USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR LEXI OSTROW
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What Comes Next For Authors?

1/5/2022

8 Comments

 
Let me start by saying thank you to everyone for trusting me with your stories - I can assure you, none of us are alone. Unfortunate as that is, there is some solace we can take in that.

Throughout the last two weeks countless authors have gone down for reasons both similar to mine, and utterly different. There is still no admittance from Amazon on a bot issue or change in anything regarding rules. There is no admittance of fault, but many apologies.

Now, onto what I've been looking in to. Let me start by saying that I am in no way leading a charge, and I was looking into options so authors as a whole could learn what's going on. There will be no screenshots because this was a call - so apologies for that.

In terms of seeking legal representation: Due to Amazon's ability to terminate essentially on the spot and give no information, there is very little that can be done.

A damages claim can be filed by any author who lost significantly, but keep in mind Amazon knows you're earnings. Someone like me didn't lose a lot on Amazon royalties because they reinstated everything. I lost about $200 in earning on the new release, but it's impossible to calculate the backlist since sales vary so much month over month, plus around $400 in booked promo. It wouldn't be in my favor.

This is not to say it's not the benefit of other authors, but ensure that if you seek legal representation, that all earnings and expenses are on the table before going through with what might cost you instead of earn you (and that's if you get anything because Amazon could win if it goes to court)

In terms of a petition: Petitions are wonderful, but they're just a share of voices. For petitions to work, the entity receiving the petition must care. AKA, authors banding together isn't going to change anything. It would take readers - and millions of them - to maybe, just maybe open any sort of change.

Regarding Class Action Suits: This could not be taken on by any author who received access back into their account and all earnings. This would need to be only by those who've lost their accounts permanently. 

The number required for a class action suit is (25 is sufficient), but given our "injuries" are not medical, a larger group would be needed. A lawyer would need to be found, and then the process could begin to see what could occur.

So what can we do now?


This part is easy to say, but of course, not as easy to do.

Authors: Go wide. KU is sexy, I used it for a lot of my earning, but you are beholden to Amazon and this danger then. If you're concerned about making it wide, I understand as I'm terrified.

Start saving. If you say "I can't save any money", then you're likely at a point in your career where Amazon isn't help too much.  I say this because I've been there. marketing is essentially and even $50 a book goes a long way.

Begin campaigns - newsletters, blogs, social posts - letting your readers know the end of KU for your books. That will get those who only will read on KU time to read, and prepare them to purchase on other platforms. 

Launch slowly, grouping series together as best as you can. Treat it like a new release. Find bloggers, find newsletters, share on social. Getting an entire series up will help with read through.

It will not happen overnight. For most of us, Amazon was not overnight either. It sucks to start over. I've been wide for almost 8 days and I've made 1 sale...1. It's exciting and depressing all at the same time, but it is a start!

Authors with account issues: keep making noise. Focus your efforts on Twitter. No more than 2 hashtags per post to keep their algorithm feed working and tag @amazonpub, @jeffbezos and @Amazonkdp.

I am still working on getting answers and accountability with the nice man who called and emailed me. While I can't reach him via email, I can callback that number and will be doing so weekly. I might not post updates if there's nothing to post, but I am not letting this just vanish into thin air.

Readers and Bloggers: If you are interested in being part of a review team for wide books for me, please fill out this form :) I'm sure other authors will have similar requests. 

Readers: While buying outside of KU may not be possible, know that authors understand. We respect this and understand as we're all readers on budgets, too. 

If you are in the position to buy new books on a different platform, support your authors and their new releases on other platforms. It will help them build things back up.

If you are super able to help and buy the old books on a new platform, that can help launch algorithms and backend metrics that I won't bore you with.

Lastly, reviews. If you can post reviews to new platforms you would do authors an invaluable service. I know it can be a pain to post in multiple places, but reviews unlock promotions and sales - because most people want to see what they're getting in to :)

Author are you still reading?

If you're still with me, I wanted to let you know there are a lot of fantastic resources for going wide. Admittedly, I do nto have approval to share these, so my apologies to people running these groups if you get an influx of join requests :)

Wide for the Win
20booksto50k
Fiction Writing and Book Marketing for a Six Figure Author Career

If anyone is aware of other resources, please share in the comments. I will update as I can!

I will always be here to help in any way I can. What I've learned could be useless in a month, but I will try! We've got this. It's not going to be an easy road for those of us without agents and housing, but we should never give up on our dreams. <3
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8 Comments
Reid Linney link
1/7/2022 10:43:41 am

Hi Lexi,

Wow. You've been through a lot. Me too. Similar experience, xcept I'm still trying to get resolution.

My debut novel, Pyrate Rising, was a #1 New Seller on Amazon (YA category) shortly after launch on Nov. 29. I soon started hearing from buyers that their paperback version "hadn't arrived yet". Later, they're telling me Amazon is asking them whether they still want the novel. This was happening in late December. In frustration, I told my customers to cancel their order on Amazon and buy it on Barnes and Noble, since they're delivering it within 5 days. Many did that.

I've been frustrated by ~10 interactions with ~14 Amazon representatives to find out what's going on. Early on, I received one vague message saying "During our review we found that the following book(s) contains content for which you may not hold the necessary rights. Some or all of the content within your book(s) is freely available on the internet."

"What content?" I've asked, to no avail.

My book is historical fiction and draws on historical facts about Sir Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I and King Phillip II. I suppose somewhere in my representation of those facts there could be slight overlap of phrasing, though I have always attempted to use my own voice in presenting those facts. If there is overlap somewhere, I'd be more than happy to address it. But without clarity, that's just impossible.

Thank God Barnes & Noble exists, and my book is still showing as "available for delivery"...by Jan 25. But this is so very frustrating.

Amazon definitely needs a formal appeals process or an "Author Relationship Representative" to address and resolve these kinds of issues.

Just venting. No need to reply.

Cheers,
Reid Linney (pen name: Reidr Daniels)

Reply
Erin Huffman
1/7/2022 02:58:00 pm

"Amazon definitely needs a formal appeals process or an "Author Relationship Representative" to address and resolve these kinds of issues."

I couldn't agree more, Reid! I have tried to advocate for this with them but I am just one person. A group effort towards this would be more impactful!

Reply
mir
3/23/2022 10:39:49 am

At the very least, that impossible suggestion to log into an account to change something when they've locked the author out of Amazon......this is unworthy of Amazon. This is just an illogical and cruel policy/process.

Lexi Ostrow
1/17/2022 05:43:21 pm

Hi Reid,
I am so sorry! This is horrible and just another reason why it's important that Amazon have real people on phones who's first language matches that of the author so there can be no communication gaps or glitches.

I hope you've had some positive traction!!

Reply
Glenn
1/16/2022 01:50:11 pm

My account I have had since 2011 was terminated. One of the largest publishing companies in the world made a copyright claim against a cover image I used for an ebook. I licenced the image from a reputable art licensing company. A copyright lawyer said the image was also public domain.

Amazon asked me to send the details about the image but when I did kept sending form responses asking me to get the publishing company to contact them. I wrote to the CEO of publishing company who got an executive to contact Amazon and say the matter of the image has been resolved. Amazon said I'm not eligible to have my account back. The publishing company representative said she was very surprised at the response.

I then complained to Amazon via the Jeff email saying that the CEO of the publishing company (one of the big 5) has contacted them and resolved the issue. Amazon said log into my account and change the image. I could not as my account was blocked. No further response from Amazon.

I got Alliance for Independent Authors to contact Amazon on my behalf. Amazon did not reply to them for ages even though they contacted them numerous times. When Amazon responded they said "my account remains closed". The Author group representative said it was a very "unusual" response.

My case should be relatively simple to solve and I had the complainant - one of the biggest publishing companies in the world - contact them on my behalf!

It is impossible to talk to a human at KDP who can take 3 minutes to look at my case.

Reply
Lexi Ostrow
1/17/2022 05:44:26 pm

I am so incredibly sorry. This seems like a nightmare in general. Have you ever considered legal action against the trad publisher as it seems they've created some of this mess and something like that could get Amazons attention?

I still hope that we can make traction getting live people because you're right - it takes minutes with a live person to sort everything!

Reply
GLENN
1/20/2022 05:43:36 pm

I'd like to sue them but I'm not sure how. The publisher was Hachette USA and they were actually very helpful. Amazon asked me to resolve the copyright complaint with Hachette and get Hachette to email them. The person at Hachette said she had emailed her contact at Amazon and should have some good news very soon. As you can imagine I thought my account was going to be reinstated. But several weeks passed and when I emailed Hachette they said Amazon had said "the account is not eligible". The person from Hachette said she was puzzled by the response.

I explained this in a jeff email. They told me to log into my account and change the image; but I can't as I'm banned.

It would be nice to talk to a real person.

Cat
1/18/2022 04:03:50 pm

I’m brand new to the self-publishing world (only a few niche stories published thus far), but I’m trying to get ahead of making any mistakes that could get me banned. I’ve been an internet marketer for years and getting banned on Facebook is also a nightmare; with Facebook, when contacting their compliance team, we always over-explain say “maybe this was the problem” (even if we know it is not the problem because usually the problem is a bot), profusely apologize, and promise to fix said “problem.” I’m not sure how this would translate to KDP though. I’ve also heard of people contacting decision makers directly on Linkedin with mixed reviews.

As someone who manages an overseas team myself in my day job, I know they have a quota of tickets to hit so are very unlikely to want to do anything that will take any extra time unless they fear punishment; it’s probably easier for them to leave a KDP account closed than anything else. Depending on how big the KDP support team is though, eventually maybe contacting them would yield something because it’s taking more time to ignore you than help you.

Thank you for sharing your story. I’ve been thinking I want to start publishing on KDP because that seems like the best way to get an audience, but after some traction, I hope I can break free of that. I’ve got an idea that would involve teaming up with other authors and creating our own ‘KDP’ of sorts that would benefit both readers and writers (I think Amazon’s profit share is too big for books already), but I suspect that would be a pretty massive undertaking. Your books are not my usual cup of tea (I found this because I saw your blog post being mentioned on the self-publishing erotica message board), but I’ll keep them in mind to read and review.

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    • Audio Books
    • Alliance of Silver and Steam
    • City of War
    • Christmas Fairy Tales
    • Christmas Wish
    • Demon Investigation Bureau
    • From the Tides
    • Guardians
    • Hexed in New Orleans
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