Let's Give Lieutenant Michael Stoddard an Automobile!

If Michael Stoddard, protagonist of Regulated for Murder, had an automobile, what make and model would he have?

Odd question, you say. Regulated for Murder takes place in the year 1781. Automobiles are an anachronism in the scope of the story.

But not according to Amazon. Take a look at where their algorithm has shelved Regulated for Murder:

 

Regulated for Murder is now #1 in Automotive > Replacement Parts > Shocks, Struts & Suspensions > Strut Brushings. Michael Stoddard has been working hard. He deserves a car, don't you think?

On Amazon, Regulated for Murder is marooned from my other Revolutionary War crime fiction (Paper Woman, The Blacksmith's Daughter, and Camp Follower). Less than a week after the book's release, the vast majority of my readers are unable to easily find Regulated for Murder.

This snafu occurs because of a programming glitch. When an author uploads a book for sale through  Kindle Desktop Publishing (KDP), he or she may select up to two categories (search paths) for the book. Alas, KDP and Amazon don't always speak the same language. Selections in the KDP category tool don't translate to search paths a potential reader can navigate through on the menu from Amazon's main page. Until this programming error is corrected, the only way to get correct category paths for your book is to contact KDP and have a technician manually correct the path.

As of 16 October, KDP estimates that the manual correction will be in place by this coming Wednesday. KDP and Amazon, my readers aren't happy about that, and neither am I.

Here's a direct link to where you can buy Regulated for Murder on Amazon. Here are the two categories where the book should be shelved:

 

 

And while Michael Stoddard enjoys the position of the Lord of Automotive, let's give him a set of twenty-first century wheels. What automobile do you think he'd drive?

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Comments

[Rhonda Lane]

Maybe you'll get to go on "Top Gear." =:-D

Roads in the colonies could be dicey, so I could see official Crown business being conducted from a Humvee.

However, as Michael's off-duty ride, I still see him tooling around in four-wheel drive, but more like an older Jeep Cherokee.

[Suzanne Adair]

Hi Rhonda, thanks for stopping by!

Roger that, "Top Gear!" The finest in entertainment, direct from Mother England.

Agree about those dicey colonial roads. Wagons and even horses got bogged down in the sand on the King's Highway, so the 82nd would have used Humvees if they'd had them. And Michael's definitely a four-wheel drive kind of guy.

[Liz]

Don't you think he might be more comfortable in British cars? Maybe a Range Rover and a Jaguar.

[Suzanne Adair]

Oh, Liz, you're so right about British autos. Michael's a commoner who's getting infantry junior officer pay, and if he were the one doing the buying, he wouldn't be able to afford a Range Rover, let alone a Jag. But he'd surely feel comfortable driving a Range Rover over those horrendous colonial roads, if someone transported one back in time. :-)

[Liz]

Amazon and KDP owe him both.

[Suzanne Adair]

Right-o!

[M. Louisa Locke]

Dear Suzanne,

I sure hope they get this taken care of soon! I looked back and when I put up my first book, and had a category problem (nothing as awful and strange as yours), it took me 3 weeks and over 6 emails to get it straightened out. That was nearly 2 years ago, and I had hoped they had taken care of this sort of problem by now.

If you look up categories on the KDP forum, there are lots of questions, and very few answers. For something that plays such a big role in getting buyers to the right books, you would think that they would be more efficient. It may be that only indie authors care enough, or are brazen enough to think that they can influence where their books show up, who complain. I wonder as Amazon starts to sell more and more of their own published books if the problem will become clearer to them?

Anyway, thanks for the humorous post. I am going to vote for a Doge mini-van, because that is the car that has given me the most trouble in my life time of owning cars. A lemon just like your categorization. What I want to know is how people who search for strut bushings feel when your book is listed as the number one product!!!

M. Louisa
author of Maid of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery and the newly published sequel, Uneasy Spirits.

[Suzanne Adair]

Thanks for stopping by, Mary Lou. You had your problem with the categories two years ago? Wow. I had this categorization problem more recently, for my first three books, so I was expecting it with Regulated for Murder. But I had no idea that it had gone on for at least two years.

A mini-van for Michael? But that's a family car, and he thinks he's a confirmed bachelor. LOL

I suspect that not many people search for books about strut brushings on Amazon. Otherwise, they'd assume that Regulated for Murder was the most exciting presentation they'd ever seen on strut brushings and snap it up.