Unofficial Kinde Help FAQ #1: Why are my sales not showing in my reports

Zhao!

I have been asked this one enough times that I thought it might be time to write a standard reply.

Authors often feel they have had Amazon sales that are not appearing on their sales reports, and  perhaps a suspicion they are being deliberately short-changed in some way.  In my experience this is not the case. Here are some of the things that might explain the apparent discrepancy.

1) Make sure you are looking at the right place in the reports, after the sales has been shipped and charged.
2) If it is an e-book you cannot buy more than one copy.
3) If it is a CreateSpace paperback, those sales are reported on your Createspace  account reports, not your kindle account reports.
3) If it is a gifted book the sale occurs only when the the recipient uses it, and they have the option to use it on something other than your book--in which case you are out the money and do not get the sale.
3) Friends and relatives lie more often than you would think. If they say they bought your book don't assume it is true unless you actually saw them do it.
4) Occasionally there are glitches and reports of sales are delayed.  If you can document the sale occurred and have waited about 2 weeks, ask Kindle Support for assistance.

If you know if other reason why people see these issues, please let me know and I will add them to the list.

Update

Things have been a little quiet around here.  I have been busy at work and also developing a lifestyle where I just hang out and enjoy myself quite a lot.  That's turned out to be the upside of being a woman of a certain age.  I have a sufficiency of money and have more-or-less stopped giving a flock about a lot of things, so I spend more time just enjoying myself. That said, I do plan to  spruce things up and post some new reviews soon.

If you happen to have any interest in reviewing, we are always open to people joining in on a one-off or ongoing basis.  Just drop me a line at veinglory at gmail.com

There is one thing I would like to mention regarding authors who request reviews.  Please don't spam us.  I am getting increasingly bogged down in mass mailings and newsletters from authors.  A recent one ended with the statment:

"You are receiving this email either because you are a personal acquaintance or you because you have read and/or reviewed one of my novels. My intent is not to overwhelm you with emails but to keep in touch with updates. Thanks so much."

Just: no.

Reading or reviewing a book does not constitute agreeing to be put on a mailing list.  Going forwards any more emails of this type will be reported as spam. This means, among other things, that any future requests for reviews will be blocked.

Edited to Add:

Re: Instafreebie--this is a service that requires provision of an email address and adds the user to a mailing list.  As such, Instafreebie is not an acceptable method for offering review copies.