An author should be able to make the decisions that are crucial to how a book of his or hers is illustrated, whether it be a little “different looking or slightly risqué” illustration or photo being used on the cover. An author is likened to a talented artist -this is her or his personal work and vision on how this work gets presented to the public at large.
That being said, an author should not be overridden by a sales platform like Amazon.com, because they are so big, and that they believe the cover or inside content of the book does not meet their “guidelines.“
An author should not be overrun by a selling platform for a book- this is madness! This is control! A book is a work of art to a certain degree, and no company should be able to block your book (or art) on their selling platform. I feel like I have run up against a brick wall with Amazon, and they are not the end all or be all of my existence– or my book’s!
My publisher, Walter, wants me to go ahead and have them redo the illustration on the cover of the Into the Greys’ Abyss Vol-2 Abduction’s Continue! I refused. I am keeping my integrity and my personal vision in line by saying “No” to this. The cover is not that bad- the illustration is blurred, and my publisher wants to redo the illustration with clothing or pajamas on (me) on the metal table that is on the front cover. Then he says the cover will be fine and Amazon will take it.
I could say, “Yes, go ahead and do this”; (and pay more money to Walter) however, if this cover was not going to meet Amazon’s guidelines- I think that my publisher should have known this and immediately caught it and brought it to my attention– before the books were published!
That is another thing: Amazon approved both of the books on September 19, 2025. They waited until Nov 4th to contact me and my publisher telling us that the book was now blocked and would not be allowed to be for sale on Amazon’s selling platform!
There are other platforms to sell my books on, and my own website here integrated with Stripe for payments from customers is perfect to do just that-and I can sell my signed copies from my own website. I only need a talented website guy to help me with the technological set up of the site, and I certainly do not need Amazon!