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HELP!!!!! This could happen to you!
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Kgcummings wrote: "I don't know where to begin...My first novel has been available at amazon.com since 2006. I noticed something STRANGE to say the least the other day. Some how my pen name is no longer listed as..."
Hi, Kathy. I would like to give you a hug and encourage you to calm down. This could be very simple to fix. This book shows up in your bibliography on your profile, so they still acknowledge it's yours. I would suggest filling in the "update product info" form and use this address: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wind-Whispers... as a reference. On the Amazon UK site, you are still listed as the author. I don't know why it got changed and I definitely understand your panic.
I hope this fixes it and you have a better day! :o)
Kathy,Looks like your blog is still connected to the book so you have been verified through Amazon connect as the author. I agree with Jaimer regarding updating product info form. My experience is this takes a couple of days for Amazon to update appropriately.
Good luck!
T
Amazon has a legal department. Here is the contact information. Most likely, you will have to fax them in writing. I hope this helps.Copyright Agent
Amazon.com Legal Department
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108
phone: (206) 266-4064
fax: (206) 266-7010
e-mail: copyright@amazon.com
Courier address:
Copyright Agent
Amazon.com Legal Department
1200 12th Avenue South, Suite 1200
Seattle, WA 98144-2734
USA
I thank each of you very much for your assistance on this. What threw me was that my 2nd, 3rd and 4th novels all say kgcummings, and only the first says Kathy Garcia. Where they found that name is beyond me. I've never linked that name to any of my work. Kathy G. Cummings is a registered alias of mine, and even that has never been linked to my novels. Click on your work often, this is the craziest thing I've seen in my career yet. I will keep you posted.Hugs to all, Kathy
Oh, Kathy I feel for you. How did that happen? Theoretically, Amazon has so many books that they shouldn't be fiddling with anything that is already up and working...you'd think. After you click on the book everything inside is back to KGCummings. It's just that front page. I hope they fix this asap. terrie
Thank you Terrie... I got a useless email from amazon. But, two different people at my publisher have contacted them and I got a wonderful email from them. Being self published, I really didn't know what to expect from them, but they came through promptly. Now it's back in amazon's court. I have no idea how that happened, or why anyone would tamper with a book that has been listed correctly since 2006. I have a radio interview coming up and the last thing I need is people seeing an error of that magnitude. I truly felt robbed. My pen name is actually my maiden name and what I most closely relate to. Kathy
Kathy:You have a good publisher. Most self-pubs are left out in the cold by their publishers.
Actually, a similar though not as dramatic problem happened to me on Amazon. After two years my name was changed from Robert Mykle to MykleRobert which, of course, if anyone typed in Robert Mykle would not take them anywhere. I mentioned it to my publisher and it was fixed within a week.
Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance.
By the way I'm tagging your book.
And we had a fantastic presentation by James O. Born who gave the Palm Beach Writers Group valuable insights into the publishing world (Putnam).
Hopefully we'll get him up to Vero one day.
Robert
Thank you Robert for the words of encouragement. I'm taping a radio interview this a.m. I'm grateful that it isn't going to be aired right away. Hopefully, amazon will have my name fixed before it's scheduled. Did you ever find out how it happened?Also, thank you, and everyone for tagging my novels.
Kathy
Kathy, I hope this gets straightened out for you quickly. How frustrating! let us know how the interview goes, please.
This has been bothering me ever since I read about it. I checked this morning and it was still not fixed. You'd really think it would be THAT difficult for them to correct. Yesh.And yes, good luck on the interview!
t
Thank you all for the luck on the interview. I felt it went well, except I talk too fast!Now for the good news... Amazon has kgcummings listed as the author of the Wind Whispers War. Yesss! Please, keep an eye on your work, if it happened to me, and it happened to Robert, it can happen to you.
Hugs to all, Kathy
Kathy, you must be so relieved! It would be really upsetting to wake up one day and find your work had suddenly been attributed to someone else. Glad it's all fixed now.I've tagged your book, by the way. Thanks to all who have tagged mine.
Elise
Kathy, did they give a reason? Or in the very least an apology?? t
Thank you Elise.Terrie, No comment from anyone as to why or how. I love your name by the way. I knew a Thersa in England back in the 60's.
Hugs, Kathy
Thank you, Kathy. It's actually a mistake on my dad's part, supposed to be Theresa, but he was in such a hurry to sign the birth certificate (my mom wanted to call me Georgette), that he forgot an 'e'. This is the first time I've heard of another Thersa! I think I'm going to Google her. Haha.
Smiles... I'm sure her addy is in heaven! She was in her 70s in 1967 and that was a loooong time ago! Her name was pronounced like the beginning of Thursday, except the s sounded more like a 'z'. I'd never heard the name Gemma either until I visited there. I like the name Gerogette, but Thersa is much more unique! Hugs,
I Googled and came up with tons of Thersas! Whaddaya know. I think my dad's anti-Georgette thing was because he didn't get along with his father-in-law...George. Ha!
Kathy, I did hear of a case (on one of the forums) where somebody had used the 'update product info' form to change the name of an author on Amazon so that it displayed the wrong name. I think that was done maliciously. Amazon aren't very responsive when it comes to reporting errors, in my experience. I had a three month dialogue with them about a book description that still hasn't been resolved, so it's good news that the author name issue was corrected much faster.
Hi, everyone. Dropped into this conversation. We, too, have had adventures with Amazon. I had an Amazon Bestseller Day last December, which, like a real party, involves getting your house in order. Your on-line house––web pages, blogs, and most of all your book's selling page on Amazon. I'd been having problems with the description and editorial section of one of my books' pages on Amazon (the one featured on the Bestseller Day). I had added html, according to the instructions on my Amazon Advantage page. Instead of replacing the exiting text, Amazon's software overwrote it, creating a mess.
So I pulled all that down, and reentered the information. Amazon added that to the previous description. I did this, foolishly, maybe five times. It kept adding the text on, all without spacing. It was unintelligible.
I wrote to Amazon trying to get it fixed. No response at all, not even a case number. With the Bestseller Day hours away, I wrote an email that would blister paint. No response.
Also, if you have an Amazon event and aren't with a POD owned by Amazon, you have to make sure that Amazon will have enough books to supply buyers. And, if you order 120 books and sell 40, the extra are shipped back to your warehouse at your expense. Shipping can cost more than you'll make in sales. So you have to guess accurately how many you'll sell. This is impossible.
We are a traditional, if small, publisher. A small publisher can't tell Amazon to order your book for an event and how many copies. You have to request them to order more books, tell them why, and they have to send you a purchase order. They didn't respond to our requests, ever, contributing to the small nervous breakdown happening at our house around the Bestseller Day.
A smaller but related issue: One of my friends, an attorney, wrote a review for one of my books. It was published by Amazon with someone else's moniker: a reviewer of kid's books. Didn't quite have the same impact.
Amazon does make mistakes and can be very slow to fix them. But they did eventually change the sale page for my book. Not in time for the Amazon Party, though.
But that's not as bad as seeing your book with someone else's name. Nope.
I'm writing about my Amazon Bestseller Day on my blog for writers, Your Shelf Life. What to do, what not to do, would I do it again. Mosey over, if you'd like. I'm on the third article of the series. You can scroll down on the blog to pick up the first one.
All the best,
Sandy
Stepping Off the Edge Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
Forgive me for being late to respond. My father was ambulanced to the hospital for the 5th time in 6 months. He's 85 and has copd. Add to that my daughter was in a car accident. She's going to be okay, but life is not a bowl of cherries right now!Gina, your comment raised my suspicions that the dirty work on my name was not an accident. Amazon should have tighter control on that aspect of updating. I'm glad it's repaired, but on guard that it could happen again. Thank you.
Sandy, thank you for sharing your blog. For us newbies just entering the amazon jungle, your experience is much appreciated by lil ol' me.
Smiles to all, Kathy
www.kgcummings.com
Thank you Esther. Krista is back to work today. Dad is breathing better. Thank you so much for asking. Blessings, Kathy
Me, too. My gosh. I do hope you father is feeling better and pray for a very fast recovery for your daughter. Your head must be spinning. terrie
"Your head must be spinning."Smiles my friends! I'm blonde... that makes me naturally light headed!!! Sorry, but I love blonde jokes. Dad is still in the hospital, and Krista has an MRI scheduled for next Wed. I miss being here like I was before my world went nuts.
Hugs to all, Kathy
My first novel has been available at amazon.com since 2006. I noticed something STRANGE to say the least the other day. Some how my pen name is no longer listed as the author of my book! I did not authorize any change. There is another name listed as the author. I have no idea how this happened. Called my publisher and they did nothing to initiate a change, but my book is listed under someone elses name! If this happened to me, it could happen to anyone with a book on amazon.
I've called amazon, the gal on the phone barely understood English, she gave me an email address to contact. I got a response saying they didn't recognize me, so they would not respond to my email. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!! Help, please, does anyone know what I can do? I really don't have the finances to lawyer up. I'm in panic mode...
Kathy