Kindle Store's Marketing Challenge

I don't want to pick on Amazon or the Kindle Store.  I am a voracious reader, and the miraculous invention of books that magically appear in my living room is too wonderful for words!

But as an author, here's my problem.  I sent some gift copies of my new short story collection Nine Romantic Stories to a few friends and family members around the holidays. Here 's a sample conversation:

"I can't read your book because I don't have a Kindle."

"But you don't need a Kindle.  You can read Kindle books on phones, tablets, or your PC."

"But doesn't a Kindle book require a Kindle?  Why would it be called a Kindle book?"

"No, no, it's a Kindle book because it's, uh, sold in the Kindle Store.  It's not a book that's made only for a Kindle.  You can download software and read it anywhere?"

A few hours later, I received the following, "I don't know where to download it, and I don't see anything on the website that helps me find the Kindle Cloud Reader."

So, I had to walk through the options:  you can download the Kindle reader through your iPad apps, the Google Play Store or other smartphone apps, or, yes, you can dig it up on Amazon-- but try doing a search for Kindle Cloud Reader in the Kindle Store (where you'd expect to find it, no?)  What you get is a list of books about the Cloud Reader-- and oh yes, a small (for leprechaun readers) note at the top about the software.  No wonder she hadn't found it.

The long and short of it is I suggested, "Go to Google and search for Kindle Cloud Reader" and presto, the Kindle Cloud reader  appears.  (Yes, now you have the link too!)

I found blog posts that suggest to new authors that they send emails explaining how to download the Kindle Cloud Reader-- or else, they lose sales.  Now, Amazon and authors have one shared goal, which is to sell more books-- but they divergent goals about selling Kindles.  Is that why the software is hidden-- so that Amazon sells more Kindles?   Maybe, or maybe it's yet another example of poorly designed navigation.  Either way, it hurts authors.

The Mysterious World of Kindle Cloud, continued

I'd first contacted Kindle Customer Support a month ago with the following query:  why did "chunks of text" vanished when previewed on Kindle's online previewer?  I had uploaded the book multiple times and still, no resolution.

The answer that I received was the file was fine.  It was the online previewer's fault said the Kindle Team. Download a different previewer.

That seemed odd. But I accepted the team's word and "published" it.  Of course, e-publishing is different from print.  You can upload to your heart's content. Still, you'd rather not.  You'd rather be promoting your book or writing a new one.  Uploading's no fun.

Then, readers wrote me that, yes, text went missing on Kindle Cloud, but not on Kindles. Again, a flurry of emails to Kindle Customer Support who assured me, many times, that they were "not able to replicate the problem."  

A friend contacted Kindle Customer Support about the missing text (on the Kindle Cloud reader.)  She was told to reinstall the software as well as the book title.   This would have been a complicated matter, since she had dozens of downloaded titles on her Kindle Cloud.  And neither of us felt that this was the solution.

I didn't drop the issue.  This morning, I received an explanation of what was wrong with my HTML file.  (A simple fix:  code had slipped in that specified font and background color, which is a no-no.  It took a few seconds to remedy the problem)

Lessons learned: A problem doesn't disappear because someone else can't replicate it.  And don't believe everything that Kindle Customer Support tells you.