Something like 1.2 million books were published last year.
Finding a way to make your book stand out is difficult, unless you assassinate
a public figure or have sex with one on television. The task is made even more
difficult if your publisher is so indifferent it does not bother to acknowledge
your book exists.
Top Reasons Republishing on Amazon is Problematic
1. Your
new edition or its image may not show up on your Books Page.
2. Your
new edition or its image may not show up on your Author Central Page.
3. Not
only are #1 and #2 likely, there is a chance that a reseller of your older
edition will take your place on your own Books Page, and your new addition may
not be there at all.
4. You
may lose most of or many of your Book Reviews.
5. Createspace,
Author Central, and Kindle are separate entities and mesh as well FBI, CIA, and
NSA, and each passes the buck to its less than collegial neighbor.
6. Amazon
Links your old and new editions.
7. Amazon
employs an Algorithm.
The major reason numbers six and seven are important to you
is because one or the other is most often cited as not only the source of your
problem, but also the reason the problem can’t be fixed. I have republished two
titles through Createspace:
Greater Trouble in the Lesser Antilles
Low Jinks on the High Seas
In addition I have published one new title:
Epic Trials in the Leeward Isles
It has taken three months of e-mails and phone calls to have
the three books and their new images appear on my Books Page. In that time,
there have been various combinations of old and new additions. The most recent
combination I found the most interesting. A reseller of my out-of-print edition
of Greater Trouble in the Lesser Antilles took the place of my Createspace
edition. This was doubling troubling. My edition of a book I was trying to sell
was totally absolutely absent. My competitor’s book was present. Best of all, Amazon still made a
profit, while I made nothing.
I, of course, e-mailed Author Central. A few days later,
while in the midst of something important, I received a phone call in reply.
The man had apparently drunk too much of the Kool-aid. He told me not to worry
about it, as it would eventually straighten itself out. When I asked how that
would happen, he replied that eventually all the books in the hands of
resellers would be sold, so it would no longer be a problem. He mentioned Linking
and the Algorithm, but by then I was too dazed to pay attention. I have had the
Books Page for ten years, and there was never NOT a time resellers were hawking
their books on it.
I’m now down to one problem (though I’ve been down to one
problem in the past and fixing the final problem always created another
problem). The image of Low Jinks on the High Seas on my Author Central Page is
of the out-of-print edition and not the current Createspace edition. I inquired
how I was to track sales (one of the advertised features of the page). I got a
half page of directions on how to accomplish it.
As for Book Reviews: Only five reviews for each of my
republished books carried over to the new editions. I am led to believe
Linking is responsible. So I’m sure the reviews are in a storage facility on
Alpha Centauri and will some day sift back through the ether. I’m not even
going to mention all the reviews Amazon axed in one or another of its purges.
So I now have three books for sale on my Books Page. Most of
the reviews are gone, which to a buyer suggests my five friends each wrote a review.
(Greater
Trouble in the Lesser Antilles won first place for fiction from the Midwest
Independent Publishers Association, so it’s a step up from a potboiler.)
My marketing plans sort of disintegrated along the way, as all my spare time was spent dealing with Amazon, which sucked the joy from the experience of
publishing a book.
I’ve operated businesses in my life. Some were located in
areas where things like the availability water and electricity were
problematic, not to mention supplies. That’s where employees take over to make
customers’ experiences as pleasant as possible under trying conditions. Now if
I employed 341,400 employees, I’d tap one on the shoulder and tell him or her
to take care of the Linking problem and another to fix the fucking algorithm.
I may live long enough to have a worse business experience.
It’s hard to say, as the present one is far from over.
I didn’t cover number five. I let Amazon do it for me:
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I contacted Createspace.
Hello Charles,
Thank you for
contacting CreateSpace.
I understand you have
questions about your title "Low Jinks on the High Seas" showing
worng cover on Author Central page .
I’m currently unable to transfer you to the Author
Central Phone support team because they work Monday-Friday 5:00am to
5:00pm Pacific Time. However, I've forwarded your information to the
Author Central team for follow-up. You should hear back from them in the
next 1-2 business days.
You may also reach
them directly at https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us
We appreciate your
understanding in this matter.
Best regards,
Vemana
CreateSpace Member
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Your original message:
Charles Locks, Member
ID 503901
The detail page on my
author central page is correct except that it shows the wrong image for
Low Jinks on the High Seas. The image I want is the Createspace image: Low
Jinks on the High Seas, ISBN-13: 978-1545525197. Author central told me I
should contact you. Thank you for taking care of it.
So I contacted Author
Central.
Message
From Customer Service
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Hello Charles,
I'm following up on your recent
contact and I understand that you are concerned about the cover
image of the older edition of your book "Low Jinks on the
High Seas" being displayed in your Author Central account.
To help you with this issue, I
checked the details of the book and I found that, the older
edition and the latest edition of the book are linked together.
Please understand that, when
multiple editions of the book are linked together, the cover
image of the edition which shows up in your Author Central
account will be the default edition and this default editions
are sorted automatically based on actual customer shopping
behaviors and the order is not manually adjusted for the titles
shown in this feature.
Newer editions are generally
preferred over older editions. Occasionally, there are delays
obtaining the latest data about certain editions, which may
result in another edition being displayed temporarily.
Thank you for your
understanding. We look forward to seeing you soon again.
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Best regards,
Beaulin
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As soon as I figure out what “Customer
Shopping Behaviors has to do with listing the current editions of
my book on my Author Central Page, which as far as I know is
accessible only to me, I’ll let you know. The ride is not over.
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