How do you communicate with Amazon?

[I. J. Parker]

I have two problems:

 

A.  I'd like to work a Kindle deal, but don't want to go through their automated system where you never touch base with a human being.  At that point Smashwords is better: clear instructions and an e-mail address. Can they be serious about converting a ms. to single space???

 

B. Amazon has seriously screwed up the reviews section for my last Penguin book.  Have contacted the publisher twice to no avail.  I'd like to get on to Amazon myself now.

 

Any insight from more experienced authors would be much appreciated.

[Camille LaGuire]

I don't believe you can go through anything but their automated system for Kindle (however if you are doing POD with the Createspace program you might have a service rep if you pay for the "pro" version - which I'm told is worth it).

I've always used the DTP community forums for questions at:
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/forumindex.jspa

And I know a lot of people on Kindleboards.com (in the "Writer's Cafe" area http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/board,60.0.html ) have an email they use to resolve problems. And one of the things they most commonly talk about is getting reviews resolved.

[Richard Sanders]

I know this sounds insane, but I once had a formatting problem with my reviews and I simply called Amazon customer service. 1-866-216-1072. (Or you can use those Contact Us buttons that are always cropping up on the right sides of the pages.) I got my answer right away.

[I. J. Parker]

Not so crazy if it works. I'm not sure about the "contact us" thing because I did this and no answer.
The call I haven't tried because I'm not a customer. Thanks much, Richard.

[I. J. Parker]

Ah, yes, but this is not a Kindle problem. This is for the print version of my book. Thanks.

[Jon Loomis]

I had something similar happen (all of my books were listed under "Mr. Jon Loomis" for some fucking reason, so they wouldn't cross-reference with my poetry books--I think it actually originated with MacMillan, somehow), and after repeated emails to my editor and editor's assistant it was finally corrected. Took months and months, though.

[I. J. Parker]

Yeah, I tried that. Last winter! Now I'm pissed off at Penguin.

[I. J. Parker]

I have to admit that when these things happen, I like to do it myself, so I can say: See, you idiots!

[cj forrest]

LOL, that’s funny, Jon. Think of it as an act of professional courtesy. Mr. Jon Loomis. Alphabetic order is not really that important anyway.

[Jon Loomis]

Funny now, but at the time I was totally all WTF. Blame it on the intern, right? There was also the weird glitch with the flap copy of the ARC for HIGH SEASON, that went on and on about my detective being a "sheriff" on Cape Cod. Well, there is a sheriff on Cape Cod, and his office is in Barnstable, and mostly what he does is run the Barnstable County jail. There is a small criminal investigation staff, but their role is largely advisory. My guy is the one and only police detective in Provincetown (in fact I recently found out that there is a police detective in P'town now--a woman), which is all the way at the other end of the Cape from Barnstable and practically in another universe, culturally. Anyway, the ARCs go out with erroneous flap copy, and before you know it most of the pre-pub reviews, and even a review from that loon on Amazon who reviews every freaking thing the day it's released, repeated the sheriff thing even though it was nowhere in the book. I never did get an explanation of that one--I suspect the answer would've been pretty embarrassing, so I didn't press it.

[I. J. Parker]

Which loon is that? And yes, it's amazing how many reviews rely heavily on jacket copy.

[I. J. Parker]

Thank you, Simon. That's somewhat encouraging. If you exchange e-mails with Amazon, you are getting a lot further than I am. I have yet to locate an e-mail address.
In the other hand, some delays that happened for you may explain why my agent is slow in getting answers.
I'm prepared, at a pinch, if my agent fails to follow through, to upload my books myself, but I want to be sure that I can communicate via e-mail if any hitches occur.

My more immediate problem is getting them to make corrections on one of my book listings. So far no luck, though I have used the contact offered to authors.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks. I joined authorcentral. I sent them a message about the mistakes and am still waiting to hear from them. Surely they don't let me fix reviews??? That's where the typos and snafus are, plus a Booklist review is missing.