Day 137--Amazon eBook Gifts And Sales Reports

I thought I'd write a brief post about ebook gifting on Amazon and how it effects sales. I gifted my ebook to a friend and did not get credit for the sale. Curious if gifting is different than buying, I contacted Amazon. This was their response:

The sales report information displayed in your KDP account may change depending on a few different factors:

    - the day you view the reports
    - the number of sales in the displayed time frame
    - sales which do not complete due to customer payment issues
    - orders purchased as gifts, which are not considered complete until redeemed

With many customers using payment methods which pull funds directly from their bank accounts, some sales may also take a little more time to complete in our systems and appear in your reports.

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

I did not know that a gift order had to be opened by the recipient to be considered complete. Amazon sales reporting can be confusing because of issues like this.

Secondly, if the person already owns the ebook from Amazon, they cannot receive it as a gift. Instead they are offered an Amazon gift card of comparable value.

You didn't ask, but now you know about ebook gifting at Amazon!

To Do: When in doubt about your sales reports, ask Amazon first. I read a lot of posts from authors who flame Amazon before they've even contacted them. I received a response in less than 24 hours.