My short stories

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I can't find them on Amazon, the link doesn't work. Searching for Death, Bad dreams and other Fun Stuff doesn't come up either.
I unpublished them this morning. They kept selling and I wasn't getting paid. I had at least a dozen people who bought them In Feb. and I never got paid. Some other authors had the same experience. Amazon keeps showing "no sales" . Had my daughter buy one about 6 weeks ago. She paid for it but the sale never showed. You have to wonder how many are getting cheated.
 
It might be a good policy for those of us who buy a book from an author that is a member here to notify them what and when we purchased from Amazon.
 
I never even thought about Amazon being crooked. For me I guess it didn't matter because the whole deal cost me nothing and I made a lot of money. Possibly Amazon screwed me out of some cash but on the other hand if there was no Amazon I never would have made anything. I'm sorry to hear about your experience, Rusty.
 
None of the links work. can you post new ones or give the title of your stories so we can search on Amazon. Thanks!
 
None of the links work. can you post new ones or give the title of your stories so we can search on Amazon. Thanks!
If you are talking to me, I unpublished mine.
 
I guess that Amazon needed more money.
Though I quit writing new stories (for money) I am still getting the royalties from all my published stories. Don't understand why it did not work out for you.
 
I've not noticed any issues with my books, either. Now that I'm with a publisher, I get a detailed reconciliation from Amazon and everyone else every month. :D
My problem was not getting paid for all of the books I sold.
 
I though Amazon paid KU authors per page read, not per book sold. I was under the impression that selling a book gets you nothing, until the customer allows their eReader to communicate back to Amazon what books you are reading, what page you are currently on, etc. As a customer, I do not allow this Amazon snooping. So I believe that when I buy a book from an Amazon KU author, that author never gets paid for my purchase. I don't like that, but I am unwilling to allow Amazon to track me and my activities to facilitate payment. If the author makes an agreement with Amazon for this payment model, that does not mandate that I, the customer, allow snooping. I feel sorry for the authors, but when you sign a deal with the devil...

Note: Other authors attempt to abuse Amazon's payment system. They fill their book with garbage pages that you have to scroll past to get to the actual book content. So that gives them an artificially high "pages read" count. More money for them, more hassle for the customer. This author behavior is a scam IMHO. I really don't care if these leeches get paid one penny.

So I buy books from Amazon, but they do not get directly downloaded to my eReader devices. I side-load all the books onto my devices that are always kept in "airplane mode". Thus, Amazon has no window into my activities. Nor do the authors get paid AFAIK. But that's not my problem. I pay Amazon. If they choose not to pay the authors, because the authors agreed to a questionable "pages read" payment scheme, that's not my concern.
 
How does one, "side load?"
 
"Side loading" refers to putting the eBooks on your Kindle (or tablet, or whatever) via the USB port and not via the "normal" means (e.g., WiFi connection to Amazon).

You can do this simply by plugging your Kindle into your computer with it's supplied USB cord. Then you drag-n-drop the eBooks from the computer to your Kindle. This implies that: (1) you already have the eBook on your computer (you previously downloaded it from Amazon), and (2) you know where on your Kindle to drag it to.

To make this easier, and for a whole lot more eBook functionality, I recommend the "Calibre" software. This is free software, and I believe it is available for just about any computer OS platform you'd normally want to install it on.

https://calibre-ebook.com/

Personally, I use Calibre to put eBooks onto my Kindle. You still plug the Kindle into your computer with it's USB cord, but then it's as simple as going into Calibre and highlighting the eBook(s) that you want to copy to your Kindle and clicking a button. Calibre knows where to put them on all eReader devices. Plus, Calibre adds capabilities above and beyond a simple eBook transfer. you can rename the eBook during the transfer, for example.

The best forum I've found to ask questions regarding Calibre is here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=166

The developer of the software is very active on the above forums, so you can get answers directly from him. And, there are a ton of experienced Calibre users on that forum.

Getting the eBook from Amazon onto your computer is simple: You go to Amazon->ManageYourContentAndDevices->Content and you will see a listing of all the books you have ever purchased from Amazon. Choose the book you are interested in, click on the three-dot icon next to it, then choose DownloadAndTransferViaUSB. Now that you have the book on your computer, you can drag-n-drop it to your Kindle. I do not know the specific directory on a Kindle to drag-n-drop to, since I've always used Calibre for this step. You should be able to Google for the appropriate Kindle directory, or ask on the forum link I provided above. But really, just obtain and learn how to use Calibre - it is a fantastic piece of software.

[edit] p.s. - You can also use Calibre to remove DRM from your eBooks. So if you bought the book from Amazon (in Kindle format) you can remove the DRM and then convert the book to, say, EPUB format for use on a different (non-Amazon) eReader. Calibre does not remove DRM itself, however it supports plugins, and there is a plugin named "DeDRM" that handles the task. Use of the DeDRM plugin is mentioned on the above forums, but not discussed in depth. If you ask about the plugin, you will probably be directed to "Apprentice Alf's Blog" for detailed information on how to use the plugin. [/edit]
 
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I though Amazon paid KU authors per page read, not per book sold.
Authors can get paid both ways. All authors get paid for every book sold, whether it is read or not. An author can choose to sign up each or some books on the Kindle Unlimited. Then the readers get the book for free and the author gets paid by the pages read. Pay is better for the books sold but you reach a much larger audience by using Kindle Unlimited (or at least that is my experience).
New authors are likely better to enroll their books on Kindle Unlimited so readers can then try out the new author at no cost to them while the author still gets paid some. Well liked authors may choose to only sell their books to their established readership to make more money.
 
Thanks for the clarification. I was conflating KU (rentals) with sales.
... Kindle Unlimited. Then the readers get the book for free ...
Not exactly "free", it's $10 per month. At my slow reading speed, that's $15 to $20 per book. Which is why I don't subscribe to KU (but I have taken advantage of a few 99 cent promos and free trials). If you read very fast, KU is a deal. But if you read slow, then you can buy the book outright for cheaper than "renting" it from KU.
 
Thanks hiwall, you are a wealth of knowledge.
 
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