Has an Amazon Bot just altered the course of my life?

I’m a writer of fiction who has sold her stories exclusively on Amazon for the past 5 years. Two days ago, everything changed. Forever. But was the decision that will alter the course of my life even made by a human being?

New Year’s Eve 2022 — A time for celebration for so many, but not for me. I saw out the year unable to sleep, trembling uncontrollably, nauseous and feeling very lost. I’d just received an email from Amazon to inform me that my KDP account (the method by which writers can share their books on Amazon) had been closed. For some, this might be a minor inconvenience or not even worthy of note, but I derive the bulk of my income from selling books on Amazon. I’ve given up my previous employment to pursue a full-time job as an author and I’ve written exclusively for them for 5 years. Selling books on Amazon is the way I earn my income. In short, I was fired.

But it gets much worse: when Amazon closes an author’s account, they don’t just remove an author’s ability to sell their books on Amazon for the remainder of their life. They also withhold all unpaid royalties. Every author on Amazon waits between 60–90 days from point of purchase by a reader until they are paid. That means that if Amazon closes your account on 31st December, you are not paid for any book sales made in November and December. Of course, Amazon has still sold your intellectual property, profited from it and continues to charge your readers for the privilege of reading/owning your book. But the author does not get any financial recompense for their work. They get zilch. Nada. Nothing.

It is the equivalent of you going to work for two months, and then your boss turning around, terminating your employment and informing you that you aren’t going to be paid the money you’ve earned, and which the company has already profited from. In short, it’s kicking someone when they’re already down, and taking away their ability to provide for their family. Other than a huge, multinational organisation, apparently too big to have to act with decency, can you think of any other example where this situation could be seen as either a moral or acceptable course of action?

And it gets even worse than that, because an author doesn’t just write books and publish them. No, they spend hours every week trying to encourage customers to purchase their books. They spend money on advertising, in order to do the same thing. Income from Amazon sales isn’t pure income. Like all things in life, it is income, minus the costs. I have spent my own money and time over the course of November and December, in order to get Amazon’s customers to purchase products, for which I will never be compensated. And we wonder why Amazon’s profits are so high?

So, what hideous action did I undertake, I hear you ask, to warrant my Amazon KDP account being closed? Well, the truth is, I’m not entirely sure, but I *think* this happened because I tried to upload a book which had a title Amazon didn’t like. All I was told was that it “causes a misleading customer experience because it impairs customers’ ability to make good buying decisions.“ But as is always the way, Amazon’s rules are not applied universally or fairly, because several other authors have successfully published books with the same title — it was acceptable for them, but for some reason, not for me.

My action, which took place at the end of December, resulted in the title being blocked by Amazon. When I dared to politely email back and ask for a little clarification on the issue, in order that I might try and rectify the problem so that the title could become suitable for publication, Amazon hit the nuclear button and closed my account. This was done without any further discussion and without giving me any kind of ability to try and rectify the “mistake” I had apparently made. It was then that I read the words dreaded by all Amazon authors:

“Due to Content Guideline violations relating to your account, we are removing all of the titles you have uploaded through this account from sale on Amazon and we will not be reinstating your account.

You’re no longer eligible to receive any outstanding royalties. Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open new accounts and will not receive future royalty payments from additional accounts created.

Please be advised that this is our final decision and we won’t be offering further insight or action on this matter.”

Thanks to Amazon’s well-designed “customer” interface, all contact is made with Amazon KDP via their online system, which requires access to an active KDP account in order to speak to them. They don’t publish a telephone number so that you can talk to a real person regarding issues. They operate online, and without an active KDP account, your ability to try and resolve an issue is entirely removed. And as per the final sentence in their email, they are now officially ghosting any email communication I make. My emails are falling into the big, black hole that is Amazon’s heart, and there is no other way to contact them. That is the treatment I am deemed to be worthy of. In which other walks of life does one minor mistake (if I have even made a mistake) warrant this level of consequence?

Within 24 hours, a search for books associated with any of my 3 pen names yields nothing. All 50 of my novels are gone, proving my 5 year relationship with Amazon accounts for nothing. And I’m left sitting at home, confused as to what on earth just happened. In the course of two polite email exchanges, my account has been terminated and everything has changed. The method by which I earned the bulk of my income has been removed and my income for the past two months has been confiscated. It is the start of 2023, which I had planned out in terms of output, publications and the way I would support my family. Now I’m left reeling and at a complete loss because for the remainder of my life, I’ve become an author who is not permitted to sell a book via the biggest book retailer in the world, thanks to an apparent error that nobody has explained to me.

And if I study the content of those two emails, I don’t see one scrap of humanity, one suggestion of logical thought or consideration. And then it dawned on me; maybe there isn’t any sign of humanity because a human being didn’t make the decision. Was the course of my entire life just altered by one of Amazon’s bots? In a world where we are encouraged to #BeKind to our fellow humans, have I just glimpsed a quite terrifying future?