Support for Indie Authors discussion

I set my book up for Pre-order for the first time and had everything set...so I thought. They sent me e-mails telling me to upload the final copy, though since I already had done it and everything looked fine on the page, I went on about my business, trying to market the thing. I just got an e-mail notifying me that my Pre-order has been canceled. After swearing repeatedly at the phone which showed me the e-mail, I went to KDP. Now, I can't even click on my book. WFT. I am beyond angry and frustrated and considering never using KDP again. Am I overreacting? Should I keep going with them and upload my book into them five times, rather than once?

Hi, Shannon

I'm sorry your first pre-order didn't work out the way you'd hoped. I imagine that was a huge disappointment. I've never done a pre-order yet (I'm too impatient), but I plan to do one when I release my third book this fall.

The rules around Amazon KDP pre-orders are very strict. They expect the author to upload the final version at least 11 days before the release date. If the author doesn't do that, then the pre-order is cancelled and the author loses pre-order privileges for a year, I think it is.

When you first uploaded your manuscript, did you select "it's ready to release now" or the other option "the draft manuscript option?" If you selected the "draft" option, then they were expecting you to upload the final version by the deadline. That might have been the problem. I would try talking to them and explain this was your first time to do a pre-order. Maybe they'll make an exception for you. It sounds like a possible misunderstanding on your part, since you hadn't done it before.

By saying you're considering leaving KDP, that means you're not going to offer your e-books on Amazon at all? Amazon is the largest retailer of e-books. Most indie authors do relatively little business with the other e-book retailers. If you don't offer your book for sale on Amazon, you'll just be shooting yourself in the foot. So, yes, I would call that overreacting (as you asked in your post).

If you mean "KDP Select" - that's another question. KDP Select can be an extremely valuable asset for indie authors. I make most of my book income via KDP Select, but it's not a profitable strategy for everyone. Giving that up because you're angry might not be a wise move.

I'm sorry you had this unpleasant experience. I would chalk it up to a learning experience and move forward. Try not to make decisions in the heat of anger because those kinds of decisions aren't always the best ones.

Good luck with your new book! I'm sure you can still list the book. You might have to contact KDP technical support if you can't get it listed for sale yourself.

I thought I had clicked the 'ready to publish now' box, but since it won't even let me flick in to find out what went wrong, I can't say if I misread something.
I mean leave KDP. I don't mean leave amazon. I was considering going to smashwords, despite how little I liked their site. Smashwords books are on amazon, so no foot shooting. I probably won't leave though. I'm legally blind, so it's likely I just didn't see something. I just hate how bad that looks for the people who DID pre-order a book. :-/

I have been wondering how pre-orders work for a while. Thank you for posting this info. I hope that your next attempt goes more smoothly!

I'm not sure I'm going to attempt it again. I only tried it this time so that I could release paperbacks and e-books at the same time. I know other people do pre-orders all the time, but the fact that they don't notify you when you GOT a pre-order makes it difficult to know if any of your marketing is working. Yeah...I'm in a bad mood, so that might be part of my problem, but I don't think I'll ever try this again.

Shannon wrote: "...the fact that they don't notify you when you GOT a pre-order makes it difficult to know if any of your marketing is working..."

Sorry you had so much trouble. I agree with April, maybe you should contact them and explain what happened?

As far as not knowing if your preorder is working, you can see how many sales you have made by going to the Reports (you'll see it along the top of the page) and looking at your preorder report.

I have to add, that I wouldn't be hasty in pulling out of KDP. Don't shoot yourself in the foot over this mistake. Chalk it up to a learning experience. KDP is your biggest source for sales and once you get the hang of it, you'll find it is worth it.

KDP *is* Amazon. Smashwords will not put your book on Amazon.

Your best bet would be to send them an inquiry and ask what happened. Usually, if they can't resolve the issue via email they will give you a phone number to call and you can talk to a tech. It's possible that this was nothing more than forgeting to check a box and who knows? They might be able to fix it immediately.

Smashwords does distribute to Amazon, but I think it has to be a top seller. See http://smashwords.com/distribution .

This is what they say currently: Although we have a distribution agreement with Amazon via their Kindle Direct Platform, they're unable to receive our entire catalog. In the meantime, we're only distributing a few hundred titles to Amazon out of our catalog of nearly 400,000. We understand that many Smashwords authors would prefer the convenience of consolidating their distribution to Amazon via Smashwords, rather than uploading direct to Amazon. If your book has earned over $2,000 at Smashwords retailers and you would prefer to consolidate your distribution via Smashwords to Amazon as opposed to uploading direct with them, please click the "support" link at the bottom of this page and let us know you're in the $2,000 club and would like to be considered for our distribution to Amazon.

Shannon wrote: "I thought I had clicked the 'ready to publish now' box, but since it won't even let me flick in to find out what went wrong, I can't say if I misread something.
I mean leave KDP. I don't mean leav..."

Shannon, I don't think you realize that KDP is Amazon's e-book platform. KDP is how we sell e-books on Amazon. If you leave KDP, then you are leaving Amazon altogether (at least when it comes to e-books). You could still sell paperbacks, but not e-books. I don't think any indie author can make it if they're not selling on Amazon.

I'd really talk to them. I've placed a pre-order and when I tried to update it, I mean, book description, they said I was forbidden because I hadn't met the deadline What! I've never missed a dead line in my entire life! I'm a teacher! I got really mad and sent them an e-mail. Telling in few words (I never talk much to them) that the thing they were acusing me had NEVER happened. I wanted my preorder live. Period. The following day everything was back to normality. They've sent me an e-mail. In few words it had been a bug. Don't do anything that can cause you trouble. You can use smashwords and Amazon. You don't need to give them exclusivity but giving up of them I don't think it's a good idea.

April wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I thought I had clicked the 'ready to publish now' box, but since it won't even let me flick in to find out what went wrong, I can't say if I misread something.
I mean leave KDP. I..."

A friend uses smashwords and her books are far from best sellers. I decided to punch myself in the side of the head and just read every single word before trying something new. Anyway, the book is out, on KDP, mostly because smashwords irritates me. 8-)

Hey guys. I'm just trying Smashwords because some authors told me it gives us more opportunities.
I was happy to see my books on Kobo, ibooks, B&N but now I'm getting a little anxious here. Why don't you like Smashwords? Would you give me a light?

Lisa wrote: "Shannon wrote: "...the fact that they don't notify you when you GOT a pre-order makes it difficult to know if any of your marketing is working..."

Sorry you had so much trouble. I agree with April..."

I have been stalking my reports page for a month and a half and couldn't find a thing on pre-order orders! Ugh. This is what happens when I try to do things without help. *Hangs head and decides to ask help next time. * 8-)

Luciana wrote: "Hey guys. I'm just trying Smashwords because some authors told me it gives us more opportunities.
I was happy to see my books on Kobo, ibooks, B&N but now I'm getting a little anxious here. Why don..."

I use Smashwords and have no problems with them. I, too, like seeing my books in those other outlets and it's a very easy way to make them accessible to folks who use something other than Kindle. As for sales, e-books have been split roughly evenly between Smashwords (including related outlets) v. Amazon. However, my sales hardly constitute a statistically significant sample :)

Shannon, sorry to hear about your problems. There's good input here and while we haven't done a pre-order yet, I believe April is right. KDP requires a that a final version be uploaded and declared final 10 days in advance of the release date. The info is here:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?moduleId=...

This is a key paragraph:
"When you list a book for pre-order, you'll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won't show the version to customers, but we'll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. Your final version must be uploaded at least 10 days before the release date you set, with the last day for upload starting at midnight, U.S. Eastern time. For example, if you were releasing a book on September 20, you would need to upload it by 11:59 PM Eastern time on September 9 (4:59 AM UTC the following day)." [My bold]

From this, I gather that Amazon is expecting to see 2 versions uploaded: a draft and a final. If they don't see a second, final version uploaded by the deadline, that might result in a misunderstanding. Apparently, Amazon thought that the draft you uploaded was still a draft not a final.

I will echo the advice to contact KDP and explain the situation. It sounds like you have extenuating circumstances.

But if your book is available now, that's good. While preorders can be beneficial -- especially for a series -- they can also be tricky and you are not the only person to have problems.

Best of luck!