TRANSKRYPCJA 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:28.949 --> 00:00:31.750
Amazon KDP is banning authors who did nothing wrong.
00:00:31.910 --> 00:00:32.870
Here's how to fix it.
00:00:33.030 --> 00:00:36.950
You can follow every rule that you know and still get banned by Amazon KDP.
00:00:37.030 --> 00:00:40.549
They've been banning authors in an instant with no warning, no second chance.
00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:43.750
Their accounts are gone, their books are deleted, and they did nothing wrong.
00:00:43.909 --> 00:00:45.590
It's every author's worst nightmare.
00:00:45.670 --> 00:00:48.310
They come to us, they hit us up, ask us what to do about it.
00:00:48.469 --> 00:00:54.469
Here are six checks that you can make before you publish to make sure that your book doesn't get banned.
00:00:54.549 --> 00:01:00.310
If you're about to hit publish on your book or you've already published and you're not sure that you did everything right, this video is for you.
00:01:00.469 --> 00:01:04.870
We helped authors publish over 7,000 books in 91 plus countries.
00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:10.070
So we've seen pretty much every way that this goes wrong and every way out of it.
00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:12.549
So let's go through exactly what to check.
00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:19.430
There's six things in order that you need to check before you publish to make sure that your book doesn't get banned.
00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:24.230
Starting with number one, this is your trademark and your copyright.
00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:29.430
So do you own the originality or the original work of the book that you're publishing?
00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:46.390
I'll take this even a step further and say that you can't have real brand names, logos, or recognizable trademark designs on the cover and the interior art, or whether it's hand-drawn or not, you can't be passing off as, hey, insert big company represents us, right?
00:01:46.469 --> 00:01:52.070
So if you do that, well, then there's a decent chance that they're gonna reach out to Amazon and say, hey, stop having them do this.
00:01:52.230 --> 00:01:53.990
And then they can get your book taken down.
00:01:54.150 --> 00:02:01.350
Now, so if you didn't create it and you don't have a license for it, whether it's their logo or the actual content of the book.
00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:02.870
I mean, I think that goes without saying.
00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:07.829
If you're a scammer that's just publishing knockoffs of other people's books, you deserve to be banned.
00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:09.030
Screw you.
00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:11.990
Like this is just the lowest of the lows.
00:02:12.069 --> 00:02:14.870
So yeah, if you're watching this video, just stop doing that, right?
00:02:14.949 --> 00:02:17.829
Stop publishing work that you don't have the trademark for.
00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:19.909
This is the single highest lever check on the list.
00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.069
So do not pass go, do not collect$200.
00:02:22.310 --> 00:02:26.789
If you're publishing work that you don't have the trademark or copyright on, well, you're probably gonna get banned.
00:02:26.949 --> 00:02:28.389
But here's the check number two.
00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:30.469
This is a little bit deeper down the list.
00:02:30.550 --> 00:02:32.469
This is your AI disclosure.
00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:37.509
Now, there's an AI kind of checkbox on Amazon when you're publishing.
00:02:37.670 --> 00:02:44.069
So if AI touched your book at all, whether it's text, images, translations, anywhere in the book, you need to disclose it.
00:02:44.230 --> 00:02:46.629
Now, my personal thoughts on this are twofold.
00:02:46.789 --> 00:02:48.550
One, I think it's none of Amazon's business.
00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:50.310
They're using AI everywhere.
00:02:50.469 --> 00:02:52.469
So why do they care if it's used in the book?
00:02:52.550 --> 00:02:56.550
Now, I get it for the fringe cases where you know they don't want AI sloped.
00:02:56.629 --> 00:03:01.670
So they're just trying to protect against like just a mass of AI books.
00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:05.189
But if you're somewhere in the middle, you technically have to disclose it.
00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:09.909
Again, I think it's really dumb, but just follow the rules and you're less likely to get banned.
00:03:09.990 --> 00:03:18.629
So if you've used AI to improve the quality, whether it's editing, brainstorming, cleanup, which most people have, then you just need to make sure that you disclose that.
00:03:18.710 --> 00:03:19.990
This is not a bad thing, right?
00:03:20.069 --> 00:03:22.469
It's not like if you check this box, they're gonna ban you.
00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:23.590
It's actually the opposite.
00:03:23.750 --> 00:03:25.110
They just at least know, right?
00:03:25.189 --> 00:03:26.629
You're being honest in the work.
00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:32.150
So if you're mass producing undisclosed AI generated content, you're probably gonna get banned.
00:03:32.230 --> 00:03:33.830
So just don't do that, first of all.
00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:39.430
And if you do it, well, then you should check that you used AI to help with the book.
00:03:39.670 --> 00:03:44.390
Check number three, this is a big one, is your metadata and keywords.
00:03:44.469 --> 00:03:52.789
So I don't know if you remember kind of like the early days of Amazon, where gaming this is how you ranked on Amazon, is how you moved a bunch of copies.
00:03:52.870 --> 00:03:58.629
It was like kind of like SEO in the scammy SEO days where people were like, you know, just keyword stuffing and all this stuff.
00:03:58.789 --> 00:04:10.629
Obviously, Amazon doesn't want this on their platform, so you got to be careful about keyword stuffing, words like bestseller, like Amazon, other authors' names, other people's titles, subtitles, whatever else.
00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:12.069
You know, it's technically in the gray.
00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:13.270
Will you get banned for this?
00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:21.589
Probably not, but it is an easy and obvious way that if you
Load full transcript
do it and if you're scamming the system, yeah, you're probably gonna get banned.
00:04:21.670 --> 00:04:27.189
So you need to make sure that your metadata and your keywords is clean, there's no scammy, slimy stuff in there.
00:04:27.349 --> 00:04:32.389
Describe the book that you actually wrote, and that if you do that well, you probably won't get banned.
00:04:32.550 --> 00:04:35.110
Check number four is categories, right?
00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:41.349
So when you publish a book on Amazon, they give you a certain number of categories that you can pick.
00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:44.789
Those are the books that you know, categories where your book is ranked in.
00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:49.750
And people try to game this because they want to be an Amazon bestseller, they want to be number one in some category.
00:04:49.910 --> 00:04:55.670
First off, to kind of litmus test, your category needs to match what the book is actually about.
00:04:55.990 --> 00:05:02.709
Okay, so if you're just putting it in random categories, well then yeah, they might ban you for that, but also it's just kind of a dumb strategy.
00:05:02.790 --> 00:05:11.910
So what you should do instead is put it in one category with less competition, then you've got a real shot at either becoming a bestseller or staying a bestseller in that category.
00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:13.990
It could be a niche category, no problem.
00:05:14.149 --> 00:05:16.470
But it's just, you know, smaller category with less competition.
00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:20.149
Then you've got the big category that's for traction and for visibility.
00:05:20.310 --> 00:05:25.110
So those are, you know, whatever the big kind of top-tier category with the most competition.
00:05:25.189 --> 00:05:25.430
Sure.
00:05:25.590 --> 00:05:29.350
If you can rank in that, well, then people go to that category, they buy from that category.
00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:33.269
That's gonna help with your rankings, it's gonna help with your sales, all that.
00:05:33.430 --> 00:05:38.629
Hey, quick interruption: if what you're hearing right now is making you think about your own book, don't let that feeling pass.
00:05:38.790 --> 00:05:44.550
We've helped thousands of authors turn that exact feeling into a published book that builds their authority in their business.
00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:50.629
If you want to be next, come find us on Instagram at selfpublishing.com and send us a DM with the word ready.
00:05:50.949 --> 00:05:56.550
Our team will reach out, we'll learn about your book, we'll map out exactly the path forward and what it looks like for you.
00:05:56.629 --> 00:06:01.269
We'll create a custom plan, DM us ready, find us on Instagram, and let's get back into the episode.
00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:05.350
There's three big ways that Amazon goes out and markets your book on your behalf.
00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.590
There's keywords, categories, and reviews.
00:06:07.750 --> 00:06:07.990
All right.
00:06:08.069 --> 00:06:13.430
So obviously, the you know, the keywords and stuff, you need to make sure that they're optimized for what people are actually searching.
00:06:13.509 --> 00:06:14.870
So I'll give you an example for me.
00:06:15.030 --> 00:06:18.709
It might be how to write a book, how to publish a book, how to get published.
00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:22.709
Those are keywords that people are actually searching that's actually relevant to my book.
00:06:22.870 --> 00:06:23.750
I want to show up for that.
00:06:23.829 --> 00:06:26.709
Then I want to make sure that I'm showing up in the relevant categories.
00:06:26.790 --> 00:06:28.870
And then this is a big one that not a lot of people talk about.
00:06:28.949 --> 00:06:30.870
You need as many reviews as possible.
00:06:31.030 --> 00:06:36.470
So we've got a video on the channel about how to get to 100 plus reviews fast, strategies that actually work.
00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:39.350
If you don't have reviews, you can optimize all this stuff.
00:06:39.509 --> 00:06:41.269
You probably still won't rank.
00:06:41.430 --> 00:06:45.430
Also, do you think Amazon's gonna ban a book with very few reviews?
00:06:45.670 --> 00:06:46.310
Probably not.
00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:47.590
So get more reviews.
00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:51.670
Amazon will market the book on your behalf and you'll sell a lot more copies.
00:06:51.829 --> 00:06:57.750
That's a perfect lead in to check number five, which is do you have reviews on your book?
00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:03.670
If you've got less than 10 reviews on your book, you're exponentially more likely to get banned.
00:07:03.910 --> 00:07:07.189
This is really just telling Amazon, is this legit?
00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:14.870
Like anybody can game a few reviews, but if you've got north of 10, and especially if you've got north of 100, you're extremely unlikely to get banned, right?
00:07:15.030 --> 00:07:20.230
Unless there's just some mass amount of bot or AI activity on that book, they're probably not gonna ban you.
00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:26.629
This is the biggest lever for winning on Amazon, and it's also the fastest way to get frozen if you handle it wrong.
00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:27.750
This trips people up.
00:07:27.829 --> 00:07:28.790
People are like, well, hold up.
00:07:28.949 --> 00:07:32.790
I've tried everything, I've done all the things, and I can't get more reviews.
00:07:32.870 --> 00:07:34.470
Well, you need to build a launch team.
00:07:34.550 --> 00:07:35.910
We've got a kind of a whole process.
00:07:35.990 --> 00:07:39.030
There's a launch triangle, that's what we teach to market a book successfully.
00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:43.110
So you need to create a launch team, you need to get reviews, and then you need to do promotions.
00:07:43.269 --> 00:07:44.790
The secret is in the launch team.
00:07:44.949 --> 00:07:48.149
If you do nothing else to launch your book, just build a launch team.
00:07:48.310 --> 00:07:49.990
We've got a video on that on this channel.
00:07:50.149 -->
00:07:50.870
Watch that video.
00:07:51.030 --> 00:07:53.509
Also, there's the video on how to get to 100 plus reviews.
00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:57.350
Get reviews, and your book is very unlikely to get banned.
00:07:57.509 --> 00:08:02.949
A few caveats on reviews, and there's actually within this, you can get banned if you do this the wrong way.
00:08:03.110 --> 00:08:08.310
Never offer money, gift cards, discounts, never incentivize reviews in any way.
00:08:08.470 --> 00:08:11.509
If you do that, I have seen people get their either one of two things.
00:08:11.590 --> 00:08:13.030
All of their reviews get yanked.
00:08:13.189 --> 00:08:22.709
They wake up, and maybe they had hundreds or thousands of reviews on their book or on their product on Amazon, boom, wiped out because Amazon realized, oh, these are all coming from the same link.
00:08:22.870 --> 00:08:31.110
Oh, they got a hundred reviews in 20 hours, and it's coming from this page where they're giving away stuff if they leave a review.
00:08:31.269 --> 00:08:33.269
Yeah, no, banned, right?
00:08:33.350 --> 00:08:36.149
Well, or Amazon reviews completely removed.
00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:41.269
So either they're gonna remove all your reviews, or at worst, they'll ban the book altogether.
00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:42.309
So don't do that.
00:08:42.470 --> 00:08:45.990
Also, don't stack multiple reviews from the same IP address.
00:08:46.149 --> 00:08:47.750
So maybe you've got a launch party.
00:08:47.829 --> 00:08:48.789
This is a common mistake.
00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:53.590
I'm doing a book launch party, I've got a hundred people in a room, and I tell everyone, hey, go leave a review right now.
00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:59.669
That's a smart strategy, except it's dumb because you don't know the rules, which is Amazon tracks IPs.
00:08:59.909 --> 00:09:10.389
And so what we found is typically if you get up to three, it's either three or five reviews from the same IP address, whenever that third or that fifth review happens, they yank all of the ones from that IP address.
00:09:10.549 --> 00:09:21.990
So if you've got friends, family, if you're at the house, well, then you need to tell people, hey, leave a review when you're at work because you're on a different IP address, you're not on the same internet or you're not in the same location.
00:09:22.070 --> 00:09:23.029
So this is important.
00:09:23.190 --> 00:09:28.789
Make sure that you're playing by the rules and not just stacking a bunch of reviews all in the same IP address.
00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:31.590
If you watched our reviews video, you already know how to do this.
00:09:31.750 --> 00:09:33.029
Let's move into check number six.
00:09:33.110 --> 00:09:36.789
But before I do, if you found this video helpful, just go ahead and comment below.
00:09:36.870 --> 00:09:38.870
We read and respond to every single comment.
00:09:39.029 --> 00:09:40.149
Subscribe to the channel.
00:09:40.310 --> 00:09:41.750
This channel is blowing up right now.
00:09:41.830 --> 00:09:42.950
Our videos are popping off.
00:09:43.029 --> 00:09:43.830
Thank you guys so much.
00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:46.470
It seems like you've been enjoying the videos, so I appreciate it.
00:09:46.629 --> 00:09:47.909
Comment below, subscribe.
00:09:47.990 --> 00:09:54.310
We release videos every single week, multiple times a week, that help you be more successful with your books.
00:09:54.389 --> 00:09:56.070
They're also on Spotify.
00:09:56.149 --> 00:10:00.149
So if you listen or watch on Spotify, you can check them out there.
00:10:00.549 --> 00:10:01.990
Check number six.
00:10:02.230 --> 00:10:04.789
This is your publishing cadence.
00:10:04.950 --> 00:10:09.269
Now, the big thing to avoid here is don't publish a bunch of books inside of a 30-day window.
00:10:09.509 --> 00:10:13.269
You can technically do that and not get banned, but if you do that, the system is gonna flag it.
00:10:13.350 --> 00:10:18.149
Because here's the thing that nobody's talking about is a lot of this stuff is completely automated.
00:10:18.549 --> 00:10:22.149
So they've fired a bunch of people, they've automated this with AI.
00:10:22.310 --> 00:10:29.350
So if you just, you know, blur the lines a little bit or you could just be getting caught in the crosshairs, they're just gonna, it's an automated system.
00:10:29.509 --> 00:10:37.590
So I want you to ask the question if I'm Amazon, what are the triggers or tells that would most likely predict scams or spam?
00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.470
Well, it's publishing a bunch of books in a short window of time.
00:10:40.629 --> 00:10:48.710
So their system's automatically gonna flag that as a pattern and it might go up for manual review, or they might just ban your account or ban your books.
00:10:48.870 --> 00:10:55.110
So not only is this a way to not get banned, it's also just smart marketing is space your titles out.
00:10:55.190 --> 00:10:59.190
So maybe you launch one and then a month or two months later you launch another one.
00:10:59.350 --> 00:11:07.029
A steady cadence that looks like a real author, maybe even a prolific author, not just a dump of titles that reads more like a spam account.
00:11:07.110 --> 00:11:16.389
Okay, so if you space it out, it's also like I said, smarter marketing because you can launch this, focus on that, then launch the next book, focus on that, and you can keep marketing and keep publishing.
00:11:16.549 --> 00:11:18.310
What if you do all this and get banned anyway?
00:11:18.389 --> 00:11:20.950
Well, I'll talk about how to get unbanned here in just a second.
00:11:21.029 --> 00:11:23.190
But the thing you want to remember here is that boring wins.
00:11:23.269 --> 00:11:27.029
Look at authors who have stayed off of Amazon's radar for a decade.
00:11:27.269 --> 00:11:30.230
Do the boring, normal stuff, don't play in the gray.
00:11:30.389 --> 00:11:36.629
Their metadata is boringly clean, their content is 100% theirs, and that's exactly why they never got flagged.
00:11:36.710 --> 00:11:37.750
They're also specific.
00:11:37.909 --> 00:11:39.190
It's clear, not clever.
00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:42.870
They have keywords that speak specifically to what their book's about.
00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:44.070
That's why their book shows up.
00:11:44.149 --> 00:11:46.070
It gets purchased and it gets read.
00:11:46.310 --> 00:11:56.389
So if you followed all these steps and your book still gets banned, there's a four-part uphill formula that gives you the best shot at getting your book reinstated.
00:11:56.629 --> 00:11:59.190
We created a full video on this channel.
00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:04.389
It's all about what happens if you get banned, why you get banned, and what to do if it happens.
00:12:04.470 --> 00:12:05.669
So go ahead and watch that next.
00:12:05.750 --> 00:12:09.429
And then if you're serious about going faster further with your book, we'd love to help you.
00:12:09.509 --> 00:12:10.789
We've published thousands of books.
00:12:10.950 --> 00:12:13.990
We publish multiple books a day at selfpublishing.com.
00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:15.110
There's a link in the description.
00:12:15.190 --> 00:12:19.029
You can click that link to book a publishing consultation with someone on my team.
00:12:19.190 --> 00:12:26.149
These are experts who have helped hundreds and in most cases, thousands of people, just like you, take the next step with your book.
00:12:26.310 --> 00:12:28.230
You book a call, it'll be about 45 minutes.
00:12:28.389 --> 00:12:31.909
I'll make a bold promise, it'll be the best 45 minutes you've ever spent on your book.
00:12:32.070 --> 00:12:41.509
If you think this video has been helpful, this call is going to be even more helpful because there's nothing like getting one-on-one accountability and feedback specific to you, your book, and where you're at.
00:12:41.669 --> 00:12:43.269
So click the link in the description.
00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:43.750
Comment.
00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:44.710
I booked a call.
00:12:44.789 --> 00:12:47.750
If you've booked a call with the team, we'd love to give you a shout out.
00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:55.590
And on that call, they'll talk about your goals for your book, your challenges, your next steps will help you publish successfully and not get banned.
00:12:55.750 --> 00:12:56.710
Hope you enjoyed the video.
00:12:56.789 --> 00:12:59.029
Comment below, book a call with the team if you want our help.
00:12:59.110 --> 00:13:00.789
And I will see you in the next one.