I wrote about how Amazon were dealing with a copyright infringement claim against my book here. To recap, someone from a publishing house mistakenly filed a claim on one of my books and retracted it moments later, but the following week, Amazon removed my book without notification and refused to sell it on their store, telling me to contact the person who had originally made the claim instead. Amazon’s support weren’t particularly helpful at the time, but the situation has been sorted out, Clarity is once again available on Amazon, and I wanted to post an update.
At the time of the last blog post, I was waiting for a reply from Amazon. On Saturday, I received what appeared to be a form response telling me that I needed to contact the third party and arrange for them to communicate with Amazon to let them know the situation was resolved. They told me that they didn’t involve themselves in such matters, and left it up to the other parties involved to deal with the situation and let them know about it. The frustrating thing was that the third party had already responded to Amazon. I forwarded the email (that had been forwarded to me) retracting the claim, clarified the situation, and let Amazon know that they had already received the communication they were requesting. I received no response.
On Tuesday, I asked the person from the publishing house to try to contact Amazon again. They obliged within minutes, but there was still no response from Amazon. I emailed them again yesterday, forwarding the previously sent emails by the third party, and requested a resolution to the matter yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, I had an email from Amazon letting me know the book was available on all of their stores.
So from the original claim (and ignoring the first retraction), Amazon took approx. a week to first remove my book, and approx. a week to reinstate it. It’s impossible to say how many potential sales were lost, and the book has likely lost its mojo, but it’s the inconvenience to readers that bothers me most. There was very little communication, no sense of a time frame, and I had to keep telling people that I didn’t know when the book would be available on Amazon because, for the most part, I had no idea what was going on, or if it would ever be sold there again.
The fact that Amazon automatically sides with whoever files a claim, even without evidence of any kind, is worrisome. The fact they remove themselves from the situation completely is understandable, but it makes me worry that false claims can be made and never dealt with after the fact. The person who mistakenly made the claim against my book was extremely cooperative with me, but what if they hadn’t been? Would Amazon have continued to ignore my emails? I understand Amazon need to protect themselves, but so do we.
I’d love to hear if this has happened to anyone else, or if anyone has any ideas on how I could have alternatively dealt with this.
ridiculous.!! Ya know that seems to be the rule anyone can accuse u of anything and automaticly your guilty until proven innocent. The system is definatly flawed. Glad it is all worked out. I am sooo into the ava delaney series i have not tried the series for the clarity . Is that series as exciting as Ava Delaney?
Yeah, it seems a bit arseways.
And, thanks. Probably not. Lol. It’s like a young teen romance-ish type of thing. In my opinion, the two series are not alike.
I am a huge fan of the Ava Delaney series, and I think Verity and Clarity are great! You have a love story and a supernatural story all in one
Jeez! That’s ridiculous! Stupid how you can get away with that kind of stuff, even when it is mistaken.
*isn’t
Maybe when it comes from a publishing house, it holds more weight? Anyway, at least it’s sorted now.
Probably. You probably know way more about it than I do, haha. Ya definatly.
I obviously don’t know enough about it. Lol.
Wow, sorry you had to go through all of that! It is really odd to me because Amazon is usually really good about customer service. It’s really scary that one mistake can cause so much trouble
Anything can happen, I suppose.
So basically what you are saying is very disturbing if I understand correctly. Anyone can say any books is infringement and without any verification whatsoever Amazon will remove the book. Is that correct? If such a complaint was placed vindictively using a sock-puppet account and the complainant refuses to contact Amazon a book can basically be banned from Amazon permanently on the grounds of an unsubstantiated claim. That is very disturbing.
Hey Rick,
That appears to be what happened in my case. Now I don’t know if the fact the word came from an actual publishing company held more weight or not, but I’ve been thinking the same things as you, and it is definitely worrisome.
Now, I have heard from other writers that when their book was copied and sold illegally, they had difficulty getting Amazon to cooperate. So either it depends on who makes the claims, or Amazon have changed their methods of dealing with these matters.
I can answer that Claire, it doesn’t have to come from an actual publishing company. Since I’m dealing with the same thing at the moment and my case has nothing to do with the actual claim of copyright infringement just an author who wanted more money than was originally agreed upon, I can tell you anyone can claim copyright infringement. In my case the books have been down for two weeks and a lawyer is dealing with the matter.
Amazon definitely needs to reassess their policy on pulling books down without proof of an actual infringement.
I was afraid of that, Michelle. Sorry you’re having problems. The aftermath is definitely a problem when the books are taken down so quickly. I hope your issues are resolved quickly. It’s a stressful time.
Thank you Claire. Live and learn my new motto… in my case I won’t work with another author again.
That’s a shame… but understandable! Best of luck in any case.
It would seem that Amazon is usually biased against the writers in most cases. I know recently they have removed thousands of reviews and have given the athors nothing but evasive answers and lies. Read my blog for the full story:
http://indie-publishing.blogspot.com/