Effective immediately I am pulling all of my books out of Kindle Unlimited (KU). Apparently someone at Amazon is engaging in a witch hunt and is shutting down authors, completely destroying their livelihoods.
I'm not talking about small time authors either, I'm talking about the name authors in the genre in which I write. I realize that I will probably be next, and I can not afford to lose my income, that it is far better for me just to take a hit from no longer being in the KU program.
If you are an author, I would highly recommend you drop out of KU as well. Remember, Amazon can not be questioned or appealed to. You can sue them, that's about it.
Now, some of my books will still be in KU for the next few months, because it's a 90 day sign up. I will be contacting them tomorrow to see if I can get everything pulled immediately. Financially, I just can not take this risk.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I'll still be selling on Amazon, I just won't be in their subscription program (KU) anymore
EDIT: Just to be clear, I'll still be selling on Amazon, I just won't be in their subscription program (KU) anymore
What do you mean, just what are they doing?
ReplyDeleteTaking down big name authors with no warnings and no reasons given. The excuse is that they're manipulating the KU reads numbers. Which is complete BS now it seems.
DeleteThis is going to hurt me bigtime, I'm going to lose half my income and I'll no longer be easy to find because I won't be in KU, but I can't afford to be shut down, I just bought a house.
It was J.A. Cipriano a few week back and Michael-Scott Earle got hit today.
DeleteApparently Amazon has taken down some big name authors like Michael-Scott Earle, completely. Only leaving audio books. This is very upsetting.
ReplyDeleteYes, I wondered where Earle's books went. I've paid one credit each for the audio versions of your books.
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ReplyDeleteSmart move Jan Stryvant, will there be any update from you once you pull out from Amazon KU completely?
ReplyDeleteWhether they're being gamed by a malicious actor, or someone inside the company is going nuts, poisoning KU like this is incredibly stupid. They're going to have a riot of a time getting authors to risk everything on KU after this, knowing that they can be cut off completely on a whim, and with authors pulling their books in an attempt to save their accounts the value on the readers' side is going to plummet as well. Hopefully you can get your books pulled before they can get to you too.
ReplyDeleteThat said, now that you're pulling out of KU have you considered publishing on Smashwords as well? It's a lot more basic, but from what I gather publishing on their also means publishing on several other platforms too, might be worth looking into to make up for some of the money lost from Amazon acting like idiots.
That's why i can't see MSE's kindle books anymore?
ReplyDeletei can't have KU in my country so i always just bought all the books but now when i look at my shopping list alot of books are missing. what the hell is going on?
Has Amazon gone nuts?
ReplyDeleteIt can't be because those books had perfectly normal erotic scenes in it, since Amazon is still okay with the weirdest fetish stuff.
Time to look for another publisher house.
Yep I was wondering why I couldn't find J. A .Cipriano books ...but would u still be sell the kindle edition of the your books on amazon ...but not being apart of the kindle unlimited... cause misty vixen had that happen to her ...but still has book on amazon kindle but not on the unlimited kindle program... that she could protect herself ... cause its happening ...
ReplyDeleteYep cause all her books r just kindle edition ... and not in kindle unlimited program...
ReplyDeletehope you let us all know where we can get your books so that those of us on the journey with Sean can continue to do so
ReplyDeleteI have 1-9 I hope you find a way for me to buy anymore in the series I really want to see how daddy handles magic users and a bunch of lion cubs LOL
ReplyDeleteThere is something going on at Amazon, don't know what it is. Amazon has the right, as a private companty, to control who use there site but that doesn't mean that customers have to continue to use Amazon. I'm seriously considering canceling my KU subscription, that is the only thing corporations repond to. Who knows maybe Amazon wants to do away with KU?
ReplyDeleteI canceled the Unlimited when so many of the books I liked to read disappeared. I use the unlimited to preview the books I am looking to buy now I won't know how many good authors are out their that Amazon has decided we shouldn't read. looking for a new place to buy the ebooks to keep up with the series
Deletewasn't there a law passed that made websites responsible for sexy stuff the users posted... last i remember that law was so broad and poorly defined that amazon said they were dropping erotica.
ReplyDeleteIf they do that, they are not really consistent with it.
DeleteThere is plenty of 'sexy' stuff left, some of it much more extreme. Like explicit sex with animal dildos. Even on Kindle Unlimited.
Compared to that Michael Scott Earle is kindergarten stuff.
Isn't this some kind of sensorship? What's the sense of having a kendal e-reader if you can't get what you want to read?
ReplyDeleteWell there are some legal issues to observe.
DeleteSome kind of contents are prohibited in some countries (like child pornography in most over the world)
That means not only the production, but also the distribution and trade of those forbidden contents is illegal. Also as a private company Amazon can't be forced to publish content they don't like.
they seem to be going in a strange direction most of the authors thieve hit are not really that that controversial.
DeleteWow, i thought there was something fishy going on when i was blocked from reviewing books last week, and they removed all my books from the review list. When i finaly got through to them about wtf was going om they just ignored me and said i could review again. I had to go back and write all new reviews on everything because it was all removed. The block message i got from them was that i was biased in favour of the authors, and they had made it so that it wasnt possible to copy and phaste the ban message.
ReplyDeleteI do not have KU but i Looked up my favorit authors and a lot of them are removed even for normal shoppers like me.
If it is made possible for me to buy your books directly from you and others i will happily pay and extra couple of dollars per. Since they are sensoring Audible as well now that will become a problem for ABs im sure
ReplyDeleteOh yay, KU scammers causing problems for legit authors yet again. I get that Amazon has to use some automation to try and eliminate the people trying to scam KU and thus there is going to be some authors that get swept up mistakenly, but really Amazon could do alot better. A simple report system for KU subscribers would help trim down on the scammers and do much to prevent stuff like this from happening periodically when they have to adjust to the latest new method to game the system. I know you can report books/authors through customer service, but the vast majority of people wont do that simply because its inconvenient to hunt down where on Amazons website to do that. Make that more convenient and they would get alot of assistance from those of us who use KU.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to put in my interest for smashwords.com as well. (In case the feedback makes any difference). They sell books direct, and also partner with sites like scribd.com which offers subscription based services. I'd say if you're going to pull out of Amazon, do it completely.
ReplyDeleteI prefer using KU, but one purchase of Secret Treaties done - so you don't lose revenue and I can get my lion fix.
ReplyDeleteIs there another monthly service you publish on, besides KU? Sad to see AMZN going off the rails, but it happens.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely feeling good about my decision to buy instead of going through KU (I'm current on Valens Legacy and Portals of Infinity, and I have Shadow), but it looks like, given what happened to MSE, purchasing or going through KU may not matter. Here's hoping sanity prevails in some form so your income can get back to what you've been getting and more.
ReplyDeleteWow. Feeling vindicated in never subscribing to KU, and buying the series I like as they come out (despite the monetary disadvantage), but holy crap on a cracker, this makes me seriously think about buying any ebooks from Amazon ever again.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching the process with Cipriano, hadn't even heard about MSE, and dreading which of my other favorite authors would be next. Hoping you can stay ahead of this.
Count me in for the next Valens wherever you publish it, just as soon as you tell us where.
I'm honestly getting pissed I've read almost all of MSE books and many of J.A. Ciprianos. And now when I go to read MSE books I cant even find any books, even the older ones.I so hope this doesn't happen to you, not only because it will ruin your paycheck, but because the Valens Legacy is honestly my favorite series.
ReplyDeleteI get there might be some scammers or takes but I don't get why amazon is taking off legitimate and more popular of the genre off of it.
I honestly hope you can get your books off of KU on time
I can most likely speak for all of your readers when I say we will be greatly devastated and upset if what happened to MSE happens to you
Yep, exact same thing happened to me back in May. And it was during the best month I'd ever had in my entire life by several magnitudes. Amazon basically fucked me over.
ReplyDeleteI told them to either promise to protect me from this bullshit ever happening again, or pull every single title of mine out of the Kindle Unlimited.
Within a day, they told me that all of my titles had been removed from the KU. So I guess that was their answer to that. Honestly, this is getting ridiculous.
Consumers need to send emails to jeff@amazon.com and demand (nicely) that their this needs to be fixed.
ReplyDeleteConnect with Michael Anderle? He and his peeps would be really clobbered by this. Also, he's set up a publishing company.
ReplyDeleteI do KU 'coz I'm a senior on limited income. I need KU. But I love the Valens Legacy series and will commit to purchasing the books. If I'll do that, I think a lot of others will as well. So don't panic yet, dear boy. But I'll wait to see if you switch vendors so that the new one gets the business. Is B&N an option?
Oops... Digital. Really can't afford hard copy. ��
ReplyDeleteHey! I found the first two books at BN Nook for the same price. Can they be read on a Kindle? Still will wait to purchase.
DeleteNo
DeleteGenerally. I use calibri (pc program) to convert books to mobi and then load them to kindle.
Kindle will only read books formatted for the Kindle. I'm starting to put my stuff up on B&N, Kobo, and possibly Apple and Smashwords.
DeleteNow that I'm no longer in KU, I'm not exclusive to Amazon. It will take a while however to get all the books up in all of the different stores.
I always buy the paperback version of your books, but if this means Amazon won't do that justice, please let us know if and when you will go to another company.
DeleteLike everyone else, will gladly follow your stories , to where ever you publish(both the Valens and Portals series)! : D
So I was wondering why a lot of the author's that I enjoy reading stopped having books in KU, this just infuriates me that they can do this. We are paying customers of their "service", another issue that has happened recently which hopefully effects more than me, is amazon used to have one tab for "see what other customers purchased, and one tab for "sponsored crap", NOW amazon made the change to have 2 tabs for "sponsored products", and almost completely did away with see what others bought. So its extremely hard to find books from new authors, a lot of my favorites, I can stalk (PS sorry for stalking). I have complained twice to amazon in the last month, but they don't care. I am seriously considering canceling my KU. I'm hoping they turn around their new "policies".
ReplyDeleteSo ya I got pissed off to contact amazon about this again. Heres how it went
ReplyDeleteMe: So to start off I am upset with my service with amazon's change to take away "see what other customers bought" and instead thought hey its a great idea to have TWO, sponsored crap tabs, making it almost impossible to find new authors in the genres I like. SECONDLY from some of my favorite author's I hear that AMAZON is going on a witch hunt, and now they are starting to remove their books from Kindle unlimited so their accounts don't get eliminated, Jan Stryvant, J.A. Cipriano, Misty Vixen, Michael-Scott Earle and the list goes on, Has amazon gone nuts? What policies have changed at amazon to allow for this! The first topic irked me, and makes it much harder to find new books that I actually enjoy, the second topic takes me past irked to infuriated.
You are now connected to Annapoorna from Amazon.com
Annapoorna: Hello, my name is Annapoorna. I'm here to help you today.
Thank you for trying our Prime membership.
Let me connect you to a member of our kindle team. It will only take a moment.
A Customer Service Associate will be with you in a moment.
You are now connected to Richa from Amazon.com
Richa: Hello, my name is Richa. Please give me a moment to review the previous correspondence.
Thank you for being a Prime member!
I am sorry for the inconvenience as you are experiencing problem with the books you wish to read.
Me: the first issue a inconvenience, the second is closer to cencsorship
Richa: Let me check what is the best that can be done for you.
Please allow me a minute.
I am looking into your issue.It seems it will take a bit longer. Please stay connected.
Me: ok
Richa: Nathaniel, The content in the Kindle Store is provided to us directly by the publishers or authors who own that content.
It is their sole discretion to include their titles or not.
Me: except in those cases its not the authors taking their material down
I've talked to them
Richa: Nathaniel, the available content in Kindle Unlimited catalog is updated periodically, and titles are added and removed.
Me: ….seriously
Michael-Scott earle, was completely taken down except audio
same as JA Cipriano
one or maybe two I can see...
5+ is a trend, when authors are jumping out of KU to save their accounts....
whatever new policies or whoever is now running this department, they need to change, I will give amazon a little bit of time to FIX this. however if I don't see anything change I will be leaving amazon entirely. As well as getting the word out. Its already out there, that's how I found out about this issue.
Richa: Customer feedback like yours is always important to us and we'll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements. I'll be sure to pass your message along to the appropriate department as we continue to improve the Kindle experience for all of our customers.
Me: i seriously hope this doesn't get "lost" like all others, and is taken seriously. Up till a month ago i was extremely happy with amazon
Richa: Our customer's satisfaction and their convenience is very important to us above all else, it's the foundation on which our company was built. Be assured that we'll continue working hard to ensure that you receive accurate service.
Gee... I was hoping this would get fixed and authors could return to KU. Oh well. Let us no where you get the biggest payback if it's not all the same so we know who to buy from?
ReplyDeleteDoes Amazon not think you'll list elsewhere and or we won't follow?
I don't get newsletters. What's MSE going to do. He's way better than me if he's not really really angry and disgusted.
Found a petition:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thepetitionsite.com/672/842/958/demand-amazon-reinstate-jason-cipriano-and-michael-scott-earle-immediately/
Michael Todd (aka) Anderle might have given some info on what's happened in the author's notes for Book 3 of "War of the Damned".
ReplyDeleteEvidently, Amazon has new (?) KU author restrictions. Looks like some missed the memo. Still, it seems like Amazon could give authors a chance to comply and not just totally clobber them. Deleting books that aren't KU from store listings and/or removing purchases from people's cloud accounts seems overly punitive. Come on Amazon, we love our Indie authors and rely on reading them in KU!
Maybe we'll get Jan and MSE et al back in KU?
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ReplyDeleteJan... If you can delete these last couple of posts, I'd appreciate it. I think the trademark filing was likely in response to someone all but photocopying one of the MSE Dragonslayer covers for their book. I don't want to be part of piling on the guy. My apologies.
ReplyDeleteI have written to Jeff@amazon.com for each of my favorite authors that dropped KU. The problem is that as a retired person living on a fixed income I can't buy my favorite author's. Goodbye Mr vallens good luck in Portland
ReplyDeletePity. I am rather poor and can't spend much on reading, so Kindle Unlimited was perfect for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sad to see you go because I read many of your books. But my monetary state can't allow me to read any more of your books, I guess.
Because it is a business model whereby you can just focus on marketing and making sales. click over here
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