Firstly, thank you to everyone who checked their Amazon accounts to see if my paperbacks were available. Your feedback has helped me narrow down some possible answers – i.e. that the problem has something to do with my use of Ingram Spark for countries not covered by the Amazon marketplaces. I’ve sent an email off to KDP support outlining what the problem is and what we’ve ‘found’. I’ll keep you posted about the outcome.
And while I was messing around with my KDP dashboard, I came across a new, beta version of the Reports. I rarely used them in the past because they were so…useless. I’m thrilled to say that the new, beta version is MUCH better.
As I was tootling around the beta version, I discovered that I’ve earned roughly $15 AUD from sales in Australia! That really surprised me. It also made me dance with joy because it was so unexpected. I do have online friends from Australia, but I just didn’t think they’d be buying.
Okay, okay, I never think anyone is buying. That is more of my upbringing at work, and it’s not helped by the fact that Amazon US will only pay me when, or if, my total sales reach $100. So far I’ve only had one payment that passed that threshold so it’s not all my fault.
I’ve often wondered what happens to that residue if you unpublish with Amazon. Or die. Or never reach $100. Are they allowed to keep those funds, however small, forever? Hopefully one day, Amazon will change its payment system so we can be paid via Paypal or something. Ah well.
Anyway, thank you for all your help, and an extra thank you to the Aussies who’ve taken a chance on my stories. 🙂
cheers
Meeks
Meeka's Mind 
January 25th, 2021 at 9:52 am
Fingers crossed for a successful resolution – I’ve found KDP usually pretty good, but sometimes slow. I set up an Amazon author page to promote my in-print books by various publishers along with my back-list titles. My latest problem has been books by Matthew Wright magically appearing on my author page. Alas, this Matthew Wright isn’t me, and the books are weirdo pseudo-science self-help woo woo. Not just antithetic to my brand, but actively damaging. I got KDP to remove them – individually, one by one on a case basis. Six times so far. On the final occasion they explained it was because their system auto-populates author pages, based on name. If an author doesn’t have a page, the system will auto-assign it to someone with that name who does. Sigh…
Their threshold payment system for non-US publishers is annoying and unjust. Not all my author page books pay royalties to me (the publisher gets them, then I get paid) but I did put some of my older back-list titles up myself for direct income. I’ve had money accumulating in some of their more obscure ‘marketplaces’ since 2015 without getting a single cent. Mr Bezos gets use of my money, though, and yours, and probably tens of millions of other people – and I am sure Amazon are well aware of the point.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:52 pm
Yes, those automated systems are both Amazon’s strength and its greatest weakness. 😦
As for the payment rort…yes. I’m sure I’ve had one or two obscure sales that have been languishing since 2013. Either Amazon’s systems are so inept they can’t cope with non-US sales, or it’s a handy way to have use of millions of small sales amounts.
Years ago I read of a banking scam in which someone skimmed just a few cents for thousands or millions? of accounts and walked away with millions of /dollars/ because no one noticed.
We notice, but we can’t really do anything about it.
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January 25th, 2021 at 5:37 pm
Being a bit of a cynic I have little doubt that Amazon’s policy of threshold payments overseas is intentional and they are extremely well aware of the benefits. They rate at least two or three ‘e’s in the Evil Scale. (This is a scale a friend and I developed – the number of ‘e’s in the word ‘evil’ ranks the corporate’s attitude to customers. Amazon are Eeevil at least).
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January 25th, 2021 at 9:13 pm
-giggles- that pretty much rhymes with weevil. 😀
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January 25th, 2021 at 3:20 am
I forget how difficult it is to work with Amazon in countries outside the US. It seems that in this digital age, it shouldn’t matter what country we live in – especially when it comes to ebooks. I know that doesn’t help with paperbacks, but even that shouldn’t be brain surgery! I hope it’s getting worked out. And congrats on the Australia sales – of course there are sci-fi fans next door. Your books should be best sellers everywhere. ❤ Hugs.
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January 25th, 2021 at 7:32 am
-huge hugs- I think the best sellers are still a way off! lol But yes, the electronic transfer of money should not be that difficult. The currency exchange may be a bit tricky but the actual transfer of funds should not be. Ah well.
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January 25th, 2021 at 9:54 am
Even currency exchange shouldn’t be a problem Andrea. It’s a formula. Banks do it every day. Oh, I’m feeling a rant coming on…. Lol. Money is tracked around the world to the fraction of a cent. It bugs me when money-people hem and haw and say they can’t do something. They can, they just don’t bother or don’t want to! If you were trying to make a million dollar electronic purchase from Amazon, they’d figure out how to do it. And quick!
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:02 pm
LMAO! So true. Now if only I had that spare million to spend. 😀
Given that everything is automated anyway, I suspect Amazon’s $100 threshold is a bit of a rort. I haven’t read anywhere that earnings placed on ‘hold’ are in a trust account or something. So if Amazon isn’t paying out, it must be using the money for something.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:19 pm
The difference is, of course, whether we have to send money to them, or horror of horrors, they have to send money to us.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
Hah! Yes, I’m sure we wouldn’t get away with withholding even a dollar.
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January 26th, 2021 at 11:54 am
Even if it cost them $100 to get it!
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January 26th, 2021 at 1:31 pm
Exactly. Heaven forbid someone should start a precedent.
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January 25th, 2021 at 1:03 pm
So true. That’s exactly where I was going. You just said it much more succinctly! Lol.
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January 25th, 2021 at 1:28 pm
-giggles- Thank you, Ma’am!
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January 26th, 2021 at 11:53 am
🙂
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January 25th, 2021 at 2:44 am
If you haven’t joined Amazon’s Author Central, DO! Any time KDP has been unresponsive to a request or a problem, I’ve contacted Author Central. They always say they have no influence over Amazon, but the problem is fixed quickly.
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January 25th, 2021 at 7:32 am
I know about Author Central just not sure whether I’m there or not. I’ll check! thank you.
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January 24th, 2021 at 9:04 pm
I occasionally open my Folksy shop (UK makers and sellers only, so it chimes with my local sentiments, but, my god, it’s a cumbersome marketplace) and they have a minimum threshold below which one can’t pay the fees associated with a sale. It meant I owed them a couple of pounds for 4 months before I insisted then sent me a bill as I knew I wouldn’t be putting more stock on there. IT’s not in the same league, as I owed them, but I thought I’d share ;-). Congrats on the sales – and who is to say they are sales to chums? They are probably as a result of the promotions and recommendations. Let’s hope they continue.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:02 am
Yeah, it’s a hard one isn’t it? You need the exposure, but often it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I’m starting to think seriously about having some kind of merchant option. But then I think about the admin. work involved and…stop thinking about it. :d
I don’t know who these wonderful Aussies are as no one’s let on.
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January 24th, 2021 at 4:31 pm
They do allow you to enter information about your bank, but not all banks seem to be acceptable – no idea why.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:04 am
I get EFT for Australian sales but needed a wire transfer for the money from the US. You’d think in 2021 it wouldn’t matter where you live. -shrug-
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January 24th, 2021 at 2:16 pm
I don’t think they’ll ever change their payment system. Why would they willingly let go of money which could be padding their bottom line? Something a fellow blogger wrote about YouTube a few months ago that really got my gears turning.
https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/156619501/posts/7810
If Amazon can dip off the little guys, why not?
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:16 am
The billions made my eyes water. Why do /we/ let them get away with it? And yes, that was partly rhetorical. I know we can’t build individual platforms, but still. This is like working piece meal in the digital age. And I agree, add up all those little bits of money from writers like me, and Amazon has a lot of money to invest on the short term money market. 😦
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:54 am
It seems like it would be plausible to have individual platforms that were linked together, kind of like a blog reader. If you could get enough independent authors to band together it could make an impact.
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January 25th, 2021 at 7:35 am
Like distributed processing in power generation? Hmm…that would be good. And if Bitcoin or something like it ever became mainstream, we could be our own ‘amazon’. 🙂
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January 25th, 2021 at 11:52 am
It seems feasible.
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:28 pm
Hah! Let the revolution begin! 😀
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
I’m in. Woman the barricades! 😀
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January 26th, 2021 at 11:54 am
😀
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January 24th, 2021 at 2:12 pm
Good news! Keep us posted on the paperbacks, and good for you being recognized in your own country.
On the other hand, almost all of us can rightfully say we’re “internationally published.”
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January 25th, 2021 at 12:18 am
-giggles- Yes! I like the sound of ‘internationally published’. Now if only we could add ‘best selling’ to the description. 😀
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January 25th, 2021 at 6:20 am
Maybe someday. You never know! (Might be in the next century, though.) 😉
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January 25th, 2021 at 7:26 am
-grin- Yes, it’s the timeline that’s the problem.
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