Hair Pulling with Google Play
So I got the bright idea yesterday of adding Google Play to my book distribution outlets and signed into my Google account to enter my books. Now let me just say I don't know how much exposure or sales revenue this move can be expected to generate, but it would have to be A LOT because the sign up process is a RPITA (Royal Pain In The Ass).
First, there's the annoying process of entering the books. You can't just create an author account like every other site, setting up all your payment, bio, and distribution options once (ironic, considering how Google knows everything I do, think, say, and want before I've done, thought, said, or dreamed of wanting it). No, you have to jump through all of those hoops FOR EACH AND EVERY BOOK.
Grr!!.
Then, once you get all that information in and upload your files, you get no confirmation on whether everything is good to go, when it will be for sale, etc. Instead, there's a little red notice in the Status column of your Book Catalog that says Needs Action. I select the first book, click through the General Details, Google Play Settings, Google Books Settings, and Content Files tabs looking for the problem and finally discover that apparently there is no price specified.
This is funny, because I entered all that price/currency type/distribution channel/tax included information already. So, figuring the universe is having a laugh at my expense, I go through the whole stupid process again--and when I say stupid, I mean just that because the instructions they give you must be for something else. Sort of like buying unassembled furniture and getting instructions for building a water fountain.
Anyway, I re-enter the price data, I click SAVE, refresh the browser, and go back to the Book Catalog page and lo and behold, the status for that book says Needs Action. Why? No price specified.
GRR!!!
I did this three times just for that book (and all four books needed it) and each time the data was not saved. It's at this point that I'm starting to care a whole lot less about selling on Google Play. But, I decide I'll give it another chance and wait and see if it resolves itself. Maybe there's a time lag, different dimensional elves spinning the wheels, who knows? So, instead, I move on to setting up my payment information, which is another RPITA because Google requires that you enter a payment method for EACH BOOK SEPARATELY, and for that you need a separate payment profile.
Again, there are instructions. Again, they are for someone else/something else/some other site/some other dimension...whatever, because none of what they say applies to what I'm seeing. I click the Add Payment Profile link as instructed in the wonderfully relevant instructions and a box pops up with a place to add, I assume, the title of your profile. I move my cursor to start typing the first letter and I get a big red error message across the top of my screen that says: Input is invalid, this could either be due to using a P.O. Box address or your login credentials have expired. {0}
Huh? I'm logged in. I don't even have a PO Box, and I haven't typed A SINGLE CHARACTER.
Six tries. Six tries just for that. Same result. Close browser. Reopen browser. Retry entry. Same error message.
GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
I'm not even going to get into how they were Unable to Sanitize my uploaded EPUB files (the same validated EPUB files that are for sale everywhere else). WTF Google?
Anyway, after fighting with this for two days, I realize I have only three choices: sit back and watch my head explode, forget about trying to sell my books on Google Play, or buy a plane ticket to California and burn down Google's headquarters.
Guess which one sounds like the most fun? Guess which one I choose?
My head remains intact, there's no arson arrests in my future, but sorry, Google Play, you don't deserve to sell my books.
First, there's the annoying process of entering the books. You can't just create an author account like every other site, setting up all your payment, bio, and distribution options once (ironic, considering how Google knows everything I do, think, say, and want before I've done, thought, said, or dreamed of wanting it). No, you have to jump through all of those hoops FOR EACH AND EVERY BOOK.
Grr!!.
Then, once you get all that information in and upload your files, you get no confirmation on whether everything is good to go, when it will be for sale, etc. Instead, there's a little red notice in the Status column of your Book Catalog that says Needs Action. I select the first book, click through the General Details, Google Play Settings, Google Books Settings, and Content Files tabs looking for the problem and finally discover that apparently there is no price specified.
This is funny, because I entered all that price/currency type/distribution channel/tax included information already. So, figuring the universe is having a laugh at my expense, I go through the whole stupid process again--and when I say stupid, I mean just that because the instructions they give you must be for something else. Sort of like buying unassembled furniture and getting instructions for building a water fountain.
Anyway, I re-enter the price data, I click SAVE, refresh the browser, and go back to the Book Catalog page and lo and behold, the status for that book says Needs Action. Why? No price specified.
GRR!!!
I did this three times just for that book (and all four books needed it) and each time the data was not saved. It's at this point that I'm starting to care a whole lot less about selling on Google Play. But, I decide I'll give it another chance and wait and see if it resolves itself. Maybe there's a time lag, different dimensional elves spinning the wheels, who knows? So, instead, I move on to setting up my payment information, which is another RPITA because Google requires that you enter a payment method for EACH BOOK SEPARATELY, and for that you need a separate payment profile.
Again, there are instructions. Again, they are for someone else/something else/some other site/some other dimension...whatever, because none of what they say applies to what I'm seeing. I click the Add Payment Profile link as instructed in the wonderfully relevant instructions and a box pops up with a place to add, I assume, the title of your profile. I move my cursor to start typing the first letter and I get a big red error message across the top of my screen that says: Input is invalid, this could either be due to using a P.O. Box address or your login credentials have expired. {0}
Huh? I'm logged in. I don't even have a PO Box, and I haven't typed A SINGLE CHARACTER.
Six tries. Six tries just for that. Same result. Close browser. Reopen browser. Retry entry. Same error message.
GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
I'm not even going to get into how they were Unable to Sanitize my uploaded EPUB files (the same validated EPUB files that are for sale everywhere else). WTF Google?
Anyway, after fighting with this for two days, I realize I have only three choices: sit back and watch my head explode, forget about trying to sell my books on Google Play, or buy a plane ticket to California and burn down Google's headquarters.
Guess which one sounds like the most fun? Guess which one I choose?
My head remains intact, there's no arson arrests in my future, but sorry, Google Play, you don't deserve to sell my books.
I have the same problem:
ReplyDelete"Input is invalid, this could either be due to using a P.O. Box address or your login credentials have expired."
If anyone figures out, please comment here, as searches (sic!) leads to here.
It turned out the address in my google wallet account somehow didn't have a phone number, so I edited it to give it one, and then went back to this screen and it magically worked.
DeleteI should specify that it was in Settings-> address book.
Deletehttps://wallet.google.com/manage/#settings:addresses
Hi again,
ReplyDeleteAfter trawling thru my Google Wallet, my Google Android Play merchant account addresses and and what do I know addresses, editing ALL of them, I can now suddenly add a payment profile!
There was NO "po.box addresses" whatsoever in the fields I edited and re-entered.
So, there is a bug in their system. Workaround is to edit the addresses. Perhaps someone with the same problem can tell exactly which one of the many places in Google where your address is, you need to re-enter.
This is a bug caused by some system at Google somehow mis-interpreting old address data as po.boxes when they arent.
ReplyDeleteI had the problem and
1) there was no P.O box no. in my address
2) during the hours(!) I tried, I did not have expired login credentials. I was logged in and could use all other Google services at the same time
To easen the life of other potential book partners: You might recover from this error re-rediting old addresses stored elsewhere on Google, such as Checkout and Wallet.
Vlad, yes, it works fine now. You might recover from this error re-rediting old addresses stored elsewhere on Google, such as Checkout and Wallet.
ReplyDeleteThank god for you guys and this blog. I went crazy in April when I tried putting a book on Google. I decided I'd try it again since it's allegedly improved, and before long I ran into the problem described here. At least this is resolved now, but I'm sure there are other strange problems just waiting for me. The most frustrating thing is that Google has the ability and the intelligence to make a better system, and to tell you what you need to do, but they don't.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I wrote back in April:
"Publishing at Google Books is like being blindfolded, drugged and beaten, then dropped from a helicopter into a foreign country and being tasked with completing a treasure hunt of items that are illegibly scrawled on a wet piece of paper, torn into several pieces."
I have experienced very similar issues as set out in this article. The whole process is a minefield and confusing. I did get to the point of uploading fairly painlessly but there the problems started. After a few days without word - no email confirmation which would have been helpful - I checked to see the status of the uploaded book to find the message "Unable to sanitize Epub". No explanation, no links, no help. The same Epub works on Amazon. I've even uploaded the file to Google Books on my own private account and it works fine so why not here? Have used Sigil to edit the said book and everything seems fine. There must surely be a better way to create an error free e-book! Google should create a simple WYSIWYG eBook creator within GDocs/Drive and perhaps, as Amazon does create a tool for download in order to check a completed eBook. Writers are generally not tech savvy and the problems associated with the creation of eBooks can be problematic to say the least.
ReplyDelete"GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteJust had the same problem and I seem to have fixed it by going and setting up Google Wallet prior to trying to create the Payment Profile. Haven't got to the end yet, but it looks like this is a dependency.