Marketing Ploy 2.5

In my previous post, I described a problem I encountered with Amazon. Basically, Amazon has a special status for books called KDP Select. It enables authors to run specials on their books to boost sales and visibility. You can select among your various short stories, novels, etc., as to which one or ones will be enrolled in KDP Select. Among other things, the rules mandate that you cannot have any KDP Select works available at any other online site. Amazon advised me that there is an exception to this rule. The author can have a sample, not to exceed 10% of the total work, available on other websites.

The purpose in doing this is to post a sample of the book elsewhere on the Internet where it retails for $0.00. This is to cause Amazon to reduce the price for the same sample on its website to $0.00 (which it hates to do). This is called “perma-free”. The obvious purpose is to get potential readers to download the freebie, get hooked on the story and characters, and purchase the complete book.

After considerable wrangling with Amazon—and being tossed out of KDP Select for a while  I finally was able to get them to allow the “sample” to be listed for free on other sites (B&N, Smashwords, iBooks) and reinstate the complete book in KDP Select. Most of the hassle was due to Amazon’s crack staff not paying attention to what their own regulations permit AND what I’ve actually posted to online sites. Well, once that issue finally got resolved, Amazon’s crack staff struck again. Yesterday, they advised me that, because my short story “He Who Drinks From Lethe” was available on other sites, they had tossed it and all of my other works out of KDP Select.

Are you sitting down? Good, because here’s the reality of it. “Lethe” is not, and never has been, a part of KDP Select. In fact, of my eight works published via Amazon, only one—the complete novel “Sleeping Dogs: The Awakening” has ever been entered in KDP Select. Because there’s a lot of Brendan Whelan in me—hell, I created him, I didn’t react well to the above described email from the mindless twit at Amazon. Below is my word-for-word reply:

"I'm getting more than a little angry with the Amazon staff's inability to act responsibly. What the hell are you guys smoking out there on the Left Coast? The short story you're complaining about is not, and never has been, a part of KDP Select. In fact, of the 8 works I currently have listed with Amazon KDP, only 1 of them has ever been involved with KDP SELECT. It's Sleeping Dogs: The Awakening (THE COMPLETE BOOK) ASIN: BOO8BUYMZA. I have followed Amazon's advices per a recent email from you and made certain that NOT MORE THAN 10% of THAT book is available online anywhere other than Amazon. I AM in compliance with your KDP Select requirements. The less than 10% available elsewhere online is solely for the purpose of persuading Amazon to list ASIN BOOKOPH7MY (the less than 10% sample) at $0.00 in order to gin up sales for the COMPLETE BOOK (ASIN: BOO8BUYMZA). Put down the joint and straighten this out.”

It’s been 24 hours, and the usually prompt responses from Amazon are nowhere to be seen. Imagine that. For people suffering with dread ailments, returning from combat missing body parts, and other with real challenges, this seems laughably inane. In those circumstances, it is. But, as an indie writer, struggling to market a book—the first in a series—this is maddening. Wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon had a serious competitor. Or better yet, if only Amazon would hire staff members other than gameboy, potheads who were raised without a lick of common sense. Beware America, the next generation is incapable of an original thought.

© John Wayne Falbey 2018 All Rights Reserved