MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

This self-pub book was being sold for $0.99 and did very well.

The price was moved up to $4.99. Still did very well.

The book seems to have been picked up by S&S and is now being sold for almost $8. People are getting emails from Amazon that says that the $0.99 book has been pulled. If you want access to the book, you have to pay the $8 price.

I'm having trouble tracking down the full story...but most of the people I know are claiming that it is the fault of the author. They think she pulled the old copy so that people have to buy the new (more expensive) copy.

I'm guessing that copies have not been removed from Kindles, only from accounts. (Guessing that means no strip and saved copies).

What do yall think? Who is at fault here? Amazon or the Author?

I think it's probably a combo of both. Or can the author pull a copy and it automatically get removed from paid accounts?

It was probably part of the contract that all ebook sales be transferred entirely to S&S. With ebooks, there's no "remaining stock" to deal with. She surely knew the consequences of transferring publishing rights to S&S - that the old edition would be removed from the catalog.

I can't blame Amazon entirely for this, because until S&S took it over, the author was the publisher - Amazon has no right of distribution once the author pulls it. The problem is that Amazon, along with B&N and likely other retailers, has no contingency for keeping an edition available to purchasers once it's been pulled completely from the catalog. That is a problem that many ebook retailers need to address. It's a failure of the current systems.

Even outside of problems like this one when a purchased book goes bye bye, the current system allows the publisher (whether BPH or author) to control the copy available. An author can re-write the ending, for example, and that version is then the only one available if you don't already have a copy downloaded, and if the copy that you have is device-locked with DRM, it has a shelf life.

It's the irony of ebooks - while digital should make things more enduring, it actually (when combined with DRM) can make it a lot easier to take a book completely OOP.

That makes a lot of sense.

Also why people should always strip and save to calibre.

Its the only way to be sure.

Makes me glad I didn't buy a kindle, though. People are saying there is no problem at B&N so....is it an amazon issue.

DA is saying that Amazon is blaming a technical issue.

Actually, I've heard complaints about B&N also, though they may have changed things there. It was in a conversation about books that were pulled because authors moved to KDP Select. When they pulled the books from B&N, people couldn't access them in their library anymore. They were listed but couldn't be downloaded. But, like I said, that may have been changed, possibly because of the KDP Select issues. It hadn't really come up before then because that was the first time authors were pulling books in considerable numbers.

Christa wrote: "Actually, I've heard complaints about B&N also, though they may have changed things there. It was in a conversation about books that were pulled because authors moved to KDP Select. When they pulle..."

Ahhh.

So, it all makes sense now.

More than likely (cause I think you're right), S&S made the ebook as part of the contract - which would transfer the ebook to them.

At that point, S&S would pull the cheap self-pub and drop their more expensive copy in its place.

Amazon is copping to technical issues and is stating that if you deleted the self-pub it will not be available for re-d/l.

So, my guess is that S&S pulled the self-pub and then Amazon had their "technical issue." At that point, if you were depending on Amazon to store your books for you, you just got fucked with no lube.

I'm so glad that the first place I found when getting into ereaders was MR. MR drummed "strip/save/calibre" into my little head over and over again. It's automatic now. Thank goodness.

And speaking of that, could you drop me an email on the new tools? I just got a new laptop and I need to get everything up and running smoothly.

But...do you think the technical issue is really that?

This whole digital books aren't like paper books shit has to end. If I had purchased the book I would boycott the publisher. End of story. I borrow most of my books from the library because publishers have proven they can't adapt.

I call bullshit on it being a technical issue. If I find missing books on my Kindle I will copy all my content off -- again -- and email the Kindle back to Amazon in tiny little pieces and tell them to go FiretrUCK themselves as I wouldn't be buying an eBook again from them.

I think the "technical issue" is that they "technically" don't have a plan for this sort of thing. Amazon probably visualized all the books coming into their catalog, but didn't plan for books leaving. And in this case, the S&S version is technically (heh) a different book. Think of how databases work - replaced records, deleted records... Amazon's Kindle division is just one big dumb database.

I, too, am glad I discovered MR at the same time I ordered my first ereader. I've been strip/save/calibre from day one.

Yes, I will email you.

(Edited because I don't need to be an asshole. Corporate decision makers are people too.)

Christa wrote: "I, too, am glad I discovered MR at the same time I ordered my first ereader. I've been strip/save/calibre from day one..."

Yup!!

This in no way answers the publisher's side of the question, but here is a little of what a self-published author (my BIL) has seen, as far as Amazon pricing.

Links go to his blog:

How Bots Seized Control of My Pricing Strategy

Undercutting the Undercutters