Author Topic: Sales reporting issues - Anybody else? (Read 29619 times)

CoraBuhlert · « **on:** April 29, 2019, 08:57:10 AM »

Is sales reporting uncommonly slow for anybody else? I know that sales that show up on the sales graph often don't show up on the month to date listing until later and that there can sometimes be a lag of a day or two.

However, since April 18 I have UK sales showing on my graph that don't show up in the month to date listing at all. At first I thought that sales reporting was simply laggy because of the Easter weekend, but now, more than a week later, I still have missing UK sales. The missing sales aren't returns either (I checked). It's also only the UK store that is affected, the reporting for all other stores is normal.

So has anybody else experienced something like this or is it just me?

Fee · « **Reply #1 on:** April 29, 2019, 06:06:32 PM »

Yip, this is a thing at the moment for some people. I'm down quite a large chunk of UK sales at the moment. At the end of the British and Irish writers' thread it's mentioned (maybe it should be merged with this?). I noticed someone mention it over at the other forum as well.
I've taken screenshots of mine, and will do so again at the end of the month, just in case I have to contact Amazon about it.

https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=446.50

It's not just you

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #2 on:** April 29, 2019, 07:04:43 PM »

Definitely not just you, Cora.

It started for me on the 4th April. Now I’m currently short of 15 books - all in the UK. Grr.

VanessaC · « **Reply #3 on:** April 29, 2019, 07:06:01 PM »

Can't comment on sales, as mine can be very sparse, but I'm in KU and my page reads have basically flat lined since Friday, although the book ranks have been moving suggesting that they have been borrowed or bought. For me, this is across all stores, not just UK. Of course, it could be that in my case, page reads have, in fact, flat lined - I haven't been doing this long enough to be sure.

Had a quick look at The Other Place, and it looks like issues with sales and page read reporting is widespread.

So, not just you and me, seems like another glitch, and hoping Amazon will fix it soon.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #4 on:** April 29, 2019, 09:29:42 PM »

I just looked at my UK sale for April. On the bar graph I have 11, the last dates of sales being April 14 and 16th. Sales on month to date shows 8. That's almost a two week delay. I screen shotted so thanks for posting this.
Australia was missing one sale, but there is one on the 27th, so I hope that one will show up pretty soon. Seems like a real mess lately.

Kyra Halland · « **Reply #5 on:** April 30, 2019, 02:00:19 AM »

I only have a small number of sales from the UK this month, but yes, one of them has never come through on the royalties (it's been, I don't know, a couple of weeks?). A LOT of people in the Facebook groups I hang out in are also reporting many sales from the UK where the royalties haven't shown up after days or even weeks. This is a huge, widespread problem.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #6 on:** April 30, 2019, 03:09:44 AM »

I have a (free) promo, only in the UK this week. That will be interesting, I'll have to keep an eye on rank as well, and the sales on books 2&3 in the trilogy, lots of screen shots in my future. Notjohn always used to say, "pay no attention to the pretty graph". At this point I just don't know which set of numbers to believe.

CoraBuhlert · « **Reply #7 on:** April 30, 2019, 11:28:57 AM »

Quote from: Fee on April 29, 2019, 06:06:32 PM

Yip, this is a thing at the moment for some people. I'm down quite a large chunk of UK sales at the moment. At the end of the British and Irish writers' thread it's mentioned (maybe it should be merged with this?). I noticed someone mention it over at the other forum as well.
I've taken screenshots of mine, and will do so again at the end of the month, just in case I have to contact Amazon about it.

https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=446.50

It's not just you

Thanks. I didn't even think to check that thread, since I'm not a British or Irish writer. But nonetheless, it's good to know that it's not just me.

VanessaC · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2019, 05:56:23 PM »

My page reads are now updating for the weekend - not all there yet, I don't think. And just to compound the weirdness, a couple of my reviews have disappeared, too, from .com.

Here's hoping that Amazon is in the process of fixing whatever glitch has happened, and that everyone gets their sales through soon.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2019, 08:28:49 PM »

About 70% of my royalties are from amazon UK, so this is a concern. Hope it's fixed quickly.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2019, 08:33:09 PM »

My missing sales are still missing. Simon - do you run AMS ads on the UK site? I hope you don't mind me asking. Thanks, Amanda

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2019, 08:44:58 PM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on April 30, 2019, 08:33:09 PM

My missing sales are still missing. Simon - do you run AMS ads on the UK site? I hope you don't mind me asking. Thanks, Amanda

No problem asking, and yes I do. I get better results from targeted FB ads though. (I run a campaign for each country.)

AMS UK has just as much trouble spending any money as the US edition.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2019, 09:14:56 PM »

Thank you. I guess I don't have to feel too bad about not being allowed in UK AMS then, though I might go plead my case one more time.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2019, 10:16:54 PM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on April 30, 2019, 09:14:56 PM

Thank you. I guess I don't have to feel too bad about not being allowed in UK AMS then, though I might go plead my case one more time.

Which procedure are you using? I just started setting up an Amazon Advantage UK account, and then stopped before I had to fill out all the extra details like banking etc. After that, I could sign up for AMS UK using the semi-created Advantage account. It's over a year ago now, but I didn't have to apply for anything. The only issue is that you have to use a different email address to your regular Amazon UK sign-in.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #14 on:** April 30, 2019, 10:23:00 PM »

Thanks, I did try that, different email and everything. I always ended up in the loop where they said they were not allowing authors in AMS UK and click here to sign up to be notified when they do, except there is no where to sign up on that link. It's frustrating, my International Bookbub got me super nice reviews in the UK and I can't capitalize on it at all. But I will try again, it's been a few months.

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #15 on:** May 01, 2019, 12:41:38 AM »

The problem is still ongoing. I lost another couple of sales yesterday.

Has anyone emailed them about it? I suppose it’s too much to hope for a sensible response if we do.

Bill Hiatt · « **Reply #16 on:** May 01, 2019, 06:19:20 AM »

Quote from: Gerri Attrick on May 01, 2019, 12:41:38 AM

The problem is still ongoing. I lost another couple of sales yesterday.

Has anyone emailed them about it? I suppose it’s too much to hope for a sensible response if we do.

Emails to KDP do occasionally produce a sensible response.

I would strongly recommend that affected people make sure Amazon knows. I don't know enough about the nature of their infrastructure to know how visible a problem like this would be to Amazon if no one reported it.

CoraBuhlert · « **Reply #17 on:** May 01, 2019, 12:35:36 PM »

I'm still missing UK sales for April. As far as I can tell (I have a lot of books), the missing sales were for 70% royalty books, while sales of 99 pence books were reported correctly.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2019, 01:32:00 PM »

I can see 6 UK and US sales for one particular title yesterday, and only one royalty amount (today, for the UK). I'll be keeping a close eye on it to see if the other 5 amounts are added later today.

Fee · « **Reply #19 on:** May 01, 2019, 06:01:10 PM »

I've just used the 'contact us' button on my dash to message them. When this was first posted about I was missing 47 sales from the UK. As of now, I'm missing 70 UK sales for the month of April. I was going to wait until the reports came out on the 15th, so that the final tallies for April will be done, but I decided to email in case Amazon aren't aware of the issue.

It's probably the middle of the night for the peeps who respond over at Amazon, so I'm not expecting to hear back for a while, but I'll let you guys know when I do get a response.

VanessaC · « **Reply #20 on:** May 01, 2019, 06:34:09 PM »

Spoke too soon about the page reads updating - still wonky (for me, at least).

Although I don't depend on this for my income, it's still frustrating as I was getting a fairly steady run of page reads for a while. I can only imagine how frustrating and stressful these glitches are when it's your livelihood.

Meantime, if anyone needs cheering up, here's some dancing bananas.

Fee · « **Reply #21 on:** May 01, 2019, 10:46:49 PM »

Hi all,
I got a reply from Amazon far quicker than expected. (I think perhaps the dancing bananas gave them an energy boost:))

Here's what they said:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The situation you report about the delay in sales and royalties reporting on your sales dashboard is a result of a general system malfunction impacting most of our authors, we have received confirmation from our Technical response team that they are actively working on it to resolve this irregularity. I want to offer my deepest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Mostly this will be resolved within 2-3 business days. Rest assured the reported will be corrected soon and this will not affect your royalty payments

Thanks for your Kind patience while we fix this problem.

In the mean time you need any additional assistance with this, or any other matter, don't hesitate on contacting back and we'll be more than glad to help with your request.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #22 on:** May 01, 2019, 11:38:19 PM »

Hurrah! Not a stock response, and they admit there is a problem - and that it’s at their end.

Thanks, Fee, for contacting them, and for sharing their reply.

VanessaC · « **Reply #23 on:** May 02, 2019, 12:11:19 AM »

Thank you from me, too.

Shoe · « **Reply #24 on:** May 02, 2019, 04:13:31 AM »

Quote from: Fee on May 01, 2019, 10:46:49 PM

Hi all,
I got a reply from Amazon far quicker than expected. (I think perhaps the dancing bananas gave them an energy boost:))

Here's what they said:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The situation you report about the delay in sales and royalties reporting on your sales dashboard is a result of a general system malfunction impacting most of our authors, we have received confirmation from our Technical response team that they are actively working on it to resolve this irregularity. I want to offer my deepest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Mostly this will be resolved within 2-3 business days. Rest assured the reported will be corrected soon and this will not affect your royalty payments

Thanks for your Kind patience while we fix this problem.

In the mean time you need any additional assistance with this, or any other matter, don't hesitate on contacting back and we'll be more than glad to help with your request.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Is this addressing UK reporting specifically or Zon reporting generally?

Fee · « **Reply #25 on:** May 02, 2019, 04:23:34 AM »

Hey Shoe,
I specifically asked about my missing UK sales, so I have to assume that's what they addressed in the reply. I didn't have anything other than the usual lag on sales from other stores this month. It might be different for others.

Quote from: Shoe on May 02, 2019, 04:13:31 AM

Quote from: Fee on May 01, 2019, 10:46:49 PM
Hi all,
I got a reply from Amazon far quicker than expected. (I think perhaps the dancing bananas gave them an energy boost:))

Here's what they said:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The situation you report about the delay in sales and royalties reporting on your sales dashboard is a result of a general system malfunction impacting most of our authors, we have received confirmation from our Technical response team that they are actively working on it to resolve this irregularity. I want to offer my deepest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Mostly this will be resolved within 2-3 business days. Rest assured the reported will be corrected soon and this will not affect your royalty payments

Thanks for your Kind patience while we fix this problem.

In the mean time you need any additional assistance with this, or any other matter, don't hesitate on contacting back and we'll be more than glad to help with your request.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Is this addressing UK reporting specifically or Zon reporting generally?

Shoe · « **Reply #26 on:** May 02, 2019, 04:50:44 AM »

Quote from: Fee on May 02, 2019, 04:23:34 AM

Hey Shoe,
I specifically asked about my missing UK sales, so I have to assume that's what they addressed in the reply. I didn't have anything other than the usual lag on sales from other stores this month. It might be different for others.

Thanks for clarifying. I don't monitor activity by country but did notice an overall slowdown begin on April 24. Also, since that date, there have been long periods of no sales/KENP reported beginning midday (PT USA). Between 6-7PM there seems to be a little catch-up, then everything dies (except rank changes) until midnight.

Fee · « **Reply #27 on:** May 02, 2019, 05:02:44 AM »

I've seen people talk about this slow-down here and on the other forum. It sounds annoying, and might well be part of some system-wide lag, but my sales and reads are about normal at the moment. Not great, mind you, but not any worse than usual.

I only noticed that the UK sales weren't passing from the sales dashboard to the month-to-date report because Gerri Attrick posted about it on another thread. She's on the ball, that woman

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #28 on:** May 02, 2019, 06:29:21 PM »

Quote from: Fee on May 02, 2019, 05:02:44 AM

I only noticed that the UK sales weren’t passing from the sales dashboard to the month-to-date report because Gerri Attrick posted about it on another thread. She’s on the ball, that woman

Lol, Fee, I only noticed because I sell so little that I notice if one goes missing. For me, it started on the 4th of April with 2 sales of a book that have never shown up on the Month to Date chart. I now have 18 sales MIA, spread over several books. As Cora reported, they are (all but one) on 70% titles.

They may be trying to fix it, but it appears to be ongoing. I had 6 UK sales yesterday and 3 are still unaccounted for. *Sigh*

Fee · « **Reply #29 on:** May 03, 2019, 07:30:31 PM »

Quote from: Gerri Attrick on May 02, 2019, 06:29:21 PM

Quote from: Fee on May 02, 2019, 05:02:44 AM
I only noticed that the UK sales weren’t passing from the sales dashboard to the month-to-date report because Gerri Attrick posted about it on another thread. She’s on the ball, that woman

Lol, Fee, I only noticed because I sell so little that I notice if one goes missing. For me, it started on the 4th of April with 2 sales of a book that have never shown up on the Month to Date chart. I now have 18 sales MIA, spread over several books. As Cora reported, they are (all but one) on 70% titles.

They may be trying to fix it, but it appears to be ongoing. I had 6 UK sales yesterday and 3 are still unaccounted for. *Sigh*

Mine still haven't caught up either, so I see your sigh and raise you an aargh! Hoping it's fixed soon.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #30 on:** May 03, 2019, 08:12:28 PM »

I have a UK only promo that went out yesterday, early afternoon time in the US, east coast. I have no downloads for that book and the UK rank did not move. I can only hope that there is some serious lag on the UK reporting, otherwise this is the absolute worst promo I have ever run.

No downloads on a free book. I don't think I've ever had less than a couple of hundred for the smallest promo site. I'll give it till Monday morning (okay Sunday night) until I get depressed about it.

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #31 on:** May 03, 2019, 11:10:00 PM »

{{Hugs}} Amanda.

Sorry to hear this. I know how dispiriting it can be. Hang in there. If Amazon says it can take up to 3 (or more) business days to sort things, it will probably be the end of next week before we’re likely to see a proper accounting.

Sigh, aargh, and bugger.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #32 on:** May 03, 2019, 11:19:45 PM »

Thanks. We are all in this together, which is nice. It's like having friends or something, I've heard.
A big ole bugger on everyone's behalf.

VanessaC · « **Reply #33 on:** May 04, 2019, 12:41:15 AM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 03, 2019, 08:12:28 PM

I have a UK only promo that went out yesterday, early afternoon time in the US, east coast. I have no downloads for that book and the UK rank did not move. I can only hope that there is some serious lag on the UK reporting, otherwise this is the absolute worst promo I have ever run. No downloads on a free book. I don't think I've ever had less than a couple of hundred for the smallest promo site. I'll give it till Monday morning (okay Sunday night) until I get depressed about it.

That's so frustrating for you.

Not sure how you're tracking your UK rank, but the last time I ran a free promo on my book 1 - which is in KU, so perhaps different to you - there was no rank showing at all on Author Central UK, and the UK store front was a bit glitchy (can't remember precisely what happened), even though I'm sure there were downloads. Author Central US kept track of the rank on the free store, but the UK store seemed to have a disconnect with free books.

Really hope the kinks work out and you have a good promo.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #34 on:** May 04, 2019, 03:05:42 AM »

Thanks Vanessa,
Still no downloads, the ranks have moved slightly downward (gotten higher) since last night, so rankings don't appear to be 100% stuck. I just have to wait and see I guess.

VanessaC · « **Reply #35 on:** May 04, 2019, 03:27:20 AM »

I've just checked my Author Central US and UK pages (because I'm still that newbie, clicking on everything in sight about fifty times a day ...) Ahem. Anyway.

Both Author Central US and UK have a "we're experiencing delay" banners on the home page, so it seems like this is system-wide and Amazon is aware.

Meantime, it's Friday evening in the UK and I am going to put my feet up with a glass of wine and try not to look at my sales numbers for the rest of the day.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #36 on:** May 04, 2019, 03:39:24 AM »

Oh yeah, I see the banner on authorcentral US now. It's only 1:30 here, and I'll have to drive to get my kid from the bus stop soon. (IT'S RAINING!) but the little one gets dropped off right in front of the house. Hmmm.

Jan Hurst-Nicholson · « **Reply #37 on:** May 04, 2019, 05:27:06 AM »

Hmmm. I'm just coming off a BookBub promo and have been excitedly watching the BookReport figures (and listening to the unaccustomed ka-chings) Never thought to look at the KDP sales report until now, and it doesn't look as lucrative as the BookReport one

Hope things sort themselves out soon

Sales have dropped off the last few days.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #38 on:** May 04, 2019, 06:31:47 AM »

That's too bad Jan, maybe we can all be optimistic that your bookreport results mean books are moving and even if we aren't seeing it yet, we will eventually.

Jan Hurst-Nicholson · « **Reply #39 on:** May 05, 2019, 02:43:43 AM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 04, 2019, 06:31:47 AM

That's too bad Jan, maybe we can all be optimistic that your bookreport results mean books are moving and even if we aren't seeing it yet, we will eventually.

Thanks. I was having good sales and page reads until a couple of days ago. Let's hope it's just a glitch

notthatamanda · « **Reply #40 on:** May 06, 2019, 09:34:12 AM »

I got a sale in the UK today that showed up on both my graph and month to date. April is still missing sales. My promo last week got zero downloads.

Jan Hurst-Nicholson · « **Reply #41 on:** May 06, 2019, 05:20:44 PM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 06, 2019, 09:34:12 AM

My promo last week got zero downloads.

That's dreadful. Hope it's just a reporting issue and you get a sudden avalanche of downloads.

Jeff Tanyard · « **Reply #42 on:** May 06, 2019, 05:36:45 PM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 06, 2019, 09:34:12 AM

My promo last week got zero downloads.

Sorry to hear that. If you don't mind my asking, what sort of promo was it?

VanessaC · « **Reply #43 on:** May 06, 2019, 08:04:15 PM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 06, 2019, 09:34:12 AM

I got a sale in the UK today that showed up on both my graph and month to date. April is still missing sales. My promo last week got zero downloads.

Really sorry to hear that.

Was it helpful / successful elsewhere?

I do think the UK is tough as we're not really used to promo sites here - I'd never heard of Bookbub, for example, before I joined The Other Place, and that must be one of the biggest world wide promos available.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #44 on:** May 06, 2019, 08:30:42 PM »

It was ebookdeal of the day for just the UK. I never did a promo with them before. They do US promos too, but I'm not terribly excited about trying them in the US.

The UK is a smaller market, but with my International only bookbub I got phenomenal rankings and they stuck for a lot longer than any boost I've ever had on the .com site. That was better than the actual downloads I think. That was a 99 cents book (psychological thriller) and this was for my permafree new adult romance. If I could just get something going in the UK it would pay nice dividends I think. Time to actually try for AMS UK again, like I said I would last week, and didn't. Bad author.

ashleycapes · « **Reply #45 on:** May 06, 2019, 08:50:34 PM »

My reporting seems to be lagging still - have the classic "we are experiencing..." banner up to when I take a look.

VanessaC · « **Reply #46 on:** May 07, 2019, 01:46:31 AM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 06, 2019, 08:30:42 PM

It was ebookdeal of the day for just the UK. I never did a promo with them before. They do US promos too, but I'm not terribly excited about trying them in the US.

The UK is a smaller market, but with my International only bookbub I got phenomenal rankings and they stuck for a lot longer than any boost I've ever had on the .com site. That was better than the actual downloads I think. That was a 99 cents book (psychological thriller) and this was for my permafree new adult romance. If I could just get something going in the UK it would pay nice dividends I think. Time to actually try for AMS UK again, like I said I would last week, and didn't. Bad author.

Yeah, I think ranks do hold better on the UK site - which is a bonus for me at the moment as my books have sunk quite far but aren't continuing to decline as fast as they do on the US store!

Best of luck with the AMS ads UK. I must look into that too - but there are only so many hours in the day!

Ghost5 · « **Reply #47 on:** May 07, 2019, 03:18:19 AM »

Quote from: notthatamanda on May 06, 2019, 09:34:12 AM

I got a sale in the UK today that showed up on both my graph and month to date. April is still missing sales. My promo last week got zero downloads.

I am so sorry. How frustrating!

CoraBuhlert · « **Reply #48 on:** May 07, 2019, 12:22:09 PM »

I'm still missing UK sales from April that showed up on the graph. May is almost completely dead except for some Amazon.de sales. I hope it's just a reporting issue and not that my sales suddenly flatlined completely.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #49 on:** May 07, 2019, 08:16:01 PM »

My April graph and month to date are still missing a couple. May has one sale and two free in the UK and the graph and month to date match, but that is normal for me in the UK. When the April report comes out I'll check that and ask what happened if the total for April UK is off.

News:

Author Topic: Sales reporting issues - Anybody else? (Read 29619 times)