Amazon Banned my Books for Life. Here's What Happened

A simple author-name discrepancy nearly ended my writing career. Three years later, I'm still recovering and finally talking about it.

I’ve been quiet on the writing front for a few years now, and friends and acquaintances often ask why. I’ve never talked about this publicly, but here we go.

First, a brief summary of my career to those finding me for the first time. I started writing in 2009 after a rough run on the fire department (Oh yeah, I’m a firefighter). In the years since, I’ve had a bit of success. In 2011, I signed a publishing deal for three books in an epic fantasy trilogy. A couple years into that deal, the publisher signed me to a fourth book which became my werewolf tale with a twist, Tamed. Eventually, market conditions forced the publisher out of business and they reverted the rights to all of their books back to the authors. I decided to self-publish those books and my future work from then on. During that time, a Hollywood production studio showed interest in Tamed, though that deal fizzled out once the publishing company closed shop and Tamed became a self-published work. Tamed has had relative success with over 25,000 downloads to date and my A Firefighter Christmas Carol book of short stories sold a very large number for a self-published nobody such as myself. Things were moving along well as we approached 2023. My previous successes and marketing grind throughout the years had gotten a few of my books to a point every author hopes to achieve—selling through Amazon without any additional author promotions. They had reached a point where Amazon’s own recommendation systems was helping sustain their sales. Basically, a few of my books reached the level of Amazon promoting them with “If you bought this, you’ll like Tamed,” or “The author of A Firefighter Christmas Carol has released a new book,” and those types of benefits. I was on my way …

And then, BOOM! A minor mistake on my part combined with the unflinching machine that is Amazon ended everything. You see, I was preparing to release the long-awaited sequel to Tamed, titled Untamed, and set out to create the preorder on Amazon. For me, this was just a placeholder, and one I would tighten up as I approached the release. I began adding the metadata. In the process, I listed the author as Doug Brown (which is my name, BTW). However, Amazon’s system instantly flagged my book, locked my account, and two days later terminated my account.

I was stunned and devastated. How could this happen? What did I do wrong? Of course, I appealed. But my appeals were denied and the ban upheld. Their explanation was broad and gave me very little information about what specifically I had done wrong. Using that vague information and a copy of their terms of service, I discovered my mistake. Based on the information Amazon provided and the terms of service, it appeared Amazon’s system saw Doug Brown as a different person than Douglas R. Brown, effectively treating me as someone attempting to profit from another author’s semi-successful book (Tamed). I screamed from the rooftops to anyone at Amazon who would listen that both books were by me to no avail.

After my final appeal, they considered the case closed, upheld the termination, kept my royalties owed, and locked my books from me. With nowhere left to turn, I filed a formal complaint against Amazon with the BBB. Amazon's Executive Customer Relations eventually contacted me regarding my BBB complaint. Shortly afterward, Amazon reinstated my account, restored my books, and paid the royalties I was owed.

However, the damage was done. This process took weeks and once my books were reinstated, I believe they were viewed as new books in Amazon’s system. My self-sustaining sales of hundreds of books per month prior to the ban crashed to zero as the books were reinstated. Untamed released to a whopping 60 sales, and that was a result of my own marketing. The recommendation and notification benefits I had relied on appeared to be gone. This crushed my soul, and I didn't write again for years.

But this isn’t a whiney bitchfest on my part. This is actually the opposite. This is me licking my wounds and returning to the fray. I started writing again late last year and have recently finished a kickass time-travel novel that has been sent off to my editor. That part did not go well. As with all great editors, she tore my manuscript to shreds. And then, just for good measure, she set the remnants on fire. The long process of turning those ashes into something better will be my next step. In addition to writing again, I am going to reengage with some light marketing. I’m starting from scratch, but I have eight good novels to work with, and more to come in the future. I don’t think I’ll ever reach my previous selling highs again, but I know I never will without trying. And that’s why you haven’t heard from me in a while. And that’s why the best is yet to come. I’m not finished telling tales yet.

If you've found this blog and are new to my books, start looking around here with Werepets Unleashed and then check out some of the other stories.