Let me start with a disclaimer: I’ve never been a conspiracy theorist. Perhaps it’s because I was never invested in the causes: I don’t really care if the moon landing was real or who killed JFK. But lately, one conspiracy has been getting under my skin, and it’s Amazon’s glitchy system, specifically KENP.
Quite a few authors have complained online that their pages read count went down. My own count was zero for the entire month of October, but at first I chucked it to the pathetic sales figures in general. Then, after I published the blog the other day and seeing a number of comments mention the issue, I decided to complain to KDP. I told them that it’s impossible that I would have zero pages per day for the whole month because a friend of mine tested the system by downloading the book and reading a few pages.
Ok, so that was an outrageous lie, but look at what I saw this morning:
Coincidence? Maybe, but I suddenly remembered that this scenario happened before, a few months ago. That time I complained after about two weeks, was promptly told that there’s nothing wrong with the system, but the pages showed up immediately and kept showing up every day. It’s been less than 24 hours since my latest complaint and I have not heard from KDP, but I expect another assurance that everything is fine.
So if you are an author with a book in KDP Select and you feel that your pages count is down, don’t beat yourself up. Complain to KDP and see if the count jumps within 24 hours. And if it does, please let me know.
Oh, and my apologies to conspiracy theorists out there. Keep up your good work. Somebody has to.
Ana Spoke, author 
Hi Ana,
I’ve heard a lot complaints recently about Amazon. Guess they’re really shaking up things.
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There’s got to be some kind of an audit process, or something, considering they get what, fifteen million per month for KU?
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Well, that’s interesting. *puts his tin foil hat on*
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Hahaha! I better go make me one too…
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I’ve only been with KDP Select for 3 months and am about to renew for another quarter. There has been good days for KENP read and days without anything. I just wondered how long it took you to build up a picture of how many KENP read you can expect each day/month. I’ve looked at Kindle Unlimited as a success so far, but seeing other people’s comments I’m beginning to have doubts.
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Hi Suzanne, I’m going to stay with them because over the last year I’ve been disappointed with all the other platforms. I’ve had this book in Select for just over 3 months, I normally had about 50-100 pages per day and then it fell off the cliff.
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Thanks for sharing your insight on pages read. I’d be happy with a steady stream of pages read every day.
I’ve had no luck with other platforms either, so I’m really hoping that KDP works out.
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Well, it’s been 3 days and over 100 pages average per day. So yeah, I’m staying with Select for now.
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I’ve heard there’s a problem with the new Kindle page flip feature, which is causing this page count problem
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Just read up on it. Sounds like a great solution to scammers that inadvertently may be hurting authors. I just got a copy and paste answer of “move along, nothing to see here.”
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Wow
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Hmm, sounds like someone’s software needs an occasional kick to remind it what its supposed to be doing.
Used to have to do this quite a bit during my career in the UK civil service.
Well done for keeping them on their toes.
(I don’t subscribe to conspiracies, referring back to a 40+ year career in the UK CS the idea of a group of folk making anything as sophisticated as a conspiracy try to work without falling down on their faces-or the other end- just doesn’t scan in the cynical side of my brain)
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Hahaha! How is a coverup then? I manage a software for my organisation (it is not as important as a page counter, we don’t issue payments or invoices). Every single time we’ve done an upgrade something else broke in the overall integration architecture. And we didn’t know until someone comes complained. I’m just sayin’.
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of course there is always the Skynet option…. (it’s there y’know) lol
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My October numbers were 0 as well, and I’ve read a LOT about the issues other authors are having (page flip and all that). In my case, I think there’s no conspiracy/glitch. I think that people just aren’t reading my book on KU any more. (I wrote about this just yesterday: https://alfageeek.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/time-to-leave-kdp-select/ )
A reader happened to DM me two days ago and told me she had let her KU subscription expire. But she just renewed it, and she was going to start reading my book again. Lo and behold: 80 pages popped up. You and I have been on a pretty parallel course with our book launch timing, and I think we are just seeing the fact that people don’t read year-old books on KU.
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Well, if I was the only one with this issue, I’d accept that. But pages read were for Indiot, which is only 3 months old, and they went from a pretty continuous trickle to nada for a month. I’ve never before had a zero-month, and this is considering that I’ve advertised the first book via paid advertising and Indiot via Twitter. It appears that Flip is automatically the mode for anyone reading on a phone, and KDP have intermittently admitted errors. I wish someone with a lot more know how would catch them out. I am however going to stay in Select. Still better than all the other platforms for me.
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As I’m not so sure that anyone actually reads my first book except when I’ve gifted it in-print or the Kindle version was bought outright, I only rarely check the KNP graphs. I don’t understand them anyway 😡
Wish I did.
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Hi Pearl, you sound down 😦 if it makes you feel any better, nobody buys my books unless I promote them. Have you tried any promos from my Super Duper list?
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I pretty much know the few who have bought them and I expected to be gifted a fair few. It’s mostly disappointing that the majority of the ones I’ve gifted haven’t resulted in any reviews, though (considering these are family and friends 😦 ).
No, I haven’t. Is it listed on your posts? I think I remember seeing it once, but I’d sure appreciate it if you could spare a link!!!
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I may need to reblog it: https://anaspoke.com/2015/10/08/the-most-super-duper-exhaustive-comprehensive-and-current-listing-of-free-and-paid-book-advertising-websites-and-ideas/
I would move on to putting the book into more hands. None of my friends liked Shizzle, Inc, but plenty of people across the globe did.
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You’re kidding? I’ve only just started it, but it had me cracking up from the first few lines! And of course, I’ve always loved the cover…chickipoo just LOOKS like Isa! I’m glad it’s done well, whether in your neighbourhood or elsewhere on this big, blue marble 😀 😀 😀
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I noticed that my pages were down to flat as well and commented on it on alfageek’s blog. Like magic, I saw pages were once again read the following day (though at a FAR from usual level). I have decided I don’t like this page flip option one bit.
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I had three days of read pages and it’s back to zero again. Maybe it’s just that, nobody is reading it, it’s just hard to believe considering that I’ve ran promos and had spikes in sales. Oh well, it’s giving me motivation to go get a traditional contract. Silver lining in anything.
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I think the whole of Amazon publishing is a scam, and now, they only care about their Kindle Scout program, and pages read through KENP/KULL in regards to books released through big publishers. I, too, have had issues with Amazon, numerous issues, and if this current one isn’t resolved, I’ll be unpublishing permanently. Often, my sales reflect no revenue. I complain. It’s fixed. They say there was no issue. Now, I find negative revenue, but none of my reports show any returns. I suspect it’ll be cleared up in 24 hours with an email that states there was no issue. KDP is awful, and Select is a scam. I sell tons, TONS, through BnN online and iBooks, but practically nothing through Amazon. Two, years ago, I sold every day on Amazon, but the more I complained, the fewer sales I saw, so I didn’t renew my Select subscription, and now I do quite well elsewhere. I’m not stupid, none of us are; this company is up to something, and I have no qualms letting them know I don’t need them. Great post. Thanks.
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