an interesting success story in Zon publishing

[Luke Everhart]

I've not read the book that this post is about; so, naturally, I'm neither endorsing it nor condemning it. I am agnostic on the merits of the book. This is about a cool series of events that put a very unusual book in the #2 paid spot in the Zon ebook store.

Former NYTimes reporter alex Berenson wrote a tiny 22 page book -- well, at 22 pages, it's a pamphlet really -- on covid-19 regarding stats and the lockdowns. He tried publishing it on the Zon yesterday but it was rejected with a notice from Amazon that all references to covid-19 needed to be removed. That was a bit of an issue as it was the subject of the pamphlet.

He tweeted frustration about it and Elon Musk jumped in on the tweet on the side of allowing it to be published and @'d Jack Dorsey in his tweets.

Jack capitulated.

Today the $2.99 22-page pamphlet is #2 paid in the kindle store. And it already has 221 ratings.

https://www.amazon.com/Unreported-Truths-about-COVID-19-Lockdowns-ebook/dp/B089P216NP/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591328598&sr=8-1

So the moral of the story is get a famous billionaire to go to bat for you and you too can rocket to the top of the Zon store! 😏...🤣

[Anarchist]

I saw that book in the bestsellers list a couple days ago and immediately thought of you.

I knew you weren't the author. But you should've been. ;)

[angela]

There's always strong demand for the truth.

[Vijaya]

Great story. I wish I had someone go to bat for me too.

But here's what's confusing to me--the Zon is not just acting as a distributer but controlling what's available. I appealed about my own children's book about the pandemic (Why in the World?) but they denied me because they make the final decision whether to make a book available or not. I went wide with it, but I want to appeal again because there's more visibility on Amazon. Any suggestions? I'm covering basic virology for 8-10 yr olds with focus on being a helper and my background is in microbiology/biochemistry.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Great story. I wish I had someone go to bat for me too.

But here's what's confusing to me--the Zon is not just acting as a distributer but controlling what's available. I appealed about my own children's book about the pandemic (Why in the World?) but they denied me because they make the final decision whether to make a book available or not. I went wide with it, but I want to appeal again because there's more visibility on Amazon. Any suggestions? I'm covering basic virology for 8-10 yr olds with focus on being a helper and my background is in microbiology/biochemistry.

Did you try emailing Jeff Bezos?

[Vijaya]

No. But I definitely need to appeal to a higher authority than the kdp people.

[angela]

Great story. I wish I had someone go to bat for me too.

But here's what's confusing to me--the Zon is not just acting as a distributer but controlling what's available. I appealed about my own children's book about the pandemic (Why in the World?) but they denied me because they make the final decision whether to make a book available or not. I went wide with it, but I want to appeal again because there's more visibility on Amazon. Any suggestions? I'm covering basic virology for 8-10 yr olds with focus on being a helper and my background is in microbiology/biochemistry.

That's an issue that's possibly coming to a head right now. Twitter acting with editorial control.... YouTube banning and shadow-banning videos... etc. A lot of it is based on keywords / algorithms. I had to take the word "conspiracies" out of a sci-fi book blurb because it wouldn't run a Facebook ad.

[David VanDyke]

No. But I definitely need to appeal to a higher authority than the kdp people.

Definitely.

"Never take no for an answer from someone without the authority to say yes."