This is disturbing to say the least. We trust Amazon and Createspace to pay our royalties due to us and yet this proves they aren’t. I’ve had similar experiences ordering my print books from Amazon. At least 15 sales are unaccounted for in May of this year. I purchased them myself AT FULL PRICE. These books never made it to my royalty statements since then. You do the math.
Guest post by John. R. Clark, Managing Editor at AgeView Press
When AgeView Press Indie pubbed the book FLYING SOLO in May of 2012, the author, Jeanette Vaughan immediately began tracking sales. She heard from excited friends and family who immediately emailed when ordering their copies. The first sales were off of Createspace’s e-store with the title ID number given to the author. Then, through Amazon, a week later, when the book went live on the site. Finally on Kindle, when the ebook format was completed.
Initially, things appeared kosher. People exclaiming that they had ordered the book, were showing up within a day or two on the electronic royalty reports with a reasaonable accuracy. But by June and July, sales descrepencies were noted by the author from customers claiming that they had purchased the book directly through Amazon, not an Amazon affiliate. Many of these sales were simply not listed.The author contacted…
View original post 731 more words
Behind Closed Doors 
Hi Tammy, hope you and yours are keeping well! I read the article with interest … and i have a funny feeling that when you purchase your own books, they do not count in any sales ‘figures’. I am pretty sure about it, as i have done the same the other year and i asked that very same question. I think its a bit unfair as no one is going to order ‘thousands’ of books (obviously due to costs and storage) … just to get a higher sales ranking are they? I do agree that its best to keep an eye on the figures / sales though, in case they are making ‘error’s’. Has anyone else had similar experiences Tammy? God bless / peace. Dave
LikeLike
Hi Dave!
Well, in my case with Siren Publishing, if I wanted to purchase the books at a reduced rate I could do so from them but then the sales wouldn’t go toward my royalties. If I purchased directed from Amazon, I had to pay full price and they WOULD count toward sales. This did happen as it should during the first reporting quarter after one of my books were released. After that is when the problems occur.
I’ve had family and friends send me screen shots of their purchases online or show me the books after they’re delivered and yet those books never show up on any royalty statements. This is happening with ALL of my books in print and in ebook sales. I’m not the only one. I reblogged that from another author. Many more are coming forward with their own experiences. Apparently Nook books is also being accused of the same.
So it’s not just from books I purchase as now with multiple pen names I can order books as one name but they’re written by another pen name. I’m registered as a publisher now as Sassy Vixen Publishing. Amazon isn’t giving me reports for all of my pen names either….they’re supposed to do that!
Neither Amazon nor their affiliate Createspace has used the excuse that author purchased books don’t count in the royalties. All they keep saying is “no sales reported.” This is BS and they know it. They really need to start watching this sort of thing before all the authors decide having their books on their site isn’t worth the hassle. They’re more fish in the retail sea!
As always I enjoy you comments!
Tammy
LikeLike