Chew Terr

UPDATE: Ref: Book removal. I was able to uncover the following info about the removal of my new book release (Kindle version) via a community Q&A on KDP’s website. It’s not good. ~ you can no longer talk to a human. ~ starting this year, there has been a dramatic increase in people asking for refunds for ebooks. If your book reaches a percentage of refunds vs sales, it triggers their automated system and Zon pulls the book. They can also drop you as an author and close your acct. Since my book was new, it didn’t have time to accumulate the number of sales to offset the refunds. ~Although I assume some of these refunds are legit, in my case I was able to track recent sales during a sale on the first book in my series and the pattern was obvious. Folks bought ebook copies of all 15 books in the series and then asked for refunds, essentially stealing them. Zon does not distinguish between someone stealing a book and someone with a legit complaint. All refund requests are categorized as “customer dissatisfaction.” Too many of those, and you’re gone. ~ The author will not know this is happening. Asking for a refund does NOT require the posting of a negative rating or review. But if you publish through KDP, a close examination of your sales report over several months may give you the answer. ~ Paperbacks don’t seem to be affected as much. ~ So, until Zon gets a handle on this, in order to protect my artistic property and my future with the company, all future releases of The Katie Porter Mystery Series will be available in paperback format only. Current books 1 – 10 will remain status quo (both versions) since I have an established history of sales with those. I will be monitoring books 11 – 14 to see if I need to unpublish those ebook versions. Paperbacks will remain available. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but this is just too risky…for all of us.