KDP Template
I learned a valuable lesson this week.
Turns out I was wrong to assume that Lulu.com (the paperback people) and Amazon would get their act together and show the PB copies of our books alongside the e-book editions.
To be fair, I think I must accept some of the blame for this, as I used to change our book covers all the time, as I was never happy with them. This probably upset the applecart somewhere along the line.
It shouldn’t make any difference; I hear you saying and you’re probably right. After all, if they allow you to make these changes, they should be prepared to fulfil their side of things and do it properly, don’t you think?
Over the years I have been involved in this amazing self-publishing world, I have learned not to assume that just because people say something will happen, it very often doesn’t.
This all came about because I happened to click on one of our paperbacks on Amazon, only to find it had one of the old covers showing. I have never thought to do this before, for if I want to buy one of our paperbacks I go to Lulu, where they are cheaper for authors.
Then I checked the rest of them, only to find out four more had old covers and two weren’t there at all.
I checked our account on Lulu.com and all our PB books were present and correct. But when I asked why they weren’t all on Amazon, they didn’t understand my problem.???
So, I asked Amazon the same question only to be told that I didn’t have an account with them.???
Round about now I was rapidly losing the will to live. I knew that Amazon/CreateSpace had this facility where you could make a paperback edition, but I also remembered this involved a one-piece cover, something I had no idea how to do. Imagine my surprise when I discovered things had changed since their merger and it was now possible to make a one-piece cover using our own cover images. This was wonderful news, the only drawback was, the background colour is black. Which is fine is it goes with your cover image, but I wish there was a way to change that. Maybe there is, and I just haven’t found it yet.
To cut a long story short, I have been busy making covers on KDP with Amazon, and removing our books from Lulu.com…
And on a more serious note, PayBack is with the beta reader this week, so getting nearer to launch day. I will be posting about this as soon as the dust settles!
This is interesting, Jaye. My books are also printed via Lulu.com and I haven’t had any problems with them.
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Have you checked that Amazon has linked them?
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If you send a note to Author Central- Amazon- with the ISBN number and the link on Amazon where it’s listed they can combine it with the ebook.
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I will give that a try.. Thanks Jacquie..
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Have you checked your Books page at Amazon Author Central? All your books should be listed there. If any are not, there’s an Add More Books button.
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Yes, I tried that, but without the ISBN/ASIN from Smashwords, it couldn’t find them. That’s half the trouble with me and the blessed pc. I know how things are supposed to work, but getting it to happen around here is something else entirely! (but I will get there somehow!)
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That’s interesting … I had to get separate ISBN’s for my Smashwords version and my Amazon version … (and another one for the paperback version of course)
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The complications are never-ending…
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Primarily because the culture is still stuck in the pre-digital age … let’s face it most traditional publishing is still stuck in the pre-Gutenberg age! 🙂
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Surely, it shouldn’t be?
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I think the digital ‘revolution’ arrived so fast, and moves so fast, (although now it’s slowing down a bit – until the next major technological breakthrough) that any entity that even smells like it’s instutionalised, by its very nature cannot move fast enough to stay apace with the change. Which is not to say that that’s an acceptable state of affairs, but until enough time passes that the dinosaurs have finally all vanished from the scene there will be these kinds of glitches.
And just between you, me, and the brick wall, I actually don’t see the ‘glitches are an acceptable part of doing digital business’ going away either. It’s probably so deeply embedded into peoples consciousness they don’t even blink anymore.
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Doesn’t make it right, or acceptable either. I expect more from technology…
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I do too. I think that’s why it’s so bloody frustrating.
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Aargh! Don’t give up, though!
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Congrats on PayBack getting closer 🙂 … and just like growing older, self-publishing ain’t for sissys!
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Or for people with just one good eye. The other one is on the list, so what passes for normality around here will resume eventually!
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🙂
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