Amazon Said My Book Might “Disappoint”—Here’s What Happened Next

Yesterday, for the first time in months, I didn’t post anything on Vocal on a Wednesday.

It wasn’t because I didn’t want to. I actually had everything ready. My plan was to share some exciting news—that I had officially become a published author.

Instead, I spent the entire day staring at my Amazon Bookshelf, refreshing the page over and over again. At exactly 4 p.m., I clicked refresh one last time… and was met with bold, glaring red text:

BLOCKED

Underneath, it read:

Your title is unavailable for editing due to either a copyright restriction or blocked content. Check your email for more details.

What?

I would have checked my email immediately, but earlier in the week I’d already learned that when Amazon flags something, their email takes about four hours to arrive.

And honestly—thanks for that, Amazon. It would have been helpful if you’d mentioned this “major copyright issue” earlier, instead of making it seem like I only needed to tweak a few minor keywords.

By that point, I felt completely drained. It was time to pick up my son from daycare. I thought maybe a big hug from him would turn the day around.

But as usual, he ran right past me and straight into his dad’s arms, proudly declaring, “That’s my Dada,” all the way home.

The evening didn’t get much better. We spent the next hour deep in “terrible twos” chaos—tantrums, hitting, and nonstop crying—before finally getting him to bed.

After that, I barely had the energy to do anything except sit quietly and stare into space. Then, finally, the email from Amazon arrived:

Based on our review, we won't be accepting your submission for publication because the book(s) might result in a disappointing customer experience.

And there it was—the final blow to an already awful day.

To my exhausted, overwhelmed mum-brain, that message translated to one thing: your book isn’t good enough.

I immediately wrote back, asking for clarification.

Because how are authors supposed to fix a problem without knowing what it actually is? You can’t just flag something as a copyright issue and then vaguely say it might disappoint readers—without explaining why.

Do they not realise how much time and energy goes into something like this? How much of yourself you pour into a project like a book? It’s not just a submission—it’s something deeply personal. And when something goes wrong, you need clear guidance on how to fix it.

Their response came quickly:

We received the information you submitted. We need additional time to review everything. We'll contact you within 5 business days.

Five business days. Perfect. Another week of waiting, wondering, and second-guessing everything.

And even when they do respond, I’ll have to find small pockets of time—between everything else—to make changes, resubmit, and wait another 72 hours… just to see what the next issue might be.

Meanwhile, the doubts keep creeping in:

Am I actually good enough? It’s a question I’ve wrestled with throughout this entire journey.

Is all of this stress even worth it?

And if the book does eventually get published… will anyone even read it? Will it reach beyond just family and friends?

I’m not ready to give up. Not yet.

But for now, I think I’ll sit in a dark room, put on a horror movie, and eat an entire block of chocolate.

After that… we’ll see.