This isn’t a story about getting away from Amazon. It’s about sales page management, and you need to be aware, sales pages are not something you can just “set and forget.” You have to keep an eye on them for glitches. A glitch just happened to me.
Today, I had a shock.
In the middle of my book launch for This Plague of Days, Season 3 and the TPOD Omnibus Edition, the Omnibus suddenly wasn’t on my Amazon sales page anymore! I checked and that’s the only reason I knew it had disappeared.
Gone! Oh, no! Not now!
I refreshed the page and knocked back a vodka.
Still gone!
I cursed my fate and invoked Thor’s intervention.
Still nothing. Dammit, Thor!
Naturally, after those early strategies failed, I contacted Amazon. They said they’d get back to me within 24 hours. If this had been my first rodeo, I would have pooped kittens. However, they generally get back faster than that and, in this case, I had the fastest response I’ve ever had.
The email assured me there was a “slight glitch” that deleted the book from my sales page. Maybe a slight glitch to them, but I just launched! My interviews are appearing across various blogs promoting my latest books. It was a big deal to me. The email further assured me that the problem would be corrected within “one to three days.”
One to three days?
Vomit.
No, not really. Like I said, this ain’t my first time on a horse. Those emails always allow a long time for their fixes, but the Amazonian techs have, invariably, acted much faster than that. And so it was. This Plague of Days, Omnibus Edition featuring the complete three seasons of the apocalyptic saga with the autistic protagonist trying to save the world? We’re back, baby!
They fixed it within a couple of hours. I have it on good authority other sales platforms don’t swoop in to fix problems nearly so quickly.
Check your pages and make sure all your books are there from time to time.
Further thoughts on sales pages and serialization
After I brought out Season 3 in my series, I had a problem. The sales page looked cluttered and my work is not displayed in the order I’d prefer for greatest sales advantage. What to do? I skipped calling on Thor since he doesn’t show up unless I dress up as a hot chick. (I’m still carrying some winter weight and can’t sell the hotpants.) I sent another email to Amazon:
Could I, perhaps, edit my sales page to make it less cluttered and show my wares to greatest advantage?
The reply was, for now, a polite no. My Amazon contact did agree that mine was actually a good idea and they would pass the suggestion up the line. Currently, the order of book display is based on sales figures. Self-help for Stoners has been on sale longest, so it’s up top. That’s not the problem. Serial episodes are.
My Serialization Problem.
Season One of This Plague of Days was released as one book, but also as five episodes (and each episode’s price was 99 cents.) My Season One episodes sat there, clogging the page and confusing customers.
I came up with a solution that fit my longer game plan.
I unpublished the five episodes from the first book and set the price for Season One at just 99 cents.
This presents several advantages:
1. At 99 cents, Season One is a low barrier to entry into the series.
2. It gives readers a break on price.
3. It promotes my visibility and my other books. Sales are up, author rank is up.
4. It avoids (I hope) angry reviews from people mistakenly purchasing Episode IV and V at 99 cents each when they could have had all of Season One (which contains all five episodes) for one incredibly low price. It’s couch change, yes, but some reviewers go nuclear over such things and outrage is rarely expressed with a sense of proportionality. Angry? Burn down somebody’s house! Mildly annoyed? Burn down somebody’s house! See what I mean?
A note about the trouble with serialization.
Serialization certainly has its advantages and helped Season One and Season Two get more attention. However, no matter how much you might explain it and lay it out in the descriptions and vary the cover art, some readers seem determined to confuse Seasons and Episodes despite a lifetime of watching television. Quick to click, I guess.
I’m very sensitive to criticism (so yes, wow! I know! I am in the wrong business!) Anyway, the last thing I want is for readers to be confused or feel ripped off. That’s another reason Season Three is one huge book instead of broken into episodes. Serialization put me on the map, but the Law of Diminishing Returns has kicked in.
I still have episodes of Season Two on Amazon obstructing the view on my sales page. It is, as it has always been, cheaper to buy the season than to buy the episodes. I can’t let it go at 99 cents, though, so those episodes are going to stay up for a long time. Until Amazon changes its policy and allows me to control title placement, they stay and Season Two is priced as low as I will make it. When I do get control, the eps will go to the back of the sales page. I could just unpublish them, but I don’t want to leave the few who just bought Season 2, Episode III in the lurch.
How long is long enough to wait for those readers to catch up and complete their S2 episode purchases? A year? Two? I don’t know.
~ The TPOD book launch bargains continue.
Filed under: author platform, Books, free ebooks, self-publishing, Amazon, Apocalypse, bargains, book launch, books, dark fantasy, fiction, horror, managing your book page, omnibus, Omnibus Edition, problems with serialization, Robert Chazz Chute, self-help for stoners, Serialization, This Plague of Days, vampires, zombies
C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m 
Nothing nearly as drastic, but I noticed that my book descriptions changed back to the most basic text I entered through KDP when I first published. After revising at Author Central, my formatted text and reviews etc. were put back up (impressively quickly, actually). But it’s happened more than once so I guess that’s another reason to check the page every so often. Thanks for the post.
Good to know. I’m sure I’ll be dealing with these problems soon enough.
Our books are on Amazon through Ingram, but this is good to know as I think about a variety of approaches. Thanks for the info!
Your open sharing is always useful and greatly appreciated. I count on your honesty and it’s always there. All the best with your new launch.