Well, I wish I could say your suggestion worked, Jenny, but there isn’t anything on the right side of my page (which might explain why I never noticed it before, so I can quit blaming it on senility. :laugh: ) As you can see above, I don’t have the option you mention. (You might have to click on the image to read it.) Any other thoughts?
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I suspect you’re not jumping through the proper hoops to ensure that Amazon considers your updates worth alerting readers about. It takes some doing. After uploading the revised file, you have to email support with very specific examples of changes you made *that will impact the reader’s experience*. So, don’t just say “I fixed some typos” or “I added a new short story at the back.” Say, “In this line […], I replaced the typo [….] with […].”
The thing is that Amazon doesn’t *want* to push out the new version of a book unless they absolutely have to since doing so will delete user’s notes and bookmarks. But they will if you make it clear that the previous version was flawed.
Once you do that, then you’ll start seeing the update button Jenny was talking about. For the record, I don’t see it on any of your books that I’ve bought (most of them), but I do see it on a few other books I’ve downloaded from Amazon as I scroll through that page.
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Well, that stinks. What I fixed were formatting issues that were causing gaps here and there, and not starting chapters off right. Plus, I have little snippets at the beginning of each chapter that are written like small poems, and I had to resize those to fit properly. I’m not sure that would impact the reader’s experience, other than making it look better. ??
Now, one more question, any NEW purchasers WILL get the updated version, right? I mean, when you say they don’t want to “push out a new version,” you aren’t talking about new purchases, are you? Since I haven’t “launched” this book yet, we are talking only a few sales, so far, gifted to my Mail List members. So that’s not so bad. But I would not be happy to think NEW purchasers didn’t get a corrected version. One of the changes was to the wording in the Dedication, and that DOES show up as correct on the Sell page Preview.
I’m not a happy camper, currently. This book has been more headaches than all my other books combined. And what should have taken a day to do has been ongoing for over a week, and still not over, apparently. 😦
I do appreciate your input, but I have to say, that apparently, not a single book I’ve ever purchased in all my years of Kindle reading has been updated. There are NO buttons appearing anywhere that I can see. That seems really unlikely, doesn’t it?
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Yes, new purchasers will definitely get the new version. So you don’t need to worry there.
There are really very few authors who jump through the hoops of asking Amazon to push out revised versions to their past readers. I just scanned through my own purchases quickly, and I know I “bought” hundreds of books this year (most of them free) and I see only two downloaded in 2015 that have updates available. So I’d say it’s pretty rare to get Amazon to do it, which probably explains why I’ve had such a hassle begging them to in the past. If you don’t have thousands of books on your kindle the way I do, it’s probably not all that unlikely that none have updates available.
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Thank you, Aimee! I have about 1,500 books downloaded, I think, though less than that actually on my Kindle. I’m not worried about getting the latest versions, myself. BUT. It would be NICE to have the correct version of my OWN books, so I can peruse them to be sure I like how they look. However, I’m thinking I have stressed way too much over this book for the last ten days, and nearly had two nervous breakdowns from making mistakes caused by general fatigue. I believe I’ve been through enough. As long as the changes show up for the new purchases, I’m going to call this one done. It’s way past time to move on.
Next time, I will find some way to be sure I haven’t messed up BEFORE I upload that first book. Not sure how, but I will. AND I’m going to hold off on downloading my own version until I know it’s probably correct.
My determination not to let my surgery and resulting pain, discomfort, fatigue, and infection, etc, etc, etc, slow me down might have been vaguely admirable…but in this case, was probably HUGELY DUMB. 😀 I’m never going to do that again. If I’m down for a few weeks, so be it. I’ll resume my work when I’m better, and less likely to do STOOPIT stuff! 😉
I sure appreciate your explanations. Now I know what to do if it really IS necessary for me to let readers know a book has been changed/updated. My sense of it is, if it’s just a typo or two, forget about it. Just update and move on, knowing new readers will have the better version. Or better yet…tell the 15 people (including me) who proofread the book for me to LOOK MORE CLOSELY, next time! 😀 Our brains process missing words using Cerebral AutoFill, apparently. 😉
Have a great day, Aimee, and thank you for taking the time to help me understand how this works.
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Marcia, do you have ‘automatic updates’ switched on?
As soon as someone updates a book I have on my kindle, the new version is automatically sent to me. That means that quite often, old books suddenly appear at the front of the queue on my kindle, and then I know that it’s an updated version.
If you haven’t done this, try the following:
Go to the page you have in your picture above, and click on ‘settings’
Scroll down to ‘Automatic Book Update’ and check that it shows ‘ON’.
That should do the trick – I hope. It certainly works for me – I don’t jump through any hoops or notify Amazon of changes, they just go through on automatic pilot within a few hours of uploading the new file.
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Actually, that is probably what Jenny means by click on the right hand side – its the right hand tab at the top – clearly visible in your picture – NOT to the right of the books themselves.
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Just re-read her comment again, and it isn’t what I thought, but try my suggestion – here’s hoping its all the same in the US as on the UK site.
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Thanks, Deb, but I do have it on. I’ve always had it on, and I’ve never (to my knowledge) received an update on anything from anyone. 😦 And certainly not on my OWN books, which is what I want the most. I’d just like to have my current version of any edits on my own device. BUT. I’m thinking it’s just not going to happen. Not if I have to jump through those hoops Aimee mentioned, anyway. I appreciate your trying to help, though. You’d THINK that button would do it. *sigh*
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I should contact Amazon then, and query if that is working on your account – I have updated books arrive all the time, and certainly my own all update within a few hours and no hoops…
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That’s how I thought it would work, too, but after 2 years of trying to get my own updated books, I’ve given up on it. Then I thought about asking here, and it seems like it’s not as easy as it should be. I’ve decided I will NOT be taking for granted that I can make changes to my books in the future.
Now I’m waiting in Createspace limbo. They sent me my first proof, and said if I wanted to make any changes (which I did, though small) to upload the new files. I did that hours and hours ago, and can’t see any indication it’s in Review yet. 😦 I even called, and was told it WAS, but I’m wondering if he was looking at the original review notice, BEFORE I received my first proof. This book…much as I LOVED writing it…is going to be the death of me if I don’t back away from it, and get on with my next story.
I’m guessing things are different here than on your side of the pond. We get immediate calls back from very friendly people, but they don’t seem to be able to do much. *sigh* (Of course, within seconds of hanging up, I had an email asking for feedback on how they did. Ha. THAT was speedy enough.)
I will call tomorrow if I don’t have an email telling me I can order a second proof. And I swear, small mistakes will go uncorrected in the future before I’ll go through this again! I’ll make all my corrections to the Kindle book (EASY to fix, even if I don’t get a new copy), and then, when I’m sure it’s great, I’ll do the print version, even if it’s a MONTH later.
*snivel* All I want to do is WRITE, dammit. Is that too much to ask????
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Yup, that’s how we all feel about it, I think.
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