I Got a KDP Terminated Account Back After 5 Months!

As you read in the title, we got a terminated kdp account back after 5 months!! Before going into the details of how the account was terminated and how we managed to get it back, let’s have a look into a bit of the back story.

Almost 6 months ago I shared a video on my Youtube channel about one of our kdp accounts that was making an excellent income with only 5 math workbooks. 

That specific kdp account was created during the first half of 2022 and was initially making zero sales after publishing 12 low-content books. Starting in August 2022 we began to publish math workbooks as these are medium-content books and tend to sell well.

With the help of Amazon ads, we started to see some sales during the very first month (September). So, we published more math workbooks and ran ads for each of them, and sales started to pick up. 

Most importantly, we were getting more organic sales than paid ones. In total, we published 5 math workbooks and made well over $664 during the first three months i.e. Sep-Nov.

And in December alone, we made over $550 with those 5 math workbooks. January was going even better, and on two consecutive days, we earned well over $50/Day. And then something strange happened!!

By the way, I followed the Kdp Masterclass by Self-publishing Titans while creating these math workbooks. I almost copied their strategies for finding lwo competition niches, creating titles, and subtitles, a converting book descriptions and properly filling the 7 backend keywords. In my personal opinion, this is the best kdp course so far with a ton of practical and helpful information. 

>>Checkout KDP Masterclass Here

Side note: I don’t have a duplicate kdp account as having more than one kdp account is a violation of kdp’s terms of service. The account I am talking about relates to my spouse that is in totally different name and bank information.

What Happened with Our Amazon KDP Account

During Jan, we published our 6th math workbook, and as soon as the book went live our kdp account got terminated! We received an email from kdp stating that your account is being terminated with immediate effect and as part of termination kdp will not pay the pending royalties!

That was the point of huge disappointment and sadness for us! So, we immediately replied to the termination email asking what actually went wrong and requested them to reinstate the said kdp account. 

But we received another email from them essentially stating that they are not allowed to provide any insight into what actually went wrong and that they uphold their previous decision of keeping the account terminated.

What Actually Went Wrong

After going back and forth with the kdp team, they replied saying (along the lines of) your account is terminated because you have tried to manipulate kdp’s metadata and tried to publish books that violate their content guidelines.

That was actually a very ambiguous answer as they didn’t point out any specific book that is violating their content guidelines. So, we contacted a few more times but in vain. 

To be honest, we are still not sure what actually lead to kdp termination. Maybe the issue was using similar metadata, as the books were in the same niche so there was a chance that happened to use very similar subtitles or backend keywords.

Here Comes ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors)

After being disappointed with kdp support, I thought why not take help from ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is a global membership association for self-publishing authors. I contacted their support team before subscribing to them and they confirmed that they can help with this issue only if the account is terminated in error.

So, we purchased the annual membership that was around $119 and shared with them every little detail that can help them get our kdp account back. Unfortunately, after making us wait for around 2 months, they replied that they can’t help with lwo content/medium content books. 

What that means is, ALLi can only help authors with account issues who publish long-form books on kdp. That was another strange revelation. On top of that, they also refused to refund the membership amount of $119. But, luckily we got it refunded after a couple of contacts.

Lesson learned: ALLi won’t help you with your kdp account unless you have been publishing long-form books only.

Come On Subha Tell Me How You Get It Back

After getting a negative response from ALLi, we kdp support again, a couple of times. First through the termination email and secondly sending them a support email via their Contact Us page. 

All we asked them is to re-check and make sure that the account is not terminated in error, keeping in mind the fact that kdp uses both human review and artificial intelligence to flag accounts.

By the grace of Allah, after 5 months of termination, we got an email from kdp saying that they have decided to reinstate our kdp account as a one-time exception. What made them reinstate our kdp account? 

Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with it or maybe they decided to give us a chance because this was the first time our account was flagged. Most probably the reason remains that we haven’t used copyrighted or trademarked material while creating the books. That one thing might have gone in our favor.

Anyways, we are so happy because we not only got our kdp account back but also received all the pending royalties. We are greatly greatly thankful to Allah, and the kdp team for giving us a second chance.

What Is The Condition Of Our Kdp Account?

When we got our account back, all the books were in the draft as kdp advised us to re-check the whole catalog and unpublish any titles that potentially violating kdp’s content guidelines. As the books were already unpublished, we carefully rechecked them and made them live again after making the following changes.

• We selected the most suitable kdp categories and removed the ones that didn’t look relevant.
• Totally changed the 7 backend keywords as these may contain any reference to already published books
• Raised the price a bit, as kdp has increased the printing costs.

Now All  5 math workbooks are up and live for sale but they have already lost the rankings after lying unpublished for 5 months or so. Therefore, at the moment we are literally getting zero sales from that kdp account. 

Our Plan Going Forward

As the books have lost search rankings and sales, therefore, we have decided to run ads and give them a chance to regain rankings. That is all we are going to do during the next few months. 

Most, probably we may not publish new books because with every published book we may risk our account again. Who knows, the AI flags it again and we may end up getting it terminated forever.

In Conclusion

I personally believe that we have been lucky as many people fail to get their kdp account reinstated after it is terminated. Some of the things that went in our favor include having a few published books, not using any copyrighted or trademarked word or phrase, and finally being flagged for the first time.

The bottom line is you can get back your kdp terminated account if you haven’t done any serious violation of their content guidelines and terms of service. All you need to do is be patient and get in touch with them in a professional and polite manner. 

That’s all from me today! If you’ve found the blog post helpful then do share it with your friends.

Thanks,

Subha