First Installment.
Last week I discovered that Kindle, at Amazon.com, was selling another book in place of “Little Nancy” if anyone tried to buy that version. How did I learn about this? A friend from college whom I haven’t seen in over thirty years tried to download my memoir to her kindle, and kept getting the same ‘wrong’ book. She found my email and wrote to tell me about it. The person at Amazon.com I spoke with had no idea how that could have happened, but she didn’t work for Kindle Direct Publishing. She told me even she couldn’t actually talk to anyone there – we both had to send emails to them! In the middle of the night, horribly anxious for obvious reasons, I woke up wondering if BarCodeGraphics, a company that converts print book files into e-book files and mobi files for the kindle had sent me the wrong file. It came under my ISBN number, and I had only checked the e-book version which was fine. Sure enough, when I looked at the mobi file in my computer, it was this weird book about Key West by some guy, not even a woman. My contact at BarCodeGraphics told me it was my fault because I didn’t check the file, and held on to that position even when I told him I had checked the epub version, and therefore didn’t think to check the other. He sent me the correct file, but was not very pleasant about it. Forget about a refund. I again called Amazon.com, in the hopes that someone there could take me through the process of switching my book file for the Key West one. I spoke to at least three different phone people, calling back when each one said they had no idea – remember, I couldn’t reach anyone at KDP – until my daughter suggested I ask for a supervisor. I was driving her crazy with all the phone calls, and my obvious distress. I followed her suggestions and the supervisor sent me an email with instructions. Before she left for her days off, she checked that it had been uploaded correctly and we both assumed the problem had been solved. KDP merely had to put it back up on their site for sale. She didn’t tell me she was going on a week’s vacation because it didn’t seem necessary. Unfortunately the next day I realized the problem was not solved, although I received an email from KDP saying it was. When my trusty friend tried to order, the kindle page on Amazon said “Little Nancy” was unavailable. I felt nuts. I could no longer reach the supervisor. No one at amazon.com had any idea what I should do or where she was. I thought this might be a sign that I should give up the entire project. I really thought that; I am not dissembling or being cute. Maybe it was time for me to finally give up writing. More next week.
