Dave Chesson's False Copyright Infringement Story
Hi ,
About four years ago, I woke up and checked my email
and there it was…
A message from Amazon saying that an author was claiming copyright infringement. My book was taken down and my KDP account was frozen.
I was devastated.
Here I was making over $1,600 on average with my first book over the past 6 months, and now, I was being sued.
My first thought was, there’s no way. I truly wrote that book and it was my story.
But then fear and irrational emotions took over.
I was scared and felt sick to my stomach. I spent a week on the brink of a mental break down, and I even lost a lot of weight because I wouldn’t eat.
I was a law-abiding citizen. I was serving the military. I wasn’t a criminal!
Finally, my wife told me:
“If you can’t do what’s needed when life gives you a challenge, then you’re in the wrong business.”
She was right.
So, I got a lawyer and created a response to prove the claim was absolutely false. In the end, Amazon restored my KDP account.
The claim WAS completely false, and it turned out that it was just a competitor wanting to knock my book off the market.
(Side note: The process to submit such things through Amazon is SUPER easy, and therefore, wholly ridiculous.)
But here was the thing…
My lawyer pointed out that all of my personal assets had been at risk.
If the person claiming the copyright infringement had won and claimed damages, they could have gone after my home, car, savings…everything would have been at risk.
It was then that my lawyer recommended I start thinking about my online writing as a business…not a hobby or side hustle.
When we create products of any kind, we are at risk. When we put ourselves out there, we are at risk.
Now, at the time, there wasn’t much information about starting a publishing company. Many people who did talk about it, only discussed the "fun" of starting your own publishing company and selling other people’s books.
But there wasn’t anything out there that also covered people like me – who didn’t want to sell other people’s stuff, but wanted to house my own stuff and keep my personal assets secured.
A separation between person and business.
That’s why, when I created Kindlepreneur, the second article I ever wrote was how authors can start a publishing company.
But over the years, the tax advice, numbers, and situations have changed. I also went through the comments and addressed a couple of areas that you awesome people left.
So, if you’re thinking of either starting your own company to sell other people’s books, or just to protect your own assets (or both), then be sure to check out my updated version of the article below:
https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-start-a-publishing-company
Now, I must say, I am not a lawyer, and my writing should not be perceived as professional advice (my lawyer said I needed to say that), but do let it be a guide to help you get started if you so decide.
Getting that notice was one of the worst and best things to ever happen to me. It hurt deeply to receive it, but it also gave me experience and made me wiser.
So, be sure to understand the process and decide if such a thing is best for you and where you are at as a writer or online marketer.
Cheers,
Dave Chesson
Ebookpreneur LLC
P.S. In an upcoming Podcast episode, I’ll be covering the full story on what happened when I got that letter from Amazon, so make sure to subscribe.
