Last week a problem with the Paranormology series in Amazon Kindle was brought to my attention. It turns out that one of the books, Portsmouth Avenue Ghost, had the wrong content tied to it. Rather than getting Portsmouth Avenue, readers received Hampton Court Ghost.
I’m not entirely sure how this happened though I assume the fault was my own. In KDP, you create the specifications for the book, the title, the author, the content, so I must have unwittingly uploaded the wrong ebook at some point. I have recently uploaded a newer version, which would explain why when I checked it, it seemed fine. Those who downloaded the book before the update, though, will have the Hampton Court ebook. I am very sorry that this happened.
I would have expected, though, that merely uploading a newer edition would retrospectively update any previous downloads (kind of like a software update), but that’s not the case. Only those who downloaded after the correction would get the new edition. Why is this? I mean, it’s an ebook, it’s digital, after all.
So what’s the resolution? Well, it turns out that there are two possible routes. First, anyone who has the wrong ebook can remove it from their reader and re-download it with the new one. I haven’t tried that, but I assume it works.
The second is getting in contact with Kindle directly and explaining the situation, which I did. They responded, and Laura helped me out, reviewing the case and figuring out what’s what. Considering the nature of the problem, they deemed it worthwhile to inform any readers of the issue:
“We’ve sent an e-mail to customers who own the book to notify them of the update. These customers can download the update through their “Manage Your Content and Devices” page.“
So there you go – anyone who does have the wrong book can now get the right one through the magic of electrons. Many thanks go out to Sel for bringing this to my attention. On that note, if you do find anything wrong with what I’ve done, feel free to drop me a note and I’ll try to fix it as soon as possible.
Thanks again, Sel, and thank you, my readers, for bearing with me!
