Although I do get a "response," all it contains is a message that they received my e-mail, gave it an incident number, and will get back to me. It's going on four days for my latest question and still no response. I gave up on the one I asked a month ago.
What authors need to be aware of is the Catch-22 price-matching problem. It's not a problem when you lower your price, but if you decide to raise it, good luck! If you're an author, you already know that Amazon price matches, so if you choose to raise your price and there is a copy of your book anywhere in the world at a lower price, they will not raise it. Apparently Kobo does the same thing. So how does one get both of them to raise the price when neither will until the other changes it? I'm starting to think the only way is for me to de-list it on Kobo. I'm not going to unpublish on Amazon because I actually get sales there.
Book synopsis changes I submitted to Kobo days ago still have not been reflected, so I'm wondering if I'm doing something "wrong." And now my dashboard shows I have zero titles for sale, yet both my books are in their stores. I put their ISBN number on Goodreads so that those reviews would follow, but zilch has happened there. And what's the deal with such high rankings? How could Fractured Facade be #422 in Family Sagas, and The Valentine's Day Curse be #388 in Drama when I haven't sold a single copy with them?
If I don't hear back from them by Monday, I'm de-listing both books (wonder how long that's going to take!) and be done with them. People complain about Amazon all the time, but in my experience, they've got their act together. And based on what I'm seeing from Kobo, Amazon has nothing to worry about Kobo being competition.
I have to agree, after sales service is less than useful. If you ask a question, you get their top 10 answers they think relate to the topic, which thus far I have seen little link to my question.
ReplyDeleteI have been on there about 3 weeks, I have made 2 sales but a friends have said now I am on Kobo, they will look out for me.
Amazon has nothing to worry about, if you ask a question, you do get a reply to your question or at least something reasonably close to one.
Yes Alan, I've gotten the top 10 useless response list too. I've found their 40-page guide to be less than helpful as well.
ReplyDeleteChanging the pricing is a dilemma.
ReplyDeleteHow does Amazon or Kobo match books? By title and author? Does the ISBN come into play? I don’t know. I don’t know who does and is willing to say.
I wonder if having a different ISBN would help? Books published in different markets often have different ISBNs. A quick look at a popular title on goodreads will show that.
A different title? It’s not uncommon for books to have one title in the US and another the UK, but there are draw backs? It didn’t matter when books were in print only and people didn’t have the internet. Now, you see what’s going on all over the world.
Maybe add a subtitle.
One thing is clear, Amazon wants to monopolize the market it and discourage competition. The select program is an example.
I don't know James...I have different ISBN's. Perhaps outlets search the title of the book? Still haven't heard back from Kobo, however, the Goodreads reviews have shown up. Still no change in synopsis, price, or correct category. I have no idea where they got "action/adventure" from! Oh, and my dashboard is still showing zero titles available. They've got 48 more hours to respond or I'm outta there!
ReplyDeleteYup, Amazon definitely wants to discourage competition, and the competition needs to up their game if they want to be a player.