I always hope that with each new book release the stress and ulcer inducing angst will fade with time. For some reason, it never seems to. Every release is painful and terrifying. That elusive calm and serenity never finds me. Sometimes there is a reason for that stress, and sometimes it’s simply fear of the unknown.
This most recent release of Redemption (Previously titled Guard My Body) is giving me a headache. Not because of reviews or the book itself, but because of Amazon. They delayed the book several days and then when they finally made it live, they didn’t upload the cover. Now a book without a cover is incredibly difficult to promote, and promotion is everything in this crowded market. I can’t advertise a book with no cover. How appealing would an ad be with “NO IMAGE AVAILABLE” stamped on it? Not very, I can assure you.
The other vendors are more than capable of putting the book up WITH the cover, thankfully, but unfortunately Amazon is the bulk of most author’s sales. I really wish another platform would spring up that could put Amazon in it’s place. It would have to make book buying brainless because that is why I love buying things from Amazon. It’s so EASY. They understand that people will be lazy and go where the buying is easy. Their customer service if you’re a customer is great, but if you’re an author? There are no live people to talk to and you usually just get email responses that say almost nothing and tell you to wait 72 hours. THREE DAYS is a lifetime when you’re talking about a book launch. In three days my book probably will have sank to the bottom of the Amazon abyss.
But the good thing about this type of incompetence on Amazon’s part is; it reminds me that I need to be doing everything I can to be LESS dependent on them, not more.
S.C.