Amazon has been issuing emails to several Original English Light Novel authors stating that their accounts have been terminated due to claims of their works being published on other platforms when that is simply not the case.
Many OELN authors are receiving a letter that looks like the following:
It started earlier today when Brandon Varnell (Catgirl Doctor, American Kitsune, Journey of a Betrayed Hero, Incubus, and more) stated that someone had stolen his material and posted it online and Amazon claims that he published it elsewhere and terminated his account.
After that incident, two other OELN authors, D.S. Craig (Reincarnated as a Familiar) and HatsuSaru (I Became a Girl to Win the Tournament) received similar letters; however, the only place they have their books hosted on is Amazon.
There’s no telling if this is a power move by Amazon or if there is a glitch in their algorithms. In fact, I have also experienced this issue well over a year ago where Amazon questioned my light novel series Final Hope when, just like D.S. Craig and HatsuSaru, I only had Amazon as the storefront that I was selling my books through.
These strange moves come after controversial decisions to remove certain light novels from their site from big publishers such as Yen Press and J-Novel Club occurred earlier in the year. Some of the titles affected were No Game No Life, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and more.
Amazon has not yet issued a statement explaining any reasoning behind these occurrences.
