or failed to notice) this detail in the unedited cover for three years up until very recently. Even then, I have no idea if her lack of a bra was the real issue.

 

[lovecraft68]

Here's a link to the Smashwords book page. In this version, if you look carefully at her panties, there's a patch of black ink that I added to give her crotch a bit more coverage. Smashwords/D2D's reviewers said they could see a tiny bit of pubic hair poking out, which you'd have had to squint hard to notice, but I covered it up anyway. Amazon was fine with (or failed to notice) this detail in the unedited cover for three years up until very recently. Even then, I have no idea if her lack of a bra was the real issue.

Okay, I don't think the issue has anything to do with the panties.

It's the woman covering her breasts. They refer to this as a 'Hand bra" and they don't allow it because she's 'touching herself"

That's the problem.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

UPDATE: My KDP account has been restored to me, and I've removed a bunch of stories that may or may not be on the wrong side of the ephemeral smudge that passes for Amazon's red line. I've also spent much of the day diligently purging Amazon links from all of my promotional material. Fewer sales is a small price to pay for not putting more money into Amazon's trillion-dollar pockets.

Okay, I don't think the issue has anything to do with the panties.

It's the woman covering her breasts. They refer to this as a 'Hand bra" and they don't allow it because she's 'touching herself"

That's the problem.

I see. That's a lot more illuminating than anything in the content guidelines. There were three other ebooks that feature a "hand bra", and I've unpublished them from Amazon. Interestingly, D2D has no problem with hand bras as long as they cover up the nipples and areolae.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Okay, I don't think the issue has anything to do with the panties.

It's the woman covering her breasts. They refer to this as a 'Hand bra" and they don't allow it because she's 'touching herself"

That's the problem.

Yeah. Talked to Jo about that this morning. Good info.

 

[lovecraft68]

UPDATE: My KDP account has been restored to me, and I've removed a bunch of stories that may or may not be on the wrong side of the ephemeral smudge that passes for Amazon's red line. I've also spent much of the day diligently purging Amazon links from all of my promotional material. Fewer sales is a small price to pay for not putting more money into Amazon's trillion-dollar pockets.

I see. That's a lot more illuminating than anything in the content guidelines. There were three other ebooks that feature a "hand bra", and I've unpublished them from Amazon. Interestingly, D2D has no problem with hand bras as long as they cover up the nipples and areolae.

Glad to hear your account is reinstated!

So back around 2013 or so Amazon went on a massive witch hunt and banned a ton of accounts including the Excessia (I believe that was the name) account of Selena Kitt who got her start here and was selling like wildfire she managed to get int touch with them and to wrangle some actual details over what some of the do and don'ts were and was nice enough to share a lot of it with me, and that's where I learned about the hand bra.

I think with SW/D2D they have lesser rules for the SW store but are stricter for things going into premium especially because they do upload to amazon.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all your advice and support. I'm leaving this last post just to close things out. Needless to say, my recent experience with Amazon has been really demoralizing, but I've been trying to keep writing to coax the plot bunnies back.

However, once I work up the courage to touch my Amazon ebooks again, I'm gonna jack up the prices on every single one to discourage people from buying them through Amazon. All those titles are available through other retailers, and to the extent that one self-published smut writer has any power at all, I intend to make sure those titles are a lot cheaper everywhere but Amazon.

I'll also see about commissioning some professional covers to replace the "hand bra" shutterstock covers and then republish them on Amazon (with the Amazon premium added to the new list price), but I won't be publishing any more new erotica through Amazon KDP from now on. It just isn't worth the risk.

Have a great rest of the evening and a wonderful week to follow!

 

[lovecraft68]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all your advice and support. I'm leaving this last post just to close things out. Needless to say, my recent experience with Amazon has been really demoralizing, but I've been trying to keep writing to coax the plot bunnies back.

However, once I work up the courage to touch my Amazon ebooks again, I'm gonna jack up the prices on every single one to discourage people from buying them through Amazon. All those titles are available through other retailers, and to the extent that one self-published smut writer has any power at all, I intend to make sure those titles are a lot cheaper everywhere but Amazon.

I'll also see about commissioning some professional covers to replace the "hand bra" shutterstock covers and then republish them on Amazon (with the Amazon premium added to the new list price), but I won't be publishing any more new erotica through Amazon KDP from now on. It just isn't worth the risk.

Have a great rest of the evening and a wonderful week to follow!

You can't jack up the prices there.

Amazon has a rule that a book cannot be sold for less on any other site than you have it listed there.

Example., if your book is $3.99 on D2D or anywhere else, it can't be $4.99 on Amazon They find out you have to change the price to match or be less or they will remove it.

In my opinion if you are that tired and disgusted with amazon, just don't bother anymore. Unless you're making decent money there, they are not worth the hassle and headaches.

 

[JenniferSmithJones]

I just tried to log into my Amazon KDP account and found that it has been temporarily suspended. I then received the following email from Amazon:

Hello, Master is the eBook which Amazon recently blocked. They ALREADY blocked this book and have now blocked my account to punish me for content they've already removed from the site. At least they finally deigned to tell me what was wrong with the ebook, and I get to find out in one of the worst possible ways. Obviously, I've emailed back with the declaration, now I'm just waiting for them to reinstate my account so I can unpublish any stories with cover images that feature any bare skin.

The anger and anxiety I'm feeling right now is really indescribable. There are all manner of bare-breasted cover images all over the kindle store, and all kinds of vile garbage that Amazon turns a blind eye to, but a topless woman covering her breasts with her bare hands is considered pornography? Fuck Amazon and its fucking sick joke of a content review system through all the nine circles of hell and then into the ground below that circle.

I'm never publishing anything on Amazon KDP ever a-fucking-gain.

A friend of mine had this happen to her 3 years ago. She had been selling and growing in sales for 8 months. Then one day, it was just as you described: pop-up notice saying the exact same thing. She replied, she removed the content they didn't like (even though they had vetted each and every story of hers and approved them to be posted!).

Amazon changed its content guidelines, never informed anyone, and then cancelled people right and left for violating the guidelines they didn't even know had changed.

Recently she was allowed to create a new KDP account (it took 3 years). Had to use a different phone number and email, but she was accepted back on. She's only ever going to write mystery, sci-fi and humor on Amazon KDP, from now on.

Amazon KDP has gotten so big they no longer see customer service as a necessary thing. She's only publishing through them because that is where the money is, and there is no other equivalent of Lit out there for other genres.

Good luck in whatever direction you go!

 

[Baztrachian]

I'm never publishing anything on Amazon KDP ever a-fucking-gain.

Please try posting on Smashwords and then share your link with us.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's a small site that allows most content other than beastie and actual non con (Dub con is fine)

Sites name is Carnal Pleasure which is run by the owner of Boruma Publishing. I've worked with them to put me on various sites as well as CP for around 12 years at this point. They also design covers and provide other services.