This is an email that Amazon KDP is sending out now when requesting documentation of copyright, but as in previous iterations of this attempt to respect copyright, they miss the mark badly, only accepting proof in very limited ways, often that do not reflect self-publishing paths

I have posted about this on the RWA forums (Industry News, I wasn't sure which forum was most appropriate), but I hope if anyone receives this email, they share it with our professional org. The language here needs to change. Zon will respond to RWA better than individual authors

I included the alt-text on the images, but the specific bullet points at the bottom list acceptable and unacceptable forms of documentation. They leave out all the most common ways self-published books are documented.

Acceptable documentation may include:
• A signed copy of the agreement between you and the author
• A signed letter from the previous publisher indicating that they do not object to your edition
• An email from the original copyright claimant indicating that they do not object

Examples of documentation we cannot accept include:
• A personal statement by you that you have the publishing rights
• Contracts that have not been signed by all parties

They don't address original publication date, copyright registration, ISBN documentation, or email correspondence.

This is very concerning. I hope @romancewriters and other writing organizations are aware of this. I hope @AmazonKDP rethinks the text of this request.

I haven't received this email, this year (this is copied from my co-writer), but I have received them in the past, in previous versions, and I have known how to reply. That's privilege. These emails WILL end up with books being blocked that people have every right to publish.

I am not a member of @sfwa, but I have no doubt some of their members will also receive emails like this over the little while, and encourage anyone who does to contact any and ever writing org you belong to. This is why we have professional orgs.

I am only a lay peer, so please do not take this as legal advice, but if I received this email and none of the acceptable options applied, I would do two things:
* in short text, using their own language, affirm those options do not apply (in a list, as they do)
* CC Jeff Bezos

His email is Jeff AT Amazon DOT com, and I don't copy it lightly, but he has a team of executive customer relations people who are better at comms than the front line KDP staff.

I would NOT go into extensive detail about all the ways the book is yours. Not at first. That's confusing the subject. Amazon likes it when you use the language they use.

And I would forward the communication to RWA, SFWA, whoever you are represented by.