You may recall that at the end of last year Amazon suspended my seller account pending review.
Today they finally reactivated it after I CC-ed the big man, jeff@amazon.com, in my latest complaint this morning:
Dear Amazon,
Why
has it taken two months (and counting) to review my seller account? I
sent you all the information you required with a detailed explanation
and I've gotten nothing but rote and or automated responses back saying
my account is still under review. Meanwhile, customers who seek the
unique books I sell in the Amazon Marketplace are complaining that they
wrote to Amazon well over a month ago and were assured these books would
be available again in a week and they are still waiting because you
haven't completed the review of my account, which to this point has had a
stellar rating from customers.
Sincerely,
John
Within two hours I received this response:
"Hello,
We reviewed your account and the information you provided, and we have decided that you may sell on Amazon.com again.
In
our efforts to protect our community, we sometimes err on the side of
caution. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."
So you can start buying used and new books from me there again! However, if it's Crisis Chronicles Press books you're looking for, it's still better (and less expensive for you and us) if you buy them directly from the publisher.
Thank you for your continued support!
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Monday, February 26, 2018
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Amazon revokes my selling privileges though they make as much or more than I do on many books I sell
Amazon has revoked my selling privileges because I have failed to "valid tracking" numbers on at least 95% of my shipments, and my account is "under review." Here's my conversation with them, followed by an example of how they rip off small publishers and independent sellers like me.
Their message to me:
Your Valid Tracking Rate is below the goal of 95% in the following categories: Book
As a result, you may no longer sell merchant-fulfilled items in the affected categories on Amazon.com. Your listings for those categories have been removed from our site.
My response:
Dear friends,
Many of the books I sell are thin and light and that means the post office allows me to send them as "large envelopes" instead of as parcels, saving me money on shipping charges. As such, they do not come with free tracking. When I sell a book, you (Amazon) are in many cases already making as much off it as I am (thanks in part to your phony $3.99 shipping charge, because none of my books really cost 3.99 to ship). If I pay extra for tracking, I make even less than you do. So it does not always make sense for me to pay extra for tracking on a small book.
In other cases, with bigger books, I send them via media mail, which does provide free tracking, but these comprise far fewer than 95% of my sales.
Their further response:
Your account is still under review. We ask for your patience while buyers leave feedback for you.
We will send you an email when our review is complete. Until then, we may not reply to further emails about this issue.
The numbers:
Here's just one example: I sell Elliot Nicely's Crisis Chronicles Press chapbook The Black Between Stars for $4.99 in the Amazon marketplace. Amazon makes the buyer pay an additional $3.99 for "shipping." So the buyer is charged a total of $8.98. Then Amazon takes their fees:
After all that, Amazon gives me, the publisher, $4.84. But then I have to [pay to] ship the book. Because this is a small and light chapbook, it only costs me 70 cents to mail as a "large envelope." So of the $8.98 the buyer was charged, I end up with $4.14, the post office gets $0.70 and Amazon gets $4.14. They receive exactly what I do on the transaction. And they didn't have to publish the book. But now they insist I pay extra for tracking on top of this?
And no other book I sell is as light in weight and small in dimensions as The Black Between Stars. Here's another example: I don't just sell books I publish on Amazon. I also sell used books I pick up here and there. Last week I sold a copy of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross for $4.99 on Amazon. The numbers for it were exactly the same as the numbers for selling Nicely's, except for the fact that The Fiery Cross is a much heavier book. So in this case, the least expensive way for me to mail it was Media rate, which cost me $3.12. At least I got free tracking with Media rate. But again, Amazon made WAY more than I did overall.
And now they want to burden the independent sellers and small presses they're ripping off even more by forcing us to pay more to provide tracking on every single book. For shame!
Their message to me:
Your Valid Tracking Rate is below the goal of 95% in the following categories: Book
As a result, you may no longer sell merchant-fulfilled items in the affected categories on Amazon.com. Your listings for those categories have been removed from our site.
My response:
Dear friends,
Many of the books I sell are thin and light and that means the post office allows me to send them as "large envelopes" instead of as parcels, saving me money on shipping charges. As such, they do not come with free tracking. When I sell a book, you (Amazon) are in many cases already making as much off it as I am (thanks in part to your phony $3.99 shipping charge, because none of my books really cost 3.99 to ship). If I pay extra for tracking, I make even less than you do. So it does not always make sense for me to pay extra for tracking on a small book.
In other cases, with bigger books, I send them via media mail, which does provide free tracking, but these comprise far fewer than 95% of my sales.
Their further response:
Your account is still under review. We ask for your patience while buyers leave feedback for you.
We will send you an email when our review is complete. Until then, we may not reply to further emails about this issue.
The numbers:
Here's just one example: I sell Elliot Nicely's Crisis Chronicles Press chapbook The Black Between Stars for $4.99 in the Amazon marketplace. Amazon makes the buyer pay an additional $3.99 for "shipping." So the buyer is charged a total of $8.98. Then Amazon takes their fees:
| Closing fee: | -$1.80 | |||
| Per-Item Fee | -$0.99 | |||
| Referral Fee on Item Price: | -$0.75 | |||
| Shipping commission: | -$0.60 | |||
After all that, Amazon gives me, the publisher, $4.84. But then I have to [pay to] ship the book. Because this is a small and light chapbook, it only costs me 70 cents to mail as a "large envelope." So of the $8.98 the buyer was charged, I end up with $4.14, the post office gets $0.70 and Amazon gets $4.14. They receive exactly what I do on the transaction. And they didn't have to publish the book. But now they insist I pay extra for tracking on top of this?
And no other book I sell is as light in weight and small in dimensions as The Black Between Stars. Here's another example: I don't just sell books I publish on Amazon. I also sell used books I pick up here and there. Last week I sold a copy of Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross for $4.99 on Amazon. The numbers for it were exactly the same as the numbers for selling Nicely's, except for the fact that The Fiery Cross is a much heavier book. So in this case, the least expensive way for me to mail it was Media rate, which cost me $3.12. At least I got free tracking with Media rate. But again, Amazon made WAY more than I did overall.
And now they want to burden the independent sellers and small presses they're ripping off even more by forcing us to pay more to provide tracking on every single book. For shame!
Thursday, November 10, 2016
New review of my The Eater of the Absurd
Many thanks to Michael Marrotti for reviewing my 2012 NightBallet Press book The Eater of the Absurd at Amazon! He says:
"John is a rarity in the realm of contemporary poetry. The man has a talent for the art form, he's even made me think twice about rhythmic poetry which comes up frequently in this book. I found myself eagerly turning pages towards the next poem. He solidified his rank with me through the poem Fuck Poetry. This is the stand out piece, the pinnacle poem of the collection. It's a poem on writing, which is a subject I've always been fond of. There were a few ambiguous moments, but besides that, the journey was pleasing. John here is worth the time! Do yourself a favor, take a gander."
"John is a rarity in the realm of contemporary poetry. The man has a talent for the art form, he's even made me think twice about rhythmic poetry which comes up frequently in this book. I found myself eagerly turning pages towards the next poem. He solidified his rank with me through the poem Fuck Poetry. This is the stand out piece, the pinnacle poem of the collection. It's a poem on writing, which is a subject I've always been fond of. There were a few ambiguous moments, but besides that, the journey was pleasing. John here is worth the time! Do yourself a favor, take a gander."
Check it out at http://amzn.to/2eNqkvM.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Why I Have an Amazon Shop
I talk a lot about Crisis Chronicles Press, but I also sell other books here:
www.amazon.com/shops/crisischronicles
I know there's a lot to hate about Amazon. But frankly, more than half of our sales come through them. If not for Amazon, I wouldn't be able to keep the press going. Sure, it's better to buy Crisis Chronicles Press books via PayPal through our own website (http://ccpress.blogspot.com). But half our proceeds come from people who don't know us, and those people go to the site they know, Amazon.
www.amazon.com/shops/crisischronicles
I know there's a lot to hate about Amazon. But frankly, more than half of our sales come through them. If not for Amazon, I wouldn't be able to keep the press going. Sure, it's better to buy Crisis Chronicles Press books via PayPal through our own website (http://ccpress.blogspot.com). But half our proceeds come from people who don't know us, and those people go to the site they know, Amazon.
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