OK,

I don't want to get banned from Amazon so please let me know what activities will get me banned. I read the TOS, but it is very vague. For example, it says that Reviews have to follow the "Community Guidelines" but only includes a link to guidelines that you have to sift through. It says that only $5 minimum purchasers get to write a review but I know that my books are only $0.99 but people still successfully leave reviews.

Here's what I know;
1. paid reviews are a no-no.
2. reviewing your own products and upvoting or downvoting your own products are a no-no.

Here's what I don't know;
1. Are links to your own website inside your Kindle book to sell paper books OK? As long as there are no links in your Kindle book to your own website to sell ebooks to compete with Amazon's Kindle books, that would be OK, right? I mean, lots of people have links to their Facebook page or their own websites.

2. If I accidentally clicked on an upvote on a review of my book, will I get booted later?

3. If I accidentally clicked on 5 stars but did NOT leave a review on my own book will I bet booted later?

4. If I accidentally did 1,2, or 3 above, how can i "undo" things to avoid getting into trouble?

5. What other activities will get me banned and how can I avoid them?

Thanks.

By a $5 minimum purchase, they mean someone who has purchased a total of $5 in goods on Amazon. They are trying to prevent shill accounts being started with a 99 cent purchase. Shill accounts have to have slightly deeper pockets than that

1. Links inside your book are fine as long as you don't turn your book into a link farm. No affiliate links allowed of any kind. Links to your own website, your other books on Amazon, your page at Facebook are all okay. They don't actually tell you what their "prohibited" links are, but I probably wouldn't link to your paperbacks at Barnes and Noble!

2, 3, and 4. You can upvote and downvote reviews, although those votes might not register. You just can't leave them. Amazon will block you from leaving reviews on your own book (and also your family members). You won't be banned for rating your own book. Ratings don't count for much of anything and may not even register if you are the author. That's an unknown.

5. Manipulating the Amazon system in any way will get you banned. Don't even think about it or buy ads from someone who you think might be doing it. Never buy reviews. If you're not sure about an advertiser or review service, ask about it on Kboards. Lots of people will chime in to give you their experiences and/thoughts on the matter. Some of those will be very useful.

Hope that helps.

 

As far as I know, any links to your website are fine *UNLESS* you're doing something sneaky like sticking a redirect with an affiliate code onto the link.

Things that can get you banned:

1. Books in KU that you put wide. Yep, it happens!
2. Flip circles (you pay people to download your book and flip to the end to get page reads.)
3. Buyers circles--similar to above.

If I accidentally clicked on an upvote on a review of my book, will I get booted later?
No. They will probably just not count it.

They don't like it if you review competitors works either, good or bad reviews. They won't ban you, but they will take your review down.

 

Jill,

So, I don't have a link in my book to a webpage in Barnes & Noble, but I do have a link in my Kindle book to my website where I sell paper copies of my Kindle book. I do not have a paper version of my book for sale on Amazon. I do not sell an ebook on my website. Would that be ok? I just run photocopies on my home printer, bind books myself, then mail them.

What other examples of "manipulating the amazon system" can you think of? My brain is weird. I'll think of what I deem as a "good idea" but others will think that it is "manipulating the system" and a bad idea. That's why I'm seeking your advice.

Thanks again.

1. Links inside your book are fine as long as you don't turn your book into a link farm. No affiliate links allowed of any kind. Links to your own website, your other books on Amazon, your page at Facebook are all okay. They don't actually tell you what their "prohibited" links are, but I probably wouldn't link to your paperbacks at Barnes and Noble!

5. Manipulating the Amazon system in any way will get you banned. Don't even think about it or buy ads from someone who you think might be doing it. Never buy reviews. If you're not sure about an advertiser or review service, ask about it on Kboards. Lots of people will chime in to give you their experiences and/thoughts on the matter. Some of those will be very useful.

Hope that helps.

 

I have no idea what you mean by "put wide". Please elaborate. Thanks.

1. Books in KU that you put wide. Yep, it happens!

 

I have no idea what you mean by "put wide". Please elaborate. Thanks.

When people say a book is 'wide' that means that it's available in other stores, like Kobo, B&N, the Apple store, etc.

The problem with going wide while the book is in KU is that Amazon demands exclusivity from any books in Select, which is how a book gets to be in Kindle Unlimited.

 

Jill,

So, I don't have a link in my book to a webpage in Barnes & Noble, but I do have a link in my Kindle book to my website where I sell paper copies of my Kindle book. I do not have a paper version of my book for sale on Amazon. I do not sell an ebook on my website. Would that be ok? I just run photocopies on my home printer, bind books myself, then mail them.

What other examples of "manipulating the amazon system" can you think of? My brain is weird. I'll think of what I deem as a "good idea" but others will think that it is "manipulating the system" and a bad idea. That's why I'm seeking your advice.

Thanks again.

As far as I know, linking to a page on your own website where customers can peruse their book buying options won't raise Amazon's ire. Apple rejects that have this kind of thing, but I have never heard of Amazon doing it.

I have also never heard of Amazon telling anyone to remove this kind of link. And I can't imagine that they would ban your account for it.

If you are extremely concerned about it, just put a generic link to your website and ask the reader to visit for more information about paperback books, etc, assuming that it's obvious how to get to the sales page from your home page. If it's not, it definitely should be.

You should also include a link to sign up for your newsletter. It will be more valuable to you in the long run for future book releases than the link to your paperback books. You won't find a lot of cross sell from Kindle books to physical books, particularly if they aren't available on Amazon. (That might be different for children's books).

 

To the OP, you can email (or call) Amazon's KDP dept. and ask them some of these questions that are worrying you.  Then you will have the straight facts from the source. I contacted them with a question, they were very nice about it, and cleared up my confusion.

 

tomasrey, you don't have to make paperbacks with a copier. You can make real paperbacks for free at Createspace. The books will be available on Amazon and, I think, Barnes and Noble, and you can order a stash for yourself at reduced cost. They're quite nice.

Review manipulation = paying people to leave good reviews for your book, leaving bad reviews for your competitors' books, having friends or family review your books, giving people anything in exchange for a review other than a free copy of the book being reviewed, exchanging reviews with other authors ... it's pretty straightforward.

 

As far as I know, linking to a page on your own website where customers can peruse their book buying options won't raise Amazon's ire. Apple rejects that have this kind of thing, but I have never heard of Amazon doing it.

Actually, I've always had links to my site in the books at Apple (and Kobo, B&N, Google Play), they don't seem to mind just as long as there aren't links to a competitor.

 

If running a promotion - do your research on *how* the business operates. Amazon is cracking down on click farms, closed circles, and other suspect/unethical practices and potentially you could find your account banned without warning. I suspect claiming ignorance about a promoter's methods won't be much of a defence, do your research before you book a spot.

Things to look for: can you sign up as a reader? Can you see an archive of old newsletters to see what books & how many are being promoted? Do they only want KU titles? Does the business offer a guarantee about number of downloads? Is the business using closed loops with incentivised members to bump rank? Is there transparency about how the business operates?

 

Actually, I've always had links to my site in the books at Apple (and Kobo, B&N, Google Play), they don't seem to mind just as long as there aren't links to a competitor.

That's what I meant in that badly worded sentence - not to link to a page on your site that has competitor's links.

 

That's what I meant in that badly worded sentence - not to link to a page on your site that has competitor's links.

All book vendors are fine with you linking to a page on your website that contains other vendors' links.
Apple will kick the book back to you if you link directly to other vendors, but not just for a linking to a web page with an Amazon link.

 

All book vendors are fine with you linking to a page on your website that contains other vendors' links.
Apple will kick the book back to you if you link directly to other vendors, but not just for a linking to a web page with an Amazon link.

It may be that I have bad info then. I remember people on this board saying that their books were rejected by Amazon because the link to their site listed all of the buy options. I stand corrected, then. And that is good to know!

 

They don't like it if you review competitors works either, good or bad reviews. They won't ban you, but they will take your review down.

which seems odds as writers and definitely readers.

 

One thing I never understand is whether you can send e-copies to reviewers if you are in KU. I see authors from a FB group I'm in do it, but if I read the TOS correctly, it's ANY electronic version. That kind of sucks because as long as you're in KU, you can't send out review copies to bloggers. Not the e-version anyway, it seems.

 

Sure you can. That isn't the same as having it for sale on another site. 

ETA: That sure you can sounded like I thought the ToS is easy to understand. It definitely isn't, but I assure you that you can give away ebook copies to reviewers. 

Giving away a review copy is not considered 'selling or distributing'.  If you are concerned about it, it never hurts to contact KDP to check.

 

which seems odds as writers and definitely readers.

This is a myth. Amazon doesn't automatically remove reviews simply because an author wrote it. I've written dozens of book reviews on Amazon and never once has one been removed. NEVER.

Amazon's policy is specifically designed to stop direct competitors from leaving reviews. You don't want Joe from Pepsi leaving negative reviews on Coke products. It does not consider ALL AUTHORS competitors by default.

However, the language on the TOS gives them the option to remove a review if they feel it is malicious. I have been able to get Amazon to remove reviews, for example, when an author got ticked off about something I said online. Amazon doesn't care if authors leave reviews on books. They just want authors to play nice.

 

This is a myth. Amazon doesn't automatically remove reviews simply because an author wrote it. I've written dozens of book reviews on Amazon and never once has one been removed. NEVER.

Amazon's policy is specifically designed to stop direct competitors from leaving reviews. You don't want Joe from Pepsi leaving negative reviews on Coke products. It does not consider ALL AUTHORS competitors by default.

However, the language on the TOS gives them the option to remove a review if they feel it is malicious. I have been able to get Amazon to remove reviews, for example, when an author got ticked off about something I said online. Amazon doesn't care if authors leave reviews on books. They just want authors to play nice.

I think the best way to put it is that Amazon has absolutely no policy when it comes to reviews. It does what it wants when it wants.

OP, don't worry. Amazon is very lenient, and if you ever do something mistakenly wrong, they'll inform you about it before permabanning you. Review rules are simple. Don't pay for reviews. Don't ask people for fake reviews.

 

This is a myth. Amazon doesn't automatically remove reviews simply because an author wrote it. I've written dozens of book reviews on Amazon and never once has one been removed. NEVER.

Amazon's policy is specifically designed to stop direct competitors from leaving reviews. You don't want Joe from Pepsi leaving negative reviews on Coke products. It does not consider ALL AUTHORS competitors by default.

However, the language on the TOS gives them the option to remove a review if they feel it is malicious. I have been able to get Amazon to remove reviews, for example, when an author got ticked off about something I said online. Amazon doesn't care if authors leave reviews on books. They just want authors to play nice.

Where Amazon can at times seem to get a little stricter is if you are reviewing in a genre in which you write. I don't know that all such reviews are removed, but I've known it to happen. I don't review books in a genre I write for that reason. In fact, after a run-in with an author who didn't like a review I wrote of her novel, I don't review at all. But having a review removed if it happened would not get you banned.

 

This is a myth. Amazon doesn't automatically remove reviews simply because an author wrote it. I've written dozens of book reviews on Amazon and never once has one been removed. NEVER.

Amazon's policy is specifically designed to stop direct competitors from leaving reviews. You don't want Joe from Pepsi leaving negative reviews on Coke products. It does not consider ALL AUTHORS competitors by default.

However, the language on the TOS gives them the option to remove a review if they feel it is malicious. I have been able to get Amazon to remove reviews, for example, when an author got ticked off about something I said online. Amazon doesn't care if authors leave reviews on books. They just want authors to play nice.

I've never had any of my reviews removed either, but I have heard of it being done