Publishing Paradigm Shift. What Is Better: Amazon KDP Select or Broad Distribution?

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Amazon, Apple, Author Lada Ray, Barnes&Noble, Big 6 Publishers, Catharsis Legend of the Lemurians, Free ebooks on Kindle, Gold Train (Accidental Spy Russia Adventure), Green Desert, Indie Publishing, KDP, KDP Select, KDP Select free promo, KDPS, Kobo, publishing paradigm shift, Smashwords, Sony, Stepford USA, The Earth Shifter

Amazon KDP Select (KDPS) or broad distribution through multiple channels – in other words, to be or not to be. For me, it was a cause of much vacillation for the past year.

Finally, I have happily parted ways with #KDPSelect, not planning to ever return, barring some sort of massive revamping of their system. My books are back to #BN and #Smashwords, and slowly but surely they are also posting on #Kobo, #Sony and #Apple as well. I am also making both CATHARSIS and GREEN DESERT free everywhere, to celebrate this joyous occasion! See My books at a glance + buy links. A separate post is coming soon with direct links to Kobo, BN and Sony. There will be freebies too, so watch for them!

So why am I celebrating?

Do Amazon and Createspace rip off Indie publishers with failure to correctly report sales?

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Amazon, Amazon complaints, amazon customer service, Amazon Kindle, amazon royalties, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bookselling, Createspace, createspace royalties, independent authors, Indie Publishing, KDP, Smashwords

This post has just come to my attention and I felt it deserved to be re-posted on my blog. It is about missing or under-reported book sales on Amazon/Kindle/Createspace. I have long suspected something like this. Sometimes I would hear from people that they bought my books, but sales numbers would not match up on KDP or CS reports. Unlike the author in this piece, I am not into meticulously tracking each sale, however even I noticed multiple discrepancies – sometimes gross ones – in the past year or two. I even complained about it last year, but received a canned response. It appears that Smashwords is more accurate in reporting sales, although their reports are delayed.

Many indies are too busy to watch their sales, or they may simply give Amazon the benefit of the doubt, while unfortunately, constant oversight is required. This is a very disturbing situation, and only one of many that are troubling where Amazon’s practices are concerned. For example, in last year’s scandal, Amazon was implicated in a massive meddling with indie book reviews. It also manipulated algorithms to give unfair advantage to the Big 6 and to Amazon grandfathered authors. Another example: a friend of mine is a non-fiction indie publisher, who prints her books through her own channels. When her books have been ordered, she mails them to Amazon. She has complained that Amazon has been repeatedly losing her books, reporting them back to her as canceled sales. Her investigation revealed that the problem with lost books was a widespread one.

Whether these kinds of actions are deliberate or are based on terrible accounting/tracking system and lack of organization,