eBook Returns

[Patricia]

I don't know. I had my first return show up yesterday and am not sure what that means. I assume that if somebody downloads a book and doesn't like it, they can return it? You'd think the sample might take care of that, but, whatever.

I did return a book once. I didn't understand how to get the free book an author was advertised and ended up buying it by mistake. Customer Service told me to return it, and how to get the free book.

Have you been offering free books? That might be what happened.

[Dee]

I would guess that since it has illustrations, if they have a standard eink kindle, they might return the book if the illustrations don't come out well - having not looking at the book, I don't know for sure

[Linore]

A 15% rate sounds high to me. I just checked my report today and had one return, since publishing Nov.30th.
It could be that your cover and description are attracting people who are not your target audience.
I wouldn't rule out what others have already said, but do be certain that your blurb tells people what they're really getting. Hope that helps. : )

[juuree]

Bob wrote: "Hi,

My new children's eBook is doing well but I am getting a return rate of about 15%. The returns occur within minutes or hours of purchase. Is this about normal or does it indicate some kind..."
Maybe they bought it.. checked it out, skimmed through, and returned it cause it wasn't their thing?

[Juliane]

I have "returned" books when I found that I had selected the wrong payment option (I buy on the German Kindle store). Then I changed the setting and bought the book again with corrected payment data - some of your "returns" might be people like me. 15% does seem high to me too though.

[Thea]

It can be a variety of things. I've accidentally clicked buy from my Kindle and had to return.

I get about a 1% ratio of returns. Glad to see your issue is resolved.

[Hannah]

Keep in mind that Kindle purchases don't require a password... both of my kids have their own Kindle and they sometimes don't ask before purchasing or "accidentally" purchase something and we return it. I would assume this happens more often with children's lit. Love, love, love Amazon and our 4 Kindles, but they could certainly use some updating with security and requiring passwords for purchases!

[Nicola]

Very grateful for the comments in this thread - I've been wondering why people return books. I've not had one yet, but am soon to do freebies, which, I believe, is when returns become more frequent.

[Char]

Hannah wrote: "Keep in mind that Kindle purchases don't require a password... both of my kids have their own Kindle and they sometimes don't ask before purchasing or "accidentally" purchase something and we retur..."

You can set the Kindle to use a password from the Kindle itself. I think it's in the settings menu.

[John]

Or... the thing you should hope isn't happening, people buying the book, ripping out the drm which would give them a DRM free copy of your book to do with as they please, and then returning the no longer needed copy from Amazon for a full refund. Of course, Amazon tends to keep track of people doing this and banning their accounts, or so i've heard.

[Santino]

The only time I've returned books is because I clicked too quickly on my kindle and accidentally bought books I didn't want... Whoops!

[Tony]

I intensely dislike the 7 day return option.

It's more than possible to read a book and return it within that timeframe. Some of my stories are short stories, which compounds the problem.

Fair enough, people make mistakes, and give them the chance to back out...but SEVEN days?

Does anyone know if the sale-return still counts in your rankings on Amazon?

[Dee]

You are going into this with the assumption that most of us read books we bought within the 7 day window - for me that rarely happens - I have books I bought 3 years ago when I got my kindle that I still haven't read - while I can't return them for any reason - if there is something wrong with the file, I will do it