Note: I wrote this article a few years ago, but found out it’s still relevant and the link is still valid. Amazon has shortened their return window to 48 hours, but fast readers can burn an entire novel in such a short period of time that the window is still not the issue–the percentage read is.
TikTok and FB and Twitter-X and all the social media have long been hotbeds of stupidity, but this one is hitting authors in the wallet. The challenge* had spread on Tiktok for users to purchase then read the book in its entirety and return books within the more-than-ample return window. They think they’re gaming Amazon, or some big time authors with multi-millions. Theft is theft no matter the size of the pot you’re stealing from, but this is stabbing independent ebook authors/self-publishers** in the back. Authors get charged with a delivery fee which does NOT get returned to when the book is refunded. Amazon gets that. So even if these people think they are stiffing Amazon, they’re not, because the big A gets its take and passes the buck to the author, less any fees for the file transfer. Kinda like how the rest of the corporations don’t eat losses; they push that down to the consumer so the costs go up for the little guy.
That there are arguments why this is not somehow theft of intellectual property is mind-boggling. There was even one Einstein who argued that if she didn’t like a book by JANE AUTHOR then she would return the book. My question for her would be “why would you even buy it in the first place if you don’t like her writing?” And there’s enough of a sample out there on Amazon for anyone to get a feel for the writing. Go to the library and borrow the books.
If you’d like to help, you can do so in a few ways. The best way is to buy books you love and NOT return them, thereby supporting the authors.
You can go to Change.org and sign the petition. It’s not a world-bending change, but it can help authors. Potential fixes for Amazon would be to curb the abuses by tracking serial returners (especially those who ignore the samples offered for the book) and tightening up the window for returns for those “mistaken” purchases.
*I’m not going to name the challenge here, but if you really want to see it, you can do a little Google-fu.
**Not that independent “authors” are entirely innocent. There’s a bunch that figured out how to game the Kindle Unlimited payout pool by creating “books” with drivel or collections of other authors’ stories into a massive 1000+ page volume, then putting some free thing or other enticement at the BACK of the book to get the reader to “read” all of those pages, which shows up as “pages read” and receives a weighted payout.
***I haven’t experienced any of these fraudulent returns myself, and I am hoping the process gets changed before that ever has a chance to happen.
T. R. Neff - Author 