Amazon KDP and Canva: A Warning!

Marketing
1

So, you may remember, that I was doing really well on Amazon KDP, publishing works of fiction.

Recently, my sales have dropped dramatically, and I was curious why.

Turns out, that Amazon KDP is having a crackdown on anybody who uses Canva for any element of their book content or design.

Amazon requires that you OWN the copyright to all aspects of your book.

Did you know that you don't own the copyright to anything you create in Canva?

Even as a Pro user, you are simply given the LICENCE to use your designs, you don't own them!

Copyright is a legal right that protects a creator's work, while a license is a legal agreement that gives someone permission to use a copyrighted work.

All of the elements, designs, images, videos, etc on Canva are already copyrighted to their original owner.

Therefore YOU cannot tell Amazon KDP that you have copyright if you have used anything from Canva to create your book.

Unfortunately, I have used Canva for all my book covers...

Many people are having their KDP accounts suspended.

This hasn't happened to me yet, but I suspect my books are no longer being featured highly, hence the lack of sales.

You might ask - why not change the covers and upload them again?

Unfortunately, making any edits to your book immediately brings it to Amazon's attention, and it gets banned instantly!

I have tried this with 3 different books, even doing something as simple as trying to change the price, nothing to do with copyright!

But each one was immediately banned.

For now, I am putting this on the back burner, not thinking about it, and focusing all my time on my Etsy shop at the moment.

The sales are rising, and I am still enjoying it immensely!

2

auuwwch! good to know though if I would ever create my own dollhouse book (maybe about the progress of my treehouse), I need a good photographer lol!

3

That's unfortunate, Diane, and one of the reasons I do not use Canva.

I'm glad to hear that you're Etsy is picking up speed.

Rudy

4

Hi, Diane I have always been wary of claiming anything as my own from Canva. Because of the lack transparency around their rules concerning creative works and Copyright laws that protect them. Rather or not I have a pro account. even Canva themselves could not give a “Actual” Yes or No answer when pressed about this several years ago. So many people made such a fuss about it that Canva was forced to to respond and even sued behind theft of artist works who were also not paid! 🧐

5

Yikes! I use Canva to combine elements from Ideogram and Midjourney for my covers, and add text. And I've always selected Canva when I upload those books. This makes me a bit nervous, even though I'm not using Canva's images or elements in those particular books.

6

Wow, that really sucks, Diane!

I hope you get the Canva/KDP thing sorted out and everything else is going well.

Frank 🎸

7

This is nice to know, but it still sucks! I recently upgraded to Canva for this purpose. Ideogram is one of the many generators that I use. Hmmm {blue}:suspicious:

8

Thanks for the heads up Diane :-)