# I broke Amazon. Apologies.



## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

I've published my third book this morning, and uh... I broke Amazon. I apologize.

Apparently ever since I published "The Buzzing", Amazon.com does not enable anyone in the world to buy e-books. Amazon UK is fine, presumably because of their strong tea which makes them withstand difficulties. 

Can anyone currently buy any kindle book in Amazon.com? I asked several people, and they all saw no buy button...

*Scrambles to rebuild Amazon from junk in the backyard*


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## EmparentingMom (Jun 20, 2011)

Wow, I was wondering who did that  

I've tried to buy/download several books and indeed - no buy button.


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## RhondaW (Mar 31, 2012)

Wow, I wonder who will lose their job over this. Can you imagine how much money they are losing? I live in Canada and when I go to the .com site I also don't see buy buttons for Kindle books.


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

Not a good day to release a book  

I tried posting a review of The Buzzing also, and it's not showing, though delayed reviews might be normal now.


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

(In case you're wondering, it just says "Michael Omer is mentally disturbed -- one star")


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

CN_Crawford said:


> (In case you're wondering, it just says "Michael Omer is mentally disturbed -- one star")


Sounds like a reasonable review


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

It's not just the buy button, but KU isn't working either.


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## EmparentingMom (Jun 20, 2011)

Yeah, and I'm also having trouble logging into Createspace.


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## xandy3 (Jun 13, 2010)

RhondaW said:


> Wow, I wonder who will lose their job over this. Can you imagine how much money they are losing?


I was thinking the exact same thing.

KDP is down too.  Now I can't engage in my bad habit routine checking of stats at least 10 times a day.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

Is anyone else's KDP down too?


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## Adrian Howell (Feb 24, 2013)

I can still log into KDP, though it's about 50-50 for me right now. Haven't tried CS.

What a nightmare this must be for people who had promos today...


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## countwordsmith (Aug 13, 2015)

I don't want to imagine how much money they are losing. I'm too busy freaking over how much I am losing.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

I've seen this happen before right before a major algo change. :/

Buckle up.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

Yeah, KDP is back again - but still no buy buttons. Ouch.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Briteka said:


> I've seen this happen before right before a major algo change. :/
> 
> Buckle up.


I was thinking this, too. And I have a promo today. Rats.


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

Adrian Howell said:


> I can still log into KDP, though it's about 50-50 for me right now. Haven't tried CS.
> 
> What a nightmare this must be for people who had promos today...


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

My Bookbub ad runs today....


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

HSh said:


> My Bookbub ad runs today....


Oh sh-- I really hope they fix it soon.


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## North Star Plotting (Jul 11, 2015)

Yup, nothing going on over here either.

Internal Server Error.

We're Sorry.

The service or feature you're trying to use is currently unavailable. We're working to solve the problem as quickly as possible. Please try again later.

Someone's getting fired...


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Nothing here, either. But, I live so far out in the sticks, we have to import sunlight.

Michael, you're forbidden to publish another book. Step away from the keyboard.


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

Well, you can't buy, but you can't publish either--- so not THAT big a crash... *NOT*


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

My KDP does not work either but I'm in Europe, so I guess it's because of the time difference. I mean, it takes nine hours for the internet to get here, doesn't it.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

D-to-the-C said:


> Is anyone else's KDP down too?


I just tried, and it's a no-go. Either on the laptop or the phone 
They were having problems last week too.


Briteka said:


> I've seen this happen before right before a major algo change. :/
> 
> Buckle up.


Yes I have this peculiar feeling of deja vu, and now that you mention it, I know why. Gee, maybe it will benefit me for once?


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## C. A. Mitchell (Aug 6, 2015)

Wonder why .co.uk isn't affected? My KDP and Createspace are both down, which is a pain in the bum because I just altered my cover on CS and need to approve the proof.

Don't want to think about how much money I'm losing... 15p _at least_ *shakes fists*


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

I just got new covers for my series and one of them will look like the odd one out, because I can't upload it now...


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Nothing here, either. But, I live so far out in the sticks, we have to import sunlight.
> 
> Michael, you're forbidden to publish another book. Step away from the keyboard.


Definitely. From now on I'll distribute my books via pigeons


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

Augusta Blythe said:


> I was thinking this, too. And I have a promo today. Rats.


Oh, geez. Sorry! I hope they have this fixed PRONTO. At least it's still early in the U.S. so hopefully it won't cost too many lost sales/downloads.

ETA: Sorry to ALL those who are running promos today. Whether it was an $8 ad or a $500 ad, we count on those! C'mon Amazon, get your butt in gear and get those buttons back!


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Sincere sympathies to those running promos today. Mention it here in this thread, and I'll come back to amazon this evening and buy, buy, buy!


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

I released a book today, too. Totally sucks.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I wondered who did that.   I tried to order a Kindle book today and couldn't.


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

Yeah, they think it's night California and we don't see them...


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

FWIW . . . I can buy through the app on my phone . . . but on the computer the web page doesn't have buy or borrow buttons.

Can't even put things on a wishlist! 



eta: I just sent feedback . . . .


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

I feel like a Lancastrian seeing the three Sunnes in Splendour of York in the Sky.
We are all doomed!


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

smikeo said:


> Definitely. From now on I'll distribute my books via pigeons


Why don't you splurge and use ravens? They cost a little more but totally worth it.


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> Why don't you splurge and use ravens? They cost a little more but totally worth it.


Winter is Coming.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Nothing here, either. But, I live so far out in the sticks, we have to import sunlight.


That one made me laugh!!


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## MorganKegan (Jan 10, 2013)

Downdetector.com is reporting lots of problems Amazon-wide.


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

MorganKegan said:


> Downdetector.com is reporting lots of problems Amazon-wide.


Ok... but who broke Tinder?


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

...I'll be over here crying.

I'm on day 2 of a huge week-long promo with all seven books in my romance series (first one free and the other six on Countdowns) and I have a Robin Reads scheduled for the first one today.

Amazon... WHY


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Curse you! I have 13 items sitting in my shopping cart, and every time I try to buy, it says that my address is incorrect! I just went and checked on downreport, and 117 similar complaints have been filed.  Next time you break Amazon, could it be at like 3 a.m. eastern standard time when I'm not likely to have ordered anything?


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## RhondaW (Mar 31, 2012)

A person in one of my FB groups phoned in and after 20 minutes on the phone were told there is a system wide upgrade happening. Obviously they didn't test it very well on their parallel system (they do HAVE a parallel testing system, right?) says the former IT business analyst


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Well, they recently updated the affiliate reporting area, so they might be doing the same with the KDP one. Who knows? But I'm with those who think there's an algo change coming.


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## thesmallprint (May 25, 2012)

Hacked?


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

I emailed Robin Reads (where my promo is running today) and they just replied with the following --

Hello- we are currently on the phone with amazon- they are apparently rolling out an upgrade- we are holding off on sending out emails until the issue is fixed!

Thanks
RRsuppport

As if I needed a reason to love them more.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Augusta Blythe said:


> I emailed Robin Reads (where my promo is running today) and they just replied with the following --
> 
> Hello- we are currently on the phone with amazon- they are apparently rolling out an upgrade- we are holding off on sending out emails until the issue is fixed!
> 
> ...


Thank you for posting this... I have a Robin Reads today too. I'm with you on the RR love!

Argh, this SUCKS. Amazon doesn't always break when I run promos, but when it breaks, I always seem to be running a promo.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

All across the globe, people are stumbling out into the sunlight, blinking and rubbing their bloodshot eyes, trying to focus them on something further away than a Kindle for the first time in months.


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## horrordude1973 (Sep 20, 2014)

Amazon instant video is down too. Wife just tried to watch a movie on it through our Roku player


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

I'd be laughing along with you except I'm in day two of a huge five day promo that isn't doing me a damned bit of good.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

I checked KDP earlier this morning (check sales every morning)....  I was able to see the sales graphs, but obviously I didn't like what I saw.    Tried to get in again just now, though, and no dice.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

katrina46 said:


> I'd be laughing along with you except I'm in day two of a huge five day promo that isn't doing me a damned bit of good.


Me too... day 2 of 7, huge series-wide promo. Hugs of empathy to you... this is the worst.


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## Jaquie (Jun 21, 2015)

I can't get into kdp either here in Canada.


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## CaraS. (Jul 18, 2014)

Can't get in to Bookshelf, and still no buy buttons here in the South (USA). I have a small promo coming up tomorrow, sure hope it's all fixed by then. Argh.


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## RhondaW (Mar 31, 2012)

Okay this explains it. Twitter says Amazon Web Services is down so that is also taking down lots of other companies as well. Wow I didn't think AWS could go down! Isn't that why people use it?


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)




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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I'm no IT expert, though one of my characters is. She tells me that it would be absolutely insane to roll out a new program until it's complete and the change could be done seamlessly and instantly.

Someone kick the Zon computer. That always works for mine.


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

S.W. Vaughn said:


> ...I'll be over here crying.
> 
> I'm on day 2 of a huge week-long promo with all seven books in my romance series (first one free and the other six on Countdowns) and I have a Robin Reads scheduled for the first one today.
> 
> Amazon... WHY


Me too. That algo tweak better benefit me or I'm sending one nasty email.


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

Adrian Howell said:


> I can still log into KDP, though it's about 50-50 for me right now. Haven't tried CS.
> 
> What a nightmare this must be for people who had promos today...


*raises hand* Two promos today.


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## MKR (May 25, 2012)

RhondaW said:


> Okay this explains it. Twitter says Amazon Web Services is down so that is also taking down lots of other companies as well. Wow I didn't think AWS could go down! Isn't that why people use it?


AWS regions can go down. Most companies don't bother to spread their stuff over more than one region.

More knowledgeable people than me are talking about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10247307


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> All across the globe, people are stumbling out into the sunlight, blinking and rubbing their bloodshot eyes, trying to focus them on something further away than a Kindle for the first time in months.


 But . . . my kindle still works just fine.  And my newspaper came this morning as scheduled. It's the website having issues, apparently, the devices and apps can still buy some stuff at least.


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## G.L. Snodgrass (Aug 12, 2014)

Amazon must have felt unappreciated and this is a Passive Aggressive way of reminding us what life is like without Amazon.


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## Chrissy (Mar 31, 2014)

G.L. Snodgrass said:


> Amazon must have felt unappreciated and this is a Passive Aggressive way of reminding us what life is like without Amazon.


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## glc3 (Jun 24, 2009)

I can log into KDP but only in the message boards.


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

C. A. Mitchell said:


> Wonder why .co.uk isn't affected?


We have slightly different page code for our different layout so I guess that's why.

What a shame for everyone running a promo today, though :-(


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## Rachel E. Rice (Jan 4, 2014)

It's 9 am central standard time. Tried to publish. Can't.


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

UK is definitely affected. The button's there, sure, but it throws an error if you click it.


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## Lady Q (Jun 27, 2015)

Holy moley. 

No buy button on my books (well, one, but I'm assuming it's universal ) and can't get into KDP. What is Amazon thinking? I'm in the middle of launch week here and have promotions lined up (only a free one today, thankfully). 

Grrr. 

Oh well, my husband did give me the "It's not all about the sales numbers" talk last night. The universe agrees with him, obviously.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Just finished reading through this thread. I have a few promos running today. I had hoped this was a minor problem and everything would be fixed by now. *cries buckets of tears* So sorry for everyone with new releases and promos running today!


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Obviously Amazon got confused and they think every book on their site is published by Hachette


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## RN_Wright (Jan 7, 2014)

Still unable to log into KDP. Maybe it was the strain of listing me #1 FREE in Hard Science Fiction on Thursday and Friday. Anyway, you got to sympathize with anyone who has a Bookbub ad coming out today.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

So it's just the book section that's being affected?  I see "add to cart" buttons for other, non-book products.


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## Holland d&#039;Haas (Mar 11, 2015)

RhondaW said:


> Okay this explains it. Twitter says Amazon Web Services is down so that is also taking down lots of other companies as well. Wow I didn't think AWS could go down! Isn't that why people use it?


That explains why the stock site I use threw a hissy fit this morning; wasted a free trial day.
I'm sorry for anyone who had a promo running today. Maybe they can send users to the UK site instead? Re:



Tim_A said:


> UK is definitely affected. The button's there, sure, but it throws an error if you click it.


Edit: Look at it this way... maybe the KU2 payout will be higher this month thanks to a day of no downloads? :X


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

Trust me to pick yesterday late evening to puiblish a new book.  (first one in signature) Par for the course with me. lol. Can't get into Create Space either to finish off publishing the same book.


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## glc3 (Jun 24, 2009)

System seems to be coming back up now, I can access my reports and at times the buy now buttons are appearing.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

HSh said:


> My Bookbub ad runs today....


Oh, no!!!

At least I was able to see sales this morning before it happened.


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## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

The Amazon UK website has the buy buttons, but the KDP reporting graph appears to have not updated for around 4 hours. And sometimes KDP throws up an internal server error message.

There's a major server meltdown going on. My sincere sympathies for all you peeps who are running promos today.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Checked my numbers early this morning, then checked them again a few hours later. Not a single change in any of the counts. 

So not only are the buy buttons not working, they're also not accumulating pages read.


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

Augusta Blythe said:


> I emailed Robin Reads (where my promo is running today) and they just replied with the following --
> 
> Hello- we are currently on the phone with amazon- they are apparently rolling out an upgrade- we are holding off on sending out emails until the issue is fixed!
> 
> ...


THAT is super cool of them.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Decon said:


> Trust me to pick yesterday late evening to puiblish a new book. (first one in signature) Par for the course with me. lol. Can't get into Create Space either to finish off publishing the same book.


Good thing I uploaded a new cover to CS last night. Nothing will be updated, obviously, but at least it's there and waiting.

I just checked ACX and that's okay and so is Audible.


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

S.W. Vaughn said:


> Me too... day 2 of 7, huge series-wide promo. Hugs of empathy to you... this is the worst.


Me three! Day two of my first Kindle Countdown Deal, and I have several paid promotions scheduled for today. Fingers crossed...


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## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

glc3 said:


> System seems to be coming back up now, I can access my reports and at times the buy now buttons are appearing.


Yep. Now seeing the buy buttons are back on Amazon.com.

Fingers, toes and eyes crossed!


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

For those with promos, I contacted the one I have for today and they've agreed to delaying sending their list out until the problem is fixed. You might want to try that. Most promoters bend over backwards to help authors out in situations like these.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

FML. I'm running promos today and tomorrow.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

swolf said:


> So not only are the buy buttons not working, they're also not accumulating pages read.


Pages read is one thing not to worry about most likely. The devices (kindles, iphones,etc) themselves should have that info stored until it is successfully uploaded and saved in some sort of database at Amazon. Unless they've got a major design flaw, which of course is possible, those should be safe. It's the lost sales from no buy buttons available that can't be recovered.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

Sigh... All my beautiful mailing list, trustingly running to buy my book...


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

AWS is one of Amazon's strategic initiatives. Even some federal government agencies have been moving secure computing into the AWS cloud. A major initiative challenging Google and IBM. This is definitely not good for them.

As of 10:30 EDT, no buy buttons on .com for my books.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Pages read is one thing not to worry about most likely. The devices (kindles, iphones,etc) themselves should have that info stored until it is successfully uploaded and saved in some sort of database at Amazon. Unless they've got a major design flaw, which of course is possible, those should be safe. It's the lost sales from no buy buttons available that can't be recovered.


Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that those pages would be lost, just that they're not showing up at the present time.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

glc3 said:


> System seems to be coming back up now, I can access my reports and at times the buy now buttons are appearing.


I got into my reports also (and wept profusely, because those teeny numbers are supposed to be promo numbers today  ) -- still can't see any buy buttons, but maybe soon?

Ugh. It's not too early to start drinking, right?


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

I blame the Chinese. Those meddling m-fers.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Amazon should really know better than to try a major upgrade during Mercury retrograde.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Sales pages now have book descriptions pushed half way down the page below advertising and KU subscriptions etc. I guess Amazon prefers renting books over selling now. Who knew?


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Elliott Garber said:


> Me three! Day two of my first Kindle Countdown Deal, and I have several paid promotions scheduled for today. Fingers crossed...


Here's hoping we all make it out of this without too much damage...


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

I guess some 12 year old hacker has gotten into the systems to change the genre keywords so he would not have to find porn when he looks for inspirational school books.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

I still don't have buy buttons.

Okay, seriously walking away to cry for a while. I'll be back when the apocalypse is over.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Kindle Direct Publishing is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.
English
Thank you for visiting Kindle Direct Publishing. At this time, KDP is unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. We expect the site to be available again within approximately two hours. Thank you for your patience.

I'm still getting this ^^^. Jealous of those of you who can get in.


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## Geoff Jones (Jun 20, 2014)

The buy button returned for me, but only after I pressed Ctrl+F5 to clear my browser's cache. (Chrome)

fyi

Geoff


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## Thomas Watson (Mar 8, 2012)

I got a "scheduled maintenance" notice when I tried KDP this morning. These things happen.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

FYI, I can still buy/borrow books from my Kindle.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

Mine are back as well. I'm not seeing any changes to the product pages though.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

smikeo said:


> Sigh... All my beautiful mailing list, trustingly running to buy my book...


Stealing! If I don't laugh, I'll just sit here and cry. And it's too early to start hitting the bottle.


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## Eva Chase (Aug 8, 2015)

My pre-order button is back, no change I can see to the page layout.

KDP now has an official message up saying they expect service to be restored in two hours.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Just got a very long popup message titled.

Kindle Direct Publishing is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.

They expect it to be back in about two hours.


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

Is it fixed or am I imagining things?


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

My buy buttons are back (which is the important thing, especially with a new release which was going smashingly, and a 5-day promo starting tomorrow), but no more dashboard.

Good excuse to go outside and get some sunshine.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Nothing here, either. But, I live so far out in the sticks, we have to import sunlight.
> 
> Michael, you're forbidden to publish another book. Step away from the keyboard.


Wait. Think a minute. Michael has POWER! We must find a way to harness it. Perhaps saving it for a day that the next Stephen King book is set to publish?


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## Adrian Howell (Feb 24, 2013)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Just got a very long popup message titled.
> 
> Kindle Direct Publishing is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.
> 
> They expect it to be back in about two hours.


Just saw that message too. Now I know how to say "Thank you for your patience" in 6 different languages.
But really, if it was "scheduled maintenance," would it really kill them to announce it in advance?


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Adrian Howell said:


> Just saw that message too. Now I know how to say "Thank you for your patience" in 6 different languages.
> But really, if it was "scheduled maintenance," would it really kill them to announce it in advance?


I'm sure the maintenance was scheduled, it's the outage that wasn't.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Adrian Howell said:


> Just saw that message too. Now I know how to say "Thank you for your patience" in 6 different languages.
> But really, if it was "scheduled maintenance," would it really kill them to announce it in advance?


That's just Amazon using their Jedi mind tricks on us.


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## DashaGLogan (Jan 30, 2014)

It's funny imagining a herd of nerds fluttering hysterically through Amazon HQ.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

http://status.aws.amazon.com/

Amazon's Northern Virginia computing center seems to be the problem as of 10:44 EDT.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

brkingsolver said:


> http://status.aws.amazon.com/
> 
> Amazon's Northern Virginia computing center seems to be the problem as of 10:44 EDT.


Someone probably plugged in a toaster in the breakroom and overloaded the circuits.


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## Scila (Apr 13, 2014)

Oh, so that's why my rankings haven't plummeted today yet! Good to know.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Unlike some others in the UK I have been unable to get in all day (my day starts 8 hours before Amazon time) and only recently have they claimed that it is scheduled maintenance. The generally accepted use of scheduled maintenance for a business is that it is the maintenance that customers or suppliers are told about in advance as opposed to emergency maintenance. As its just about to turn 8am in Amazonia I guess that the schedule was created when the senior manager came into the office with her pre-work Starbucks.

Thankfully the book that gets released from its 90 day incarceration was already unticked for freedom.


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## MKR (May 25, 2012)

It seems like whenever AWS breaks, it's the North Virginia region. Wonder why.


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## Jane Killick (Aug 29, 2014)

Mercia McMahon said:


> I have been unable to get in all day (my day starts 8 hours before Amazon time) and only recently have they claimed that it is scheduled maintenance.


I got up early and got into my reports page first thing without a problem. Must have been about 7am. Reckon it fell over after 8am (BST).


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## hopecartercan (Jun 19, 2015)

DashaGLogan said:


> I guess some 12 year old hacker has gotten into the systems to change the genre keywords so he would not have to find porn when he looks for inspirational school books.


LOL


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

edwardgtalbot said:


> I'm sure the maintenance was scheduled, it's the outage that wasn't.


Yeah, I'm pretty sure they didn't schedule not selling any products today. That's some expensive maintenance.


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

Lamy said:


> I just bought Chimera, so apparently things are starting to work again.
> 
> The link above (somewhere) pretty much explains what happened and why it's coming back up in stages.


Thanks, Lamy. It looks like my product page is relatively normal, except that the formatting of my main book description is all messed up with extra spaces. I went into Author Central to try to fix it, but nothing has updated in the house since I did that.

I was able to see my Reports very briefly about 20 minutes ago, and it showed a whopping 3 sales all day so far. I'm really hoping that's not right!


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## lisamaliga (Oct 28, 2010)

Decon said:


> Trust me to pick yesterday late evening to puiblish a new book. (first one in signature) Par for the course with me. lol. Can't get into Create Space either to finish off publishing the same book.


Declan,
On the bright side, your book's LOOK INSIDE feature's working! 
Mine took 5 days to get activated.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Scheduled maintenance my a$$...

ETA: if there was ever an argument for being in wide distribution instead of exclusive, this is it.  

ETA 2: On the bright side, my books are still visible in the Kindle store. So it must be KDP that is down.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

DashaGLogan said:


> I guess some 12 year old hacker has gotten into the systems to change the genre keywords so he would not have to find porn when he looks for inspirational school books.


Speaking of keywords... I typed in one of the two title words of my latest books (not the most common word, btw), and my books aren't in the first five pages of results; I didn't bother looking any farther. Thing is, the word I used for searching is in my title _and_ the keywords. In fact, I can use a partial of my very unique title, and still the books don't appear (example: To Kill a Bird, rather than To Kill a Mockingbird). Not until I type in the exact title does my book appear.


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## writerbee (May 10, 2013)

xandy3 said:


> I was thinking the exact same thing.
> KDP is down too.  Now I can't engage in my bad habit routine checking of stats at least 10 times a day.


"Scheduled maintenance" it says -- Huh. I guess it's not scheduled very often because since I first published in late March my morning routine = turn on computer --> go on-line -- > check KDP Sales Dashboard :-D Repeat throughout the day. 
And today is the first time it's down for "scheduled maintenance."

Well, if no one can buy any books b/c Michael Omer broke Amazon, I guess there isn't much to look at on the Dashboard anyway :-D

DMac


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

ebbrown said:


> Stealing! If I don't laugh, I'll just sit here and cry. And it's too early to start hitting the bottle.


Are you sure it's too early? It's 5 o'clock somewhere...


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Sela said:


> Scheduled maintenance my a$$...
> 
> ETA: if there was ever an argument for being in wide distribution instead of exclusive, this is it.


My thoughts exactly. Except for the wide distribution part... I don't sell jack squat on other platforms and I have far more page reads than actual sales. *sniff*


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

DashaGLogan said:


> I guess some 12 year old hacker has gotten into the systems to change the genre keywords so he would not have to find porn when he looks for inspirational school books.


LOL!


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## James R Wells (May 21, 2015)

I checked my calendar and actually it's International KDP Addict Rehab Day. It starts with a few hours of cold turkey ...


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

Hmm. Let's put on our tinfoil hats here. Northern Virginia server down. Government now using AWS. Northern Virginia is closest to Washington D.C. Foreign powers want to foul up government files. (You take it from there...)


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## Rachel E. Rice (Jan 4, 2014)

I tried to log in to Amazon to publish and received a message that the site was down due to maintenance. The site will be up in two hours. Ok.


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## MKR (May 25, 2012)

*K*illing for *D*ARPA *P*rogram

It all makes sense.


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## R.U. Writing (Jul 18, 2015)

Sapphire said:


> Northern Virginia is closest to Washington D.C. Foreign powers want to foul up government files. (You take it from there...)


I'm on the lookout; every nondescript warehouse I pass gets extra scrutiny. I know it's around here somewhere...


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

Sela said:


> Scheduled maintenance my a$$...
> 
> ETA: if there was ever an argument for being in wide distribution instead of exclusive, this is it.
> 
> ETA 2: On the bright side, my books are still visible in the Kindle store. So it must be KDP that is down.


I was just thinking I'm so grateful I'm making at least a few bucks on B&N and ibooks today. I wonder if they're laughing their butts off right now.


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## Tricia O&#039; (Feb 19, 2013)

Usually when other vendor sites have "scheduled" maintenance - we get an email ahead of time notifying us. 

For the astrology lovers in here - we are in the middle of a particularly potent mercury retrograde until Oct. 9th. Back up those computers! 

"Mercury retrograde can crash electronic equipment. Back up your computer, calendar and cell phone address book. Expect delays if traveling, and pack a book to entertain yourself while you wait for the tardy bus or plane."


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

I hit a sales milestone this morning (before everything went wonky) so clearly this is Amazon's way of putting me in my place.


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## Desert Rose (Jun 2, 2015)

smikeo said:


> I've published my third book this morning, and uh... I broke Amazon. I apologize.
> 
> Apparently ever since I published "The Buzzing", Amazon.com does not enable anyone in the world to buy e-books. Amazon UK is fine, presumably because of their strong tea which makes them withstand difficulties.
> 
> ...


So it's YOUR fault! You'd best get building!


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

I am now seeing buy and borrow buttons.  More importantly to me, Bookbub has been in contact and they're staying on top of it.  It might work out after all...here's hoping...and fingers crossed for everyone else, too!


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

MKR said:


> AWS regions can go down. Most companies don't bother to spread their stuff over more than one region.
> 
> More knowledgeable people than me are talking about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10247307


Once Amazon truly runs the world, nations will have to take times-out on their wars when this sort of thing happens. Airlines will be grounded, all the traffic lights will be red, and no one's toaster will work.


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## lisamaliga (Oct 28, 2010)

Anyone else seeing this when trying to log onto CreateSpace?

www.createspace.com is currently down for maintenance. 
Please retry your request in a few minutes.


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## writerbee (May 10, 2013)

Adrian Howell said:


> Just saw that message too. Now I know how to say "Thank you for your patience" in 6 different languages.
> <........>


LOL that they apparently know better than to try and thank the Italians for their patience, but instead just apologize for the wait. :-D
[Scuzi, non vorrei oltre al danno la beffa, oppure insultare l'italiani...sono italiana a cuore! ;-)]


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## writerbee (May 10, 2013)

Tricia O' said:


> Usually when other vendor sites have "scheduled" maintenance - we get an email ahead of time notifying us.
> For the astrology lovers in here - we are in the middle of a particularly potent mercury retrograde until Oct. 9th. Back up those computers!
> "Mercury retrograde can crash electronic equipment. Back up your computer, calendar and cell phone address book. Expect delays if traveling, and pack a book to entertain yourself while you wait for the tardy bus or plane."


Mercury retrograde -- again?! (Mercury always seems like it's retrograde in my life...I feel like Pigpen being followed around by that cloud of dirt ;-p)
DMac


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

And regardless of the message on their site, KDP has been down a whole lot longer than 2 hours for me.


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## Marcus Richardson (Aug 15, 2014)

MKR said:


> *K*illing for *D*ARPA *P*rogram
> 
> It all makes sense.


I'd LOL if it wasn't probably true


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## D. Zollicoffer (May 14, 2014)

Maybe this will magically fix my sales. Seems like they're a little off lately...


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Sapphire said:


> And regardless of the message on their site, KDP has been down a whole lot longer than 2 hours for me.


Every time I check that page, I get the same "back in 2 hours" message. It's kind of like _Groundhog Day_...except not as funny.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

In the last hour, one of my books just went from #7 to #5 in its sub-category, so something is happening somewhere.

Still not seeing the reports page although all my books now have buy buttons.

Philip


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## Eva Chase (Aug 8, 2015)

KDP is back up for me! (And hopefully everyone else too...  )


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## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

back for me too


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## jackconnerbooks (Nov 18, 2014)

Me, too, although it says the pages read is currently delayed.


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## Logan R. (May 13, 2011)

It's back for me, and I had no noticeable impact on sales. Phew! Now I'm curious as to what went wrong...


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

It's back for me, too.

Philip


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Logan R. said:


> It's back for me, and I had no noticeable impact on sales. Phew! Now I'm curious as to what went wrong...


Yep, I was worried I was going to see a bloodbath when I loaded Sales Report, but I was actually pleasantly surprised.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

Back here as well. I must've fixed it.

Phew.


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## RN_Wright (Jan 7, 2014)

I can get in now.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Hooray, I can see now that I'm super crushed. I should've had momentum from the sales/promos that started yesterday and Sundays have always been my best days for sales. It's already clear things aren't going to pick up at all today. Unless I have a zillion page reads that aren't showing up because the reporting for page reads is still broken (haha, yeah right).

And I can't do another promo like this for at least three months. Woo-hoo.


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## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

I literally slept through all of this.


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## Lady Q (Jun 27, 2015)

brkingsolver said:


> http://status.aws.amazon.com/
> 
> Amazon's Northern Virginia computing center seems to be the problem as of 10:44 EDT.


I'm in NoVA so I was going to offer to go over and kick the server, but everything looks normal now, except for the delay in reporting KENP read.


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## SasgoraBooks (Aug 27, 2015)

I'm glad I slept through the Zonpocolypse.   Also glad I have no new books published (wait a sec, I should not be happy about that, now I'm sad  ). At my pace by the time I publish again it'll be the day Zon Algorithm goes self aware and launches nukes to wipe out humanity.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

MKR said:


> AWS regions can go down. Most companies don't bother to spread their stuff over more than one region.
> 
> More knowledgeable people than me are talking about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10247307


Thanks for that link. My takeaway from it:



> (sidcool)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## cherrylane (May 10, 2014)

S.W. Vaughn said:


> Hooray, I can see now that I'm super crushed. I should've had momentum from the sales/promos that started yesterday and Sundays have always been my best days for sales. It's already clear things aren't going to pick up at all today. Unless I have a zillion page reads that aren't showing up because the reporting for page reads is still broken (haha, yeah right).
> 
> And I can't do another promo like this for at least three months. Woo-hoo.


Same for me. A great opportunity wasted!!


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Has anyone with promos today seen a change in rank? My sales are coming through but the book's rank hasn't budged since I woke up this morning. Just wondering if things are not quite back to 'normal' yet.


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## KDKinney (Aug 16, 2015)

Augusta Blythe said:


> Has anyone with promos today seen a change in rank? My sales are coming through but the book's rank hasn't budged since I woke up this morning. Just wondering if things are not quite back to 'normal' yet.


I've had no promos except accidentally post about my writing on my Facebook Timeline when I've been pretty quiet about it. I've seen the opposite. I have had no sales since last night. I have 2 books that have seen no action at all whatsoever in the past few weeks climb up 583,542 and 616,165 in the ranks today. Of course the KENP reporting is down so I don't know if there is something happening there. That must be an indication that borrows will help your rankings even when there are no pages being read. Or it means the ranking system is screwed up too.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Okay, it finally moved.  Sheesh.


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## LittleFox (Jan 3, 2015)

My rank suggests that I have sales/reads, but the graph was showing nothing for 3 days. It looks like it's finally starting to update though.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Looks like CreateSpace is back up, too. I just got the email that my submission is ready to be proofed. Proofed and approved.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

My Bookbub ad book shows so far a much worse rank & sales than normal for one....

Lag, or actually just doing very poorly (compared to a usual run)?


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

I'm showing no sales and something like 70 page reads. Granted, that's not _wildly_ different to the status quo, but it is unexpectedly low.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

katrina46 said:


> I was just thinking I'm so grateful I'm making at least a few bucks on B&N and ibooks today. I wonder if they're laughing their butts off right now.


based on my own research, I don't believe B&N can find their own butt, so...


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

GeneDoucette said:


> based on my own research, I don't believe B&N can find their own butt, so...


au contraire, it's where their head has been located for some time now. . .


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

My sales started populating this afternoon. Right now, it's close to what the past couple of days have been. Slightly more sales and slightly fewer pages read. A typical Sunday in other words, at this point. I'd say whatever was broke has been fixed.


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## clavers (Jul 7, 2015)

I had two sales for the 20th yet  my sales rank is way worse than it was the day before when I sold one. I normally sell about a book a day at this stage and my rank is usually between 150 000 . Now it is at 400 000 after selling 2 books. As a newbie I am wondering if this normal?


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

SimonePond said:


> P.S. - Congrats on your book launch today!!!


Thanks Simone  Really crazy launch...


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

smikeo said:


> Thanks Simone  Really crazy launch...


Just warn us before your next one, okay??


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## elalond (May 11, 2011)

smikeo said:


> I've published my third book this morning, and uh... I broke Amazon. I apologize.
> 
> Apparently ever since I published "The Buzzing", Amazon.com does not enable anyone in the world to buy e-books. Amazon UK is fine, presumably because of their strong tea which makes them withstand difficulties.
> 
> ...


I do hope that next time you'll think twice before you break Amazon again.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

From now on I'll strive to destroy Amazon only when I'm having a really bad day and I want to share it


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## RBK (Nov 28, 2014)

No effect on my sales or borrows at all.

Phew! Business as normal.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

clavers said:


> I had two sales for the 20th yet my sales rank is way worse than it was the day before when I sold one. I normally sell about a book a day at this stage and my rank is usually between 150 000 . Now it is at 400 000 after selling 2 books. As a newbie I am wondering if this normal?


During the time Amazon was down, you got no borrows either. While we don't see the borrow numbers, only the pages read, a borrow is the same as a purchase for ranking and is immediate.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

I have not read pages 3 - 7 but I got the gist. But did anyone spot any new things or differences after the update?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Evenstar said:


> I have not read pages 3 - 7 but I got the gist. But did anyone spot any new things or differences after the update?


Remittance notices started coming out an hour after the correction.


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