Amazon royalties

[Kea Noli]

I have a major discrepancy between the Amazon statement and the orders
that were placed during July. I personally ordered 18 of my kindle book through
Amazon and sent them as gifts. None of these orders appeared on my statement.
I was not paid for every order. Has any other author checked the validity of their statements?

[Darryl Erentzen]

It's possible that amazon won't pay you for your own purchases. I'd check the details in their contract.

[Kea Noli]

Thanks. I will.

[Tracy Craft]

Do they give you a discount because you are the author?  (perhaps drop the part of the price that is your royalties?)  How much does it cost to publish a kindle book through Amazon's Kindle?

[Kea Noli]

See answer below.

[Kea Noli]

"Yes, you do have to pay for the purchase.  There is no way to send it free via your Author DTP page, but the perk is you will still earn back a commission from this sale and the purchase affects your book’s sales rank. I often preached about how authors should be willing to invest in copies of their own book, mainly to be able to send to reviewers.  So, don’t be afraid of having to purchase your own book in order to gift it via Kindle."

http://llbookreview.com/2011/09/how-to-send-a-gift-to-a-kindle/

 

An order is an order, no matter who makes the purchase.

[Christine Rice]

I recommend installing Colibre software (free) and converting the document (preferably in html) that you used for your Kindle upload into a mobi file that you can email to reviewers, because it won't cost you anything.

[Kea Noli]

I did find a software program. Thanks.

[Kea Noli]

Answer from Amazon.

The recipient has the option to exchange it for a Gift Card. In such a case, the recipient may not choose to redeem the gift for the same Kindle book and the gift will not show up as a sale in your KDP Reports.

 

 

 

 

[Kea Noli]

Although Amazon was paid for the orders, the Company asserts that if the gifts were unclaimed that Amazon will not pay a royalty. Amazon has received the full price of the book, including my money—my royalty.  Royalties must be paid on all sales.  Although Amazon confuses the process, the gift certificate problem has absolutely nothing to do with the payment of royalties. I would never do an exclusive with Amazon again (KDP). I will publish my next book with the other sellers.

[John Hicks]

I was sceptical, it's very hard to check. I bought one copy and it did turn up on my statement record in approx. 30 minutes. I have found the actual royalties statement is at least a week behind. It does seem a trust thing, I don't like what you found out about the gift process. Also I have done two free promo's with a total of 110 downloads, I'm not sure this works for anyone except those getting it free. I mean $2.99 for a book is not great, I found I had 2 returns within an hour of the free promo, so i deduct that someone returned and then downloaded again free! Abit cheeky. cheers hope it goes better from here on. John 

[Glenn T Langohr]

Hi Kea Noli, I am an author and I gift out copies for the exact reasons you mentioned! This is bad news that people can turn our gifts into Amazon credit! Yikes this changes things!

[Sarah Price]

I haven't had this problem (so far).