Anyone else finding KDP slow just now?

[VanessaC]

I'm getting ready to upload and release book 4 (hopefully next week - it's on a longer pre-order just now). As my pre-orders have been increasing (still modest, but increasing), I want to have book 5 on pre-order so I can include a link at the back of Book 4 when it goes live.

However, I set up the book 5 pre-order about five days ago, and it's still "in review" - so no live pre-order.

I haven't contacted KDP, because it's not an urgent matter, and clearly the pandemic is affecting all of us - just curious if anyone else is finding KDP really slow just now?

[TimothyEllis]

I did a pre-order a couple of weeks ago, and it was up in hours.

Have you searched for the product page?

I usually find mine about 6-8 hours before I get the email about it. And all that time it remains in review until the email arrives.

[Marti Talbott]

My page reads fell off a cliff the last two days. That's all I know.

[Bill Hiatt]

My page reads fell off a cliff the last two days. That's all I know.

Mine have been up and down, but on the whole, they're lower.

[VanessaC]

I did a pre-order a couple of weeks ago, and it was up in hours.

Have you searched for the product page?

I usually find mine about 6-8 hours before I get the email about it. And all that time it remains in review until the email arrives.

Thanks - it's never been this slow for me before! Usually les than 12 hours, like you.

Nope, definitely not up. Might need to email KDP.

[VanessaC]

My page reads fell off a cliff the last two days. That's all I know.

Mine have been up and down, but on the whole, they're lower.

Mine went up when lockdown started, and have fallen again. However, I havent had a promo or new release for a little while.

[alhawke]

Is it up yet? I read a report by other authors on the web about some serious delays over the past couple weeks on KDP--like days instead of the normal "72 hrs" to publish. Covid is probably slowing down publications?

[VanessaC]

Is it up yet? I read a report by other authors on the web about some serious delays over the past couple weeks on KDP--like days instead of the normal "72 hrs" to publish. Covid is probably slowing down publications?

Still not available - it's been a full week, I think. There is a note on the KDP community page that there can be delays - I guess I was hoping that a week was enough time ...

I'm going to press "go" on book 4, and will then need to update the backmatter when the book is live, but I've said to my (tiny) list that book 4 will be out asap, and I hate missing deadlines.

[Writer]

I think a lot of authors are finding things sluggish right now, with some new books taking a week or more to go live.

[VanessaC]

Well, I uploaded the final files for book 4 this morning, and had a confirmation email from Amazon within half an hour - so fast I feel I have whiplash - but the pre-order I tried to set up over a week ago is still in review!

It's Sunday morning, and I have a ton of other stuff to do, so will check in with the pre-order later, and may do a polite email to KDP at some point tomorrow if it's still stuck.

[notthatamanda]

Well, I uploaded the final files for book 4 this morning, and had a confirmation email from Amazon within half an hour - so fast I feel I have whiplash - but the pre-order I tried to set up over a week ago is still in review!

It's Sunday morning, and I have a ton of other stuff to do, so will check in with the pre-order later, and may do a polite email to KDP at some point tomorrow if it's still stuck.

I suggest you double check everything with a fine tooth comb and then send the email. You may have hit something wonky by mistake, but that is weird.

[Eric Thomson]

Strange.  I set up a pre-order yesterday and it went from review to pre-order publishing in under 90 minutes and pre-order live within six hours, although it took until this morning for the cover image to populate all Zon stores.

[Bill Hiatt]

I wonder if the difference is different employees. I know some of the processing is obviously automatic, but for the part that isn't, could the worker handling it make a big difference? We'll probably never know, but it would explain some of the random fluctuations.

[TimothyEllis]

I wonder if the difference is different employees.

Makes me wonder if the book flagged up something, was sent to a person for determination, and that person then went out sick, with no-one taking up their work pile.

[Marti Talbott]

I wonder if the difference is different employees.

Makes me wonder if the book flagged up something, was sent to a person for determination, and that person then went out sick, with no-one taking up their work pile.

And then the problem is the book is locked so you can't even re-upload it just in case that's the problem. I wonder if uploading the paperback would knock it loose? Can you put a paperback on pre-order?

[VanessaC]

Thanks everyone. The pre order is still hanging in review and the kdp function is locked for that book, so will contact KDP as it's just been going for so long.

I don't have a manuscript to upload just now, or I might try the paperback option.

The other book, where I uploaded the file this morning, is live already, so there are definitely weird glitches.

[Lorri Moulton]

I know things are crazy right now, but I finally finished my book!  I'm so excited to publish, but it's been "In Review" for almost 24 hours.  I called and they said it's just really slow right now with many books being processed.  Totally understand it's going to take a while...but has anyone else been stuck?  If so, for how long?

[notthatamanda]

I know things are crazy right now, but I finally finished my book!  I'm so excited to publish, but it's been "In Review" for almost 24 hours.  I called and they said it's just really slow right now with many books being processed.  Totally understand it's going to take a while...but has anyone else been stuck?  If so, for how long?

Vanessa is going through the same thing. Here's her thread:

https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=3674.msg71934#msg71934

Hope I did it right.

[RPatton]

Vanessa,

I would be very careful with pre-orders at the moment. A lot of authors are getting caught up in a glitch where pre-orders are getting cancelled. This in itself is bad, but there's another side-effect, even worse. Amazon canceling these pre-orders is causing pre-order privileges to be suspended.

With the way things are right now, getting any kind of satisfactory resolution in the immediacy is turning into a near impossibility. I'd like to hope that things will be fixed at later dates, but I'm not sure they will.

[Lorri Moulton]

Thank you, Amanda. 

[VanessaC]

Vanessa,

I would be very careful with pre-orders at the moment. A lot of authors are getting caught up in a glitch where pre-orders are getting cancelled. This in itself is bad, but there's another side-effect, even worse. Amazon canceling these pre-orders is causing pre-order privileges to be suspended.

With the way things are right now, getting any kind of satisfactory resolution in the immediacy is turning into a near impossibility. I'd like to hope that things will be fixed at later dates, but I'm not sure they will.

Thank you for the heads up here. I use pre-orders all the time, so now have something else to worry about!

It's never easy, is it? I really hope they get this sorted - and I do appreciate that the world is very different right now with the pandemic, and everything is just harder.

I had an email reply from KDP which suggested they hadn't understood my issue - basically confirming that I didn't need to upload the manuscript until the deadline set by KDP. That was not the issue! I've gone back to them, trying to be more clear that I need the book out of "in review" and into "live".

We'll see how this goes - it's an irritation as, although I am not a big seller, I have a nice read through and it would be good to catch some of that with pre-order links.

[VanessaC]

I know things are crazy right now, but I finally finished my book!  I'm so excited to publish, but it's been "In Review" for almost 24 hours.  I called and they said it's just really slow right now with many books being processed.  Totally understand it's going to take a while...but has anyone else been stuck?  If so, for how long?

Lorri, I'm sorry you're having the same issue. I've seen a few other authors posting about delays. My pre-order (with no manuscript) has been "in review" for more than a week now, but the previous book, where I uploaded the final file and brought forward the release date to the 21 May, went live within a few hours, so there's no consistency here.

I hope yours is fixed soon!

[RPatton]

I know things are crazy right now, but I finally finished my book!  I'm so excited to publish, but it's been "In Review" for almost 24 hours.  I called and they said it's just really slow right now with many books being processed.  Totally understand it's going to take a while...but has anyone else been stuck?  If so, for how long?

This will sound callous, so I apologize. 24 hours isn't bad at all. Review times are ranging from hours to over a week with no rhyme or reason as to the why. While 24 hours would piss me off, every time I hear of yet another review time hitting 100+ hours, 24 hours isn't looking so bad.

When you hit submit, they say it could take 72 hours. So even in normal times, 24 hours is still within an acceptable time frame according to Amazon. Lots of glitches are hitting Romance and Romance adjacent genres lately, and the consequences of a a longer review times are less damaging than some of the others that have been hitting.

The good news is that KDP appears to be attempting to be proactive in preventing exploitative publishers from taking advantage of the situation. The bad news is the funnel is super wide and lots of perfectly benign traits are getting flagged and possibly requiring an eyes' on review for final publication.

[Lorri Moulton]

Normally, mine move from "in review" to "publishing" within an hour...maybe two.  That's what surprised me when it was still in review the next day.

This morning, it has moved to "publishing" so I'm very happy!   

Vanessa, I hope they sort out your pre-order soon!

RPatton, this is a short fairytale.  I don't really write romance except for a few historical romances, but all my stories have some romance in them.  Sometimes, my books take a while to publish, but this was the first time I've ever been stuck in review. 

Thank you for the responses! 

[Eric Thomson]

Huh... Not only did the Zon put up my pre-order (3rd in a series) in record time, they also linked it to the series within 48 hours.  That's a first for me.  It used to be they wouldn't link pre-orders to series until the book was published.  And it used to take 5-10 days for them to link to a series without me prodding them.

 

[VanessaC]

Huh... Not only did the Zon put up my pre-order (3rd in a series) in record time, they also linked it to the series within 48 hours.  That's a first for me.  It used to be they wouldn't link pre-orders to series until the book was published.  And it used to take 5-10 days for them to link to a series without me prodding them.

 

       

[VanessaC]

Delighted to say that, although the book is showing on my dashboard as "Pre order publishing", it now has an ASIN and a product page, and I've been able to place a pre-order through the UK store (my normal store), so I'm hoping the glitch is sorted. Guess I will be updating backmatter at the weekend!

[Bill Hiatt]

Delighted to say that, although the book is showing on my dashboard as "Pre order publishing", it now has an ASIN and a product page, and I've been able to place a pre-order through the UK store (my normal store), so I'm hoping the glitch is sorted. Guess I will be updating backmatter at the weekend!

It's great that that finally worked out. Congratulations!

[VanessaC]

Delighted to say that, although the book is showing on my dashboard as "Pre order publishing", it now has an ASIN and a product page, and I've been able to place a pre-order through the UK store (my normal store), so I'm hoping the glitch is sorted. Guess I will be updating backmatter at the weekend!

It's great that that finally worked out. Congratulations!

Thank you - I'm so relieved.

[notthatamanda]

Yes good news. Yay!