DEMONI VANKIL is being...uhhhh.

The book is complete, sure -- but now I have to fight against stupid. I've been quoted saying, "I can't fix stupid." So where does this leave my book? Your jaw will likely drop.

Did you notice the cover change? Look closely.

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You should have a new chapter to a new book today. I’m sorry that I have to deal with those who cannot think logically…and are the gatekeepers to getting this book printed.

Seriously, Amazon is STILL challenging me, the copyright owner AND the President/Owner of both publishing companies, on this. I just…

What am I supposed to do with this? The whole situation was explained in full. Here’s the recap:

They sent:

Hello,

During our review, we found that your book contains interior and/or cover content that’s available from a different publisher. We need you to confirm your publishing rights before the book is made available on Amazon.

Demoni Vankil by Luckyfeller, Höbin (AUTHOR); Buckley, Jaime (EDITOR) (ID: 55980831)

To publish the book(s), reply to this email and send documentation and/or verification showing you hold rights to the content. Please submit any documents you have, along with an explanation of any previously published books within 5 days. If we do not receive the appropriate documentation, the book(s) will be unavailable for sale on Amazon.

Acceptable documentation may include:

• A letter from the previous publisher reverting rights back to the author

• A signed copy of the agreement between you and the author

• A signed copy of the agreement between the author and the previous publisher

• A signed letter from the previous publisher indicating that they do not object to your edition

• Documentation showing the previous publisher holds nonexclusive rights

Examples of documentation we cannot accept include:

• A personal statement by you that you have the publishing rights

• A copyright application for which registration has not been confirmed

• Contracts that have not been signed by all parties

• Ghostwriter agreements or contracts

• Private Label Rights documents

If you have questions or believe you've received this email in error, reply to this message.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

So I responded, wanting to be upfront and honest (not my usually sarcastic cartoonist self), with this:

To Whom It May Concern,

First I’d like to say "Thank You" for reaching out and being attentive to these kind of details. I know you’ve asked ME to explain this situation, but the fact that someone could have done this TO me, and you caught it, makes me smile.

There is no issue with switching publication companies for this book. I, Jaime Buckley, hold all the copyrights exclusively to this book and everything pertaining to it, as you can see if you compare the two editions (copyright page).

I also personally own both publication companies.

To help explain, I’ve attached screen shots from my state of Utah ‘entity search’ website. 

My previous company On The Fly Publications did not provide the confidence I’d hoped, so a new DBA was created to take its place: Perspicacious Publishing. 

If you look at the screen shots, you’ll notice they are both owned by me, and that one was not renewed (On The Fly). The 'Registered Agent' on both companies is me.

All of the books I previously published are being rewritten and RE-published under this new company name. If you would place a note attached to my Amazon KDP account about this, so future problems can be avoided, I’d appreciate that.

This new version of Demoni Vankil is also being published under the fictional name of Höbin Luckyfeller (a character from the actual book). I have placed my name as the ‘Editor’ on this addition, instead of the author. Fans have grown to love this character, so publishing under his name seemed creative and wise. The copyright and registered ISBN are under my personal name, so ownership can’t be disputed.

So all the information is valid. I hold all exclusive rights to publish Demoni Vankil and I hold all exclusive ownership to both publishing companies. On The Fly Publications has been dissolved and no longer exists legally. I plan to publish through Perspicacious Publishing from this point forward.

There are no contracts to show as I own everything and have no need for permission from myself…nor can I get a ‘signature’ from Höbin, as he is a fictional gnome from my fantasy series.

Please let me know if you have any other issues. 

Thank you again, for being so attentive to matters like this. If it wasn’t me that was republishing my books, I would be so grateful that you caught this!

So you have the complete picture, here are the two screenshots about the publication companies.

My old publishing company doesn’t even exist anymore.

My new company to replace the old. Same address though. Doesn’t this all make sense??

QUESTION: I just have to know from you, please, is there anything in my first reply that confuses you? Would YOU be able to see that I was the owner of both the copyright and the publishing rights from my reply? Let me know in a comment, just so I don’t keep thinking I’m crazy…

Email is Rejected

Here I sit, waiting for Amazon’s response so I can resolve this within the five day span, but it never comes. Now, this part is completely on me — as I’ve been moving my Gmail over to Proton mail to get my online freedom back. Amazon didn’t like that.

So they rejected my email reply and I didn’t see it until after the five day limit. 

*sigh*

The thought occurred to me that the documentation I sent fell under Amazons examples of documentation they cannot accept:

• A personal statement by you that you have the publishing rights

What option did I have, though? I own everything. The documentation shown to them displays that fact. Checking on the copyrights IN the books, which ANYone can do on the Amazon website also verifies what I’m saying. 

My guess is that an hourly employee doesn’t want to take the chance or responsibility of validating something outside the most mundane and basic compliance to their list. What would be the easiest to comply to, without going guerrilla-fiction-tactical on them?

I chose:

• A letter from the previous publisher reverting rights back to the author

Here’s what I sent, this time through my registered email attached to the Amazon KDP account:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am so sorry for missing the 5 day mark to reply to this email with validation. Due to health issues, I have not been at the office nor had access to this email account. When I tried to reply using a personal email, I got the following message:

"Hello,

You're receiving this message because you replied to a KDP email from an email address that's not associated with your account. To protect your privacy, we only send account information to the email address on file for your account. For assistance, reach us through our Contact Us form (https://kdp.amazon.com/contact) or reply to our original email from the email address associated with your account.

Thanks for using Kindle Direct Publishing."

This is me, striving to fix that mistake and I'm writing from my KDP account email.

EXPLANATION ABOUT CHANGE IN PUBLISHERS

My previous company On The Fly Publications went out of business, and a new company was created to take its place: Perspicacious Publishing. To help explain, I’ve attached screenshots from Utah's ‘entity search’ website. 

If you look at the screen shots, you’ll notice both publishing companies are owned by me, Jaime D Buckley and I am the 'Registered Agent' of both companies.

I was the author of the original Demoni Vankil book in 2011. This new version of Demoni Vankil is being published under the name of Höbin Luckyfeller. 

Also attached is the Revision of Rights letter from April 24th, 2023 from On The Fly Publications, to Höbin Luckyfeller.

So all the information is valid. Perspicacious Publishing holds all exclusive rights to publish Demoni Vankil and I hold all exclusive ownership to both publishing companies. On The Fly Publications has been dissolved and no longer exists legally. 

If you have any other questions, please let me know. I'd like to get published right away.

Thank you so much.

Oh, and here’s the Revision of Rights letter from April 24th, 2023 from On The Fly Publications, to Höbin Luckyfeller

Amazon’s Kindle Content Review Replies To My Fictional Letter

I spent the rest of the day smiling, patting myself on the back…and I even get lessons from a friend on how to drive a huge tractor and plowed my very first field on a farm!

Life Bucket List

√ Learn to drive a Tractor and plow a field before age 55

When I woke up this morning and sat down at the computer, Amazon has responded. It wasn’t what I was expecting.

Hello,

Thanks for your message regarding the following book(s):

55980831

Demoni Vankil

We've reviewed the information you provided. Based on our review, we're unable to confirm that you hold the necessary publishing rights.

The information you provided is insufficient because of the following concerns: 

• Documentation provided contains contracts that have not been signed by all parties. 

In order to publish the book(s), reply to this email within 5 days and provide us with further documentation and/or verification showing you hold rights to the content.

We're unable to accept the following documentation to confirm publishing rights: 

• A personal statement by you that you have the publishing rights 

• A copyright application for which registration has not been confirmed 

• Contracts that have not been signed by all parties

• Ghostwriter agreements or contracts

• Private Label Rights documents

Please reply to confirm your publishing rights within 5 days. Otherwise, the book(s) will be unavailable for sale on Amazon.

For more details about KDPs copyright guidelines and ways to validate publishing rights, visit Help: 

https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672400

If you have questions or believe you've received this email in error, reply to this message.

Thanks for your cooperation,

Amazon KDP

Erick

Amazon Content Review Team

WHAT THE—??

QUESTION: Here’s another question for you — really, am I crazy — when was the last time YOU signed a letter sent TO you?

What I Did Next

After scratching my head in complete and total confusion, was…

[bangs head against desk]

Okay, I’m calm now — and here’s my thinking…

I own all the copyrights. If you look at both books, you will see that I am the only copyright owner. I can prove the creation of Demoni Vankil and the birth of Höbin Luckyfeller back to 2005, with Wanted Hero, so there’s no question there. I also produced the documents from my actual state showing I also own both publishing companies. Lastly, if you look at the original version of DV, you’ll see I am the original author.

What’s so hard to understand on the side of Amazon?

Putting Höbin as the author for this republishing was just for fun. I mean, I was only writing the story HE told me, but I was the writer. 

If Amazon wouldn’t accept the truth from me, what else could I do? They wouldn’t even accept a letter from me, the proven publishing company owner, to Höbin a fictional gnome, so…I guess there was only one thing left to try.

I sent them a contract, giving the publication rights back to Höbin, who never owned them in the first place. I own them, then and now. ONLY me. Then I asked Höbin to please sign and date the contract, releasing those rights. You can see his signature, on the jpeg copy below.

Oh, and since there are SO many ‘Karen’s’ in society, I asked one to redeem her namesake and sign as a witness.

[wink]

Then I sent it off to Amazon, making sure to use the account email.

Amazon’s Reply

I’m not sure if Erick got fired from the bad / ignorant decision on my account, because now I’m dealing with Eden. Here’s what she said to my latest attempt to appease the gatekeepers:

Hello,

We received the information you submitted for the following book(s):

"Demoni Vankil" ID: 55980831

We need some additional time to review everything. We'll be in touch within 5 business days. We appreciate your patience.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP

Eden

Amazon Content Review Team

That’s where we stand, and why this all took so long to post today. It’s why we didn’t have the podcast yesterday and why there’s a lag in writing the new book.

Well, that, and my baby 4yr old girl is ill — coughing until she is purple — so my attention is there as a priority.

One step closer, my friends.

The good news, is that on September 22^nd, for 24 hours ONLY, I’m going to offer my BOUNDLESS Journal for 50% off (it’s a $59.99 value). If you write or GM any RPG, this is the best tool you’re likely to find…and a fantastic tool for creating anything and EVERYthing fictional. All to celebrate the publication of Höbin’s Demoni Vankil. 

I’m making the promo code now — and I’ll replace THIS PARAGRAPH once it’s done — so come back to find it. 

Until then,

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