Got an e-mail early this morning from amazon. They think they have fixed it and the site should be updated in the next 24hrs. Woot! I'll be keeping watch!
Maybe my new years resolution should have been to be more patient...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Its a love hate relationship
Dear Amazon,
Most days I don't know how I ever got by without you. You have a larger selection of books/movies/games than any store can possibly have, and you send them to my doorstep. However, there are also times, like now, where you make me want to scream out loud.
Regards,
K.
I sent them an inquiry on Sunday. I asked them if they knew what was going on with my book's details page. I would prefer that my book didn't look like my cat sat on the enter key. I don't know if the problem is on my end or theirs but I dont know how to fix it. At least it looks fine everywhere else.
On Monday I got an e-mail from them stating we received your e-mail, and our response time is taking longer than our usual 24 hrs. That's not a direct quote, but it's close enough. Then they thanked me for my patience.
It's Wednesday now. I haven't gotten another e-mail, and the site is still messed up. Where is my customer service Amazon? I was almost hoping that it was a problem that they couldn't figure out either. At least then it probably wouldn't be my fault. The other option is that I'm really low on their totem pole. I'm pretty sure its that one.
I guess indies would be small blips on their radar. I wonder if anyone else is having this problem? All I can do is keep working on other projects and hope they get back to me soon. I may not be an obsessive compulsive perfectionist, but this is really ticking me off. I didnt spend all that time trying to weed out every last error so my book could look like that.
Ok. Im going to take a calming breath and stop ranting on my blog about this. I WILL focus on other work.
I'll post an update when the issue is resolved.
Most days I don't know how I ever got by without you. You have a larger selection of books/movies/games than any store can possibly have, and you send them to my doorstep. However, there are also times, like now, where you make me want to scream out loud.
Regards,
K.
I sent them an inquiry on Sunday. I asked them if they knew what was going on with my book's details page. I would prefer that my book didn't look like my cat sat on the enter key. I don't know if the problem is on my end or theirs but I dont know how to fix it. At least it looks fine everywhere else.
On Monday I got an e-mail from them stating we received your e-mail, and our response time is taking longer than our usual 24 hrs. That's not a direct quote, but it's close enough. Then they thanked me for my patience.
It's Wednesday now. I haven't gotten another e-mail, and the site is still messed up. Where is my customer service Amazon? I was almost hoping that it was a problem that they couldn't figure out either. At least then it probably wouldn't be my fault. The other option is that I'm really low on their totem pole. I'm pretty sure its that one.
I guess indies would be small blips on their radar. I wonder if anyone else is having this problem? All I can do is keep working on other projects and hope they get back to me soon. I may not be an obsessive compulsive perfectionist, but this is really ticking me off. I didnt spend all that time trying to weed out every last error so my book could look like that.
Ok. Im going to take a calming breath and stop ranting on my blog about this. I WILL focus on other work.
I'll post an update when the issue is resolved.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Confused
Well, Bitten is republished on amazon. I went back to the book's page and once again weird spacing appeared in the "look inside" sample they provide. I was about to pull my hair out when I decided to download a sample of the book to my kindle. The weird spacing was gone...
For some reason, there is only a problem on the book's details page. You know, the place where people go to decide if they want to buy a book. For some reason I doubt readers will want to buy a book that appears to have strange spacing in it. So, I took a deep breath, and sent an e-mail to amazon asking them how to fix the problem. My fingers are crossed. Here's hoping they get back to me quickly about the source of the problem. Then we can work together to fix it.
For some reason, there is only a problem on the book's details page. You know, the place where people go to decide if they want to buy a book. For some reason I doubt readers will want to buy a book that appears to have strange spacing in it. So, I took a deep breath, and sent an e-mail to amazon asking them how to fix the problem. My fingers are crossed. Here's hoping they get back to me quickly about the source of the problem. Then we can work together to fix it.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
A little hitch
So I went out to amazon today to see if anyone has left me a review on Bitten. When I was there I noticed that the search couldn't find the book with "in the kindle store" as part of the search. I thought that was odd, so I ran a broader search under all departments and found it. And yes, it is definitely an ebook listed with the KDP. I'm not really sure why that's happening or how to fix it. Hopefully some changes I'm about to mention will set everything straight.
I decided to click on the "look inside" button while I was at the books page. That's when I noticed something even more annoying. There was tons of awkward spacing that hadn't been there before. Or at least it hadn't shown when I previewed the work during the publishing process.
That kind of unprofessional look is embarrassing for me, and readers shouldn't have to put up with it. I can only hope it didn't show up that way on people's kindles.
So I went back through the annoying procedures that amazon uses for self publishers. They had changed it since I published Entrhalled, and I can only say that they made the whole process more aggravating. I believe they were trying to make self publishing easier by making the writers do less of the conversion. However, their site had not been updated with proper directions as to how they wanted me to send my work to them (in fact, alot of the site pointed back to other pages that no longer existed because they were a part of the old system). Instead a huge emphasis was put on paying other companies that work for them to do all of the conversion for you.
Maybe I'm cheap, maybe I'm stubborn, but I refused to do that. Clearly something went wrong.
So, now I have gone back through all of that and found that yes, they do want the work in html formatting instead of .doc (like was implied before). So I have republished Bitten. Once again, it looked fine when I previewed the conversion. I can only hope it will stay looking nice. At least their webiste makes sense again. I wonder if I just hit them at an awkward phase while they were changing out their systems...
To make a long story short, Bitten has been modified and will be back on Amazon in about a day. And if this didn't work then I will fire off angry e-mails to amazon...seeing as how I would like to continue selling with them I guess I will have to be polite about it.
My appologies. I can only say that when I did the conversion myself for Enthralled using Mobipocket I never had any problems like this. It was a more complex yet easier life then. When anyone with a basic understanding of technology could self publish. For a while there I would have sworn that they were purposely making my life more difficult so that I would be forced to work with one of their subsidiaries. Only time will tell if I was right.
I decided to click on the "look inside" button while I was at the books page. That's when I noticed something even more annoying. There was tons of awkward spacing that hadn't been there before. Or at least it hadn't shown when I previewed the work during the publishing process.
That kind of unprofessional look is embarrassing for me, and readers shouldn't have to put up with it. I can only hope it didn't show up that way on people's kindles.
So I went back through the annoying procedures that amazon uses for self publishers. They had changed it since I published Entrhalled, and I can only say that they made the whole process more aggravating. I believe they were trying to make self publishing easier by making the writers do less of the conversion. However, their site had not been updated with proper directions as to how they wanted me to send my work to them (in fact, alot of the site pointed back to other pages that no longer existed because they were a part of the old system). Instead a huge emphasis was put on paying other companies that work for them to do all of the conversion for you.
Maybe I'm cheap, maybe I'm stubborn, but I refused to do that. Clearly something went wrong.
So, now I have gone back through all of that and found that yes, they do want the work in html formatting instead of .doc (like was implied before). So I have republished Bitten. Once again, it looked fine when I previewed the conversion. I can only hope it will stay looking nice. At least their webiste makes sense again. I wonder if I just hit them at an awkward phase while they were changing out their systems...
To make a long story short, Bitten has been modified and will be back on Amazon in about a day. And if this didn't work then I will fire off angry e-mails to amazon...seeing as how I would like to continue selling with them I guess I will have to be polite about it.
My appologies. I can only say that when I did the conversion myself for Enthralled using Mobipocket I never had any problems like this. It was a more complex yet easier life then. When anyone with a basic understanding of technology could self publish. For a while there I would have sworn that they were purposely making my life more difficult so that I would be forced to work with one of their subsidiaries. Only time will tell if I was right.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Bitten cover art
I don't think I mentioned this before, but the cover art for Bitten was done by the amazing and talented Claudia Mckinney! She also did the cover for Enthralled. I honestly don't think that there is a work of hers that I haven't liked. You should definitely check out her website.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Bitten is now available!
Bitten is now available in Amazon and Smashwords. You should check it out!
I've been a little distracted by snow. My friends and I took some time yesterday to try and pick up the largest piece of ice (We had freezing rain after it snowed 8in causing a thick layer of ice to form on top of the snow). It was fun.
But now its back to work. I'll be looking for book reviewers for Bitten and continuing with my next project that I have been working on. I didn't say much about it in my last post, but I'm going to write my grandfathers story. He was a world war two fighter pilot in the European theater and was shot down over occupied France. He had to escape across the border into Spain in order to survive. That meant eluding German soldiers, and those helping them. I'd like to say more about it, but I don't want to give anything away. I guess it's going to be one of those stories where you know how its going to end, but its exciting getting there.
I wasn't keen on the idea at first. I thought there were enough war stories out there to last each of us a life time, but my Dad talked me into it. So I told him I would start on this project as soon as I was done with Bitten. Of course, now I worry that people will assume I'm writing it because Red Tails is coming out...
I suppose it doesn't matter why people think I'm writing it. Its a good story, and if people are interested then they will read it. I just want to do the story justice, for the sake of my Grandfather and everyone he met along the way home.
Anyways, I guess I should get back to work.
P.S. I have been reading the letters my Grandfather wrote during his time in the Army (and yes I did say Army. The Air force wasn't its own division at the time). Reading left handed cursive = bad news. I swear, I need a cipher for some of these. His comments are really funny though, and I want to be sure and include them. For example, there was one letter where he had spent the week as the base's letter censor (they made sure no one was accidentally leaking any information, or sending things home that weren't legal) and he wrote "Some of these GI's sure write good love letters". I cant even imagine writing a passionate love letter to someone knowing that another man was going to read it first. I have to wonder how much of what the censors read was kept to themselves. I don't personally know anyone that's still alive to ask them.
I've been a little distracted by snow. My friends and I took some time yesterday to try and pick up the largest piece of ice (We had freezing rain after it snowed 8in causing a thick layer of ice to form on top of the snow). It was fun.
But now its back to work. I'll be looking for book reviewers for Bitten and continuing with my next project that I have been working on. I didn't say much about it in my last post, but I'm going to write my grandfathers story. He was a world war two fighter pilot in the European theater and was shot down over occupied France. He had to escape across the border into Spain in order to survive. That meant eluding German soldiers, and those helping them. I'd like to say more about it, but I don't want to give anything away. I guess it's going to be one of those stories where you know how its going to end, but its exciting getting there.
I wasn't keen on the idea at first. I thought there were enough war stories out there to last each of us a life time, but my Dad talked me into it. So I told him I would start on this project as soon as I was done with Bitten. Of course, now I worry that people will assume I'm writing it because Red Tails is coming out...
I suppose it doesn't matter why people think I'm writing it. Its a good story, and if people are interested then they will read it. I just want to do the story justice, for the sake of my Grandfather and everyone he met along the way home.
Anyways, I guess I should get back to work.
P.S. I have been reading the letters my Grandfather wrote during his time in the Army (and yes I did say Army. The Air force wasn't its own division at the time). Reading left handed cursive = bad news. I swear, I need a cipher for some of these. His comments are really funny though, and I want to be sure and include them. For example, there was one letter where he had spent the week as the base's letter censor (they made sure no one was accidentally leaking any information, or sending things home that weren't legal) and he wrote "Some of these GI's sure write good love letters". I cant even imagine writing a passionate love letter to someone knowing that another man was going to read it first. I have to wonder how much of what the censors read was kept to themselves. I don't personally know anyone that's still alive to ask them.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Bitten-update 2
So I've been working on two projects at once. I don't think its working for me, but I really am done with Bitten now. Finished editing, and am writing the summary. Then I have to convert it, which means the giant headache involved with getting it set up two different ways, one for smashwords and one for amazon. I think the smashwords conversion will be done today but then I have to check it for errors, and if last time is telling, it will be re-uploaded several times. So I'll let everyone know when a clean copy is available. Then I'll start the amazon copy. Why smashwords first? Because I need to generate coupons for reviewers, which is the next phase. Lets hope they want to...for some reason my lack of confidence and self esteem makes selling myself difficult. Weird.
Anyways, I should stop procastinating and get back to work. That means I'll have to stop watching the buckets of snow falling and actually focus. Wish me luck!
Anyways, I should stop procastinating and get back to work. That means I'll have to stop watching the buckets of snow falling and actually focus. Wish me luck!
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