Fake books under my name on Amazon — what to do
Document everything first (screenshots, URLs, ASINs), then report each listing through Amazon's Report Infringement form using name-misappropriation framing — you do not need a trademark to report a book that falsely carries your name. If you're an Authors Guild member, escalate through their legal services in parallel; they maintain a direct line to Amazon's content team. Then set up monitoring, because these listings recur.
Step by step
- Capture evidence before reporting. Fraudulent listings often vanish and
reappear under new ASINs. For every listing: full-page screenshot, the URL, the
ASIN (in the URL after
/dp/), the "author" spelling used, publisher name, and the publication date. Amazon's own teams work faster with specifics. - Report on Amazon — the right form matters. Use Report Infringement. If the form pushes you toward trademark fields you can't fill, see what to do when Amazon asks for a trademark number. State the facts plainly: this book is listed under your name, it is not your work, and readers searching for your books will be deceived.
- Report through KDP too if it's a Kindle/print-on-demand book. KDP has its own content-violation path (Help → Report content). Two channels, two review queues — file both.
- Escalate if you're an Authors Guild member. Their advocacy team has repeatedly pushed batches of impersonation cases to Amazon since the wave that hit Jane Friedman in 2023 (her account, Guardian coverage).
- Check Goodreads. Fake books frequently propagate into Goodreads records and get attributed to your author profile — here's how to get that fixed.
- Keep watching. The economics of AI-generated impersonation mean repeat attempts are the norm, not the exception. Manual re-checking across seven Amazon marketplaces doesn't scale — that's the problem continuous monitoring exists to solve.
Why this keeps happening
Amazon's KDP identity verification checks who uploads a book, not whose name is on the cover — pen names are legal, so any account can publish under any byline. More on that gap here. Detection is left to the author: nobody notifies you when a book appears under your name.
Common questions
Q: How long does Amazon take to remove a reported impersonation? A: Documented cases range from 48 hours to several weeks. Cases with organized evidence and simultaneous KDP reports resolve fastest; Authors Guild escalation has cleared batches within days when press attention was involved.
Q: Should I buy a copy of the fake book as evidence? A: Usually unnecessary — screenshots of the listing, the ASIN, and the "Look Inside" preview are enough for Amazon's process, and buying rewards the impersonator.
Q: Can I sue the person who published it? A: Possibly — false attribution can violate right-of-publicity and unfair-competition laws depending on jurisdiction — but most impersonators hide behind throwaway accounts. Platform takedown is the practical first remedy; consult a lawyer for the rest (this page is not legal advice).
Q: Will Amazon tell me who uploaded it? A: Not through the standard reporting flow. Legal process (subpoena) is typically required to unmask an uploader.
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Related answers
- How to find every book listed under your name on Amazon
- How to remove a fake book from Goodreads
- How to report author impersonation to Amazon without a trademark
This is an informational tool, not legal advice. Findings are similarity signals that require human confirmation — they are not accusations about any listing, publisher, or person.