One of my clients recently had a bad experience with Amazon as she rushed to get her book to market on a deadline. Part of her manuscript had previously appeared on her blog. In other words, her book is partially a booked blog. Much to her dismay, her book was not immediately approved. Instead, she received an email telling her the book was under review. Only a few days later was her account “unblocked,” and the book published, making her book “late” and causing her a fair amount of stress.
She is the not first author with a blogged book or a booked blog to have this experience, or at least a similar one, while publishing on Amazon. That doesn’t mean you can’t publish your blogged book or booked blog on Amazon. You most definitely can. And many have with much less anxiety.
In fact, you can make sure your Amazon Kindle (or CreateSpace) experience is a pleasant one by understanding why things happen the way they do and being prepared for the process. Let’s look at what normally happens and why.
The “Temporary Hold” Email
When you upload your blogged book on Amazon as an ebook, or even as a pbook, you will be asked early in the process if you own the rights to the material. This happens as you fill out the application. Later, once you’ve actually uploaded your document to the system, if Amazon discovers the material in your book also exists on the Internet it will put a temporary hold on publication to determine if you do, indeed, hold the rights to the material. At this point, you will receive an email notifying you that this has occurred.
Brittany Turner, an Amazon representative explains this process: “When submitting content that is also freely available on the web (such as content from their blog), a temporary hold may be placed on the book until the author confirms they have publishing rights to and control where the book is distributed.”
That means that you have to prove the content in your book came from your personal blog, and not someone else’s blog, and that you do, indeed, have rights to the content and to decide how and where that content is distributed. “These should both be true for someone’s personal blog,” says Turner, which means you won’t have a problem getting your blogged book approved.
Proving to Amazon You Own Your Blog Content
When you get that email from Amazon saying your book has been placed on temporary hold and that you have to prove you are the rights holder, don’t panic. Simply comply with Amazon’s requests. Remember, as a book blogger getting one of these emails is an inevitability if you self-publish using Amazon. It’s best to be prepared. So, here’s what you will need to provide when that email shows up:
1. The URLs for all websites where the content is published.
2. An explanation as to why the content is available online.
Turner stressed that this information must be sent to Amazon within five days. “Once that occurs the book should be cleared for sale shortly after,” she said. “If authors have questions they can always get in touch with us here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/contact-us.”
Don’t expect to be able to call anyone with questions or to have a conversation. They won’t call you either. Your only communication about the rights to your blogged material will be by email.
Kindle vs. KDP
Some writers and bloggers have the wrong impression that Amazon’s KDP Select program does not allow publication of bogged material. As a blogger, you can choose to publish your blogged material in an ebook with the normal Kindle program or the KDP Select program (or through CreateSpace as a print on demand book); both allow blogged material. According to Turner, “KDP does allow writers to sell material previously published on the Internet, as long as they are the rights holder.”
What KDP Select does not allow you to do is distribute your ebook anywhere other than Amazon for at least three months (depending upon the terms you agree to). If you visit the site, you can read this explanation of the program’s exclusive publishing agreement:
“When you choose KDP Select for a book, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital.”
That means you can’t upload it distributors like Smashwords.com, Nook or Bookbaby.com, or anywhere else. The only one who can sell the ebook version of your booked blog or blogged book is Amazon–not even you. And the only people who will be able to read your ebook are those who own a Kindle.
If you publish your ebook using the regular Kindle program, you can still distribute your book using other channels, and you can sell it from your blog or website.
While finding your book on temporary hold may be disturbing—even annoying, remember, this action is to protect you. You wouldn’t want someone to publish your blogged material in their book, right? To ensure that doesn’t happen, Amazon verifies ownership of previously published material on the Internet. So, it’s all good…(until I hear otherwise anyway).
Photo © Robyn Mackenzie | Dreamstime.com
Good points. I had not realized a blogged book could be part of Kindle Select. From what I had read, I had assumed that prevented it (unless the material was taken down from the site and I wasn’t even sure about then).
Nope. No need to take down your material at all. Just prove it is yours. I spoke with two people at Amazon about this.
I’m thrilled (and enormously relieved) to get such a definitive answer to this question, Nina, and I really appreciate the research you did to nail down Amazon’s position on it.
I’m also glad for the reminder about KDP’s exclusivity requirement. I had read that before, but I don’t want to forget it.
Elizabeth,
Yes…do remember the exclusivity. This really has larger ramifications for authors than they may believe. Watch for a guest post coming up this week on my other blog, http://www.writenonfictionnow.com, as part of Write Nonfiction in November, by Mark Coker. He will discuss this in depth. The points he makes are quite interesting–and disturbing.
Thanks for all your helpful advice. So just to be clear, a blog published on your own website is owned by the writer … but if you blog on a blog application, like Blogger.com etc …do they OWN the rights to your words – and therefore you would NOT be able to publish content from your blogs at Amazon?
You always own your content on your blog. You can always publish your own blog content on Amazon. You just have to prove you own it.
Awesome. The distinction between Kindle and KDP is duly noted. And considering I didn’t anything about this before I read your blog, I am very happy. I am so glad I found your blog. The wealth of knowledge here is staggering and I feel better about self-publishing as well. Thanks!
Hey Nina,
Thanks for all the great info. I have just submitted the blogged book that I began in November to Kindle for publication and got the “on hold” email you discussed here. I am glad that this is not the first time I came upon this post so I didn’t panic.
I have submitted the info that they requested and am now waiting. Any idea how long before they approve it and the book goes live?
Hi Nina,
First I wanted to say Thank you for all your articles and guidance. I began blogging my book this past November and yesterday I uploaded my file to Kindle…today, created my paperback on createspace. I am very excited to be moving forward.
I received the “temporary hold” email from Kindle last night, at which point I responded with the required information in order to be able to continue. I wanted to be apart of the KDP select program, and thought it wouldn’t be a problem; however, this is the response that I rec’d back from Amazon today…
“Since we see you’ve chosen the KDP Select option for your book, we would like to to remind you that books enrolled in KDP Select must be exclusive to Amazon in digital format while enrolled in the program. Your book currently is not eligible for the program given the availability of its contents online.”–an email from Amazon.
I am disappointed and will be writing back to them shortly. I can publish on Kindle but according to them cannot enroll the title in KDP Select. I am going to ask if I will be eligible if I take the content down, and see what their response will be. I will keep you posted.
Has anyone else run into this problem? Any other advise?
Not exactly, Jeannie, but I would expect 5 days to 2 weeks. Please come back and post a comment so we know! Others will be interested in your experience. Thank you.
Jeannie,
I am TOTALLY surprised, because this is in direct opposition to what they told me. I had direct information from someone at Amazon. Please let me know what you discover. And by the way, the KDP Select program restricts many of your rights as an author. It is not the be all and end all of programs. So not being in it is not the end of the world.
After I hear what you discover, I will again contact Amazon myself and find out if their policy has changed since I corresponded with them last.
Me again! I never received an actual response from Amazon, but when I woke this morning I found that my book had been approved and is live on Kindle right now AND they enrolled it in KDP Select, so now I am thoroughly confused!
Here is the link to the page!
http://www.amazon.com/Twirling-Streets-Noticed-Undiagnosed-ebook/dp/B00CB4WZT2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1365675700&sr=1-1&keywords=undiagnosed+autism
Jeanne,
So…I am going to assume that they simply wanted to check that the material was your own. I am going to email them and ask them to do a better job with this. Can you forward me all the correspondence you received to nina(at)ninaamir(dot)com, please? That way I can show them exactly what I’m talking about. Also..include the time frame on everything–and how much of the material is on your blog. Thank you. If I can get them to smooth over the process for other book bloggers, that would be nice, no? You can help.
And congratulations!
Thank you Nina! I have just started blogging my book and, of course, only then decided to google if I have the right to publish it. I am so glad I came across your site – there is so much confusing and plain bad advice out there.
Thanks again, your post has settled my nerves and I will continue 🙂
You are welcome. Good luck!
Thank you for clearing this up. I probably spent the last hour scouring KDP forums and KDP publishing guidelines and could not find a clear answer. Wish I would have found this page first. To make sure I understand – we can enroll our book in KDP Select even if some of the material is directly from our website, as long as we are not selling it in book form anywhere else but Amazon, correct?
Yes, you must be exclusive to Amazon during the time you are in the KDP Select program. The material can be previously published, however, on the internet–from what they told me!
I decided to ask Amazon directly about this and apparently you can only have up to 10% of your book available on your blog if you want to enroll it in KDP Select. Here is their reply:
“You may offer a sample, excerpt or teaser of your KDP Select-enrolled book on your website, as long as it doesn’t include a substantial portion of your book’s content. Up to about 10% of the book’s content is a reasonable amount.
Keep in mind that a sample of your book is also available on your Amazon.com detail page, and we recommend linking to your detail page from your other sites.
You may also put similar samples on other websites. We strongly recommend you clearly indicate in the title of your sample that it is a sample, so that there won’t be confusion regarding availability of your book on another sales channel.”
Who told you that? Because that isn’t what they told me! One more reason not to use KDP Select, if you ask me.
Nina, that was a reply directly from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing customer service. Yes, I wish they would be more consistent in their answers and/or make the terms more clearer so we don’t have to ask. I know some have had their accounts closed because of a misunderstanding.
I went back to my source, and she confirmed the answer you got. She was not so specific last time. I will need to update this post, but it does say the material can’t be on your blog…but it isn’t “for sale” while it is blogged. So it is very confusing. I say, just don’t use KDP Select. Use KDP. That solves the whole problem.
Thanks for this information Nina, I’m about to turn several blog posts of mine into a kindle book and I was wondering if that won’t create a problem for me.
You are welcome. You’re fine as long as you use KDP and not KDP Select.
I published a few books I had written based upon my blog, the paperbacks were approved but the Kindle version of one was rejected as “we need confirmation this is actually yours or prove that the owner is dead and in the public domain” I just went back ahead ticked yes I own the content and resubmitted it and a few days later it went live.
I didn’t have to change anything at all. The new Amazon Kindle Beta program kinda sucks in that regards, it’s such a shonky platform but there really is no alternative if you want to appeal to the largest audience to sell your eBooks and paperback books.
If it fails once, just try and resubmit and say you own the content and the rights, don’t tick the public domain box and you should be approved within 72 hours anyway most of the time. It’s happened to me twice now and it’s pretty annoying, you cannot even get a hold of anyone at Amazon to assist you it’s all just cut and paste email template replies which is even more frustrating.
Interesting and helpful tip. I did not know and dare yet to do this. I have a blog where some articles are large and thinking if I can make them the ebook. Do kindle require some minimum word limits on ebook?
I am writing to post a warning about turning your blog into a Kindle book. I recently put together my blog articles and converted it into a ebook through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), and uploaded it on Kindle. I already had a few short novels published in Kindle. In a few days time I got an email from KDP that the contents of my ebook seemed similar to content across the web and I had to take action. I could either remove the book or give assurance that the content was mine and original. I chose to do the latter as I had written most of the content though at some point I may have written stuff off other blogs. All was well, and then suddenly my entire account got BANNED!!
I am still reeling from the effects of that ban and had to create a whole new Amazon account and upload fresh versions of my original ebooks, and lost some money int he process.
So, my two cents, is that you should be very careful that the contents you convert to an ebook are absolutely and totally genuine.
Thanks for the article and I hope my comment helps someone there…
You needed to contact Amazon again and show proof. They always want to be sure the content is yours. I’ve never before heard of them banning a site if you proved your owned the blogged material. Somewhere they didn’t get all the info they needed.
I think you need around 4,000 words…but I actually am not sure they have a restriction.
I could not be more excited about your article than I am right now. I have been plugging away daily at writing my book. Each day I keep thinking, this is really great blog material and I’m struggling for blog post ideas. Maybe I should give up the book idea and just go with the blog. Then it hit me, maybe I can do both? I thought I was going out on a limb here but found your piece in a google search; very well written and answered all the burning questions. Thank you so much!
Thank-you so much for your helpful article! I have three books in the regular Kindle program, both paperback and Kindle format, not in KDP Select. My question (and I am not sure if KDP understood it): Can I legally re-blog excepts from my books along with the Amazon purchase URL? In other words, can I advertise myself periodically with excerpts from my own books and can I quote myself periodically in blogs along with the purchase URL? If limited, how long can the excerpts or quotes from my own books be?
Regards,
Martin Teigland
As long as you own the content in your book, you can use it elsewhere. If you are traditionally published, you must ask permission from the publisher first.
Hi Nina,
I just finished writing a novelette (10,000-20,000 words). I plan to use KDP to publish my ebook. I am in a similar situation, with two chapters (approx 3500 words) uploaded on my blog. I expanded the story adding nearly 9000 words. I was quite apprehensive about this issue with public domain content on KDP.
This article of yours as given me hope.
Kindly advice me what should I choose when uploading my ebook in the Publishing Rights section? 1. You own the copyright and necessary publishing rights or 2. This is a public domain work?
Regards,
Niteen
I would say I own the rights. Otherwise, you are saying the entire work is public domain…anyone could republish it.
Quick question. What is considered “proof” of copyright? I just received the infamous “5-day” message after submitting my book to blog, based on blogs from my website that I edited, organized into chapters etc. Just confused about what Amazon needs they need for proof of copyright.
You can show them the copyright info on your blog, which hopefully you have. This would be in your site’s terms and conditions. You used to be able to copyright an entire year of posts with the US Gov, but now you can only do one post at a time, which is crazy.
Hi Nina, This is a great article. I just wanted to check that the info is still up to date for 2020. Can I reproduce my blog posts in book form and sell them on KDP if I attest that I have the copyright?
Many thanks, Kate
Yes. You can, but it’s harder with KDP Select.
This blog is really helpful to deliver updated affairs over internet which is really appraisable.