And It Continues -- Amazon Follies (Next Chapter)

When last I left you, I had sent a letter to Mr Jeff Bezos. I did receive a reply from one of his executive readers stating that:

“Jeff Bezos received your email and I am responding on his behalf.

I’ve received your request and am connecting with the appropriate team to review the information you’ve provided. You should expect a response regarding your account status in the next few days.”

Okay, well, the only request I made [See previous post] was to answer why any legitimate author should go with KU. So, I waited with avid anticipation to see what this ‘appropriate team’ would do with the ‘information I provided.

Well, apparently the ‘appropriate team’ was the previously contacted ‘content-review’ team, and their answer was the same as previously:

“Hello, 

As we previously stated, we still detect reading or borrow activity for your books originating from accounts attempting to manipulate Kindle services. You are responsible for ensuring the strategies used to promote your books comply with our Terms and Conditions. We cannot offer advice on marketing services or details of our investigations.

Please be aware we will not be providing additional details.

Regards,

Amazon KDP”

Apparently, even Bezos’s executive readers can’t understand English. I certainly didn’t ask them to check my account status again. I did send a reply stating something similar and asking that my books be pulled out of KU immediately, but received no reply.

Anyway, what’s gone by has gone by.

Now for the up-to-the-minute news.

With most of my books pulled out of Kindle Unlimited (KU), my ‘page reads’ fell to five thousand – most of those in the first third of the month before I pulled them. My author friends told me that Amazon checks on the 8th of each month, so I waited with dread to find out if any new ‘violations’ had occurred. Apparently not. My page reads all seem to be valid, for they’ve taken none away and my account has neither been suspended or terminated.

No everyone was so lucky. There are many more reports from authors saying that 50% – it seems many are using the 50% figure – of their ‘pages reads’ from April were taken away. And one author, who also has done nothing wrong, who had pages taken away from March, had more page reads taken away in April. As this represents a ‘continuing violation’, she has had her account suspended.

Here’s here boiler-plate e-mail:

Hello,

We are reaching out to you as a follow-up on our previous communication regarding reading or borrow activity originating from accounts attempting to manipulate Kindle services. We detected continued illegitimate activity after our communication and, as a result, we have suspended your account to protect our publishers and readers experience. 

We need you to take the necessary actions to stop the activity. We encourage you to review any marketing services you may have used, since you are responsible for ensuring that the strategies used to promote your books comply with our Terms and Conditions. Once you have done so, please send a response to content-review@amazon.com which includes a statement that you reviewed all marketing services you may have used, and confirms the discontinued use of any that might be responsible for this activity.

Once we receive this affirmation, we will reactivate your account. Please be aware, any additional illegitimate activity may result in termination. If we don’t receive this affirmation, we will terminate your account after 14 days. 

Regards,

Amazon KDP

Basically, you have to admit your guilt – whether there is any guilt or not – before you can continue. It’s a sad commentary on Amazon.

This author wrote back, asking them to pull all her books out of KU immediately, even though this will constitute a disaster for her. What else can she do? It makes me sick at heart, and has decreased my already depleted motivation to continue writing.