# UPDATE: 15 Ways To Improve KDP - Progress Report



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

*UPDATE, APRIL 2014*

I've just updated the thread with a progress report on the crowdsourced list of KDP suggestions that you guys and my blog readers helped put together for the London Book Fair last year. You can read that here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,148355.msg2581888.html#msg2581888

*ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 2013*:

Hi all,

I'm going to the London Book Fair next week, and already have some time planned to talk with the good people at Kobo. I should get the chance to do the same with KDP, Createspace, and maybe the Nook guys. I'm not sure what to do with the Sony guys. Check their pulse?

Anyway, I'm putting together list of issues to bring up with each. For example, top of my list with the KDP guys is sorting out the Category system, and giving us a way to either change prices without republishing the book, or scheduling a limited time price drop.

I'm going to be pressing the Nook guys about opening up to international self-publishers, hounding Createspace for an electronic payment option, and needling the Kobo guys about their crappy search engine (and suggesting that the route to fixing it might lie in allowing us keywords in KWL).

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. What are your issues? I can't promise I'll raise everything, but... shoot!

(Don't forget to note who the issue is for i.e. KDP/Createspace/Nook/Kobo)


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

KDP: abolish cheques for international authors. 
Also, tell them that I object to the constant splitting off of new stores (for which we have to meet another bloody minimum level of sales). They're not a bank. Yeah, I know I periodically get very angry about this. 

Kobo: I love them. Tell them that. They are awesome. They pay into my bank account and take my local tax ID.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> KDP: abolish cheques for international authors.
> Also, tell them that I object to the constant splitting off of new stores (for which we have to meet another bloody minimum level of sales). They're not a bank. Yeah, I know I periodically get very angry about this.


I guess one would solve the other, right? If Oz/NZ etc. peeps could get an electronic payment, they would only need to make a $10 minimum (or equivalent) in each country before payment.



Patty Jansen said:


> Kobo: I love them. Tell them that. They are awesome. They pay into my bank account and take my local tax ID.


LOL. Ok.


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## KC75 (Jun 24, 2011)

I have to agree with Patty. Waiting 60 days to be paid via cheques that sometimes take another 25 days to clear and cost $50 to process just isn't good enough. They need to sort out EFT for international authors ASAP. Also, customer service. What IS with customer service. They seem to want to treat authors like idiots and link to information already available on the site instead of actually answering questions, and sometimes you get three different answers to the same question, or no answer at all, just the standard "thank you, we need more time to figure out this issue" which then fades into nothingness. 

The BISAC vs category issues are problematic, but more than that is the inability to choose more than two categories and the inconsistencies and issues with having KDP staff add categories (or refuse to add categories) for you. 

I can't say with Nook because I haven't used them, and I'm not sure whether I'll ever bother with B&N, which may well go broke before they allow international authors to participate. 

The other thing I would like from KDP is more transparency when it comes to things like returns. I want to know why my books were returned, and how many people downloaded the sample and didn't buy. All of those stats can help me as an author.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Yes. Returns annoy need looking into.

All ebook retailers have a return policy, and I agree with that, but why are returns on Amazon so damn high? I've sold almost 800 books on Kobo, for 1 single return. On Amazon? I sell much less there than on Kobo, but there are returns most months. Either they should implement a "Are you sure you want to buy this?" button for accidental buys, or crack down harder on serial returners. Both, probably.


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## Lizbooks (Mar 15, 2013)

My issue with Kobo is that they won't allow you to receive payments through an online-only bank. I tried to link my Ally checking account but was told my bank has to have a physical branch location to qualify.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Okay, so far for KDP we got:

1. The Category Mess
2. Payments (more EFT for more international peeps)
3. Customer service fail (I might word that a little more diplomatically)

I'm not sure about the returns issue, to be honest. If there was a major problem with people abusing the system - and I'm not convinced there is - I'm sure Amazon would have (a) noticed and (b) done something about it. After all, they can famously tell who has read what and how quickly etc.

I can't see them ever putting in a "Are you sure you want to buy this?" page as the One-Click purchasing is a *huge* deal for Amazon, and a major factor in their success. I'm also skeptical that they would share return reasons with us.

On the other hand, I would LOVE to know how many people visited my page and sampled, how many sampled and didn't buy etc., but I severely doubt they would ever share that information. It would give large publishers etc. a huge market advantage (if they used that data smartly).


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## KC75 (Jun 24, 2011)

I am probably dreaming, but I would certainly want to know if returns were due to read errors on specific devices or something. The other things are being able to schedule in sales or temporary price reductions like we can schedule in freebies in Select, and, as you say Dave, being able to price change without having to republish.


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## Tim McGregor (Apr 2, 2013)

All good points, David. Getting Kobo to do something about searches and discoverability would be top of my list. I mean, why create KWL and appeal to self-publishers if they're not going to do anything with it? 

Thanks for taking the initiative on this, David. I can't think of a better person to pry answers out of those publishers/retailers. Look forward to your report and lots of goofy snapshots on the convention floor. 

Cheers


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I have an issue with Kobo categories as well as KDP.  They seem to be fantastic for some genres but, unless I'm missing something, all women's fiction gets lumped under "Romance".  I write chick lit which is not romance and erotica which is not romance so am kinda stuck.  Like Tim said below, the searches are really bad too.  It's the main thing that puts me off buying there because I can only browse by category or do a search on title, not description.


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

For KDP I would like to know why ratings no longer show up on alsobots.  Is that a glitch or a change?  And I'd like them back if it's a change.  And I second wanting to be able to change prices without republishing.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I would appreciate it kobo got their act together and actually had their search find all books in a series.  So far for me, the only ones that come up with the word "Gastien" are those with the word in the title, but there are a couple that are in the series, that I have listed when submitting the books as part of "The Gastien Series" that don't show up.


Amazon: better ability to categorize books, more than 2 categories, see how many viewed book sample, more key words.


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

For KDP: I really, really want the ability to have preorders. I'm willing to upload a ready file and have it sit there for a few weeks to collect preorders.

For Kobo: I really, really want to be able to upload a new file without losing all my sales history.


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## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

I second all of the suggestions here, especially Courtney's regarding preorders. I'm happy to upload a ready file -- and would love to be able to do preorders at Amazon, Nook, Kobo (can already do it on iTunes).


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## benji smith (Aug 21, 2012)

For KDP, I'd like more detailed reporting. We already have month-by-month and week-by-week reporting, but it'd be really helpful to have day-by-day reporting for tracking the efficacy of certain promotions. As it stands, if I want day-by-day reporting, I have to log into KDP at the same time every morning and write down the current total. It's error-prone and very annoying.

CreateSpace has detailed day-by-day reporting. Why not KDP?


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

For all retailers, how about a couponing/discount system similar to that of Smashwords?

Scheduling promotional offer start/stop times would be nice, too.

As for reporting on KDP, a view showing sales across all countries would be better than having to click that dropdown for each country. KDP in general needs to up their UI game. They're behind Kobo and now Nook Press, IMO.

Another for KDP: Faster update times of price, product description, etc. I changed the price on one of my titles recently and it took 48 hours to see the price change on the site. B&N and Kobo take maybe an hour.

Thanks for carrying the torch!


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

Thanks for doing this.

KDP: Coupon Codes. Smashwords does it. Give us the ability, or at least a quota we can use every month.

Kobo: Allow tracking of free books. Come up with some sort of review aggregator, too, so I don't have to go to every book's product page to gauge the pulse.


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## Matthew.Iden (Nov 6, 2011)

Jonathan C. Gillespie said:


> KDP: Coupon Codes.


^This, this, this.

Also, a cleanup of the "Prior Six Weeks' Royalties" report on the KDP site would be a bonus. It seems (to me) unnecessarily aggregated sales data that does nothing but confuse.

Last: could we get Book Description, et. al., out of Author Central and onto the KDP dashboard? Or at least single sign-on, site merge, something?

Thanks, DG! You're my hero.

p.s. Sorry -- Obviously, all these for Amazon/KDP. I've given up on the other sales channels until I'm famous enough to matter to them or external forces make the necessary changes.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

KDP & Nook: *Pre-Orders!*

Why should only the larger publishers be able to set up pre-ordering?

Kobo already offers this. Amazon & B&N should get with the program.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

KDP: Why should I stay in Select?  The perks are no longer much of an incentive. Is something new planned for that?
If they want exclusivity there's got to be something more than borrows and freebies that can't be widely promoted any longer because of their affiliate policies.

Also: I want my author name to appear again in the also-boughts, along with my stars. 
(Maybe we could threaten to hold our breath until we turn blue?)


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Jonathan C. Gillespie said:


> Kobo: Allow tracking of free books.


^^^This.


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

Lynn McNamee said:


> KDP & Nook: *Pre-Orders!*
> 
> Why should only the larger publishers be able to set up pre-ordering?
> 
> Kobo already offers this. Amazon & B&N should get with the program.


I had no idea Kobo allowed preorders! Good to know. I love how Kobo has total ebooks sold right up there on the dashboard. It would really make it easier if KDP and B&N put that somewhere to help with tracking overall sales. I also agree with others that coupon codes would be fantastic. Thanks, David!


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

lewaters said:


> I had no idea Kobo allowed preorders! Good to know.


I just recently found out myself. If you enter a pub date in the future, it will ask if you want to allow pre-orders.

Very cool.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

KDP - when they discount a book, the original price is marked out, but still there. If I discount a book, the original price disappears, so readers don't know its been discounted. I would like a way to specify a temporary price reduction/sale price.

Kobo - I too love this site and agree my books don't show up in the search as well as I would like. The number of books shown is too limited.

Nook - I like the new improvements, although I have not yet tried to use their publishing system for a new book. However, I would like to be able to see the books I have there now in a word.doc instead of epub.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Martitalbott said:


> KDP - when they discount a book, the original price is marked out, but still there. If I discount a book, the original price disappears, so readers don't know its been discounted. I would like a way to specify a temporary price reduction/sale price.


+1


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2013)

KDP: Make it easier and more consistent across all the sister sites to make a book perma-free.  I've got three perma-free titles on .com, but no matter what I do, they won't go free on any of the other Amazon sites.

Kobo: Don't reset the sales history and/or html page for the book every time I upload a new update.  Also, tracking of free downloads.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks for doing this! Where do I begin?

*KDP:*

1. Pre-order. Please, please, please, please. I'm more than willing to upload a ready file and let it sit.

2. The ability to discount. I really, really want that price-slash through my price to show it's a sale. Pretty please? I hate having to put that info in my product description. The only way to get the slash is to break the tOS and discount it elsewhere and force a price-match. I don't want to break the TOS. I don't want 70% royalties if I'm not entitled to them. I just want my readers (their customers!) to know that they're saving $5 on this 99 cent boxed set, because it's normally $5.99. I want them to know that the boxed set is on sale for 85% off. That slash is golden.

3. The ability to go free other than through KDP Select or technically breaking the TOS and price-matching. Yeah, I know it's not going to happen, but I can dream.

4. Better day-to-day sales reporting. I really like to be able to spot trends and it's ahrd to do that unless I log in every day at the exact same time and then transfer that info over to a spreadsheet. Nook's sales reporting is a thing of beauty compared to KDP. They do it with Createspace, so why not with KDP?

5. Fix the categories. Why are there categories available to traditional publishers that aren't available through KDP?

6. Why are we only given 2 categories? Nook gives us 5. Kobo gives us 3. The traditional publishers seem to have an unlimited number of categories they're allowed to go into -- I see some books in 8, 9, 10 categories. 2 is way too limiting.

7. I love the new email notification feature on the author pages, but I think it would be more effective if they'd also put the same button right on the book pages. It's all about selling more books -- for us and for them. I truly think they'd sell more books if the button was right on the book page. I don't walways remember to click on the author's name to go to their author page and I doubt I'm unique in that behavior.

8. Did I mention pre-orders?

9. Did I mention the slash through the price?

*Kobo:*

1. Report the free downloads. I want to be able to see how many people are downloading it and whether it's making any impact on the sales of my other books.

2. Ability to upload a new version of the book without losing your URL, sales history, rankings, reviews -- seriously, this is Crazy Town. At least we get to keep all that when just making price changes, but uploading a new version of the book resets everything, which is insane. Totally unacceptable.

3. Better day-to-day sales reporting. We know how many books overall have been sold each day as well as in which countries (which is admittedly cool to see all those little and big dots on your map), but not which titles. Which is kinda dumb. I want to know which title without having to do the math compared to the rest of the month.


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

From this reader's POV:

KDP:
Show the DRM status for the books on all Kindle stores
remove the exclusivity clause from Select (yeah, I dream)
remove the 2$ overcharge for some countries

Kobo : Allow users to buy multiple ebooks in a single transaction


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

All of them: click-through/sales ratios. I get this at freakin' DriveThru Fiction. Anything that helps us figure out what marketing works and what doesn't helps us both sell books long term.

I second everything else everyone's saying--strike-through pricing for sales; the stupid ugly categories; etc etc.


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

KObo: Better search engine and better discoverability.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Just popping my head out of the editing cave to say: GREAT suggestions everyone. I'm taking notes. Keep 'em coming.


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## benji smith (Aug 21, 2012)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> All of them: click-through/sales ratios. I get this at freakin' DriveThru Fiction. Anything that helps us figure out what marketing works and what doesn't helps us both sell books long term.


OMG, yes please! Extra bonus points if I can track those page-views and purchases by referral page. (So I can tell the difference between page views and purchases from BookBub vs. POI vs. ENT.)


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

Victoria J said:


> KObo: Better search engine and better discoverability.


+1


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Pretty much what you already brought up, Dave.

KDP:  1) e-Books don't even have all the categories that print books have and in some categories, sub-categories are desperately needed. Need I mention the lack in HF when smaller categories have subs? And we need at least three categories. I don't want an unlimited number and understand why they reduced them, but TWO was going too far. 2) Being able to price reduce and have it SHOW as a price reduction AND the price revert without delays. 

Kobo: I still don't have my work there because the search engine is so lame. 

B&N: Spam in their reviews. It seems to be somewhat better than a year ago but still needs to be addressed.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

I'd really like the ability to offer discounts for people buying a set/series, like "buy all three and save $2!" I know collections can be made, but I think it's better from a marketing perspective this way, and all book rankings would increase.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Lady Vine said:


> I'd really like the ability to offer discounts for people buying a set/series, like "buy all three and save $2!" I know collections can be made, but I think it's better from a marketing perspective this way, and all book rankings would increase.


+1


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Lady Vine said:


> I'd really like the ability to offer discounts for people buying a set/series, like "buy all three and save $2!" I know collections can be made, but I think it's better from a marketing perspective this way, and all book rankings would increase.


+ 2


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## Bruce Blake (Feb 15, 2011)

I have to agree with pretty much everything on here, especially discoverability at Kobo.
Also, if you talk to the Nook folks, mention to them that their are authors in other parts of the world besides the US. I'd love to upload my own stuff instead of going through Smashwords and giving up a chunk, but can't without a US bank account and address.
Ditto for Apple and Audible if you bump into them.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

This is so very specific to categories, but I'll throw it out there just in case.  As a romance short story writer, my shorts get listed under "Romance--collections and anthologies."  Look at the top 100 list for this group and you'll see it includes all romance genres, along with shorts and novellas, collections of short stories, collections of full length novels in a box set, and collections of novellas.  Again, in all genres.  My sweet romance short story can end up on a list with a boxed set of erotic novels.  So different in so many ways. I'd really love to see each romance genre have it's own short story or "collection and anthologies" category, or at least a separate romance short story category, keeping the box sets under the collections.  


And some way to alert readers when an author has released a new book.

Hope your meetings go well!  Thanks for considering our input.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Amanda Brice said:


> *Kobo:*
> 
> 3. Better day-to-day sales reporting. We know how many books overall have been sold each day as well as in which countries (which is admittedly cool to see all those little and big dots on your map), but not which titles. Which is kinda dumb. I want to know which title without having to do the math compared to the rest of the month.


You can actually see this. The default is "Sales at a Glance", but if you select "Sales by Book" you can get any data you want on any book. There's no side-by-side comparison with other books, but you can get granular detail about a specific book's sales.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Most/all of this as been mentioned but I’ll add my wish-list (for KDP):

1. The category thing
2. Consistency in the time it takes to do a price change. I’ve had it range from two hours to four (!) days. Would prefer two hours.  
3. The slash-through discount price thing
4. The ability to change product page descriptions in Author Central. If KDP has once changed the descriptions for you, you’re SOL if you want to change them on your own again.
5. Some info on how many people read the sample and then go on to purchase the book. 
6. The ability to add more keywords in the book details section when you publish. Right now it’s limited to seven. 

THANK YOU Dave!!


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

ToniD said:


> 4. The ability to change product page descriptions in Author Central. If KDP has once changed the descriptions for you, you're SOL if you want to change them on your own again.


Meant to add this one to my KDP list also. They edited mine once and now every time I need to make a change I have to submit the changes to customer service. I always ask when I'll be able to edit on my own again and they always respond that it's a known problem and that their developers intend to address it.

Obviously they don't cause it's probably an easy fix and I've been dealing with it for a long time now.


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## Kent Kelly (Feb 12, 2011)

My KDP requests are pretty easy, and both relate to online reporting:
(1) Put a sales total for all volumes to date at the bottom in bold.
(2) On the dropdown where we select to view .com, .ca, .de, etc., have a line for "consolidate all reports."  Clicking on that shows you all sales of all titles in all stores/countries.

Thanks!


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## S. Shine (Jan 14, 2013)

I agree that with KDP, you should be able to set a permafree at Bookshelf; Amazon knows damn well that it drives sales of your other products and as such it's a win-win for both the author and Amazon. Select? With the new affiliate policy is a lame duck.


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## Lexi Revellian (May 31, 2010)

I'd like the ability to set separate prices for the US and the UK, _and _get different royalties in each place. Right now, I think the UK is a cheapskate market, and the US isn't; I'd like the option to get 70% on higher prices in America while getting 35% on bargain prices in the UK.

And more categories - can we have post-apocalypse? And back to five per book as it used to be.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Lexi Revellian said:


> I'd like the ability to set separate prices for the US and the UK, _and _get different royalties in each place. Right now, I think the UK is a cheapskate market, and the US isn't; I'd like the option to get 70% on higher prices in America while getting 35% on bargain prices in the UK.


That's a great one Lexi. I love being able to do that on Kobo (and I think you're right about lower prices being more effective in the UK).


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

For Nook, just to ask if there are ANY promotional tools coming down the pipeline for authors other than that mysterious "We'll draw your name out of a hat and if you have a project randomly ready to go when we email you, we'll give you some promotion for the first thirty days it is out if you catch us on a good day."


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

KDP:

Let us purchase, for a reasonable price, some exposure to customers. A reasonable price is $25. For this, you should blast our book out to 25,000 targeted customers by email and suggest they give our book a try. We currently scour the Internet for Amazon Affiliates who will do this for us. Wouldn't you rather get this money yourselves?

Let us change price without having to republish. 

Let us put our book on sale for a specified time period and show the slash through the regular price. 

Let us pre-schedule the sale and the book's resumption to regular price.

Kobo:

Please get a site search tool that functions. 

Please display our books randomly on other books' pages as suggestions, based on categories, maybe? 

Stop making us create a new book and a new url every time we update a book.

Nook Press:

Stop making us create a new book and a new url every time we update a book.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Ask the reasons why Kobo and B&N have not improved their search. Ask why CS doesn't have EFT. Ask why Amazon KDP has a BISAC category list in the dashboard, but uses another on the book pages. There are reasons. Too often in these threads we see people who are ignorant of the reasons tell us there are no reasons.

These guys know far more than we do about their business. They know they have search that is inferior to Amazon. Amazon knows people want EFT. B&N knows the Australians want to post to B&N. None of this is news to them.

But the reasons why these situations persist would be news for us, and might provide a better basis for influencing them in the future. They will deflect hounding and needling, but will be much more likely to discuss the real problems they have in implementing these things.


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## KOwrites (May 23, 2011)

I'm happy with what everyone has brought up so far but I would like to push the wish list a little further...

KDP - page views versus sales by day plus time of day type reporting (Just like ETSY does for their vendors. P.S. I'm not crafty. My sister-in-law has a shop and her reporting is awesome.)
Sales broken out by day not week or six week tally...What is that? (_It's useless - truly_. Tell them; or tell them I'm telling them that, not you, David.  )
Price changes virtually on the fly like Apple iBookstore where you can set your sale start date and end date and sale starts within _minutes_. Yes-slash of reg. price and shows sales price.
Can you ask them why the Select program feels like it's been abandoned? Free is not as effective; exclusivity to what end? Where are they taking the program?
Ads/ Banner marketing program (reasonable as someone mentioned $25 et al.)
Author Central - what is up with the awful interface for making changes to the book product description? If you mess with it too much, the whole thing gets screwed up. Can it be stabilized?

Goodreads is good the way it is.
Shelfari is a disaster zone.

B & N - request for Author Profile type feature like Amazon
Ads / banner ($25 like someone mentioned.)
page views versus sales report
+1s - daily report is GOOD
size of book cover is GOOD
Best Seller List is GOOD (though lots of clicks to get to)

KOBO - dashboard is GOOD
Ask why their pricing for the book is always hidden? Do customers complain about that too?
(My other books show up on the side and I click on those to verify my price when I go to their Kobo Books site. Weird.)
Search is not good.
Love the linkage to the Goodreads reviews.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Courtney Milan said:


> For KDP: I really, really want the ability to have preorders. I'm willing to upload a ready file and have it sit there for a few weeks to collect preorders.
> 
> For Kobo: I really, really want to be able to upload a new file without losing all my sales history.


I second this. And Courtney, I'm shocked they don't allow you to have pre-orders. They do cherry pick authors to do this and you seem a prime candidate with your sales. Sometimes I really wonder about Amazon. It's so big, too many things are slipping through the cracks.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Lynn McNamee said:


> KDP & Nook: *Pre-Orders!*
> 
> Why should only the larger publishers be able to set up pre-ordering?
> 
> Kobo already offers this. Amazon & B&N should get with the program.


Pre-orders are allowed for high-sales authors, a few of whom are members here. (not me, sadly) So that shows that Amazon has the ability and system in place to make this happen.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Okay, great suggestions so far guys. I'm going to try and sum them up so I have them all in one easy list. Let me know if I missed anything.

*Createspace*

1. EFT please.

*KDP*

1. Extend EFT payments to more international writers.

2. Categories - a whole host of issues.

3. More data: samples vs purchases, conversion rates, return reasons etc.

4. Alsobot changes not popular

5. Pre-orders.

6. Better reporting (ditch/fix 6-weekly report). More like Createspace. (Also: with sales totals + ability to consolidate reports) (Also: Etsy have amazing reports. Copy them)

7. Coupons.

8. Ability to change price/edit book description etc. without going through publishing again.

9. More Select incentives - free is waning.

10. Ability to run a discounted sale with lovely slashy price on page.

11. Make it easier to go permafree (esp. across all international sites)

12. Author email notification on book pages.

13. International $2 surcharge

14. Bundles

15. More keywords

16. Fix KDP editing blurb bug

17. Set separate prices per territory (like Kobo). This is possible, but with restrictions because of 70% rules. Allow authors to go 35% in some countries where price sensitivity is higher.

18. Access to email blasts (for a fee).

19. For Terrence: find out the reasons 

*Kobo*

1. Fix search. Let us choose keywords in KWL

2. Categories

3. Updating a file = losing sales history. Fix.

4. No freeload numbers.

5. More granular reporting. Hard to tell which title sold.

6. Fix DRM bug.

*Nook*

1. Pre-orders

2. Review spam

3. For the love of all things holy, allow international self-publishers.

4. More merch ops aside from usual hand-picked stuff.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

There's a fairly easy way around that though - just move all that stuff to the back. I have a one-pager which is like a combined title page/copyright page and then it's straight into the story. The TOC, dedication, about the author, other books by same author, acknowledgements etc. is all at the back


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

ToniD said:


> 4. The ability to change product page descriptions in Author Central. If KDP has once changed the descriptions for you, you're SOL if you want to change them on your own again.


For what it's worth, KDP customer service FINALLY re-enabled my EDIT button. They'd previously told me there was some technical glitch, so I guess they fixed it.


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

The one thing I want KDP to do is handle series the way Amazon do with Audible.com. There should be a link on the sales page that lists the series in numerical order, and there should be a way to make book 1 of a series perma free without all the song and dance of price matching. 

Kobo, I would like to see a visual clue that an updated book file is in processing the way KDP does. As it is now, I upload and have no clue without trying to download and check the thing from the sales page over and over.


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## Aya Ling (Nov 21, 2012)

dgaughran said:


> *Nook*
> 
> 3. For the love of all things holy, allow international self-publishers.


I so want to second this! A long, long time ago I was buying books on B&N, because they allowed freight shipping when Amazon became air carrier only. Allowing international customers to pour money in B&N but not allowing international authors to sell on it? I hate this one-way street


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## Katherine Roberts (Apr 4, 2013)

KDP:

I think 7 days is too long for e-book returns - there should be a return policy for accidental downloads and rubbish formatting etc, but surely one or two days is enough to notice if a book is unreadable once someone's downloaded it?

It would be great to control where the free sample/"look inside" ends so it leaves the reader wanting more, not just cut off at some random paragraph. (I'm sure this would help sales.)


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## Ardin (Nov 1, 2012)

Saw your article featured in the DBW email today David!


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## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

brendajcarlton said:


> For KDP I would like to know why ratings no longer show up on alsobots. Is that a glitch or a change? And I'd like them back if it's a change. And I second wanting to be able to change prices without republishing.
> [/quote
> 
> I agree with both, but especially about wanting the author's names and ratings back on Also Boughts.


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## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

I'd second everything 

I'd like to add: If Amazon accepts a return outside it's 7-day policy, I think they should eat the cost... just like other stores do if they make that call for customer service. Seeing people get hit with returns months after they take the book off the market is absurd.

HAVE A GREAT TIME!


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

Lizbooks said:


> My issue with Kobo is that they won't allow you to receive payments through an online-only bank. I tried to link my Ally checking account but was told my bank has to have a physical branch location to qualify.


It took me some research on this, but I finally got my U.S. Ally account to work with this info (as per Ally on their website, "To wire money to your Ally account from a non-U.S. bank, you'll need to give the other bank this information. We use JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. to process Ally's incoming international wire transfers.")

for City, put: NEW YORK CITY
for Swift/routing/iban: CHASUS33
Branch: JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association1 CHASE MANHATTAN PLAZANEW YORK CITYNY US

Hope this helps!


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## DJ Edwardson (Mar 15, 2013)

1. Preorders

2. Preorders

3. Preorders


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## MartinLake (May 9, 2011)

Hi David,

For KDP could you find out why readers can's sample on sites other than the US and UK ones. 

I'd also like to be able to offer vouchers for all sites.

Thanks for doing this - look forward to reading what you find out.


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## David Thayer (Sep 7, 2012)

David, I know this has been mentioned but Select authors need something innovative soon.

Cheers.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

I'd ask Amazon what percentage of books that were once enrolled in Select have subsequently been removed from Select. That will let us know if Amazon has any incentive to change Select.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

I haven't read the whole thread, but I have to say that I agree with Patty Jansen's original comment about making electronic payments to authors in Australia rather than sending them cheques.

Could you please explain to them that we don't use cheques in Australia anymore -- or only very rarely. They are an outdated business practice, and it takes me fifteen to twenty minutes in the bank while the teller scratches her head, asks other tellers how to fill out the forms and so on. And I'm not even mentioning the fact that I have to pay $15 per currency.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Todd Young said:


> I haven't read the whole thread, but I have to say that I agree with Patty Jansen's original comment about making electronic payments to authors in Australia rather than sending them cheques.
> 
> Could you please explain to them that we don't use cheques in Australia anymore -- or only very rarely. They are an outdated business practice, and it takes me fifteen to twenty minutes in the bank while the teller scratches her head, asks other tellers how to fill out the forms and so on. And I'm not even mentioning the fact that I have to pay $15 per currency.


Another issue that is an excellent candidate for the "why" question. What impediments does Amazon face in sending EFT to Australia? Are there US regulations that impede it? Australian regulations? Reserve Bank of Australia? Fees? Why does Amazon go to the trouble of using a check and mail when they routinely use EFT for US authors?

A related question deals with the recent introduction of EFT to the UK. Why did Amazon implement EFT when it did? Why not earlier? What did Amazon have to do before implementing EFT to the UK?

I think we can presume Amazon is familiar with the frequency of check usage in Australia. Perhaps the problem isn't their ignorance? Consider it a learning opportunity, because it won't be long before another country is heard from demanding EFT. It's good to know what's involved.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi guys, just a quick update while I'm briefly online.

I went through the wishlist (pretty much everything above) with the KDP, Createspace and Kobo people. With regards to KDP, some of the stuff we're after/complaining about is definitely in the pipeline and will be rolled out at some point (I got the impression that something cool is going to be announced soon enough, but it's impossible to know exactly). Others issues they weren't aware of, or features they don't have in the pipeline. They had plenty of follow-up questions on everything, and wrote down a whole list of stuff to pass up the chain or along to the relevant teams. I felt that pretty much everything got a fair listen and that they were genuinely interested to hear your feedback. 

For example, categories. I don't think they were aware there were big gaps in the categories and severe lack of sub-categories in certain areas. And they certainly weren't aware of the related issue about certain categories being no longer selectable in KDP and customer service being difficult about putting us in them. They took particular interest in that, it seemed, so that was great.

As for Kobo, and search, they're on it. And they are working on providing freeload numbers soon. They also have an imminent solution for the current issue affecting uploading new versions where you lose the Kobo-specific reviews and ranking/momentum (and links can go weird etc.). Excitingly, they are working on a way to provide us with lots more data - even stuff like what percentage of readers read your book within three days or, conversely, if a high number stopped reading after, say, Chapter 2. I don't *think* that's as imminent as the above fix, but it's certainly on the drawing board. They are very mindful of the need to protect reader privacy, so it's going to be aggregate data, probably requiring a minimum sales threshold (i.e. if you have 1 sale on a short story, they aren't going to tell you that the reader never finished it or whatever, as you could potentially identify who that was).

With regard to the Kobo DRM bug that someone mentioned: that was a known issue at the launch of KWL and should have been resolved pretty soon after. If it's still happening, PM me and I'll put you in touch with the guy who wants to know about it.

Both KDP and Kobo (and Createspace) were really happy that you guys all took the time to share your problems and feature requests and asked me to pass along their thanks.

I finally found the Nook stand today. It wasn't open to the public. Just a tiny walled off space with a little table and chair, and no branding or meetings or anything seemed to be going on. Make of that what you will.

I'll go into more detail when I get more time at the computer - probably tomorrow evening or Thursday morning when the conference is done.

Thanks again!


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Thanks, David! I'm so glad you're there!


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

It's a great thing you're doing, David. Thanks!


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

Adding my thanks.

Sad about the Nook table.

Happy about the Kobo freeload data (and the scoop on how many stopped reading at chapter 2. That's so cool I never thought to ask for it.)

And I'm amazed Amazon didn't know we wanted more categories. Terrence has said a couple of times here that even when they know what we want, they have reasons for not doing it. This is a good example of when they don't even know. 

Thanks again David!


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I've worked on product management teams and it's entirely possible that a client-facing team wouldn't be aware of everything that's on the drawing board. But that doesn't mean that raising these issues is a wasted effort - doing so can reinforce the need for the requested feature, or bump it up the rollout list, so this was definitely a worthwhile exercise.


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## Buttonman88 (Apr 11, 2013)

I'm in London


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## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Thanks David, just replying so I can follow the thread and your results when they get posted.


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## minxmalone (Oct 28, 2012)

This is great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to relay all these concerns.  I'm REALLY hoping they listen!


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Ooo!  One more question for the CreateSpace folks.  Any hope of getting matte covers?


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks so much for doing this, David!


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## morgan_n (Oct 21, 2011)

Courtney Milan said:


> For KDP: I really, really want the ability to have preorders. I'm willing to upload a ready file and have it sit there for a few weeks to collect preorders.


Yes, preorders & prepublication reviews.


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## Satchya (Sep 5, 2012)

As both a voracious reader/book-purchaser and self-publisher, I have grown more and more frustrated with the lack of author names in the also-boughts.  

I think it does make it more difficult to make sales from also-boughts.  I know as a book-buyer, I buy fewer books from the also-bought section just because it is so annoying not knowing WHO the author without having to click-through on every single book I am curious about.  (The lack of stars is another frustration, but I can live with that if I have to, but the lack of author name is just unforgiveably unprofessional.)


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi all,

Apologies for taking so long to give an update on this. I was moving home (and country!), and wrestling with a slippy WIP. But I've posted an update now on my blog, which I've copied below. But you'll have to click-through here for all the links etc:

*15 Ways To Improve KDP - Progress Report*

The London Book Fair is underway again which makes it a perfect time to review the list of suggestions I presented to KDP last year.

As regular readers will know, I crowd-sourced a list of feature requests, bug fixes, and common problems via my blog and the most popular self-publisher hangout, Kboards.

The KDP reps at the Fair spent a great deal of time going through your list of suggestions. They asked for clarification at various points and I was able to follow up with them by email afterwards.

At the same time, a parallel effort led by Marie Force, Laura Florand, and Diana Peterfreund presented a similar list of suggestions at NINC in October last year. There were probably more such efforts too.

In any event, here's the checklist, with progress (if any) indicated.

*1. More Data!* (see original request here)

A very common demand was for more data. While many agreed Amazon was unlikely to share traffic numbers (to our book pages), we expressed a hope that KDP could give us aggregated conversion percentages, sample percentages, and conversion rates on those samples. Anything really, we don't get a lot of data.

Progress: Meh. We get a little more data now when we run Kindle Countdown promos, but nothing outside of that. And most of that is stuff we probably could have figured out anyway.

*2. Coupons* (see original request here)

Another popular request was for Smashwords-like coupons. We don't have an easy way of giving free books within the Amazon system.

Progress: Fail. Amazon seemed to experiment briefly with coupons in December when giving free copies of Guy Kawasaki's APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur to those who completed Nanowrimo. I had hoped this was a test for a wider roll-out of coupons but nothing has happened since.

*3. Full Territorial Pricing* (see original request here)

With the rapid expansion of Amazon into developing markets like India and Brazil, many self-publishers want full territorial pricing (like on Kobo). Right now, if you choose the 70% royalty option in one market, you can't price below a certain level in all markets.

Progress: Fail. In fairness to Amazon, this might be technically difficult to set up now, after the fact. Kobo had the advantage of building their platform with international pricing in mind.

*4. Categories* (see original request here)

If I could have picked one change out of all those presented last year, it would have been categories, and Amazon has come up trumps. The category system has been greatly expanded, redressing the sub-category imbalance between fiction and non-fiction.

Progress: Great Success! There's more work to do here but I can only congratulate Amazon on listening and acting on this issue. A hugely popular change with writers and readers alike.

*5. Customer Service* (see original request here)

Opinions may differ on this, but I've noticed a significant improvement in KDP's customer service over the last twelve months. It was pretty shabby this time last year and any dealings with KDP were frustrating. Have you noticed an improvement? Did I just get lucky?

Progress: Pass.

*6. Payment* (see original request here)

It's always tricky being non-American and dealing with American companies. They don't seem to release how verboten checks are in Europe (and many parts of the world). Many banks simply don't accept them at all anymore, and many of the rest charge horrendous fees for processing them.

Progress: Success. Amazon has expanded the number of countries that can now get paid electronically, and payments have also been speeded up. A feature we didn't request - the KDP dashboard showing exact amounts paid and exchange rates used - is very welcome. So far so good.

*7. Pre-orders* (see original request here)

Probably the most-requested feature, even if it's not one that I personally want. Amazon has also fallen behind here now that pre-orders are open to all self-publishers on Kobo and Apple (and Smashwords). KDP is reaching out to more and more top-selling self-publishers, and offering them a pre-order facility, but I think it is still undecided about making it open to anyone (which I can understand, given issues with delivering on time etc.).

From those I know who have done it, results have been mixed. Unlike Kobo and Apple, Amazon doesn't roll-up all pre-order sales for a launch-day ranking burst. Without that feature (which might be controversial, to be honest), pre-orders don't have the same attraction/effect and can dilute sales from core fans and mute authors' actual launches.

Progress: Fail. But do we want it in its current form anyway?

*8. Removing Books* (see original request here)

The automated nastygrams that KDP sends out for perceived breaches of its ToS seem to have calmed down a touch. I hear about fewer cases of bots/reps demanding that "typos" like objet d'art get "fixed." A welcome development, but the heavy handedness remains in other areas.

Authors can still receive one of these terse messages (threatening removal of books within a matter of days unless action is taken) when they have done nothing wrong, e.g when a bot sends out a request to prove you own the rights to a book written by you! As I mentioned to KDP reps, what happens if you are on vacation?

Progress: Mixed. Amazon should implement some kind of tiering here. If an author has never breached the ToS or engaged in anything shady, the system shouldn't go to Defcon 5 just because a bot isn't sure if someone owns the rights to their own book. I've little issue with such treatment being given to repeat breachers of the ToS but some perspective is needed here.

*9. Improve Reporting *(see original request here)

There have been some minor graphical improvements to the KDP reporting dashboard, which indicates a bigger change is in the works, but little other progress has been made (aside from showing payments made - which is very handy). I'll say exactly what I said last year: copy the reporting system from Createspace. It's great.

Progress: Fail. But something is in the works - as per Marie Force's feedback.

*10. Short Stories* (see original request here)

Short stories are a hard sell. We can't price them individually below 99c and they struggle for visibility. Last year I suggested adding a Short Story sub-category to each genre and shaking up the pricing/royalty structure.

Progress: Great Success! KDP is currently in the process of adding Short Story sub-categories to each genre, giving them greater visibility, and is looking at paying 70% royalties for short stories priced below $2.99. In addition, Amazon has also launched StoryFront and DayOne.

*11. International Surcharge* (see original request here)

This issue isn't on the radar for US self-publishers/readers, but is a big one for users in those markets where Amazon adds a $2 Whispernet surcharge on many ebook purchases - a problem compounded when local sales tax is added on top of that.

Progress: Mixed. Amazon's continued international expansion is rendering this issue somewhat moot but there are still many markets affected. It would be a great PR move to abolish the charge altogether. It can't make Amazon that much money and the upside is significant: preventing competitors from getting a toe-hold before Amazon is ready to launch a local Kindle Store.

*12. Fix Author Email Notification* (see original request here)

Last year, Amazon launched a new feature on author pages where readers could get an automatic email when selected authors release new books. But it didn't work. I asked them to fix it, or drop it, as it was probably cannibalizing our own mailing lists&#8230; and wasn't working!

Progress: Mixed. Whatever was gunking up the system seems to have been fixed a couple of months ago and readers began receiving new release notifications. However, I don't seem to get them for all the authors I'm signed up for, but do receive them for authors I haven't signed up for.

*13. Allow bundling* (see original request here)

Box sets have become hugely popular with readers but the only way of serving that need is to shoehorn books into one giant file, then battle with delivery fees and file sizes, and deal with the hassle of accounting for multiple authors. I'm sure there's a simpler, more elegant solution where KDP could allow us to offer bundles of content. A sub-category for bundles/boxes would be nice too.

Progress: Mixed. Rumor is that Amazon is looking to do something here. At the very least, it is going to try and make the revenue/accounting side easier for those managing multi-author box sets.

*14. Boost Select* (see original request here)

This time last year, savvy self-publishers were fleeing Select and focusing their energies on gaining traction outside of Amazon. Even among those who stayed, the consensus was that KDP needed to do something to sweeten the pot.

Progress: Success. Kindle Countdown isn't quite the game-changer that Select free days were but it's definitely something. The deals page is a function of the Popularity List, so if your book isn't already selling somewhat well, then you will struggle to get much out of a Countdown promo, unless you can boost it with an ad - which can be a lucrative approach given the higher royalties paid on lower priced books during Countdown. Amazon deserves praise for trying something different, even if it's not quite enough to lure many back to Select.

*15. Scheduled Discounts* (see original request here)

Given the gremlins that can sometimes attack when you have to drop price in time for an ad, another popular request was for scheduled price drops - like we can now do at Kobo. I suggested that Amazon could curate such deals on special page, broken down by category.

Progress: Success. Amazon did all of that, as part of Countdown, but only made it available to those enrolled in Select. I'd still like to be able to schedule price drops for titles not in Select. Alternatively, let us change prices without going through the whole publishing process again - which would avoid a lot of problems/stress with regard to promo campaigns.

*OVERALL VERDICT*

KDP should be congratulated for making a huge amount of progress on such a substantial list of issues and feature requests. Out of all the retailers, Amazon seems to be the one most willing to listen and make changes requested by authors.

Some requests were probably either unrealistic or technically difficult (More Data, Coupons, Full Territorial Pricing, Pre-Orders), but even then I got the sense that they were trying to understand the issue from our perspective and seeing if anything could be done.

I was extremely heartened to see progress on the issues that would have the biggest direct effect on authors (Categories, Payments, Select, Discounts). And there are plenty more developments in the works we can look forward to. Amazon is always tight-lipped about those but, for starters, we can certainly expect KDP reporting to be improved.

Finally, I should note all the other stuff Amazon rolled out in the last year: KindleWorlds, StoryFront, DayOne, Matchbook, the new imprints Waterfall Press and Jet City Comics, new Kindle Stores in Mexico and Australia, and the opening up of ACX to the UK (although the extremely unpopular ACX royalty cut must be mentioned).

I'm impressed Amazon was able to squeeze in time to address our concerns. And a huge thanks to all of you here and on Kboards for taking the time to put forward requests and suggestions.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Definitely some progress here. I'd just like to say though, that while Amazon now offers electronic payment to Australia with the addition of their new 'store', it's not EFT, it's wire transfer, which in some cases has higher processing fees than cheques, and has been experiencing issues. I don't know why they can't just do EFT! Oh, and not impressed with the higher charge for books I have to pay now there is a .au store.


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## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks, David. A very thorough job.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2014)

[LIKE] button needed.


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## Barbara Morgenroth (May 14, 2010)

re: 8.  Last month I published book 6 in my series and got an email requesting I prove that the book was in public domain and that the author is truly dead.  In case anyone is curious--the book is not in PD and I'm not dead.

Definitely mixed results on this issue.


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