Amazon KINDLE - Not getting my royalties paid | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

12 years ago

Is your ebook available FREE somewhere else online? If it is, Amazon may be price-matching and giving it away for free.

Other than that, I don't know what the issue could be.

Thanks
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JohnMcCabe

12 years ago

Originally Posted by edlewis

Is your ebook available FREE somewhere else online? If it is, Amazon may be price-matching and giving it away for free.

Other than that, I don't know what the issue could be.

This makes the most sense to me, especially if the "lot of books" the OP published were PLR or public domain.

Thanks

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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

I am also having the same problem. In fact, my weekly report seems way way off!

Anyone have an idea how to deal with with this issue?

Thanks
1 reply

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Asix750 12 years ago

Same here!

Also, I set one of my ebook with a price of $4.99 - but for some reason, kindle decided to price it $2.99... I'm still in the KDP Select 90 days, so you can't find it anywhere else

Any one with an idea?
- Thanks
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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

This seems to be a major problem- would love to hear more from other warriors who work with Amazon Kindle DP....

Thanks

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Randall Magwood

12 years ago

It will take you 2 months to receive your first royalty payments. So if you put up your ebook on Kindle in January, you won't see your payments until around March 30th. They always pay at the end of the month.

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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Randall Magwood

It will take you 2 months to receive your first royalty payments. So if you put up your ebook on Kindle in January, you won't see your payments until around March 30th. They always pay at the end of the month.

That I get. The issue here is the Amazon reporting, the sales stats don't make sense and they are not giving me credit for sales I made

Also I was sure those sales were not free promotions in the Kindle Select Program.

They seem to have an arbitrary system of what books to credit sales for and what not to and whether to give you 70% or 35% even though you opted for 70%.

I don't think they can do price matching without your consent. You set the price of your ebook and they have to stick to what you set it at.

So I am wondering if anyone else also (like the other warriors in the this post) have experienced similar problems with Amazon Kindle reports and whether you now why it is happening and if there is a solution.

Thanks.

Thanks
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edlewis

12 years ago

Amazon will price match automatically...if they see your ebook is being given away for FREE...they will give it away for free.

They don't need to ask you or have your consent - because they already do - it's in the TOS when you sign up for KDP.

I will agree that at times, the sales stats can be confusing, especially if you are running free promos.

Right now it's difficult to give you anything more than I've already guessed without knowing any more info about the situation.

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Paul Myers

12 years ago

Ed,

Amazon will price match automatically...if they see your ebook is being given away for FREE...they will give it away for free.

Even if it's being pirated?

That would suck...

Paul

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edlewis

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Ed,Even if it's being pirated?

That would suck...

Paul

They won't match pirated copies.

However, if someone was to plagiarize your ebook and upload it to Barnes & Noble's Pubit under the same title and author without your knowledge...

Uh...that could be a problem.

Here is something taken from KDP's FAQ:

1-27 Why is the offer price of my books lower than the one I chose when I uploaded to KDP?

We reserve the right to set the retail price we charge for the books you provide to us. We may offer your book at a price below your list price if, for example, the price at which a competitor sells your book, or the price at which we sell a physical edition of your book is lower than your list price. In that case, if you chose the 70% royalty option, your royalties will be calculated off of this offer price for sales that qualify for the 70% royalty option. If you chose the 35% royalty option, you will be paid off of the original list price you chose.

However, that doesn't really answer the problems discussed in this thread.

I'm hesitant to blame Amazon here because of the high level of confusion I have seen regarding the KDP Select program both here on the WF and on the KDP forums.

It could be that these users are simply misunderstanding how Amazon is reporting these numbers to them....

There is no way to tell.

I would suggest contacting KDP, so they can find out what is really going on.

Unfortunately, they will need some patience...as it can take a few days to get a response sometimes....even when posting on the KDP forums.

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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

Originally Posted by edlewis

They won't match pirated copies.

However, if someone was to plagiarize your ebook and upload it to Barnes & Noble's Pubit under the same title and author without your knowledge...

Uh...that could be a problem.

Here is something taken from KDP's FAQ:

1-27 Why is the offer price of my books lower than the one I chose when I uploaded to KDP?

We reserve the right to set the retail price we charge for the books you provide to us. We may offer your book at a price below your list price if, for example, the price at which a competitor sells your book, or the price at which we sell a physical edition of your book is lower than your list price. In that case, if you chose the 70% royalty option, your royalties will be calculated off of this offer price for sales that qualify for the 70% royalty option. If you chose the 35% royalty option, you will be paid off of the original list price you chose.

However, that doesn't really answer the problems discussed in this thread.

I'm hesitant to blame Amazon here because of the high level of confusion I have seen regarding the KDP Select program both here on the WF and on the KDP forums.

It could be that these users are simply misunderstanding how Amazon is reporting these numbers to them....

There is no way to tell.

I would suggest contacting KDP, so they can find out what is really going on.

Unfortunately, they will need some patience...as it can take a few days to get a response sometimes....even when posting on the KDP forums.

Thanks Ed.

I see the possibility you mentioned. I haven't uploaded my ebooks to be sold or given away anywhere else on the net so if it is in fact being given away for free then it is without my consent.

Is there anything I can do here?

I also noticed the price of the ebooks are the same, so I'm wondering if that actually happened.

Finally, I did make sure I counted the number of ebook sales before I did a free promotion then had a figure to go by after the promotion ended to make sure I had the exact figure.

It is quite confusing and perhaps the best thing I can do is contact KDP direct.

Thanks
2 replies

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sherryp 12 years ago

Well...thanks for answering the 35% question in this thread. I was wondering why some of my sales were being paid at 35% too. Looks like all sales to Australia and New Zealand then are paid at 35% regardless.
- Thanks
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edlewis

12 years ago

Originally Posted by marktheonlinesurfer

Thanks Ed.

Finally, I did make sure I counted the number of ebook sales before I did a free promotion then had a figure to go by after the promotion ended to make sure I had the exact figure.

It is quite confusing and perhaps the best thing I can do is contact KDP direct.

I would guess this is where the "issue" lies...

I don't think there are any "exacts" when it comes to the KDP numbers, especially when it comes to running promos.

You can check your Kindle stats before and right after, but that doesn't mean they are showing the sales in real time.

So perhaps some slipped thru in the lag.

That would be my guess, but it's just a guess.

One thing that those new to KDP are going to find out quickly is that it is Amazon's game, so they make the rules. It's just part of partnering with them to publish on the Kindle platform.

It is what it is...

Thanks

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kurtistb

12 years ago

Also, as far as the 35%/70% royalty payments, terms of service also explains it. Even if you choose 70% it only applies to purchasers from certain countries others will only net a 35% royalty.

So even if your book is listed on the Amazon.com U.S. website but someone from a 35% country purchases it, you only receive the 35% royalty.

Here is a list of the 70% countries anyone purchases outside of them will only be 35%:

• Andorra
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• France
• Great Britain
• Guernsey
• Germany
• Italy
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Lichtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Monaco
• San Marino
• Switzerland
• Spain
• United States
• Vatican City

Thanks

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studlee46

12 years ago

Also, if you've been promoting your books in the KDP select program, it will report that you've "sold" books when in reality you've "sold" your book for free. So there won't be any royalties. I about creamed in my pants when I saw that I'd sold 100+ books a while back. But I had set my books to be promoted and gave away 100+ copies.

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MyCogitate

12 years ago

Amazon is kind of cheating, I suppose..

Thanks
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gfMedia 12 years ago

Another possibility is that Amazon has been making tracking and stat changes recently which means reporting has been "off" for a bit the last few weeks.

@MyCogitate, "Cheating"? No you agreed to their terms right?
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GuruGazette

12 years ago

There was a delay in the reporting near the beginning of the month. It seemed to have corrected several days ago according to a lot of authors on the kdp support forums. I had several books show 300-400 sales/unit adjustment when it updated. I also recalculated the first week's earnings totals today and they were more than they had been when I originally totaled them last weekend. So something changed. Maybe your differences are related to that?

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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

It could be that Kathy. Sounds like a possibility.

Thanks

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cyberws

12 years ago

Is your book is in KDP Select? If so, remember that it is free to "Prime" members so for those transactions you will see 'sales' but no revenue, which is what your screenshot looks like. That free-for-Prime is all the time, even when you're not running a promotion, for KDP members only. If you're not in KDP then there's an error, assuming you're not running a promotion.

Thanks
2 replies

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pianorosa

12 years ago

In December and January, the unit sales reports were very accurate - before and after promotion, and the actual sales. But in the last 2 weeks in February, I've been noticing some discrepancies in the totals. Not sure what is happening.

Rosa

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marktheonlinesurfer

12 years ago

Originally Posted by pianorosa

In December and January, the unit sales reports were very accurate - before and after promotion, and the actual sales. But in the last 2 weeks in February, I've been noticing some discrepancies in the totals. Not sure what is happening.

Rosa

Thanks Rose. Have you tried getting in touch with Amazon? Have they advised you on what is happening?

Thanks
1 reply

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pianorosa

12 years ago

Originally Posted by marktheonlinesurfer

Thanks Rose. Have you tried getting in touch with Amazon? Have they advised you on what is happening?

Yes, I am now getting in touch with them. I was not sure if it was just my problem or if others are experiencing the same thing and that was why I gave it a 2 week wait to see the weekly results.

Rosa

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pianorosa

12 years ago

Amazon has given me a direct reply yet.

They have sent an email today regarding this matter:

We're experiencing a reporting issue where information displayed in the Prior Month's Royalties report doesn't match the Month-to-Date paid sales data. We can assure you this reporting issue does not affect royalties, and our engineers are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.

We'll update this English forum thread once this issue is fixed: Amazon KDP Support : Mismatch in transaction report and ...

Not sure why the reporting issue does not affect royatlies ... but there is a 'glitch' somewhere that needs fixing.

The Kindle forum thread should be able to keep us up-to-date.

Rosa

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JohnMcCabe 12 years ago

Originally Posted by pianorosa

Not sure why the reporting issue does not affect royatlies ... but there is a 'glitch' somewhere that needs fixing.

Rosa

Rosa, if they are like other companies, accounting and reporting are separate functions. The raw data is correct, but the web interface that reports online to affiliates is not matching the accounting data.

As a public company which must report accounting data to the US Government for both taxation and securities reporting, I'd believe them if they said the accounting was correct. Audited quarterly and annual reports tend to keep most companies honest...
- Thanks
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kurtistb

12 years ago

Originally Posted by cyberws

Is your book is in KDP Select? If so, remember that it is free to "Prime" members so for those transactions you will see 'sales' but no revenue, which is what your screenshot looks like. That free-for-Prime is all the time, even when you're not running a promotion, for KDP members only. If you're not in KDP then there's an error, assuming you're not running a promotion.

When Prime members borrow your book it is displayed as "Units Borrowed" not as "Units Sold".

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Amazon KINDLE - Not getting my royalties paid

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