A Classic Amazon Response

What do you do when your book isn’t selling – you advertise. Yesterday, against my better judgment I decided to initiate a paid promotion with Amazon for the above novel (click on it), instead of offering it for free yet again.

After I had filled in all of the required fields, KDP informed me that my submission for a paid advert would be considered within twenty-four hours.

It was at that moment that I smelt a rat! Then yesterday morning I received the following from Amazon Marketing Services:

Hello,

Thank you for submitting your ad campaign, “Jack’s Account 11/13/2016 7:47”, for review. We review ads on a case-by-case basis and reserve the right to not run ads that contain elements that may not be appropriate to all audiences.

As noted in our current creative acceptance policies available at https://advertising.amazon.com/downloads/Kindle_Authors_and_Book_Publishers_Creative_Acceptance_Policies.pdf, we are unable to approve your ad if it clearly shows images of blood or depicts a scene of violence.

As a result, your campaign will not go live.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at https://ams.amazon.com/contactus

Sincerely,

The Amazon Marketing Services Team

~~~

In essence they refused the advert because the above cover offended their pathetic American sensibilities and double standards!

So what do we learn from this? That even wanting to pay them to advertise a book is out unless the cover for any book shows a cute puppy or something equally puke making.

Thanks a bunch Amazon – NOT!

Grrr

PS – I’m about to try again. This time with my scifi adventure Céleste. I should have heard back from them tomorrow. Let’s see them try to turn it down because its cover depicts a beautiful woman!!!!

😦