liviangrey
Junior Member
Posts: 33
Joined: May 17, 2016 18:06:21 GMT -8
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Post by liviangrey on Aug 19, 2016 2:14:18 GMT -8
I used my TFN from the outset, I never applied for an ABN or EIN And this was when I signed up in 2013. Stupidly it didn't stop me leaving out bank details.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 19, 2016 5:30:38 GMT -8
Zon really does work in mysterious ways. Finally went about raking the vast fortune..Oops, I mean the pittance earned from the createspace paperbacks. Not even beer money as this is pledged to charity. And today I had an email from Zon itemizing every single sale, about 30 of them. These are British pounds sales. There are also a few sales in Euros and U S dollars, so I'll have those to come on other emails. Can you imagine the emails for the top paperback writers?? But this money has been gathering dust in Amazon / createspace coffers for years, so good to finally see it. I'm sure Zon won't miss it. What I love about this thread, the most followed, read and contributed of any on this site and clearly others love it as well, is the eclectic mix of contributions. Originally me banging on about my journey through Kindle Unlimited and now my British writers equivalent of Brexit which I'll continue awhile longer, it has morphed into a free-for-all of experiences and opinions on everything under the sun. Fantastic. So toss it in here, especially you newbies. You are the future and your voice matters. You'll not make idiots of yourselves. That's my job, playing the fool and to make everyone else seem intelligent. Everyone here knows how dim I am and that I wear sandals because I haven't mastered tying my own shoelaces. I leave the really clever stuff to people who actually know what they're talking about. Yes, I mean YOU!!!
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Post by Julie Harris on Aug 19, 2016 12:48:36 GMT -8
Diane, PM me for w8 info if you're totally stuck. Catherine Howard has a blog post especially for non US writers. I can't remember the online tax interview questions exactly, but use your TFN, not both. I used my ITIN and TFN and zon did not much like that, one bit.
createspace is still paper, at least I think so, never been asked to do online there. Still paying by cheque, too.
D2d is online but don't recall whether you use TFN or EIN. Again, sorry.
Smash is still paper. If you pm me I may not get to reply for a day or so. Helping family member move house today.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 19, 2016 13:33:42 GMT -8
D2D sent me the W* form not long ago. It would be good if they all sang the same songs.
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liviangrey
Junior Member
Posts: 33
Joined: May 17, 2016 18:06:21 GMT -8
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Post by liviangrey on Aug 19, 2016 15:56:43 GMT -8
I really didn't know what I was getting into when I signed up with Zon years ago. No idea about the KU guidelines, it wasn't until I migrated to SW that I even realised there was this stipulation. I was lazy about migrating but I'm glad I branched out now. Newbies have A LOT to learn in this game, never assume this process is as "easy" in some respects as the distributors say. SW is more upfront about your requirements than Amazon, who love it when you don't read the fine print. I had to become my own legal department and do the homework. So if this thread clears up some mysteries for newcomers, let's keep it going!
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Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055
Joined: Oct 30, 2013 14:12:26 GMT -8
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Post by Ria Stone on Aug 19, 2016 17:07:27 GMT -8
I really didn't know what I was getting into when I signed up with Zon years ago. No idea about the KU guidelines, it wasn't until I migrated to SW that I even realised there was this stipulation. I was lazy about migrating but I'm glad I branched out now. Newbies have A LOT to learn in this game, never assume this process is as "easy" in some respects as the distributors say. SW is more upfront about your requirements than Amazon, who love it when you don't read the fine print. I had to become my own legal department and do the homework. So if this thread clears up some mysteries for newcomers, let's keep it going! So true, we have to be a jack or jill-of-all-trades as self-published authors :-)
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Post by garyweston on Aug 20, 2016 8:37:55 GMT -8
I must be completely nuts. I've just put the first of the dusty miller box sets as a five day free promo on Zon! Five damn books free in one hit. But this was the last of the books in K U and to be honest, not doing a lot of anything much. The solo books are out of K U but I can't go wide with the dusty books until the box has run its course in K U ending next month, so I thought what the hell. I suppose with another four dusty books to follow, doing this might do a little good. Am I nuts? Probably.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 22, 2016 0:38:43 GMT -8
Box set of Dusty Miller has just gone free and straight off with a "free" ranking. If readers of this genre don't see a bargain when it's there, there's not much else to do because they'll never have another opportunity to get this for free. Amazon has a lot to do to entice people like me back into K U. I think it is probably too late. There are alternative subscription models non exclusive for writers. Yes, Zon. You can entice us into your web but K U isn't for life, although our books are. When an Indie dumps K U, That's probably for ever. So think on, Zon.
I'll let you know how the promo goes.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 23, 2016 7:40:10 GMT -8
The box set of Dusty Miller is finding readers and I've nabbed a couple of paid sales too. Just noticed Craggy one is finally free on Zon having been price matched at last. Already picking up readers. It has a good pedigree with reviews as does the other Craggy books. It was a huge mistake on my part putting a price on in the first place after a couple of years as perma free. A price is still showing on the book until clicked on, but these things can take time. All this positivity is cheering me up after yesterday when I was seriously down in the dumps. I am programmed to be an optimist so I'm encouraged again. I suppose the lesson from this is if you finally get a book perma free on Amazon, leave the damn thing alone!!! I see no reason why I would ever put a $ on it again, as doing this for free when Craggy 1 was published, meant it took off and I was encouraged to write the series. Of course when I originally put it on Amazon I had no choice but to put a price on it and of course it never got a reader. I'll be following the same exercise with Dusty 1 again. Funny thing was,when I finished writing Craggy 1 and it was ready to go wide, I thought, "yeah, it's maybe ok. I'll throw it out there and see what happens." It seemed the sci fi readers were relieved to find something wacky, funny and full of characters they could shake hands with. So, don't follow the trends. Start new ones.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 27, 2016 9:09:19 GMT -8
In my quest for world domination, now I'm shedding K U, I've flooded the market with a load of stuff via D2D. I'm now getting a constant stream of emails from D2D telling me this book has gone here, that book has gone there. Probably just another 9 or 10 to go. No rush. Heck. Stuff is even turning up on Barnes and Noble. I got a couple of reminders from D2D, saying Apple gets confused if we send "box" shaped covers. They call them 3-D. Everyone else can take them, but not Apple it seems. No sweat. I'll sort out a couple of covers just for them when I have five minutes. Just bear that in mind about Apple and covers if you try something like that. Jeez! The stuff we put up with. So with another project done, now what? Dunno about you guys, but I feel that a day not doing something creative is a wasted day. And yes, I've been known to be both wasted and creative. I've decided it is time to get my head around scripts (again). Not a thing to be taken lightly. Script writing is a profession. The best I can hope to accomplish is a halfway decent amateur's attempt. So I'll be reading through these professional scripts until it finally makes sense. Wish me luck! gointothestory.blcklst.com/free-script-downloads/
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Post by Julie Harris on Aug 27, 2016 13:31:39 GMT -8
A one size fits all for covers is 1600 X 2400 px. Now you know why I resized your new one.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 27, 2016 13:43:27 GMT -8
size isn't everything, I've been told. It was just being box shaped Apple doesn't like. I'll fix it one of these days.
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Post by garyweston on Aug 30, 2016 23:45:49 GMT -8
At last! My perma freebie plan is showing a glimmer of hope. Despite my badgering, Craggy #1 still has a price on it with Amazon.UK so missing out on readers there. The Amazon.com freebie has netted me over three hundred downloads which isn't bad. This has led to a couple of sales on Craggy #2 as people wade their way through #1. Weighing it at around 83k words, Craggy #1 isn't a five minute read, so it is good to see the sales already starting. I hate having to go the freebie route as I think all this method has done is flood the market with free books. You can buy a kindle and read free for life. These "Use the power of free" tactics are encouraged by Mark Coker. He always has and still does. He is both wrong and right to do so, in my opinion. Wrong because of flooding the world with so much free stuff, and right because we as authors have little alternative but to jump on this particular bandwagon. it is the reality of things that in this highly competitive world, that we have to try such tactics but it's a double edged sword but it has reached such a proportion that is part of the downward trend in sales. Kobo, and to a lesser degree, Apple, have readers who will snatch up any freebie I hand them, but won't put their hands in their pockets to buy anything. And can we blame them? Who created this problem? We did.
On a related issue, and more confusing, are my daily "sales" on the smash platform. To keep my foot in the door, even though I use D2D now, I left quite a lot of freebies, mostly novellas and shorts, * with smash so I would still have a few readers on the other platforms like B and N and Apple. I'm getting spikes of about 150 downloads per 7 days, mostly on apple. The confusing thing is, about 115 of these are for Double Bluff, clearly identified as the second in that novella series. A few for the first novella, but not many. Go figure. *(I have no issue with these being free and this is where Amazon could help by making these free if writers want them to be but insisting on a price for full sized works to put us on a level playing-field with fellow Indies. We can still beat the Trads on price, any day of the week)
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Post by Ted on Aug 31, 2016 7:07:00 GMT -8
Per Amazon, this is their policy:
“For us to consider matching prices in foreign markets, the website selling the book at a lower price must be based in the same country or region as the Kindle store where your book is sold. Should you want us to price match your book on the Amazon.ca site for instance, you would need to send us a link to your book on a Canadian store selling it for less.”
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Post by garyweston on Sept 3, 2016 3:24:25 GMT -8
Not quite so simple for the U K site. There's apple UK but have you ever tried finding a book on there? Nightmare. I have a speed thing for apple.com, but give up other than that. The Kobo Uk search seems to seems to go to kobo.com, W H Smiths no help. Anyone has way out of that, let me know. Eventually, Amazon catches up and all their sites go perma free with the book. Best move I found before was to wait until Zon.com actually removes the price then use that U R L to badger the other Zon sites with it. Takes time, but it works in the end. Although free, the book still shows the price. That said, even with the limited "free" Zon sites for the book, it still has reasonable hits and the rest of the series are starting to sell again. It's a sledgehammer tactic doing this but it still seems to work. I'd rather just work on Space Storm 2 and not be troubled with this sort of non-creative stuff, but it goes with the Indie turf.
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