More than a week after my planned launch day for Wayward Patriot: Preserving the Vote, it appears that I will have to change my launch strategy. Amazon has, technically, made my paperback available to order online. However, there is no image of the book on their website (the image uploaded with no problem on every other online site I have viewed) and they are telling prospective buyers that it will take 2-4 weeks before they will ship the book. I can’t launch a book with that sort of offer!
One of the big reasons I would like to send people to Amazon is because of the visibility of their ranking system. I have gotten very positive feedback from early reviewers and from people who have purchased the book locally, directly from me. I have every reason to believe I could achieve a strong rating at Amazon if they didn’t place so many roadblocks in front of me.
Here is my question. The book has been “available for purchase” on Amazon for over a week and has only gotten one order, and that was mine, just trying to see what would happen. Will this make it more difficult to get positive rankings on the paperback version of my book? I figure that it will. I’m afraid being canceled by Amazon has made a book launch focused on the paperback, highly unlikely to be successful.
Here is what I wonder. If I download my Kindle version of the book, using Amazon’s company, KDP, will they still drag their heels in getting a normal Amazon presence set up? They couldn’t use the delay in shipping to discourage buyers because it would be a download. No shipping would be involved. That would make a huge difference, even if they still refused to ensure that the image was uploaded properly. That could be a new strategy, although the thought of using Amazon to resolve a problem I’m having with Amazon leaves a bad taste in my mouth. They are the 800# gorilla in online book sales.
Let’s see what happens…
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