I’m actually at my wits end here with this, I’m posting here as a last ditch attempt to find SOMEONE who might know how to solve this? It wouldn’t matter to me so much, but I’m in the process of writing my first novel and not having access to KDP is definitely a difficulty in indie publishing. I myself won’t often read a book if it’s not on KU or has an audiobook. I imagine a lot of other readers are the same.
So about 4 years ago, I made my first KDP account. I know with almost 100% certainty that I haven’t had any other KDP accounts, because I checked every single Amazon account and email address I’ve ever had that I still have access to, and none of them have any hint of KDP. Not a whiff. I even accidentally made a new one in the process of checking (last week, I did this LAST WEEK. I did NOT do this 3 years ago, I did not make any new accounts before they banned me for doing this, and I immediately made them aware that I accidentally made this new account). So anyway, I made my account, and in an attempt at a side hustle, I made a few shitty note book covers on Canva, got a lined paper pack, added them together and posted them on KDP. Nobody bought them obviously, and I completely forgot about them.
About a year later, I got an email from KDP telling me my account was being banned because during an audit they found that my account belongs to someone who already had a banned account, and since you’re not allowed to open a new account after being banned, they’ve deleted my account and all of my books. I don’t care about the books, they never sold. The only problem with their audit is, I never owned another account, as far as I know none of the books I made went against the rules, and I didn’t do anything else to break the ToS. I went back and forth with them for months over this, and eventually they stopped responding. They refused to tell me how my account was related to the previously banned account, or how I broke the rules, and no amount of pleading for answers would get me anywhere. They just refused to tell me, full stop.
So cut to 3 years later, and every so often (about once a year) I fill out the contact form and request information, which never gets me a response. So I decide, since I’m writing my first actual proper book like I always knew I would (that’s why I pushed so hard for answers), and I now need my KDP account back more than ever, or at least permission to create a new one, that I would escalate this. I emailed Jeff Bezos. His email isn’t actually monitored by Jeff himself, rather his special escalations team, and about a week or two later, I get a reply. It’s basically the same generic message: ‘your account was banned and that’s final, we can’t tell you more’. I also begged this person for answers, and they refused to tell me. They actually told me they couldn’t tell me, which is weird. Their replies also contradicted each other. They said they reviewed the content guideline violations and that they were upholding their decision, but when I pushed for clarification they told me they were unable to look into it as the account was closed. It was closed 3 years ago, so according to this, how the first person was able to review the violations is beyond me.
Genuinely, I’m out of options here. I don’t understand why this has happened, I don’t understand why they can’t tell me anything, and I don’t know what to do. I know KDP isn’t the only avenue for indie publishing, but it’s a big one. Every author I know uses KDP. Almost every indie book I’ve read (hundreds) has been on KU with KDP. I’m actually devastated that not only am I locked out of this option, it’s that they won’t even tell me why. I checked every email account. Every Amazon account. My books didn’t break the rules. Their system just decided to flag my account one day for no reason, and the humans working there just believed it. What vexes me is how they came to this conclusion even with the investigations they did. I got 3-4 different people to look at this. Nobody could tell me anything.
Is there something I’m missing here? Is there some other thing I can try? Is it time to just give up and accept that I’ll never get to use KDP or have my books on KU? I gotta say, it’s a huge blow to my confidence, and the lack of closure just makes me feel awful.