Good Or Bad? Amazon Ebook Policy Change

[barry1010]

I think this is great news for authors who sell their ebooks through Amazon.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/22/23367699/amazon-ebook-kindle-return-policy-change-refunds

I really can't understand folk who truly believe they are entitled to free things. I can see one way of reading the whole book and still getting a full refund, though. Maybe the policy should be that returns are only permitted in a very short time frame, when the book has bought in error

[Canary42]

Image not sustained on that link for me.

[barry1010]

In summary readers are buying eBooks from Amazon and returning them for a full refund when they've read them. Amazon takes this money back from the author.
Amazon will, soon, only refund if 10% or less of the book has been read

[bednobs]

i never even knew you COULD return e books

[sunny-dave]

I know that the returns policy for Audible has also been (quite rightly) tightened up - it seemed wrong that you could return a book you'd finished (or even read most of).

There has to be a returns policy - I've had books where the technical quality was so poor that they were unlistenable and one or two with horrible editing errors that ruined the story - but taking advantage of easy returns to get 'free stuff' is piracy by any standards.

[barry1010]

I agree. Amazon will still refund after a longer period - in certain circumstances. I'm sure books with so many errors and typos will be returnable (I hope so anyway).
I borrow a lot of eBooks from the local libraries and am currently enjoying the Grace series by Peter James but was dismayed by the typos in one book and infuriated by the use of 'curb' instead of 'kerb'.
I am a little more tolerant of typos in Kindle self-published books.

[Canary42]

I'm signed up to Kindle Unlimited where you return all e-books after you've read them. You borrow them free of charge except for the Unlimited fee (can't remember how much that is but cheaper then buying the numbers I was getting through). Of course not all e-books at Amazon are covered by the KU service (most of them are what I call bedtime fluff books, i.e. OK for getting to sleep, but nothing particularly deep).

[barry1010]

It's £8 a month, Canary. I had a 6 month free trial but didn't think it worth continuing with. Downloading free books from the local libraries suits me better and I do buy ebooks that I particularly want to read.
I am signed up to Bookbub which emails me every day with links to free or very cheap books, many of which are on Amazon. https://www.bookbub.com/welcome
I buy eBooks from Amazon, Kobo, Google Books and occasionally Apple. I miss Tesco eBook store.