My thanks to Gradmama for alerting me to the fact that for some reason, NONE of my paperbacks are currently available on Amazon. Not. One.
The ebooks are fine, but it seems that Amazon has reset each paperback version to the ‘Order author copies’ step:
I now have to go through each of the print versions and effectively click the last ‘Save and Publish’ to get them ‘available’ again. To all intents and purposes they were either unpublished by Amazon, or never published at all?!?
I don’t sell many paperbacks. I never expected to sell many paperbacks, but I did expect them to remain available after going through all the effort of putting them up on KDP. What infuriates me even more is that Amazon/KDP didn’t inform me of this rather big change. Perhaps they don’t even know. I miss Createspace. 😦
Not happy, Amazon/KDP, not happy at all.
Meeks
Meeka's Mind 
January 25th, 2021 at 8:21 am
I’m playing catch-up with the past couple of days worth of blog posts that’ve arrived in my inbox, so apologies for being a bit late to the party. Got into a writing binge and, well you know how that goes. It’s looking very good so far! 😀 … anyway … …
It occurs to me that we’re entering the second wave of self-publishing, which appears to be manifesting as not being able to rely on the usual’ suspects’ for distribution channels.
Perhaps it’s time to revisit the concept of a publishing/distribution co-op … on a platform like, hmm, Squarespace, or something similar, not to shift everything away from the ones we’re already using, but something that we have when things like this inevitably happen, especially for print versions … hmm, might have to go away and think more thoughts about this.
(I mention Squarespace since I’ve been doing a bit of investigating into such things since your post on WP hijacking our blogs – it ain’t free, but it might be where Mrs Widds and I go with The Wunder-Lusters – we shall see)
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January 25th, 2021 at 8:47 am
Great minds, Widds, and no problems. 🙂 It would be wonderful to have a writer’s co-op kind of thing, but it would need some kind of super dooper financial backend to make millions [hopeful] of small transactions work safely and seamlessly. Not sure the tech is there yet.
I hadn’t heard of Squarespace until now, but I’m going off to have a look right now. I’ve sort of reconciled myself to paying something, it’s just a matter of how much and what you get for your dollar.
Oh and Widds? Happy writing. 😀 -hugs-
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January 25th, 2021 at 9:10 am
p.s. Just found this helpful comparison between WiX and Squarespace:
https://www.websitetooltester.com/en/blog/wix-vs-squarespace/
I still can’t ‘see’ a clear winner for /me/ but I’m definitely getting a better idea of what’s available.
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January 26th, 2021 at 12:12 pm
I’m leaning toward Squarespace, but yeah, there’s not much of a difference. The only advantage Wix has over it is that it starts out a bit cheaper. 🙂
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January 26th, 2021 at 1:30 pm
yeah, that’s about the size of it.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 11:30 pm
You have to keep an eye on your page…periodically, they do very weird things with both pricing and availability…
As paperbacks are POD, I don’t see how they can ever be out of stock when published through their own service…
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January 24th, 2021 at 10:33 am
So I’m finding. I’ve had issues in the past where the paperbacks weren’t linked to the corresponding ebook, but this is a first. And yes, how can the paperbacks be published by KDP for years and suddenly be unavailable?
I am starting to wonder whether it has something to do with Ingram Spark but I don’t see /how/. 😦
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January 24th, 2021 at 11:19 am
It all gets very weird…
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:18 am
It does, it really does.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 10:19 pm
no, I can’t dm a pdf, dammit. as you were.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 10:16 pm
sending you a pdf of my screenshots via Twit. in case it is of any help. I had to toggle between Kindle and paperback, which I wasn’t aware I needed to do before this (as you know, I don’t use or buy kindle books) Amazon UK has your novels all available to order to my home address, but not the tech guides.
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January 24th, 2021 at 10:37 am
You’re a real mate, Dawn. And no, the pic will have to be in jpeg format to post on Twit. But I appreciate you trying.
Ok, so the paperbacks are available in the US and UK but not /here/. I’m starting to see a light. Amazon doesn’t have print facilities here in Australia and I /think/ it won’t ship to us from the US or wherever, but it used to source copies from Ingram Spark. Hmm…I keep circling back to Ingram Spark. Thank you.
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January 24th, 2021 at 9:07 pm
pleasure.
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January 24th, 2021 at 11:59 pm
🙂
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January 23rd, 2021 at 9:17 pm
Meeks, what a shock and hassle for you! I’m glad it looks all sorted but what a worry for you. I had problems with delivery of my books in Spring with delivery time up to two months and buyers were contacting me direct instead. At least I had some stock and could send signed copied but it is extremely unhelpful and one wonders how many have just clicked off the site after experiencing problems.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 10:07 pm
Yes! We get perhaps a few seconds to catch a reader’s eye and then they’re off. Not great. 😦
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January 23rd, 2021 at 4:34 pm
The “Order Author Copies” next to the paperbacks on one’s Bookshelf is standard. But “Not Available for Purchase” is bad. The link in Bette’s comment shows the pb as “In Stock,” however.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 8:47 pm
I haven’t check it again since this morning, but when I followed Bette’s link, I saw only that it was unavailable. I feel as if I’m living in an alternate universe, and not in a nice way.
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January 24th, 2021 at 2:50 am
Aargh!
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January 23rd, 2021 at 9:24 am
FYI Both editions are available on Amazon.com. Can’t imagine what happened. Hope it is fixed on all Amazon outlets, Meeks. Here’s the Sales Page link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076GYZBKQ/
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January 23rd, 2021 at 1:46 pm
Thanks for checking, Bette, but when I follow that link I get the ‘currently unavailable’ again. I thought it might be because my ISP would show as Australian so I logged in, but still no joy.
I don’t understand what’s going on. Even if the problem is /my/ location, I should still be able to buy the paperbacks sourced from IngramSpark.
If that has changed without anyone telling me, I shall be seriously unhappy. 😦
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January 24th, 2021 at 9:02 am
Just tried the link from USA and working fine… Can you sign in to your Amazon Self-Publishing Account and request a call back? That’s what I do when these crazy things happen… HOPE THAT WORKS FOR YOU! ❤ xo
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January 24th, 2021 at 10:23 am
Thanks, Bette. I’m in Australia so getting support is a bit more involved. But I am definitely getting in touch with KDP this morning. If there is a problem that I can fix, then I want to know. If the problem is on their side then they have to fix it. 😦
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January 23rd, 2021 at 9:22 am
FYI Both editions are available on Amazon.com. Can’t imagine what happened. Hope it is fixed on all Amazon outlets, Meeks.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 8:51 am
Grrrr, gotta love Amazon.
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January 23rd, 2021 at 1:47 pm
Yeah, something very weird is going on. Bette can see my paperbacks but I still can’t. 😦
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January 23rd, 2021 at 8:08 am
I suddenly found I couldn’t purchase my own ebooks. “Not available for purchase” It’s not something I ever do, but I feared no-one else could buy them. Amazon support was no help.
Fortunately, everyone else seems able to order them, including my wife using the same computer, ISP, and physical address as I use. It’s beyond me.
Doncha just love the thoroughly tested (haha) “improvements” the tech companies keep throwing at us?
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January 23rd, 2021 at 8:39 am
Makes perfect sense…. not! 🤪😅🤷♂️
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January 23rd, 2021 at 1:49 pm
lol – hello Yorgos! It doesn’t, and it’s getting weirder all the time!
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January 23rd, 2021 at 1:50 pm
Gawd…that’s even worse. I’m glad others can still buy your ebooks, but it’s a real worry isn’t it? When the [almost] only game in town is a hot mess…
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January 23rd, 2021 at 7:59 am
🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Good luck with it!
Maybe they’ve run out of paper and don’t know when the trees will grow up again? 🤪
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January 23rd, 2021 at 1:50 pm
-giggles- This made me laugh. Thank you 🙂
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