9/16/24 Update:
I received an email from upper management last week stating that everything looked alright. I happened to have checked earlier in the day and once again the book was displaying the Prime 2-Day delivery next to its price again. Unfortunately, I’ve been busy with other tasks so I haven’t had a spare moment to update this post until today.
I’ll also state that there’s a repeated pattern of KDP and Amazon Content Review that flags books for all kinds of reasons which sometimes is completely warranted but at other times completely absurd. Flagging my book for using a long dead artist’s name in the search box (Mucha) who heavily influenced the entire artistic movement is stupid. To make matters worse, I complied immediately and the book was immediately restored, only to lose the 2-day Amazon Prime status. The actions of the Content Review department go unchecked with reckless abandon and without any repercussions whatsoever, with little regard or even care to the harm they are inflicting on their own self-publishing authors. It needs to stop because they’re giving themselves a bad name.
8/28/24 Update:
Just checked the BSR for this book and the rank continues to hemmorhage as a result of their actions. Amazon KDP states repeatedly that they have no control over the actual listing by Amazon Retail. Amazon Retail says they have no control over this aspect and to refer back to KDP. It’s a back and forth blame game with no one willing to actually help out to the point of being deliberate. Occasionally, someone at Retail will state this is possibly a Tech or a Fulfillment issue but us authors have no ability to reach out to those departments. Meanwhile, the book lacks the Amazon Prime blue checkmark and two-day shipping status, which KDP has stated via email that it should always display.
The book is still printing and shipping as it should. I received a copy within three days (ordered the first day on an evening) and it arrived promptly. But not having that Prime indicator is definitely harmful as it likely puts some potential customers off to making this purchase in the first place. In total I have probably spent around 24 hours total trying to solve this issue without any resolution.
The further I go with these books, the more I feel like self-publishing is one gigantic scam. I’m not sure how anyone actually makes a living creating books except an extreme lucky minority, and by minority I truly mean one in a million authors. I’ve been at the top of this game (top 4,000 books worldwide out of 50 million) and it’s still extremely difficult to gain traction. It seems like the people that gain the most are the advertisers taking author’s money. Deliberate taking down of books and the reposting while wrecking an author’s position does anything but help.
Deliberate sabotage? Possibly. It’s impossible to say. Perhaps gross ineptitude. I’ve repeatedly pointed out issues with KDP and Amazon during my journey with them here on this blog, and there’s been plenty of reasons why some people might take to harming these rankings and possible self-dealing their own titles. One things is for certain is that I’m sure I’m not making any friends.
1:00 PM EST Update:
I just received an updated shipping notice with a delivery date of 8/25 (Sunday.) It’s slightly more than 2-days for Prime, but perhaps it’s a positive sign that they managed to get things working again. The page still doesn’t show 2-day delivery under it’s price nor estimated times (compare it now to my other titles,) but from my experience the page updates can take a couple hours to even a few days. Still, they managed to make my book bleed out on the Best Seller Ranking and they don’t have the slightest means (according to them) to help repair the statuses they destroy. So the book as a result will become less visible for people searching for something to buy but I hope to pull it out of the spirals they continue to inflict (see previous posts…)
Let me start by apologizing to anyone this past week who has tried to purchase The Art Nouveau Coloring Book: Hats, Cats, & Vintage Romance. There is an ongoing issue involving estimated book delivery times between Amazon KDP and Amazon Retail. Unfortunately, I’ve been stuck in the middle trying to get to the bottom of this.
This past Saturday, the title was temporarily removed because what I believe was an automated scan detected the words “Alphonse Mucha” along with “Klimt”, two founders of the Art Nouveau movement who are long dead probably around 100 years ago and apparently have risen from their graves to make my life miserable because they too want a meager cut of the profits.
Anyways, I disagreed with KDP but removed the names simply to get the books relisted (they only give you 5 days) and within the same day, the book reappeared. The problem was/is that the book is not showing any estimated delivery dates yet says it’s available. It also is now missing the Amazon Prime 2-Day delivery stamp. Instead, when you go to order the book, it tells you that they will update you when the book is shipped which of course is the least helpful message one can receive.
So I’ve spent the better part of my little free time I’ve had this week on call and message with Amazon KDP managers and staff who tell me it’s an Amazon Retail problem and not theirs. So I’ve called them (and their managers) only to be told it’s a KDP issue instead.
I’ve probably been on the phone close to a dozen times getting nowhere. One team keeps pointing to the other as the culprit and washes their hands completely clean. It seems to be the frustrating story of my life with them.
Finally, I requested to speak with a senior KDP manager today (after being told they couldn’t do anything) only for the kind gentleman to see the order I placed to myself and the “unusual” issue first-hand. He said he’s going to work on this and will hopefully have a resolution later today.
So if anyone hasn’t received the book, my sincerest apologies but it’s been kind of out of my control. If you have the spare time and you want to complain to Amazon Retail for screwing things up, that could be extremely helpful.
As for the book, as usual I’ll probably receive some negative attention and stars due to them mucking things up. They won’t remove those reviews because quite frankly they can be rather inept. I’ll also lose BSR or Best-Seller Ranking on Amazon because it’s something they can’t even restore. I’ve also lost additional advertising revenue on account of them being unable to process these orders.
Anyways, thank you for your patience. If anyone else encounters this issue as well, I hope this will at least help you with your titles.
