[WRPursche]

A book under one of my pen names has lost its availability on the Amazon store. It doesn't even have the '2 week availability' - - only used copies are listed. It's not a big seller now, the paperback a few copies a month, the linked kindle version a few copies a week.

For years this book was available and sold steadily, even with a discount of 40%. Three of my other paperbacks have discounts of 30% and are still listed (one originally published in 2006!), although another one just went to the 2 week availability.

All my paperbacks are printed by by LSI/Ingram.

I have tried setting them to 'returnable' which didn't help. I know that 55% is a possibility, but I'd lose money at the listed cover price, and it wouldn't explain why my 30% discount doesn't seem to be a problem.

Questions:
- Has anyone had this happen, and were you able to rectify it?

- If I make the switch to KDP print, which I don't want to do for many reasons, what happens to reviews? (assuming I won't have problems with using the same ISBN, as some have reported).

Thanks for your suggestions.

-- edited to refer to Amazon print as KDP instead of createspace

 

[scottdouglas]

If it’s the same title, it should link right to it; you might have to nudge amazon via email to connect it.

 

[alhawke]

This has happened to me. Because of it, I stopped using Ingram only for paperback distribution. I publish through both Amazon and Ingram now.

edit} nothing happens to your reviews. Just make sure it's linked to your ebook. Use the same ISBN and add to "createspace", or now KDP.

 

[K'Sennia Visitor]

Is this a really old thread that has the wrong dates on it? Createspace doesn't exist anymore. Amazon shut it down, either last year, or the year before. It's KDP Print now.

 

[WRPursche]

Thanks, I edited my post to use the term Amazon now uses for their printing.

For those who have made the change of printers from Ingram to Amazon, were you able to use the same book block PDF (the text)? I've read conflicting information on this. (I know that the cover is different and needs to be redone.)


alhawke, did you try to change discount, etc before making the switch? Or contact Amazon? (I can't even figure out who to contact, because KDP print doesn't handle print inquiries).

 

[alhawke]

You can use the same pdf file. You just need a different cover file.

No, I didn't contact KDP. I just put it up on KDP about nine months after and it was soon sold through KDP for Amazon directly. Amazon will prefer selling direct if you submit direct files to them.

Since that happened, I now publish all my books on both. If you have them on both, make sure you don't click "expanded distribution" on Amazon otherwise this will then conflict with Ingram selling your book outside of Amazon (unless you want this).

 

[WRPursche]

Thanks. I'm going to take one more crack at adjusting the discount and see if that helps, then will make the switch if I have to. I've been really happy with Ingram's print quality; the samples I've seen of KDP books have been nowhere near as good.

I hope the cover change is not that hard. . .

 

[catslover]

I am having a similar problem with my book published on IngramSpark.

I published the book a few days ago, it is a book in Spanish; In amazon.com the book is available but in amazon.es (the amazon version for Spain, which is the main point of sale for this book), the printed book is not available.

By the way, what is LSI?

 

[unkownwriter]

The discount only matters for sales to bookstores. For selling on Amazon, just set your price to give you some profit, keeping inline with similar books, and move on. I suspect the issues you're having are more to do with how Amazon deals with IS. Most of us have print for sale on Amazon only, and use IS to get into bookstores/expanded distribution markets. You need to own your ISBN, set up the proper discount, and make sure you aren't sending the IS version to Amazon.