On October 13, Amazon KDP terminated both of my publishing accounts in two identical form letters, sent six minutes apart. The reason: Amazon was “unable to verify your identity.”
I have published through KDP since 2014, with the same W-9 and the same bank account on file the whole time. Every book I published there has been removed from the Amazon store. Amazon says my outstanding royalties are forfeited and that I may not open a new account. I have appealed both accounts and offered to verify my identity right away.
Before this happened, I received one email asking me to verify my identity. My email flagged it as spam, and it looked exactly like the phishing messages I warn authors about. I treated it as phishing. That was the wrong guess, and it cost me my catalog.
I am not the only one. I have written up what happened, along with documented cases of other authors who were terminated and what it actually took to get their accounts back.
Three things every KDP author should do this week:
- Type kdp.amazon.com into your browser yourself and log in. Look for any verification notice on your Bookshelf or account page.
- Make sure the name and country on your KDP account match your government-issued ID exactly.
- Back up your manuscripts, covers, ISBN records, and royalty reports. If your account is terminated, you lose access to all of it.
Read the full story on Substack
My books are no longer on Amazon, but you can still buy them directly from me.
If Amazon has done this to you, please share your story in the Substack comments. One terminated author is easy to dismiss as a glitch. A comment section full of us is a pattern.
Jolene MacFadden
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I recently moved and had not updated KDP of my new address, phone number, bank info, etc. I also had to send an image of my drivers license. Looks good now. Thanks again, Jolene!