Banned By Amazon

Disclaimer: I understand the business reasons for this, and I actually think it’s funny, but it goes to show that common sense is dead, killed by turning decisions over to bots and AI.

I woke up this morning to the following email:

My first though was, because it needs a journal and playing cards? Aren’t there roleplaying games that need dice, character sheets, and miniatures on Kindle? Don’t they have books filled with journaling prompts for sale? What’s the deal, form letter?

I logged into the KDP site to see if maybe there was additional information there (while also knowing that there wouldn’t be) and saw this:

So even if it were clear what I’d done, I was blocked barred from making any changes to anything unless I explained what I was going to do, hope that it met their criteria, and got them to unlock it.

In thinking about it, I realized what they probably didn’t like.

Maybe, MAYBE, the issue is that I say you need a copy of The Odyssey by Homer. It’s probably that I linked to Project Gutenberg, telling people to download a copy for free rather than buy one from Amazon. I’m sure that if it were an Amazon Associates link there would be no problem because it’s keeping people inside their closed ecosystem. Which, again, I understand from a business perspective, because I’m not stupid.

The thing is, if it were simply links, every single book I have out for Kindle has a link to Lightspress.com. None of those has ever been challenged, even though it would send people to a browser. Fine, I’m not saying that anything there is “required”, that’s the difference. I see the semantic game at play here. The insidiousness of it is almost admirable. If I reworded it to say that a copy is optional and still linked to Gutenberg, would it be okay?

They won’t tell me, of course. Silence is plausible deniability.

After thinking it over, I’m not going to appeal it. The print version is still there. Digital versions are available here and at DriveThruRPG. When I publish The Count of Monte Cristo Raven & River game I’ll remove the requirement but keep a link to Gutenberg to see what happens. I find these sorts of corporate shenanigans amusing, because they’re so childish and tone-deaf.

I hope you’re doing well today.