Is your kdp account terminated or temporarily suspended? Or you may be interested in reading about the mistakes that can lead to kdp ban!
Getting your kdp account banned or suspended is one of the scariest things that can ever happen to a kdp low content books publisher. I can say this from my personal experience because yesterday I got the scariest email from kdp telling me that they have temporarily suspended my kdp account!
I got really anxious as I was on the verge of losing a substantial chunk of my online monthly income! But luckily they reinstated my kdp account the same day after receiving some sort of declaration or confirmation from me!
What actually happened to my kdp account or what I did wrong which led me to this scary situation? Well, I actually did one of the most common mistakes that lead most kdp publishers to temporary suspension or in the worst-case scenario kdp account termination!
It all happened when I published a low-content book (kind of kids activity book) and I tried to replicate the cover of an already published book. That particular book had a really attractive cover and was making sales, and out of over-inspiration, I just happened to create nearly the same cover for my book!
What next? A few days later the book went live, I just got an alert from kdp content review team that my book is being blocked due to the similarity of the cover with an already published book. And things didn’t stop there, two days later I got the 2nd email confirming that my kdp account is temporarily blocked until I re-confirm that;
- I have thoroughly read their content guidelines and
- I confirm that I have reviewed my kdp book catalog and have removed other titles that may be are in violation of kdp terms and conditions.
I just confirmed the above-mentioned points and after a few hours they reinstated my account.
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So, while my account was terminated, I just re-checked and noted the most common reasons that can lead to kdp ban. In this post, I have listed those mistakes that you need to avoid to protect your kdp account from getting suspended or terminated.
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KDP Account Suspended or Terminated – 5 Most Common Reasons!
Below you will read about the 5 most common reasons that can lead to kdp account suspension or in the worst case account termination.
As a side note, most of the time you can get your kdp account back if it is temporarily suspended only. While a termination means that the game is over!
1. Copying Covers
Most of the time, you see a very well-selling book on amazon and tend to make a similar-looking cover for your own book. This is the biggest mistake you can do with your kdp account (period). As I mentioned above, I can say this from my own experience, copying a cover image of an already listed book is not only a violation of kdp metadata guidelines, it can also lead to kdp ban.
On the Metadata Guidelines page (https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G201097560), toward the end of the page, there is a section “Cover Image” which clearly states that you are not allowed to create similar looking covers!
As it reads, “The title, subtitle, author name, and series information on your cover should match the corresponding metadata fields. Covers that may be misleading because they closely resemble another book’s layout, color scheme, fonts, and/or images aren’t allowed.”
So, try not to copy or replicate covers of already listed books!
2. Creating Duplicate KDP Accounts
As per kdp’s terms and conditions, you can have only 1 account at a time and if your account is terminated you can not open a second account with the same information (name, email, address, and banking info).
So, if you try to create a 2nd account using the same information or if you try to create a second kdp account in name of any family member, you may be risking both kdp accounts. They can catch you based on the I.P address (that’s what I have watched in some videos on YouTube).
Just try not to create a second kdp account as it’s against their terms of service and can lead to account suspension or even termination!
3. Copyright Infringement
According to kdp, they take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. And it’s your responsibility as kdp publisher that your low or no content books don’t violate any laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights.
This includes the use of any copyrighted content which is an intellectual property of someone else, therefore, you are not allowed to use it or represent it as your own.
And trademark infringement includes using names for famous brands, celebrities, and/or using any other terms or phrase which is registered as trademark like Bullet Journal.
So, you need to be very diligent about copyright and trademark infringement to safeguard your kdp account.
4. Duplicate Content
Another most common mistake that can compromise your kdp account is the use of the same interior for creating multiple low-content books. There are many publishers out there who tend to create multiple books using the same interior with multiple different covers. And it mostly applies to books that contain some sort of content in them including coloring books, activity books, workbooks.
Though you can create multiple no-content books including lined journals, sketchbooks, and composition notebooks using the exact same interior, however, when it comes to low content and high content books it can lead to the issue of duplicate content. As it creates a poor customer experience, and you know amazon is very serious about their customer experience.
So, don’t just publish books just focusing on the quantity as it’s the quality that matters at the end of the day!
5. Unpublishing And Republishing
This kdp mistake covers un-publishing and republishing the books to game the Amazon algorithm. You may already know that Amazon gives a little boost to newly published books during the 1st month of publishing. Amazon may initially rank a newly published book on the 1st page to test how it performs.
And some publishers (as I have come to know) try to game amazon by un-publishing and republishing a book that is not selling. And you know people at amazon are really smart and they finally catch publishers using these mal-practices to generate sales.
So, a lesson learned is never to try to un-publish or republish books unless or until it’s absolutely necessary.
Final Thoughts
These are the 5 most common mistakes that can get your kdp account terminated or temporarily suspended.
The purpose of writing this blog post is to draw your attention to these mistakes and I urge you to also read kdp terms and conditions and content guidelines thoroughly. So that you don’t lose your kdp account which is a great source of passive income for many self-publishers.
I hope you’ve found this post helpful and I would love it if you share this on your favorite social media profile. Thanks!
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Subha Malik
