🚨RANT ALERT!🚨

A few times a year, I like to run a Free Book Giveaway (FBG) for my eBook The Playgirl. One of those times usually takes place this month, since it’s Pride Month and my book is an LGBTQ+ fiction. I had everything scheduled for this weekend, including paying for promo spots in the newsletters for FreeBooksy and The Fussy Librarian (that would go out today).

And then I had to contact Amazon KDP to do a Price Match (price adjustment) for my book on their site. This is where the un-fun begins.

I’ve done this in the past whenever I want to run a FBG on both Amazon and non-Amazon eBook stores and, with the exception of one time, things have gone smoothly. When I went to make the request early Thursday (shortly after midnight, as the price of my book on other sites like Apple, Kobo, and Nook changed to Free then), I noticed Amazon KDP changed their “contact us” page. Gone is the form I used when I wanted to request a Price Match for my book, and now I have to use their chat feature that’s, yes, AI-generated. Say it with me: “BOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

This is what that contact form used to look like, by the way. Now authors gotta go through this shit. 

I was able to bypass the AI bullshit and get to a live agent, where I was given more un-fun news. The agent told me that they need more time to process the Price Match. I don’t know why they needed more time, and I had to let them know that I needed the price adjustment to be made right away as I had paid promos in those newsletters scheduled to run today. The last time I heard from KDP’s customer service was last night, I was told that they’re still in the process of doing the price match, and that it’s taking longer than usual. No shit.

I had an FBG scheduled from this past Thursday to end of Sunday, with paid promos going out today in the newsletters for FreeBooksy and The Fussy Librarian. That is no longer, and you can thank Amazon KDP for this mess. I’m unable to make Price Match requests for my book days in advance (AFAIK) as KDP needs links from other eBook stores as proof that my book is being sold at a different price, so I have to put in the request the day the sale/FBG starts. I also adjusted the price back to its normal selling price on other non-Amazon sites, and it took me literally a second to make the change, because Draft2Digital makes it that easy and I don’t have to go through AI garbage for that! (Although maybe my book is still for free on Nook and Kobo right now, and since there’s not much I can do about that, if you want a freebie…)

By the way, this is not the first time Amazon KDP ruined my FBG plans. I had another FBG planned last October, and a delay on their end messed up the scheduled promos I had planned then. It was the same situation as I’m going through right now, except it shouldn’t take so long for them to adjust the price. And they had the old contact form then.

If you follow me on Bluesky, the “something special” I posted about a week ago was supposed to be an FBG that would’ve dropped yesterday. And, I know, I’m evil for still doing business with Amazon. I’ll eventually leave them, I swear.

Written Word Media, whom I paid for promo in those two newsletters, was understanding of my situation, and I get to reschedule the promo at a later time free of charge. Also, there will be another sale for my book starting in July (albeit an exclusive one for Smashwords), and I’ll likely do another FBG at the end of July as I will be celebrating my book’s third anniversary. Amazon KDP better get their shit together by then.