Over a week, I noticed on a general search of the web that I apparently had a 5th book for sale that I wasn’t even aware of. The link took me to Amazon where I discovered a spiral bound version of my title. Over the next few days, I discovered more of these books being stolen from other authors. At last count, I counted over 1,100 titles being stolen by this one party alone, claiming they had every right to take someone else’s work, buy it then resell it.

As I dug even deeper, I realized this issue has been going on for years with numerous reports being sent to Amazon Content Review over these copyright violations. In most cases, Amazon has done nothing. Even worse, this one party has been “caught” years ago but the keep letting him carry on.

I ended up having to trademark my name out of extra precaution, but on that same day Content told me they removed the offending party’s material although it would be subject to an appeal if they chose to.

Just yesterday, I was looking in a different category for top 150 books overall on Amazon when I noticed a good majority of them also had been illegally spiral bound by other parties as well. While some people might argue that these 3rd party sellers have the right to do this, actually they don’t. Just reusing someone else’s cover without their permission is considered copyright infringement. Secondly, “ruining” someone else’s work by hole punching their material and passing said material off on Amazon as ”New” is downright deceptive. Thirdly, attaching their name somehow and linking it to your author profile is simply willfully negligent on Amazon’s behalf.

My blog stretches over several days due to new developments, but in case you’re interested in reading more, this is a good place to start reading about the 1000s of authors on Amazon knowingly having their works stolen for years and getting away with illegal copyright infringement.

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this mess. Things sure have gotten complicated for the world of intellectual property rights. Whether it be music, books, or software, it is so hard to keep your creations safe from being stolen, rebranded, and sold by thieves. I recently bought a few adult coloring books for someone I know who is incarcerated. It's something to keep her mind off of her situation, and immerse her in another world with something creative and relaxing. If I see you post again on the forums, and I think you might stick around a bit, I will consider doing some free advertising for you and your coloring books on Amazon.

Thanks Chris and thank you for your kind offer. I’m also very sorry to hear about your friend’s situation. It’s actually not something I had even thought of, but I can see where that would be really helpful for others in that type of situation. If you talk with her, please let her know I’m thinking about her.

Just yesterday, I happened to be listening to an NPR interview with Brittney Griner in which she discusses her new book an her situation in a Russian prison. I honestly didn’t know much about her beforehand, but it was a very fascinating perspective. So having just read what you said reminds me to always keep an open mind about what people are dealing with,

I’m juggling a lot of things presently, especially given the drama I keep experiencing with Amazon —which just keeps getting worse and worse. . I’m not trying to come off as boasting, but having a title that’s highly ranked (hovers lately around 7K-12K BSR) I think puts it in a category where I see things others might not experience. I say this, because I have three other titles which are not even remotely close rank wise and they don’t seem to have nearly as many issues as I’ve seen with my best selling title.

Unfortunately, these sort of things affect all of us. And if my math is correct, Amazon actually taking decisive action could result in at least several thousand titles leeching off of the top ranks being removed, helping to reset the playing field for every author on Amazon.

I didn’t want to be discussing issues on my blog, but at a certain point I think I just cracked and became fed up. I’ve had to deal with enough of their BS recently that I’m just letting it all out. And this is just a start. I haven’t even been able to get to a more relevant story that impacts every Kindle and Audible title around the world. It was an accidental discovery involving the EU and Amazon KDP. I just need to finish it.

So yeah, I’d love to stick around and will try my very best but at present things are complete chaos. Part of me writing here is quite honestly trying to provide hopefully useful insights, but also to get some traction on my brand new website as well.

In between regular family stuff, Amazon has been a complete thorn. I thought that this chapter might be over for me, but I just received a counter notice from the person reusing my book without my permission. The further I dug, I realize that this is a more substantial operation likely involving 10s of millions of dollars.

I’m bringing this to Amazon Brand Registry’s attention now. They actually wrote back this morning to tell me that the book wasn’t available but I think they misunderstood that it was already taken down and going to be live again. The whole thing is a who’s on first skit.

You can read about the newer information coming to light below:
Amazon Copyrights and Content Review is Useless.