Arbitration and penalties are a constant part of the experiences you will get when you belong to an online platform. Getting your merchant or publisher account band is much more painful when you own an account that has hundreds of positive reviews. Several high-profile Amazon sellers and book publishers get discouraged and stranded when they experience this challenge.
However, it is crucial to mention that amazon account termination or suspension is not a final verdict. There are a few things you can do to recover your account if your amazon account gets disabled.
This article will walk you through step by step what you can do if Amazon terminates your account. It will also show you how to recover your disabled amazon account. You will learn all the actions that can cause amazon account termination and how to appeal a kdp disabled account. Alright, With that said, let’s dive right in.
Why would Amazon terminate KDP account?
Amazon is all about unique and original content. Lately, users are flooding KDP with low content books. These kinds of books are hardly unique or easily distinguished from others. For Amazon to keep its standard or values, they are cracking down on users that publish predominantly similar content. The reason account termination has gone rampant on amazon these days is because of bad-minded users who go on the platform to copy other people’s content for their own use which is against Amazon policies. These activities have gone on checked for some time. Now Amazon is undergoing Heavy review and sanction.
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Here are a few things you should know;
Amazon Pays attention to book titles
Always use titles that do not contain trademarked words or similar titles to the ones that are already in use on the platform.
If you violate this term, amazon would penalize your account. It is important to validate your title by looking through the platform for similar titles.
The book subtitles you use
Your subtitles must not contain misleading information. The best thing to do is to basically let your subtitle buttress the point you make in your title. If your title is misleading, Amazon would penalize you. Another point to pay note of is repetition. If you have any words in your title already, there is no need to include such words in your subtitle.
The pen names you use
Don’t impersonate anyone in any way. If your pen name impersonates anyone, you would get penalized for doing so. Always conduct your research to ensure that you choose a unique pen name.
The keywords that you are using throughout your books and the seven keyword slots
Amazon engine is built to search the database through keywords. Some users and publishers use misleading keywords to get a search advantage. Avoid this trick as much as possible. KDP doesn’t favor tricksters. They have a platform where you can advertise your books. Conducting excessive optimization and tricks can get your account flagged or disabled. This is a point you need to note. Besides, it is risky to pay someone to conduct amazon book ranking optimization for you. Most of these paid jobs are poorly done and this may hurt your account in the long run.
Read also, How to Create Amazon Author Central Account and Author Page
How Amazon terminates a Book Publisher Account
When your Amazon Account gets disabled, you will receive an email notification from the content review team (mostly), informing you of the termination. This email is the most dreaded moment in the life of a book publisher. It means that your publishing career is either over or returned to scratch. Your Amazon account with all its positive reviews is permanently taken away. You are going to have to start as a fresh seller or forget about online publishing on KDP.
Once you get the notification, you cannot sign in to your account anymore. However, on some occasions, the email you receive would come with guidelines on how to reinstate your account. But, these guidelines are not as clear as you would have loved them to be.
How to avoid getting your Amazon KDP Account terminated
- Read through KDP guidelines. This point is extremely important. Amazon would consistently return you to this point if you reach out to them for any challenge with your account.
- Ensure that your book titles do not contain trademarked terms.
- Ensure that your book subtitle only describes the book that you are promoting and has no fuzzy words or fad promises.
- Ensure that your book cover design is unique compared to other books that are available on amazon
- Check other people’s content and ensure that you don’t have similar content with them ( you didn’t plagiarize their content).
Ensure that your book description is not misleading.
How to recover a disabled Amazon KDP Account
Although this action may vary slightly from one penalty to another, the underlying procedure is the same. Here are the steps you need to take to recover your Amazon KDP disabled account.
Step 1
You would be required to reply to the email you received. Your reply would need to include a declaration: “I confirm that I have read and would comply with the content guideline and the metadata guideline and that you would remove any content or titles that do not comply with the guideline and that you would review your catalog and remove any title that does not comply with the guidelines.”
Do note that this declaration would vary with the violation you are being penalized for. You need to read the guidelines in the link that you received.
Step 2
There is no need for a rush. Once you reply to them, wait for their response. It may take a few days before you receive the reply. The second response they will send to you would contain a confirmation that they have reinstated your account, and they would require you to go through your catalog to make necessary adjustments.
Read also, How to Subscribe to Amazon Kindle Unlimited
Step 3
Unpublish all your books to be on the safer side. Go through all your content and compare each one to Amazon content guidelines, making sure that you follow the stipulated guidelines.
Step 4
If your account still doesn’t get reinstated, you need to message the support about what has happened and let them know your intentions and actions. They would usually reply with more specific steps to take. Do note that it may take some days before you get a reply from them. Once they reply to you, follow the instruction and effect any changes they ask you to make.
Conclusion
Although Amazon is not the only platform available for publishing or sales of books, you can get other platforms to promote your books for you. However, missing out on the KDP market is an enormous loss to incur. There are simple ways to avoid getting your KDP account terminated and this article has shown you details of what to do and what to avoid.
If you follow the specification spelled out in this article, you should be on the safer side. However, on some occasions, it is unavoidable to scale through. In such situations, simply move on to other platforms. You can try out other methods that you can apply to self-publish your book. Now you know how to recover your disabled KDP account.
