I belong to a private discussion list comprised of publishers. We all share advice, as well as our frustrations about Amazon, of course. One exchange last week shared the fact that KDP (Amazon’s print on demand publishing division) is having shipping delays of as long as three weeks. This is very bad news with the holidays just around the corner!
Here are comments from two people on the list:
I ordered the book on 9/21. Yesterday I received a note that the order was delayed and I should receive it no later than 10/15 (over 3 weeks).
and
We are also experiencing problems with KDP shipping delays and dividing the one order into multiple deliveries on different days.
I found similar online complaints about Amazon KDP shipping delays dating back to 2018 HERE, and HERE.
You can read more complaints about Amazon’s KDP division RIGHT HERE.
If you want to avoid these problems, you might want to avoid publishing your book with Amazon KDP. Smaller firms can offer much more personalized customer service…and your books will still be listed for sale on Amazon! Check out our Print on Demand Price Comparison.
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- Q – “I tried to publish my book through Amazon’s KDP Print (previously CreateSpace) but that has been a disaster. Can you publish it instead?”
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- AUTHOR ALERT! HIGHER BOOK PRICES ON AMAZON and NO PRIME SHIPPING! Has Amazon Given Your Book’s “Buy Button” to a Third-party Seller?
Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.
About The Author
Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).
Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.
WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.
BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."
Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.
PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!
Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.
Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)
See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.
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More likely too many books in the pipeline ahead of yours. But it could be they have a shortage of workers. Or it could be warehouse/shipping/fulfillment issues. Maybe they are trying to buy paper cheaper and do not have enough on hand while they ‘negotiate’. And also didn’t they have problems with workers recently? Whatever, 3 weeks is the time it usually takes me to get other things I order from amazon, so it may not be just a book problem.
Would amazon PRIME get the books faster? Then they are pushing people to sign up for prime.
I usually get my Amazon products within 1-2 days.
If they are publishing books, shouldn’t they be pre-printing and stocking those books so they can be shipped out immediately? I mean…if a book is good enough to publish, wouldn’t they consider it good enough to stock for immediate fulfillment on orders?
The fact is, they don’t vet books. They’ll publish pretty much anything and everything. I don’t think they care about their authors at all, based on the mountains of complaints about them online. 🙁
Angela
Lack of the sufficient POD equipment might be a factor. Was there any specific size or format that was experiencing delays?
It apparently wasn’t related to any particular size of book. And, if it’s a shortage of equipment, things are only going to get FAR worse the closer Christmas gets.
Angela