The book I wrote in 2004, Kids in the Biz, went out of print earlier this year, which is great for several reasons. First, it means I sold all of the stock the publisher had printed – over 2500 copies. Second, and most importantly, it meant that all the rights to the book, including digital and reprint rights reverted back to me.
But it also meant the book was no longer available, unless you bought it through one of the “third party” sellers on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
For a year or so there has been a blurb on the book’s Amazon page saying “Publishers: Sell your book for Kindle” so I decided to do exactly that. Luckily the publisher turned over the production PDF file to me, and I was able to export the book as text, which I then formatted in HTML for the Kindle platform.
I finished formatting the book, uploaded it. And waited.
And waited.
And… well, you get the picture.
Turns out the Kindle acceptance process has been hijacked by the cracking down on public domain titles. Apparently, people have been abusing the system, submitting Kindle versions of public domain works in the thousands, all in an attempt to earn a buck or more here and there. These PD titles sold for 99 cents in some cases. This was a huge undertaking from Amazon, which I can respect.
However, starting in September, they have cracked down on this practice. Which sounds great, but it leaves other “real” publishers of content wondering what is going on.
The old wait time to see if your book was accepted into the DTP platform (the interface where you submit your digital title) says it can take up to 5 days. Three weeks later I hadn’t received any emails why my title was still pending, until finally I received an email that they have flagged my book as possible being copyrighted, and I had to submit additional documentation to make sure I had the rights.
I can understand the need to protect copyright, but waiting three weeks to tell me I have to submit proof of owning the rights to my own book? Couldn’t they have said that at the beginning? So now I have submitted a PDF scan of my rights reversion letter to Amazon (the same email that never gave me a response) and who knows how long that will take before it is accepted or rejected.
If verification of copyright is to continue to be an integral part of the Kindle uploading process, then perhaps putting it at the beginning, instead of at the end, would be the most effective choice.
I’ll let you know when it is available, and what my continued experiences have been. Have you tried publishing on Kindle? What do you think about Amazon cracking down on PD titles? How about their copyright crackdown – are they turning into the equivalent of the Wal-Mart “photo police”?
Years ago, when publishers cracked down on photocopying stories, I tried to photocopy a story of mine that appeared in an anthology. I was told I couldn’t photocopy it because it was copyrighted material. I explained that I owned the copyright, and presented ID that showed my name was the same as the author of the piece.
They still wouldn’t let me photocopy it.
I think it’s probably important that they have a process in place to protect the original authors. If they make it too easy (like apparently they had in the beginning), then people will abuse it.
However, all that being said, it sounds like they need to improve the process they have in place, or at least better define it for submitting authors. What you’ve been going through thus far certainly doesn’t make the process very appealing.
Keep us posted on how everything works out.