Amazon owes me thousands of dollars and refuses to pay up.
Back in December, right after the release of Book 4, my first book suddenly became free on Amazon.
I did not request this (typically if I'm running a free book promo, I have to email and request it), and no one informed me it was happening. Concerned, I reached out to Amazon's customer service via phone—and they told me they had selected my book for a free promo. I said, okay, that's great, but what about the royalties I'll miss out on while the book is free? They ASSURED me I would be paid royalties for every free download.
Wow. Sounds great, right? I knew it was too good to be true, so I repeated the conversation with another agent over chat, took a screenshot, and saved it.
Fast forward to February, when that money should have been paid out. I made some business decisions (mostly cover art) based on this supposed money coming from Amazon. They did not pay it.
I shouldn't be surprised. I felt it coming a mile away, but I still thought they would honor the promise that not one, but two different agents had made to me.
First, they said they "never ran a promotion," so I showed them my screenshot.
Now they're saying "but your book isn't in KU, and we don't do free promos for books that aren't in KU."
Okay? So what? Maybe it was a mistake, but they still did it. They stole a week of royalties from me, then made huge promises about how they'd pay out to make up for it, and now they're pretending like it never happened. I've had to send multiple screenshots proving the book was free, proving the dates, etc. etc.
Anyway, if it comes down to it, I'm going to seek some legal advice, because the amount of money they owe me is significant.
AS A RESULT: I have decided to start selling all of my ebooks on my own website, minus my one KU book. It takes over 60 days for Amazon to pay out, so even though January was a great month for me, I won't have the liquid funds to fight them if it comes down to it.
If you'd like to help me give Amazon the middle finger, consider picking up one of my steamy monster romance books in digital or paperback!