Sandy Nathan's YOUR SHELF LIFE

A few posts ago, I wrote about my plans to feature the terrific independently produced books that I’ve been reading. This is that presentation: INDIE GEMS. It’s going to be a regular/irregular part of Your Shelf Life. I have to give the Amazon KDP free books program some of the credit for this. I’ve been […]

Those of you who’ve following my Plucky Grandmother series, here and here, will know that I’ve scheduled promotional days where two of my KIndle eBooks will be offered free. The promotion is this weekend, October 12, 13, & 14th.

Except that my book, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, was/is listed on Apple’s iBookstore. I didn’t know it until Amazon told me about it. If you’re in Amazon’s KDP program, which allows you to give away your Kindle eBooks, you can’t distribute anywhere else.

After a series of supremely unhelpful emails between Amazon and me, I assumed I lost the argument. Then I received the following email from Amazon.
The letter congratulates me on getting my eBook into the KDP Select program. But it’s been in the program since May or something. It’s already had one KDP Free Promotion. Is this Amazon’s way of saying, “We hear you, Sandy, here’s a few more days to get The Angel exclusive to Amazon.”

The only way I’ll know is to wait and see if The Angel is free tomorrow. What surprises on the morn!

I wrote Amazon and explained all this, asking for a few days for Apple to figure out the problem and let me do this weekend’s KDP program with one less worry. I sent Amazon records from BookBaby indicating they had pulled the title from the iBookstore. I sent copies of my emails to Apple & their response. I got down on my hands and knees and begged. This is Apple’s response, taken from their email earlier today:
The email shows that Amazon doesn’t care that you’ve done your best to comply with their rules and thought you had. You can be petitioning God for help for all they care. It doesn’t matter if you need a few more days, or if your dog died. They say they’re committed to the best customer service ever. Not for suppliers. Read the letter above. They’re a bullying monopolist.

Look at Apple’s response to my pleas: