UPDATE, October 16: I got my accounts back!
Both of my KDP accounts have been reinstated, all of my books are back on Amazon, and my royalties are showing again. I replied once to each termination email, offered to verify my identity, and used KDP’s verification tool when they answered. Three days, start to finish. The checklist below matters more than ever.
Author Alert
Amazon KDP Terminated My Accounts. Here’s How I Got Them Back.
On October 13, Amazon KDP terminated both of my publishing accounts in two identical form letters, sent six minutes apart. The reason: “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 was pulled from the Amazon store, and the letter said my royalties were forfeited and I could never open a new account.
Before all that, I did get an email asking me to verify my identity. It landed in spam and looked exactly like the phishing I warn authors about, so I deleted it. That was the wrong guess.
Here is what got my accounts back: one calm, factual reply to each termination email. I explained who I am, why I have two accounts (one for my non-fiction, one for my L.J. Green fiction, same tax information on both), admitted I thought their email was a scam, and offered to verify my ID right away. When they answered, I used their verification tool, and both accounts came back.
I was lucky. Plenty of other authors needed an author organization, an attorney, or a certified arbitration notice, and waited up to two months. I wrote up their stories too.
Four 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 address on your KDP account match your government-issued ID exactly.
- Check the spam folder of the email tied to your account. Don’t click a verification email; log in directly and see if the request is real.
- Download your reports and back up your manuscripts, covers, and ISBN records. If your account is terminated, you lose access to all of it.
Read the full story on Substack
My books are back on Amazon, and you can always buy them directly from me too.
If Amazon has ever 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!