Amazon stole my ebook

ScottJRobinson

ScottJRobinson

Scott J Robinson
I've been giving away my ebook for free from my website but today I discovered that it's listed on Amazon UK for 1.47 pounds (not sure if they've sold any).

I've sent them an email asking WTF is going on but am still waiting for a reply. Not only is it doubtful I'd be seeing any money from this but someone has obviously spent abut 2 minutes converting to mobi and it looks like complete felgercarb. It makes me look like a useless third rate self publisher who doesn't care about quality. Why would anyone want to buy it anyway?

Argh. Just a little bit annoyed right now.

Scott
www.scottjrobinson.com
 
Doesn't seem like a third party seller, so Amazon themselves are breaching copyright? I wonder how often they do this.........
 
Sounds more like someone nefarious has gone and uploaded it to Amazon...is there a "Report Copyright Violation" button somewhere on the site? I had to do that with a book which was being sold as "new" from a publisher who no longer had the rights to do so...
 
Hi Scott, a friend of a friend living in New Zealand recently discovered that someone had lifted his poems from a website and had them published under their own name via Lulu. Its the subject of a court case now. Check someone hasn't done this with your work!
 
After another couple of emails and a live web chat I've heard from amazon. They say the book will be taken down from all Amazon sites (it was up in the US as well as the UK) within 3 working days.

I asked if any copies had been sold but they haven't replied yet.

Hopefully that's the end of that. I really don't expect there to be any money involved anywhere.

The book is still avalable for free download fromwww.scottjrobinson.com and I'm haveing a competition on my blog that can win you books 2 and 3 as well. Check it out at

Competition
 
They were unable to tell you on the spot whether any copies sold electronically had been sold? A massive online company with huge computers serving the people in many ways? A paranoid person would take that as a worrying sign that they're probably talking to their legal team about the ones they did sell.
 
ScottJRobinson said:
After another couple of emails and a live web chat I've heard from amazon. They say the book will be taken down from all Amazon sites (it was up in the US as well as the UK) within 3 working days.

I asked if any copies had been sold but they haven't replied yet.
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My guess is that if anyone did end up buying a copy, it will be removed from their Kindle the next time they log in to the system, and any money will be refunded to them. Seems to me there was a big brouhaha when (a while back) Amazon yanked thousands of copies of a book from users because of something related to rights issues.
 
Scott, good to see you got this resolved.

By coincidence I came across this article this week...

Chinese writers sue Apple for allegedly hosting pirated ebooks

Chinese authors are suing Apple for not taking down illegal copies of their ebooks. Apple's response is essentially that the authors have to prove that they didn't license their works for others to publish! :eek: Seems to be just a tad backwards to me, shouldn't Apple be asking the copiers to prove that they have a license to the work?
 
JJackson said:
Damn. Hope you get this resolved. Looks like you have a neat series planned.
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Thanks. The first 3 are already written. (Final edit on 3 is underway)

Book 4 has the first few and last few chapters done. It was the end of book 3 originally but my editor complained it ended to quickly so I'm inserting a war into the middle, as you do.

I've had some great comments from people and a few donations, though not nearly enough of the either, really.

I had a great review on a blog and someone commented underneath that they loved book 1, which I gave away for free, and couldn't wait for book 2. But apparently they don't want it enough to make a $2 donation. Oh well. They can buy it on Amazon in a few months when I finish book 4 and offer them for sale. (I always intended to do this, just wanted to complete series available first.)
 
Scott mate, I think your underselling yourself. $0.99 to $5.99 is an average range for many eBooks. I see a lot of well established writers charging $7.99. Too cheap and some folks assume that it's a lower quality piece. (Which is NOT always true) Quality work that is well editing, reviewed, well heck, what's a few $$ for a great read. Your much more established than myself and I am having no issues with a $3.99 tag... I have read some of your work and though I am by no means a 'critic', I will say it again. Your selling yourself short. Set a 'fair' price and stick too it. - Anyway, just my two cents worth.. :) GL on the release and have fun with it all.
 
G'day Scott. I have an excellent editor, which helps, and my website and its artwork were done in the UK by an old friend of mine. Helps a lot too. With picing I looked a lot of factors. One was the $3.99 or less category on Amazon. If you want an AMAZON presence get EVERYONE to buy from Amazon. This will drive the rankings up, you don't need many sales to crack 100K. Very few really. Same on Smashwords. Its that 'ELITE' top 100 thats a tough nut to crack. But we all aim for it. Again GL and meet you in the top 100 next year, what do you reckon?
 
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