Published: December 17, 2025
The publishing world has evolved significantly, removing gatekeepers and enabling authors to self-publish without traditional publishers.
As self-publishing grows, it has attracted those seeking to exploit its vulnerabilities to access personal or financial information. To protect authors against identity theft and fraud, self-publishing platforms like KDP and IngramSpark have implemented numerous verification codes, password restrictions, and other security measures. But the unintended consequence of these safeguards is a much more complicated system for the author to use.
Navigating the Labyrinth
Whether the changes at self-publishing sites like KDP and IngramSpark are better or worse depends on your point of view. Though changes to the process are frustrating, for the most part, they help protect client information, and they also ensure that the text being published is not mass-generated AI content, which threatens to flood the market and drown out genuine, original content written by a human author.
Self-Publishing Assistance Services
If you’re not actively working with self-publishing sites on a daily basis, it can be difficult to keep up with the security features and other changes. Out of this reality, the niche service of self-publishing assistance has evolved. Self-publishing assistance helps authors who may not necessarily have the skills or time to complete the process on their own successfully publish their book through the available self-publishing sites (i.e. KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu, Draft2Digital, etc.) with the personalized guidance of an expert in the field.
In the last 10 years, we have experienced firsthand the changes KDP and IngramSpark have made to the process. It has been fascinating (and challenging) to keep up with the constant change, but it now allows us to anticipate and prepare for issues before they happen with some degree of confidence. A key trait for survival is adaptability. Technology, the market, and how books are being written, produced, purchased, and distributed will continue to change, so we, as self-publication assistants, also have to adapt.
Partnership Between Assistant and Author
At Luminare Press, the foundation of our business is communication and transparency with our authors. We handle the hard parts of publishing, but the process as a whole is a partnership. Collaboration is key! So, throughout the process, we talk with authors over email, on the phone, and via Zoom. Local authors are even able to come into the office in person if needed, but for the most part, we’re able to meet our authors where they’re at and make the process work.
Security of the author’s content and information is a priority.
It’s important to remember that, as the self-publishing assistant, we are (in most, if not all cases):
- not the owner of the account
- not related to the owner of the account
- not in the same state or country as the owner of the account, and
- attempting to make purchases within the account
However benign the actions of self-publishing assistants are, we should be treated by these sites with the same level of caution as anyone else who also matches these criteria.
That said, the issues are still navigable. To make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible, there will be times when we work together with the author. We do our best to let them know ahead of time when we’ll need verification codes, emails forwarded, or help with customer support correspondence, etc., to finish the publication.
Troubleshooting a Few Common Snags
KDP/Amazon Account Holds & Other Security Measures
When we help authors set up their accounts, we’re up front about the fact that they will need to confirm their identity by submitting pictures or scans of an acceptable form of ID as listed by KDP and IngramSpark. We make sure authors are aware they need to keep an eye on their emails when KDP or IngramSpark need this verification, so that we run into fewer issues during publication.
We’ve found that more difficulty comes with KDP accounts set up with Amazon accounts made from scratch, just for the purpose of publication, rather than using already established Amazon accounts. When no purchases have been made through the Amazon account connected to the KDP account, then we’re more likely to be flagged as suspicious when ordering proofs/author copies. We double-check and confirm orders were made without issues, so that any potential order cancellations don’t go unnoticed, and we can usually resolve the issue as soon as the order gets flagged.
In the case of accessing existing accounts that haven’t been used in a long time, KDP/Amazon may request to verify the identity of the individual accessing the account by asking for information from a specific payment method on file in the author’s account. It may seem strange that Amazon/KDP verifies this, but ultimately, if you have access to the account, you then have access to the ability to use this card. So it makes sense that Amazon would want to confirm that the individual accessing the account at least has access to the card. If providing Amazon with the information needed is ever a problem, the account owner is usually able to give Amazon a call to let them know about the situation, and they’re able to verify the account another way.
Any issue with the accounts or the publications themselves that can’t be resolved by following the steps provided by KDP/Amazon or IngramSpark can be resolved by communication with customer service, even if it takes time and persistent pushing.
IngramSpark Account Issues
Both KDP and IngramSpark require a phone number to be connected to the account so that the account owner can receive verification codes via text message. This has been an issue for some older authors who don’t own cell phones and cannot receive text messages. When this happens, we find ways to get around it, either by getting a friend or family member’s help to lend their phone for this task, or by the assistant setting up a phone number to use through a secure messaging application solely for the purpose of publication.
We haven’t yet encountered the same level of security from IngramSpark which currently requires the phone number only to verify permission to change any account information in the Ingram account. So, we’re able to log into author IngramSpark accounts for expanded distribution uploads and publications without any verification codes needed from the author. Still, we would need the author’s help making any changes to their address, payment information, bank account information, etc.
We try to make sure the IngramSpark accounts are set up well ahead of publication, and IngramSpark accounts are the most likely to have issues that take a lot of time to troubleshoot, especially if we have to communicate with customer support.
All in all, the whole process just takes time, no matter who does it.
There’s Someone Who Can Help!
For the author as an individual, it is becoming more and more difficult to accomplish the act of self-publishing on their own with all of these changes to self-publishing sites, even for computer-literate authors. Just learning from the experience of other authors isn’t enough, as the process is changing constantly, so even recently self-published authors may have out-of-date knowledge. Real experts and self-publishing assistants are more important than ever, as they’re the ones actively battling with these new issues as they are happening, and they’re the ones who know best how to overcome them and get the book published despite the snags and bumps in the road.
If you need the help, make sure to find one of the many reliable self-publishing assistance resources, including us, that can make sure the job gets done!