The Hostage in Hiding: Update

 

The rollout for The Hostage in Hiding continues to be problematic. The print editions are out, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and to my surprise, Powell’s.

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Hiding-Henry-Vogel/dp/1958333018/

Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Hiding-Henry-Vogel/dp/1958333026/ 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hostage-in-hiding-henry-vogel/1141396808

Powell’s City of Books: https://www.powells.com/book/the-hostage-in-hiding-9781958333020

Someone on Amazon even claims to be selling used copies of the paperback, which is remarkable, given that the book was released just four days ago and we haven’t even received our author’s copies yet. 

The e-book, though, remains stuck in the pipeline, and in the middle of a conflict between IngramSpark and Amazon KDP. IngramSpark won’t distribute the e-book on Kindle because we have a prior relationship with Amazon. Amazon KDP won’t touch the e-book because IngramSpark has placed some kind of lock on it. “IngramSpark Customer Support” is proving to be a mythical creature, or perhaps someone released nerve gas in their support center and no one has yet noticed that all their employees are not merely a bunch of sloths, but are in fact all dead at their desks.

Helpful Hint to Small-Press and Indie Publishers: If you have a prior relationship with Amazon KDP, don’t bother with trying to publish e-books through IngramSpark. IngramSpark and Amazon KDP do not play well together, and IngramSpark customer support—well, I’d say it’s the worst support I’ve ever received, except that I haven’t actually received any yet. 

CORRECTION: I just filed another Support ticket with them and got a satisfactory resolution of the problem within an hour. This still doesn’t get the e-book issue resolved, but I’m willing to give them another chance. So far they’re batting .500.

~brb