You know, every time I think I’ve got this writing thing figured out, there’s some new development that makes me feel like I’ve taken ten steps backwards. I’m not kidding – writing books is no joke. It really is a business and it is ever-evolving, so you constantly have to stay on top of things because there’s always some bump in the road you didn’t see. For me, the latest wrinkle involves publishing print copies.
By way of explanation, up until late last year, print and ebooks were handled by different Amazon divisions. If you were releasing an ebook, you did so through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP); if you were doing print copies, you published through CreateSpace. It wasn’t ideal, to be sure, but it worked and worked well. At some juncture, however, Amazon decided to merge these two, and CreateSpace essentially gave way to what became known as KDP Print. Authors in CreateSpace were forced to migrate over to KDP, with the promise that everything behind the scenes would remain the same. (If everything remained the same, however, it begs the question of why costs went up, but that’s a topic for another day.) Naturally, there were some bugs that had to be worked out, but ultimately it seemed like authors were able to navigate the choppy waters and reach a point where there was [allegedly] smooth sailing ahead.
Now, it’s pretty easy to understand why Amazon made this change. For one thing, CreateSpace paid royalties every 30 days (i.e., monthly), whereas KDP pays royalties after 60 days. In addition, it’s a lot easier to get authors to do a print copy when the option is right there in front of them as opposed to being on a separate platform. (It’s a lot like when you go to a fast food place, order a burger and fries, and get the perfunctory, “Anything to drink?” A good chunk of people will act on that prompt.) In all honesty, I sell way more ebooks than paperbacks, and I think that’s true of most authors. However, I always do a print version. The cost is practically nil, so there’s essentially nothing but upside to doing so. (Unlike with audiobooks, which have costs that I posted about previously.) That said, there were many authors who never did print versions but were now more likely to do so.
Anyway, I’m just bebopping along one day recently, checking out the categories for the various formats of my books since there was a recent change to the audiobook categories. As I browse through, I notice that the description for the print version for one of my books is off; rather than being broken into paragraphs, it appears as a single block of text. It looks ungainly in my personal opinion, and it strikes me that any potential reader who sees it will think it’s indicative of my writing and will move on, unimpressed.
Seeking to fix it, I go into the book details and make sure everything’s separated into nice neat paragraphs. I then republish, and think everything’s A-Okay since KDP sends me a heartwarming message saying my book has been published and is now available. Yet, when I go to make sure the changes took, I see the same ugly block of text staring back at me. When I go look at the book details again, the description appears in neat little paragraphs just like I wanted; it’s just not showing up like that on the book’s Amazon page.
Recognizing that I can’t fix the problem – whatever it is – I fire off an email to KDP and ask them if they can fix it for me since my changes aren’t being accepted. What I get back is an email telling me that the print description requires HTML formatting.
What fresh hell is this?
I mean, the KDP description doesn’t require HTML formatting. Back on CreateSpace, it didn’t require HTML formatting. Moreover, I could almost swear that when everything first migrated over I checked out the description and it looked fine. But now it’s screwed up because I didn’t properly format it??? More to the point, I’ve published recently, and there was absolutely nothing on the publishing platform about HTML formatting.
Just to be sure, I went back and looked. Here’s what the area for the description looks like on KDP Print:
Clearly, it says nothing about HTML formatting. And if you’re curious about what happens when you click on the link shown, this is what you see:
Once again, it says nothing about HTML formatting. However, what it does say is very telling:
“Customers view your book description as they shop on Amazon. Often, it is a reader’s first experience with the content of your book. A well-written description piques readers’ interest and assures them that your book is of high quality.”
Needless to say, I fully agree with this statement. That’s why I’m a little miffed that Amazon would let authors publish without any warning that the description may look like crap without HTML formatting. In addition, I think it’s the same setup as used for the ebook version (and reads exactly the same). In short, if it’s the same setup, with the same appearance and same language, how am I supposed to know that it requires something different? Simply put, I’m not sure how I was supposed to figure out the problem – or that there would even be an issue – based on how things are presented.
That said, I did spend a few moments wondering if I’m the only rube who didn’t know about this. Thus, I puttered around, checking out the print editions of numerous other authors. Guess what? It’s not just a Kevin Hardman problem. It’s not every author but it’s pretty widespread, which makes me think that perhaps it’s a result of recent behind-the-scenes changes.
Anyway, I had to spend time going into all my books and fixing things, which I did by inserting the <br> tag, which is a line break. I think technically I’m supposed to use <p> for paragraphs, but it’s done now and looks fine. As I always say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Hmmm. Maybe someone needs to tell that to Amazon…