Hello, my lovelies, and welcome back! I hope you have all been well!
Today, I am delving into the realm of KDP once more to discuss my experience of using KDP to order proof copies and author copies. Rumour has it that author copies are much less of a priority than proof copies and therefore take longer to ship. I didn't like the sound of that, so I decided to document my experiences and share them with you all!
Disclaimer: this blog entry is based on my own book (size: 8.5" x 5.5" x 1", pages: 448). These elements all factor into the experience, so you may find your experience differs from mine. I am in no way saying the information below is what *should* be happening when you use KDP, I'm merely offering my experience for those considering KDP as a possible publishing platform for their work.
So, without further ado, let's get started!
Let's begin at the beginning - PROOF COPIES.
You've finished your book. Excellent! You've edited it, had it beta read, edited it again, cried over it, swore you'll never publish it and hidden it away in a drawer somewhere only to reconsider a week later, uploaded it onto KDP and... here we are.
If you are planning to make your book available in physical format (i.e.: paperback and hardcover), before you hit that all-important 'publish now' button, you really should consider ordering yourself a proof copy of your book. This will allow you to fully inspect your book and identify any problems or issues with it before it is made available to the world.
Below are some basic data collected from when I ordered my 'proofs'—
Number of copies ordered:
x1 Hardcover
x1 Paperback
Order placed: 10/12/2021
Order shipped: 10/20/2021 (8 days later)
Order arrived: 10/22/2021 (10 days after placing order)
*Shipping service used: USPS
Overall, I was very pleased with KDP's proof copies.
Today's date is 02/04/2022 and I've skimmed through them both many times and they have held up wonderfully. They now rest quietly on my bookshelf but still are, on occasion, pulled from and put back onto said bookshelf. I am also happy to report that this has not had any impact on my covers at all - they remain the same as the day they arrived, which is quite nice.
Up Next: AUTHOR COPIES
After confirming my happiness with my proof copies and subsequently publishing my book on Nov. 22nd, 2021, I decided to organize a book giveaway and set about ordering author copies.
Number of copies ordered:
x5 paperbacks
x3 hardcovers
Now, because Christmas was fast approaching and I needed all the $ for presents, I decided to place the orders for paperback and hardcovers separately. Paperbacks are cheaper, so I ordered them first (at a cost of ~6.00 USD/unit). The hardcovers, I ordered after Christmas (at a cost of ~10.00 USD/unit).
Quick Note on Costs:
I am extremely happy that author copies and proof copies cost the same amount. With KDP, you pay the cost to print the book *only*. Shipping is included!
Remember, your costs may differ because every book is different.
Anyways... back to my five paperbacks.
Paperback order placed: 12/14/2021
Paperback order shipped: 01/09/2022 (26 days later)
Per my confirmation email, I was told the paperbacks would arrive on: 01/12/2021
But!
Paperback order arrived a whole day early on 01/11/2022
Good times.
HOWEVER.
There's a problem with this order. Two paperbacks are damaged.
Someone had packed that big ol' box as follows: three books on the bottom, two books on the top with no padding to stop those top two books moving around in transit. This resulted in one of them moving over a book on the bottom, lifting back the pages and creasing the front cover and about 20 or 30 pages of the book.
See:
And:
Not cool.
To make matters even better (/s), a second book had damage to the front cover, also.
See this lovely score line?
Turns out it was pretty bad...
>:-(
I'm really not sure what this is or how it happened. My husband believes it was damage caused by the cutting machine but we're not entirely sure.
Which leads me to my next point:
REPORTING A PROBLEM WITH YOUR AUTHOR COPIES TO KDP
Here's what I did.
After feeling incredibly disappointed in the damaged books, I went online and reported the damaged units. I did this within an hour of receiving the parcel, believing the sooner, the better (which I think we can all agree, you should do).
It was easy:
Log into your KDP Dashboard >> Community Tab >> Help >> Help Topics (the list on the left) >> Orders and Book Copies >> Manage Orders - select the option which best suits your situation.
I received a response 24 hours later saying they will provide me with more information in 2 business days.
This response actually landed in my inbox on 01/18/2022. Luckily, they were confirming that yes, indeed, they messed up and of course they will replace those two books for me. I was told to expect them by 01/24/2022.
Unfortunately, I wasn't provided with a tracking ID number from Amazon when they shipped my two copies. I was just told when to expect them.
Under normal circumstances, I would have been unhappy with the delay in KDP getting back to me and lack of tracking info but my husband, son and I contracted COVID-19 around this time and... yeah. Not fun.
Anyway- my two replacements did actually arrive on time.
For obvious reasons, replacing two of the books was annoying but I appreciated KDP taking me seriously and replacing the books quickly.
I am also very happy to report the replacements were not damaged and arrived in a size-appropriate box this time. I even kept the little box they arrived in because it was decent quality and, well, who doesn't need just one more little box for storing something?
So, now, here I am.
It's late January and I'm the proud owner of seven paperbacks but still no hardcovers.
For why?
Well, turns out hardcovers are even more interesting than paperbacks. Let's explore, shall we?
Hardcover order placed: 01/05/2022
I received this email from Amazon on 01/29/2022
FINALLY, my hardcovers have shipped!
Yay!
But wait - they will arrive WHEN?
Then, on 01/31/2022, I receive a second email from Amazon...
Hang on, didn't I just get this email? And why is the delivery date now March 18th...?
Oh, wait...
Oh, for f----
My order for three hardcovers has, for reasons unknown, been packaged and sent as two separate orders.
What's even stranger is these emails I received from Amazon were shipping notifications. So, the hardcovers have shipped, albeit separately, but they won't be here until March 17th and March 18th?
I'm a little confused.
I haven't yet reached out to Amazon to clarify this because they are already in the mail and, frankly, I doubt I could do anything at this point.
As of this morning (02/04/2022), my first package (x2 hardcovers) is in Kansas City and my other package is floating about somewhere in Hazelwood, Missouri.
Idk.
Conclusion:
Based on my own experiences, and after discussing it with many writers in the Writing Community, I would say that KDP does indeed print and ship proof copies a lot quicker than author copies.
It should be noted that an author cannot order 'author copies' without first publishing their book on KDP. So, in order to receive a copy of your own book, you must first order a proof copy, confirm you're happy with it and then publish it.
Hmm...
So maybe 'proofs' are pushed through quicker because the sooner they're sent out, the sooner the author will see their books and hit 'publish' (= the sooner Mr Jeff starts making some $$$ from our books).
But I'm sure that's not the only reason.
Could it have been down to the number of author copies I ordered?
Yeah, absolutely.
I ordered one paperback and one hardcover for my 'proofs' and five paperbacks and three hardcovers for my 'authors'. It's safe to assume that a larger order means longer waiting times but I honestly didn't expect such a drastic difference. It's not like I was ordering 50 paperbacks and 50 hardcovers, is it?
My proofs took 8 days from the day I placed the order to the day they shipped. My five paperbacks took almost a whole month from 'order placed' to 'order shipped'. My hardcovers shipped 24 days after I placed my order and they're due to arrive about six weeks later. In separate packages.
Could it have been due to the time of the year....?
Very likely.
I placed one order before Christmas, meaning it was being processed over the festive period. This is Amazon's busiest time of year and with COVID-19 still raging, workers are under pressure to produce these items whilst understaffed and, most likely, overworked.
Regardless of the reason, it looks like your author copies will take longer to arrive than your proof copies so please, please, factor this in when planning your book launch and any book signing events you may have. It may also be worth making your order a little larger, just in case something goes wrong.
Alrighty, well, that's all for now, peeps! As ever, I hope you have found this helpful and please remember that this has been based on my personal experience and is intended as a source of information for those considering publishing on KDP.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Madeline-
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