E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
Amazon is set to change its e-book return policy to cut returns on e-books that have been more than 10 percent read. This follows pressure from the US Author's Guild (AG) and the UK Society of Authors (SoA), plus a UK-based petition on Change.org that attracted more than 78,000 signatures. The petition called for the returns window to be reduced to 48 hours.
The AG says that the new policy will take effect by the end of the year. It called the change "a strong deterrent against buying, reading, and returning e-books within seven days" and said "readers who attempt to abuse the return policy will be penalized under Amazon's policies."
Amazon said it would “de-activate self-service returns for any book read past 10%, adding substantial friction to the process.” The company has always maintained, though, that its returns were “consistently low”.
The read-and-return loophole was publicised by TikTok users; the SoA claimed that videos on how to return books were viewed “more than 17 million times”.
Amazon’s current policy allows customers to receive a full refund for up to 14 days, even if they have read the entire book. When an e-book is returned, the price is deducted from the author's balance. This has sometimes resulted in authors owing money to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, if they'd been paid in advance through it.
Publishers Lunch called Amazon’s move “a win for authors and publishers”.
The AG says that the new policy will take effect by the end of the year. It called the change "a strong deterrent against buying, reading, and returning e-books within seven days" and said "readers who attempt to abuse the return policy will be penalized under Amazon's policies."
Amazon said it would “de-activate self-service returns for any book read past 10%, adding substantial friction to the process.” The company has always maintained, though, that its returns were “consistently low”.
The read-and-return loophole was publicised by TikTok users; the SoA claimed that videos on how to return books were viewed “more than 17 million times”.
Amazon’s current policy allows customers to receive a full refund for up to 14 days, even if they have read the entire book. When an e-book is returned, the price is deducted from the author's balance. This has sometimes resulted in authors owing money to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, if they'd been paid in advance through it.
Publishers Lunch called Amazon’s move “a win for authors and publishers”.