Dispute Assistance for Authors: Get Help with Publishers, Amazon, and Other Online Platforms Get help with virtually any business issue that might arise. Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab) on Facebook (opens in a new tab) on Linkedin (opens in a new tab) via email The Authors Guild legal team advises members on disputes with publishers and online platforms for authors and may even be able to intervene if necessary. Through our dispute assistance service, we have helped authors recoup tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties, remove pirate and copycat copies of their books, and much more. What We Help With Publishers Publisher issues we help with include: Payment problems Reversion of rights disputes Publication delays Online Platforms We also have dedicated channels with Amazon (Amazon KDP), Audible (ACX), Apple Books, Spotify, and Barnes & Noble to escalate and resolve issues and complaints that Authors Guild members could not successfully resolve using the platforms’ customer service and dispute mechanisms. Platform issues we help with include: Third-party sellers owning the “Buy Box” on Amazon The sale of unlawful and infringing copies Removing editions of books and audiobooks after rights reversion (except first sale copies) Takedown notices against pirate sellers and unethical publishers Wrongful account terminations and suspensions Customer review violations Content guideline violations Policy clarifications Royalty questions Getting Help Our dispute assistance service is aimed at resolving issues that authors have not been able to resolve their own. As such, we ask authors to first try resolving issues directly with the platform using regular customer service channels. When sending in an escalation please include any correspondence you’ve had with the platform. Please note that our dispute assistance is intended for professional writers. We cannot escalate issues on behalf of publishers or other sellers, though in rare cases where an author is also a publisher and the issue impacts both the author’s work and published works, we may be able to assist. While we are regularly engaged with the platforms in improving policies and terms for the benefit of authors, the dispute assistance service is not intended to change existing policies. Platform policy decisions are final. The dispute assistance service is only available to Authors Guild members. Members: Log in to submit a request to our legal department. Member Testimonial Being a member of the Authors Guild is the most important yearly investment I make in my career. Umair Kazi will forever be one of my favorite people in the universe because he has worked SO hard on publisher issues with Albert Whitman & Company for SO many years and has just been an incredible support to so many of us AW authors. I'd be lost without his advice. At a time when I was being actively gaslit by that company, and lacking in sufficient support from the agency repping me at that time, Umair helped me craft emails, statements, and tweets that resulted in sufficient pressure that got me a) paid and b) eventually got me my rights back. And all for free, because I was an Authors Guild member and this is part of the services they provide to authors. You should join them BEFORE you have a problem. Trust me on this. Photo credit: Dylan Furlano Katherine Locke Member since 2019 Become a Member Join the Authors Guild and begin benefiting from your membership immediately. Join now
